The focus of this dissertation is to gain a greater understanding of the individual psychological contract. It is proposed that by examining other specific exchange relationships (e.g., individual-supervisor, individual-co-worker) in addition to the already dominantly examined individual-organization exchange relationship, a greater understanding of how these specific exchanges impact employee attitudes and behaviors differently such as commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors, especially in the presence of a psychological contract breach can be achieved. This research is grounded in social exchange theory and norm of reciprocity and draws from the perceived organizational support, leader-member exchange, and co-worker exchange theories to examine each specific exchange relationship. Participants consisted of employees from several organizations and university systems who were placed in three subsamples to examine each exchange relationship and their respective breaches. Results indicate partial support for the overall idea of increasing the examination of the psychological contract to include the distinct exchange relationships of the individual-supervisor and individual-co-worker in addition to the individual-organization exchange. More specifically, results indicate significant support for the following Hypotheses: Hypotheses 1a, 1b, and 1c indicating that POS, LMX, and CWX are positively related to Organizational Commitment, particularly Organizational Affective Commitment, with POS demonstrating the strongest relationship as predicted, Hypotheses 2a, 2b, and 2c indicating that LMX, POS, and CWX are positively related to Supervisor Commitment, particularly Supervisor Affective Commitment, with LMX showing the strongest relationship as predicted, Hypothesis 3a indicating that CWX has the strongest positive relationship to Co-worker Affective Commitment, Hypothesis 4b indicating that LMX is positively related to OCB-O, but the main prediction of Hypothesis 4a indicating POS would have the strongest positive relationship was not supported, Hypothesis 5b indicating that LMX has the strongest positive relationship to OCB-S, and finally, Hypothesis 6c indicating CWX has the strongest positive relationship to OCB-CW as predicted. Lastly, results indicate support for only one of the moderating hypotheses, Hypothesis 7a, which indicates that the interaction of POS and an employee perceived psychological contract breach on the part of the organization has the strongest negative effect on Organizational Affective Commitment. All other moderating hypotheses were not found to be significant.

The focus of this dissertation is to gain a greater understanding of the individual psychological contract. It is proposed that by examining other specific exchange relationships (e.g., individual-supervisor, individual-co-worker) in addition to the already dominantly examined individual-organization exchange relationship, a greater understanding of how these specific exchanges impact employee attitudes and behaviors differently such as commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors, especially in the presence of a psychological contract breach can be achieved. This research is grounded in social exchange theory and norm of reciprocity and draws from the perceived organizational support, leader-member exchange, and co-worker exchange theories to examine each specific exchange relationship. Participants consisted of employees from several organizations and university systems who were placed in three subsamples to examine each exchange relationship and their respective breaches. Results indicate partial support for the overall idea of increasing the examination of the psychological contract to include the distinct exchange relationships of the individual-supervisor and individual-co-worker in addition to the individual-organization exchange. More specifically, results indicate significant support for the following Hypotheses: Hypotheses 1a, 1b, and 1c indicating that POS, LMX, and CWX are positively related to Organizational Commitment, particularly Organizational Affective Commitment, with POS demonstrating the strongest relationship as predicted, Hypotheses 2a, 2b, and 2c indicating that LMX, POS, and CWX are positively related to Supervisor Commitment, particularly Supervisor Affective Commitment, with LMX showing the strongest relationship as predicted, Hypothesis 3a indicating that CWX has the strongest positive relationship to Co-worker Affective Commitment, Hypothesis 4b indicating that LMX is positively related to OCB-O, but the main prediction of Hypothesis 4a indicating POS would have the strongest positive relationship was not supported, Hypothesis 5b indicating that LMX has the strongest positive relationship to OCB-S, and finally, Hypothesis 6c indicating CWX has the strongest positive relationship to OCB-CW as predicted. Lastly, results indicate support for only one of the moderating hypotheses, Hypothesis 7a, which indicates that the interaction of POS and an employee perceived psychological contract breach on the part of the organization has the strongest negative effect on Organizational Affective Commitment. All other moderating hypotheses were not found to be significant.

