| Psychological contracts help to define the relationships between employees and their organizations. In particular, the psychological contract specifies what individuals believe they owe their organizations and what they believe they are owed in return. Psychological contract breach occurs when an employee perceives that the organization has not lived up to its promises or obligations.; This dissertation examined antecedents and consequences of psychological contract breach. Specifically, this research investigated individual differences (affective disposition and equity sensitivity), relationships in the workplace (perceived organizational support and leader-member-exchange), and demographic differences between subordinates and supervisors as antecedents of psychological contract breach. In addition, the relationships between psychological contract breach and employees' willingness to perform both in-role and extra-role behaviors were examined.; In order to test the hypotheses, survey data were collected from 237 individuals working in a variety of organizations. Two samples were used for this research. The first sample (N = 128) was comprised of participants in the PhD Project, which is an organization designed to inform African-American, Hispanic-American, and Native-American individuals about opportunities to pursue a PhD in business. The second sample (N = 109) was comprised of employees working for a county government in New Mexico. In contrast to the samples used in prior research on psychological contracts, the vast majority (84%) of the participants in this research were either African-American or Hispanic-American.; The results suggest that individual differences were significantly associated with psychological contract breach. In particular, positive affective disposition was negatively related to psychological contract breach and equity sensitivity was positively related to psychological contract breach. The results also suggest that the quality of the employee's relationship with his/her organization and immediate supervisor were significantly related to psychological contract breach. Specifically, perceived organizational support and leader-member-exchange were both negatively related to psychological contract breach. In contrast to expectations, however, demographic diversity between subordinates and supervisors did not predict psychological contract breach. Finally, the results suggest that psychological contract breach has a negative relationship with in-role performance and two types of extra-role performance (i.e., helping, voice). The implications of these results for future research and for organizational practice are discussed. |
