Disentangling the effects of promised and delivered inducements: Relational and transactional contract elements and the mediating role of trust.

Abstract

Psychological contracts contain both relational and transactional elements, each of which is associated with unique characteristics. In the present research, the authors drew on these distinct qualities to develop and test hypotheses regarding differential employee reactions to underfulfillment, fulfillment, and overfulfillment of relational and transactional promises. Further, the authors extended their test of the theoretical distinctions between relational and transactional contracts by assessing the relevance of trust as a key underlying mechanism of relational and transactional psychological contract breach effects. Participants in this 3-wave longitudinal study included 342 full-time temporary employees. In support of existing theoretical distinctions, results indicated that employees reacted differently to varying levels of fulfillment of their relational and transactional contracts and that trust is a more central mechanism of relational, as opposed to transactional, psychological contract breach effects. These findings underscore L.S. Lambert, J. R. Edwards, and D. M. Cable's (2003) recent recommendation that the traditional conceptualization and study of psychological contract breach requires expansion.

How Adult Attachment Styles Relate to Perceived Psychological Contract Breach and Affective Organizational Commitment

“…Adult attachment style is focused on long-term personal connections rather than on the short-term or immediate. Montes and Irving (2008) also found trust was an important mediator for relational breach but not transactional breach, suggesting trust is an important part of how relational breach relates to organizational outcomes. Attachment styles as well have a significant focus on trust, with trust in others a crucial factor in each attachment style.…”

“…Jensen et al (2010) found that breach of relational psychological contract dimensions related to different aspects of counterproductive workplace than transactional dimension breach, with production deviance and withdrawal only relating to relational contract breach. Montes and Irving (2008) found that an employee's trust in the organization was an important mediator of relational breach and organizations outcomes while trust was not a significant mediator for transactional contract breach.…”

“…They focus on noneconomic agreements between employee and employer that work toward maintaining a long term relationship (Robinson and Morrison 1995;Rousseau 1990). Such factors are more often open ended and subjective in nature (Montes and Irving 2008). Examples of relational contract factors are organizational support and job security, factors tied to maintaining the employment relationship in the future (Rousseau 1990).…”

“…These different types of psychological contract dimensions can have differential outcomes for important workplace outcomes when contract breach occurs (Jensen et al 2010;Montes and Irving 2008;Raja et al 2004). Individuals will also vary in the degree they feel they are owed various transactional and relational obligations based on individual and organizational characteristics (Chaundhry et al 2011;Millward and Hopkins 1998).…”

Workplace emotion through a psychological contract lens

“…over-fulfilment) are linked to both positive and negative outcomes (Conway and Briner, 2002;. The expanded view proposes that contract over-fulfilment can be interpreted differently, in terms of being perceived more positively or negatively, dependent on what the promise comprises of (Lambert, 2011;Montes and Irving, 2008). It is possible also that expectation plays a role in the interpretation of an exceeded promise.…”