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Summary
This study examines factors affecting employees' perceptions that their psychological contract has been breached by their organization, and factors affecting whether this perception will cause employees to experience feelings of contract violation. Data were obtained from 147 managers just prior to their beginning of new job (time 1) and 18 months later (time 2). It was found that perceived contract breach at time 2 was more likely when organizational performance and self-reported employee performance were low, the employee had not experienced a formal socialization process, the employee had little interaction with organizational agents prior to hire, the employee had a history of psychological contract breach with former employers, and the employee had many employment alternatives at the time of hire. Furthermore, perceived breach was associated with more intense feelings of violation when employees both attributed the breach to purposeful reneging by the employer and felt unfairly treated in the process. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. Copyright (c) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Introduction
At the foundation of the employee-organization relationship is a psychological contract, comprised of beliefs about reciprocal obligations between the two parties (Rousseau, 1989; Schein, 1965). Nonetheless, employees often perceive that their organization has failed to adequately fulfil that contract. Robinson and Rousseau (1994) found that 55 per cent of their sample of managers perceived that their organizations had failed to fulfil one or more promised obligations in the first two years of the employment relationship. These perceptions, regardless of whether or not they are accurate, have been found to reduce employees' trust, job satisfaction, intentions to remain with the organization, sense of obligation, and in-role and extra-role performance (Robinson, 1996; Robinson et al., 1994; Robinson andMorrison, 1995). Because of the potential for these negative effects, it is vital to understand the conditions under which perceptions of psychological contract breach arise.
The main objective of this study is to examine factors that contribute to an employee's perception that the organization has breached his or her psychological contract, or in other words, not adequately fulfiled promised obligations. The study also examines the conditions under which these perceptions will be related to an emotional reaction of anger and betrayal (i.e., feelings of `violation'). Although there is a growing...