Exploring employees' and supervisors' reactions to transactional and/or relational psychological contract breach.

摘要

The objectives of this study were to replicate and extend psychological contract research by determining whether employees/supervisors a) are able to distinguish the transactional and relational components of the psychological contract, b) value the transactional or the relational psychological contract more, and c) have stronger negative reactions to transactional or relational psychological contract breach. These objectives were partially met. First, employees---and to a lesser extent supervisors---do distinguish the transactional and relational components of the psychological contract. Second, the results indicate that employees value the relational (not transactional) components of the psychological contract the most. However, it is unclear which components of the psychological contract (transactional or relational) supervisors value the most. Third, the results suggest that both types of psychological contract breach (transactional and relational) upset employees/supervisors. Overall, these findings suggest that researchers should continue to study both transactional and relational components of the psychological contract while paying particular attention to the components of breach. From a practical standpoint, employees/supervisors should fulfill both psychological contracts to prevent employees/supervisors from experiencing negative affect, reporting low ratings of satisfaction, trust, and commitment, and contemplating exit/termination, engaging in voice behaviors, reporting low loyalty ratings, and engaging in neglect behaviors.