Leadership style and psychological contract

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between leadership style and psychological contract dimensions. The literature suggests that leaders in general and leadership style in particular can influence the psychological contracts of employees. Currently, there is no research as to how leaders perceive such contracts. This qualitative study presents the interview findings of twenty-three leaders working in public and private sector organisations. Differences were found between neutral and transformational leaders. Neutral leaders had a more transactional psychological contract, whereas the transformational leaders had a more relational psychological contract. This study adds to the literature as there is no current framework that considers the relationship between leadership styles with the psychological contract. Overall, the results indicate differences in psychological contract perceptions for different leadership styles.

Inclusive Leadership and Psychological Contract Fulfilment: A Source of Proactivity and Well-Being for Knowledge Workers

“…Several studies in this field indicate that there is a positive relationship between the PC and employees' work behavior [24,25,36,37]. As noted in the literature, the fulfilment of assumptions derived from the PC can lead to the development of desired outcomes and work results [38].…”

“…Furthermore, specific leadership styles, including IL styles, can influence employees' PCs [21,23]. This is supported by research indicating that through leadership, managers contribute to improving the psychological conditions of employees in the workplace [23][24][25]. Considering IL, which focuses on fostering employees' uniqueness, providing employees with autonomy, enhancing their sense of belonging to the team, building relationships and trust within the team, valuing employee contributions, etc., this manuscript assumes that this type of leadership is positively related to PCF.…”

“…In their organizational activities, both employees and employers strive to match their expectations with what they receive from the other party. The degree of alignment between the fulfilment of mutual expectations translates into both the employee's performance at work and the employee's perception of how much the employer values the individual as an employee [25]. Consequently, what employers pay attention to has a significant impact on how employees direct their efforts, how well they perform their tasks, and what goals they achieve [24] while adopting certain attitudes and behaviors such as organizational commitment, work engagement, trust, or organizational citizenship behaviors [30].…”

Organizational Citizenship Behaviour and Psychological Contract: The Moderating Role of Ethical Leadership

“…The psychological contract aids in understanding employee needs and improves alignment with organizational needs for leaders. The psychological variables that impact employee attitudes and performance can be greatly influenced by leaders (Oorschot et al, 2021).…”

Cualidades gerenciales y su influencia en el desempeño empresarial

“…El estilo de liderazgo repercute en la administración de distintas maneras; puesto que, las cualidades de un gerente determinan su estilo de gestión. La literatura define a los líderes estratégicos como aquellos que enfatizan y resaltan la importancia de las contribuciones individuales en todos los niveles de la empresa y fomentan nuevas formas de abordar situaciones existentes (Cortes y Herrmann, 2021), lo que da lugar a un contexto laboral que estimula la creatividad (Oorschot et al, 2021). Este tipo de liderazgo se relaciona con la motivación, productividad y retención del talento (Krén y Séllei, 2020;McCormick et al, 2021); además, con la resolución de conflictos en equipos multigeneracionales, (Bhayana et al, 2021) lo que propicia la innovación disruptiva y el comportamiento intraemprendedor (Cortes y Herrmann, 2021;Gahan et al, 2021;Mishra, 2021;Usman et al, 2021).…”