The New and Key Roles for Psychological Contract Status and Engagement in Predicting Various Performance Behaviors of Nurses

Abstract

The study examines the impact of the psychological contract (PC), including the often-studied PC breach in addition to the novel approach of PC status, as predictors of performance among nurses, mediated by engagement, job satisfaction, and psychological distress. A sample of 177 nurses and midwives from a medium to a large hospital in Australia completed a self-report questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was used to determine associations between the predictors (i.e., negative affectivity (NA), PC breach, PC status)), mediating variables (i.e., engagement, job satisfaction, and psychological distress), and three types of performance behaviors: organizational citizenship behavior for the individual, for the organization (OCBI, OCBO) and in-role behavior (IRB) simultaneously. Specifically, psychological contract status positively predicted engagement, whereas breach negatively predicted engagement and positively predicted job satisfaction. NA positively predicted distress, and distress negatively predicted OCBO and IRB. Lastly, engagement positively predicted job satisfaction, OCBI, OCBO, and IRB. The findings indicate that psychological contract status may predict engagement (and in turn, performance) over and above psychological contract breach, and thus this novel construct should be examined further. The importance of engagement for predicting the performance behaviors and mental health of nurses may also offer new insights.

Suggesting Context Differences Influence the Impact of Nurses’ Psychological Contracts

“…Similarly, the inherent negative emotionality of those high in negative affectivity can also lead to greater sensitivity to psychological contract breach (Rodwell et al 2022;Turnley and Feldman 1999). The greater affective sensitivity of those high in negative affectivity may especially occur with individual outcomes that have an affective component, such as job satisfaction (Brief et al 1995;Spector et al 1999) and stress-related variables , as well as relatively cognitive outcomes such as organizational commitment (Kickul 2001;Rodwell 2018).…”