Purpose. Psychological contracts (PC) capture employees’ mental schema of the exchange agreement between themselves and their organizations, through which they make sense of their daily work environment (Rousseau, 2001). PCs are not only influenced by (large) organizational changes (Freese et al., 2011), but also by small day-to-day occurrences which indicate change (Conway & Briner, 2002). This makes the PC an ongoing, dynamic process (Conway & Briner, 2005). To capture this dynamism, Rousseau and colleagues (2018) developed a phase-based model in which a disruption (i.e., a deviation from what was originally promised) generates a transition from the status quo to either the renegotiation or repair phase with the objective of restoring the balance in the exchange agreement. Although disruption is placed at the heart of their model, the model does not explain how small day-to-day occurrences can lead up to this transition. However greater knowledge about the process underlying disruptions would offer alternative tools to manage the early warning signals of employee-employer relationships potentially spiraling out of control, and minimize the negative attitudinal and behavioral consequences of said disruptions (see Zhao et al., 2007). The aim of our study is to unpack the black box of “disruptions”. In doing so, we extend ex-ante propositions that PC should be investigated as a dynamic process by demonstrating the pivotal role that interconnectedness of triggers (selected stimuli prompting attention to the PC terms; Wiechers et al., 2019) plays as an idiosyncratic driver of contract dynamics. We do this by highlighting the critical role of social comparison in this process and by capturing the duration of the effect of triggers. Theoretical Background. Recent work has theorized the processual nature of the cognition of PC breach. From employees’ perspective, interconnected triggers impact the PC and build up pressure in the employment relationship (Wiechers et al., 2019). To understand how triggers influence each other and alter perceptions of the degree to which an organization has fulfilled its obligations, we adopt appraisal (Moors et al., 2013) and sensemaking (Sandberg & Tsoukas, 2015) theories as conceptual frameworks. First, a trigger will activate mental schema and perceived connectedness with previous triggers will lead to negative emotions. Following this, because an individual’s PC is created through interactions with multiple actors (Coyle-Shapiro & Conway, 2004), a trigger will direct attention to the situation of referent others and any unfavorable social comparison results in negative emotions (Weiss et al., 1999), and also leads to self- or other-attributions (Costa & Neves, 2017). Therefore, we hypothesized that the relationship between initial triggers and their impact on PC to be mediated by: connectedness of triggers, self- and other attributions, negative emotions, and expected recurrence of triggers. Design. Hypotheses were tested among a sample of 117 university lecturers in a quantitative daily diary study over six weeks (response rate = 76.21%; n=2172). Results. The findings delineate the micro-processes that precede the perceived impact on PC, shaped by appraisals of multiple triggers in comparison to referent others, attributions, and most importantly, appraisal of the interconnectedness of these triggers. Moreover, the lingering effects of the impact of triggers on the PC seems to last for approximately 11 days. A duration that is much longer than the specific isolated moment in which a trigger is sensed. This provides evidence that disruptions can build up over a long period of time, supporting the notion that interconnected triggers strain the employment relationship, exacerbate the impact of each new trigger on the PC, causing the shift to either the renegotiation or repair phase. Limitations. Although our time-based daily diary studies capture triggers fairly quickly, fixed once-per-day assessments may still involve a kind of retrospective ratings of situations that happened during the day. Therefore, future research studies may use a direct report at the moment the trigger is delivered—at unpredictable times—which moreover avoids an expectancy effects that may occur where participants know the timing of the fixed scheduled reports (Conner & Lehman, 2012). Research/Practical Implications. Our findings indicate that (1) interconnectedness of past triggers causes employees to experience more negative emotions, which in turn heightens their sensitivity to future triggers, and (2) PC breach develops over time because triggers are “sticky” (readily perceivable as interconnected cause of the lingering effect). These insights allow managers to actively build and repair a PC with their employees, even in turbulent changing contexts. Because PC breach is a consequence of the escalation of connected (negative) triggers, managers must be aware of such issues and use strategies to deescalate the cumulative effect.
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Paper on the changing role of psychological contracts of tour operating employees in organizational change.
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The different contributions made to this edited book illustrate that the study of psychological contracts has offered critical scholarly and practical insights into the functional and dysfunctional aspects of the employment relationship for several decades. However, as with other fields of research, it behooves the psychological contract field to pause periodically, take stock, explore gaps, and identify new research streams to maintain and expand its impact upon scholarship and practice. An edited book like this offers a good opportunity to see how far we have come with the psychological contract and where the challenges lie ahead. In the chapter, the authors identify and develop three key areas that promise to enrich psychological contract research: 1) time; 2) social context; and 3) the changing nature of work. For each of these key areas, they formulate promising future research questions.