Talent retention, organisational commitment and diversity management is a key focus area for organisations’ human resource departments, wanting to compete effectively in the evolving business environment. The psychological contract provides a framework for organisations to acknowledge, understand and manage employee expectations to ensure positive employee attitude and importantly, reduce turnover. However, limited research has attempted to describe the relationship between individual cultural orientation, subcultural membership, organisational culture and the resultant impact on the type of psychological contract. Against this backdrop, this research aimed to determine whether individual cultural orientation in relation to subcultural membership and organisational culture influences the psychological contract. Prior to conducting the quantitative research, current literature was used to determine the cultural and psychological contract constructs that could be used to describe the relationship at an individual and organisational level, which were then incorporated as inputs in the self-administered online questionnaire. 113 respondents from within the medical devices and pharmaceutical industry completed the online survey. Individualism and collectivism at both an individual and organisational level was found to associate with the psychological contract. Irrespective of the cultural orientation, respondents were found to develop psychological contracts which consisted of both transactional and relational content. Collectivism was identified as being a strong predictor in reducing contract violation as well as maintaining the integrity of the psychological contract and thus congruence of individual and organisational collectivism would have the most positive impact on the contract. Subcultural differences were not apparent within the study and thus no inferences could be made. The results of this study assist organisations in better understanding the dynamics of the psychological contract and the role cultural diversity plays in shaping employees expectations / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / mngibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

The need for this research stems from the unusually high turnover rates in MBA students following the completion of their degrees. Organisations realise the need for further education and for increasing both the human capital of the organisation and the career capital of the individual, but are concerned that the MBA programme may inevitably lead to the loss of the individual, possible to their competition. The report investigates the changes in psychological contracts that occur during the course of the MBA programme and how those changes could consequently lead to an increase in intention to leave. Rousseau’s technical report on psychological contracts is used as the basis of the assessment method for determining the changes in psychological contracts. The study presents findings from 117 MBA students from the GIBS business school. The paper shows that the overwhelming majority of MBA students intend to leave their current employer. The report offers insights for managers planning for their talented employees to enrol in MBA programmes. The researcher concludes by suggesting that understanding the construct of the psychological contract between the MBA student and their employers may increase an employer’s ability to hold on to the brightest stars and obtain the best possible value from the undertaking. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Business Management / unrestricted

Women make up 52% of the population in South Africa, and yet are significantly underrepresented in top corporate leadership positions, constituting only 21.4% of all executive managers and 17.1% of all directors in the country (Businesswomen’s Association of South Africa Census, 2012). The purpose of this research was to identify the response strategies organisations implement to remove the career advancement barriers that exist for women managers, and to determine if these response strategies are beneficial or detrimental to women’s career advancement. The research also aimed at determining why certain response strategies are successful or detrimental to women’s advancement. The research design chosen was a mixed-method design, and included a quantitative descriptive study and an explanatory study. The data was collected from women at middle and senior management level by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by 101 female respondents. The highest ranked career advancement barriers were found to be work-life balance, lack of networking, and excessive modesty. In response, the research results indicated that organisations mostly implement fair performance review processes, flexible working, and equal pay in an attempt to remove career advancement barriers. Appointing women in leadership positions with profit-and-loss responsibility, equal pay, and transparent review processes were found to be the most successful strategies to remove career advancement barriers. Based on the questionnaire results in response to why certain response strategies are more successful than others, a framework was built, classifying the response strategies into different archetypes and creating a framework for companies to understand the landscape of women’s advancement response strategies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / zkgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

This research investigates the relationship between different leadership styles and different types of psychological contracts. This stems from the need that many organisations have, to manage and retain talented employees who possess skills that are critical to the sustained success of the organisation. Leaders in particular tend to be at the centre of managing and influencing the employee’s experience and as such it is of great necessity that they understand how different leadership approaches impact on the unwritten, yet critical expectations and experiences of employees.The literature provided discusses psychological contracts and leadership. There are various instruments in the literature that were used to compile the questionnaire to gather data for analysis. The dependent variable, psychological contract, was measured mainly using Millward and Hopkins’s (1998) transactional and relational psychological contract instrument with some enhancement adapted from work done by Rousseau (2000). Bass and Avolio’s (1997) theory of Full Range Leadership Development was then the basis of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire tool which was used to measure Leadership as the independent variable.The study presents findings from 151 National Treasury employees, of which 33% were managers and 67% were non-management. Data obtained from these research instruments was statistically analysed. Overall, the findings from this study suggest that although the relationship that exists between relational psychological contracts and transformational leadership is not very strong, there is a positive association. It appears that transactional and transformational leadership do play a role in the kind of commitment employees make with the organisation. Lastly, an unanticipated outcome in relation to tenure within an organisation provided insight into the importance of understanding the context within which psychological contracts develop. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Många företags användande av konsulter har under de senaste åren ökat och det finns luckor i forskningen kring denna yrkeskategori. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka huruvida individuella och arbetsrelaterade faktorer hos konsulter påverkar uppfattning av fullföljande samt omfattning av psykologiska kontrakt i relation till en uppdragsgivare. Deltagarna var 172 konsulter, från tre konsultföretag, som besvarade en enkät delvis hämtad från projektet PSYCONES. Resultatet visade att konsulternas individuella samt arbetsrelaterade faktorer påverkade det psykologiska kontraktet och att det som påverkade mest är grad av tillit gentemot uppdragsgivare, antal arbetade timmar i veckan samt ålder. Dock påverkade inga av faktorerna kopplade till konsultrollen uppfattning av fullföljande samt omfattning av psykologiska kontrakt. Denna studie bidrar med vetskap om att psyko-logiska kontrakt skapas mellan konsult och uppdragsgivare, att tillit är en viktig komponent även i denna form av arbetsrelation samt en antydan att konsulters arbetssituation inte skiljer sig anmärkningsvärt från andra an-ställningsformer.