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This paper takes a process perspective in exploring the influence of social interaction on the dynamics of psychological contracting throughout organizational change. Although social interaction is a key focus in social exchange theory, this aspect is largely overlooked in the current psychological contract literature. In this qualitative study, we adopt a retrospective design, asking change recipients to recollect events over time in the context of digital transformation in Dutch travel organizations. Our data reveal a sequence of different kinds of social interactions over the course of a change process, from collective-focused interactions (i.e., kindness and sharing) in stable contracts to transactional interactions (i.e., “what is in it for me”) following psychological contract disruption, to relational interactions (i.e., vigilance about equity in social exchange) in psychological contract repair, and to a final return to resonance and alignment with others and a return to psychological contract maintenance. Our results suggest that social interactions play a more potent role in the dynamics of psychological contracting than is currently recognized in the literature. Finally, we discuss a number of implications for dynamic models of psychological contracting.
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This chapter contributes to existing literature on psychological contracts by adopting a process-oriented lens to understand how psychological contract breach occurs. Drawing on neuroscientific insights, the authors extend and complement recently developed work on psychological contract dynamism by examining the intra-individual processes that precede the cognition of psychological contract breach. They argue that breach is affected by direct, indirect, and slow triggers that elicit conscious attention to the psychological contract terms and demand a shift from automatic processing to conscious attention. Moreover, stimuli matching with the (preconsciously buffered) memories of past triggers—connected triggers—will effortlessly activate the psychological contract. This results in an idiosyncratic chain of connected triggers processed in a cumulative manner, building up the pressure in the employment relationship and exacerbating the impact of breach. A better knowledge and understanding of these processes will offer employers alternative modes for handling and managing perceptions of psychological contract breach.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the quality of change information influences employees’ attitude toward organizational change and turnover intention. Additionally, the role of engagement, psychological contract fulfillment and trust in the relationship between change information and attitude toward change is assessed. Design/methodology/approach In a technology services organization that was implementing a “new way of working,” questionnaire data of 669 employees were gathered. The organizational change in question sought to increase employees’ autonomy by increasing management support and improving IT support to facilitate working at other locations (e.g. at home) or at hours outside of regular working hours (e.g. in evening). Findings The results showed that change information was positively related to psychological contract fulfillment and attitude toward change. Engagement and psychological contract fulfillment were positively related to attitude toward change and negatively related to turnover intention. Contrary to what was expected, trust did not influence attitude toward change but was negatively related to turnover intention. Practical implications The study presents a model that can help management to foster positive affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses to change, as well as to reduce employee turnover. Fulfilling employees’ psychological contracts and cultivating engagement is important in this respect, as well as continuously considering whether information about the organizational change is received in good time, is useful, is adequate and satisfies employees’ questions about the change. Originality/value As one of the first studies in its field, attitude toward change was conceptualized and operationalized as a multidimensional construct, comprising an affective, a behavioral and a cognitive dimension.
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Adopting an intra-individual process, we explore the dynamics that underlie the emergence of a psychological contract breach. Thirty-seven unique storylines expose how selected stimuli shake employees' psychological contracts to attention and give rise to perceptions of breach as a result of an iterative process of disrupting (introducing triggers that prompt a shift from automatic processing to conscious attention of psychological contract terms), appraisal (revealing elements—goals, attribution, fairness, and resources—playing a role in appraising and making sense of triggers), and (problem-focused and emotion-focused) coping. We discuss the implications of accounting for breach in the absence of a discrete event and draw on selective attention theory to differentiate when stimuli become triggers with the capacity to activate the psychological contract. We extend existing research by revealing the unique role that triggers, and their interconnectedness play in the cognition of contract breach, building up pressure until a threshold has been surpassed and breach is perceived. Our study highlights the need for managers to use strategies to deescalate the accumulation of triggers.
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This paper investigates generational differences in the relations between psychological contract fulfillment and work attitudes. Data were collected from a sample of 909 employees in the Dutch service sector. Structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the moderating effects of generational differences on the influence of psychological contract fulfillment on affective commitment and turnover intention. The relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and these work outcomes was moderated by generational differences. Furthermore, results indicate that different generations respond differently to different aspects of psychological contract fulfillment, such as career development, job content, organizational policies, social atmosphere and rewards. The study provides evidence that generational differences impact the reciprocal relationship between employer and employee. Results from this study suggest that Baby Boomers and Generation X may be more motivated by social atmosphere, whereas Generation Y may be more motivated by job content and career development. Fair organizational policies are particularly motivating to Generation X, and providing rewards, though more important to Generation Y, seem mostly unrelated to work outcomes. This article is the first to study the moderation of generational differences in the relationships between psychological contract fulfillment and work outcomes.
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