Although the negative effects of psychological contract breach (“breach”) are reasonably well established (e.g., Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, & Bravo, 2007), the role of context in shaping employees’ responses to breach has not been thoroughly explored (Lo & Aryee, 2003). As such, the primary research objective was to investigate the moderating effects of the organisational-embeddedness sub-dimensions (links, fit, and sacrifices; Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski, & Erez, 2001) on the relationships between breach and employees’ exit (job search, turnover intention, turnover), voice (prosocial voice, innovation), loyalty (loyalty, social participation), and neglect (withdrawal, production deviance, silence) behaviours. Two studies were conducted to investigate the conceptual model and research hypotheses. / In Study 1, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 administrative (non-academic) Australian university employees. Content analysis of the results regarding breach outcomes revealed many of the hypothesised responses, and others, such as seeking assistance from colleagues and raising supervisor’s awareness, that were not anticipated. Furthermore, analysis of the results regarding response motives suggested themes relevant to the influence of organisational-embeddedness. / In Study 2, longitudinal survey data was collected from samples of Australian university professionals and alumni (N = 198 for Time 1 and 101 for Time 2). Outcomes were organised using the Exit, Voice, Loyalty and Neglect (EVLN) framework (Rusbult, Farrell, Rogers, & Mainous, 1988). Breach was positively related to exit (job search, turnover intention) and neglect (silence), and negatively related to loyalty (loyalty) in the cross-sectional Time 1 data. In addition, the positive breach-neglect (withdrawal, production deviance) relationship was weaker for those with more organisational-links, while the positive breach-exit (job search) relationship was stronger, and the negative breach-loyalty (loyalty) relationship was weaker, among those with good organisational-fit. At Time 2 (six months later), breach was negatively related to loyalty (loyalty). Furthermore, organisational-links, organisational-fit, and organisational-sacrifices each moderated the effects of breach on voice (innovation) as hypothesised. Specifically, employees with many links and good fit were more likely to respond to breach with voice (innovation), while those with high levels of perceived organisational-sacrifices were less likely to engage in this response. Overall, the research findings have implications for theory regarding the influence of context in shaping responses to breach, and the role of embeddedness as a moderator of employee reactions to negative work events. From a practical perspective, the research findings suggest that organisations can establish a safety net for effectively managing the harmful consequences of breach by increasing organisational-links and fit among their employees.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Studies related to psychological contracts have made significant contributions to our understanding of the exchange relationship between employees and employers. However, the influence of national/organisational culture on the psychological contract has largely been neglected. The thesis examines the influence of national and organisational culture on the way in which psychological contracts are constituted, and how they may change following international assignments and repatriation. The research examines differences in the nature, and consequences of, psychological contract fulfilment or breach across two Saudi organisations in the petroleum and petrochemicals sectors. A qualitative case study approach was adopted. The data were gathered using multiple methods, including interviews, non-participant observations and analyses of organisational documents. The findings reported in the thesis draw upon 60 semi-structured interviews with employees who had been repatriated within the previous 12 months, and 14 interviews with Human Resource (HR) managers in the two organisations, triangulated with extensive documentary analysis and observations. The research findings demonstrate the influence of strong national cultural values shaping organisational culture and HR practices in both organisations, which, in turn, influence the content of the psychological contract (i.e. expectations and obligations) at an individual level, both pre- and post-international assignment. Differences were identified between the two organisations in terms of the influence of different national cultural values on organisational culture and practices; these differences influenced individuals’ perceptions of whether their psychological contract had been fulfilled or breached post-international assignment. The implications of this research are also considered.