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The goal of this paper is to examine the relation of reciprocity to organizational commitment and the employment exchange relationship. In addition, it aims to investigate cross‐cultural differences on this relation between China and the USA.

Data were collected from a sample of Chinese employees working on their MBAs (n=321), a sample of employed MBA students in the USA (n=199), and a sample of employed undergraduates from the USA (n=348). Hierarchical moderated regression analyses were used to explore the interactive effects of the three dimensions of reciprocity on organizational commitment and the employment exchange relationship.

The three dimensions of reciprocity were related to organizational commitment and the employment exchange relationship in all three samples. Nonetheless, in the US samples these dimensions reflected an additive model and in the Chinese sample the dimensions interacted, supporting the notion that Chinese perceive their employment exchange relationships more holistically than Americans.

The data were cross‐sectional and therefore causal inferences need to be made with caution.

Different strategies should be adopted to manage Chinese and American employees' commitment and employment relationship.

This study offers new insights on the relation of reciprocity to organizational commitment and the employment exchange relationship in different cultures. It integrates cross‐cultural differences in cognition into organizational research and reveals that Chinese employees tend to use a more holistic approach to understand their employment exchange relationships than their American counterparts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between previous employer's psychological contract breach and exchange perceptions with the current employer, and seeks to uncover moderating influences of perceived organizational support (POS).

Data were obtained from a cross-lagged sample of 314 employees in Norway. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The authors found a positive relationship between previous employer's psychological contract breach and economic exchange with the current employer, and a negative relationship between previous employer's psychological breach and social exchange with the current employer. The authors also found that POS from the current employer attenuates the positive association between previous employer's breach and economic exchange with the current employer.

The data were cross-lagged, so causal inferences should be made with caution.

Managers should be aware that past employment experiences may relate to present employment exchange relationships. In addition, POS from current employer may serve to counterbalance the “carry over” effects of past employment experiences.

In light of the present global economic climate, increasing POS among employees could decrease the likelihood that they assume that the employment relationship constitutes an economic exchange relationship.

This study contributes to a more complete understanding of factors that shape employees’ relationships with their organization. Furthermore, this study suggests a way by which organizations can repair damages incurred by previous employer's psychological contract breach.

The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise literature on the role of human resource practices (HRP) in shaping employee psychological contract (PC). Based on this review, a conceptual framework for examining the relationship between HRP and PC and their impact on employee attitudes as well as behaviour has been put forward for further examination.

An extensive review of the literature, examining the role of HRP in influencing PC of employees, between the periods 1972 to 2007 has been conducted. Adopting the multi‐level approach, the paper discusses the role of individual variable (PC) and organisational variable (HRP) on employee attitudes and behaviours.

The review brings to fore the following: the role of business and employment relationship strategy on HRP; the relationship between HRP and organisation culture as well as employees attitudes and behaviours; the relationship between HRP on and employee's psychological contract; and the moderating effect of those conceptions on employee attitudes and behaviours relationship.

HRP and PC influence employee attitudes and behaviours as well as have a bearing on organisational effectiveness. Suggestively, as a policy implication, firms need to craft and effectively communicate their HR toolkit based on their employment relationship and business strategies.

The main contribution of this paper is that it synthesises the research examining the impact of HRP on PC. Adopting a meso theory, the paper integrates both organisational and individual level variables and proposes a conceptual model.

Temporary agency workers (TAWs) have a double employment relationship: one with the agency that hires them with a formal contract, either temporary or permanent; and another with the client organization where they actually perform their work. As the social-exchange theory assumes that TAWs respond to the support they receive from both organizations with affective commitment toward the respective organization. The purpose of this paper is to propose that the type of contract with the agency moderates these relationships, specifically that permanent TAWs present a stronger relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and affective organizational commitment (AOC) toward the agency and, to the contrary, that temporary TAWs show a greater relationship between POS and AOC toward the client.

The hypotheses were tested with a sample of 522 Portuguese TAWs, of which 265 were temporaries and 257 were permanents. Data were collected with a self-report questionnaire and analyzed with multigroup analysis using the AMOS program.

The authors verified that POS from both the employment agency and the client organization were related to the TAWs’ affective commitment to each respective organization. Furthermore, the relationship between POS from the employment agency and the affective commitment to this organization was stronger in permanent than in temporary TAWs. However, contrary to the expectations, the contract with the agency did not moderate the relationship with client organizations: temporary and permanent TAWs showed a similar relationship between POS from this organization and their affective commitment toward it.

These findings show the important organizational role of both the employment agency and the client in supporting their TAWs and attending to the type of contract they have with the employment agency.

This paper contributes to the analysis of the TAWs’ double employment relationship and highlights the role of the agency contract in the explanation of these relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the boundary conditions of job embeddedness (JE), considering whether certain conditions of high embeddedness may have a potential dark side leading to lower employee performance.

Hierarchical moderated regression was used to test the interactions between JE, economic exchange, and social exchange.

Results indicate that under certain exchange conditions, JE can have negative implications for performance.

Consideration should be given to how management interventions come together to motivate employees and impact performance.

This study speaks to the possible negative side of JE and provides support for its potential to produce adverse consequences for organizations under certain contexts.

There have been increasing calls to explore the psychological contract from the lens of power. By addressing this gap, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the assumption of mutuality in relation to power dynamics in the employment relationship.

A total of 43 in-depth interviews are conducted with 6 managerial and 37 non-managerial respondents in three major call center organizations in Pakistan. Template analysis is used to analyze the data.

By undermining the assumption of implicit mutuality, the analysis reveals indeterminacy, an issue that has been frequently underplayed in the psychological contract research. The results further suggest that – in reality – employability, flexibility and employee training do not promote mutuality to the extent that is theoretically assumed because of the employers’ manipulation of these issues in their own favor.

The focus on call centers limits the generality of findings with further qualitative research needed in other industries to explore how power asymmetries impact upon mutuality in different working environments.

The research implications suggest the significance of timely and explicit communication in order to curtail indeterminacy in the employment relationship. This will not only reduce the development of breach perceptions among employees but will also reinforce their psychological contracts with the organization.

This research contributes by highlighting the significance of mutual dependence rather than mutuality in the psychological contract. The mutual dependence approach efficiently acknowledges the implications of power asymmetries which remain largely under-researched in the psychological contract theory.

The psychological contract is defined as a perceived exchange agreement of promissory obligations between employee and organization. Most approaches to this concept ignore the role of context in shaping its features. However, others have pointed out the need to evaluate the features of the construct within the context in which it is studied. Three salient features of the construct include the use of the term “promises” versus “obligations”, its implicit nature and reference to the “other” party, and the exchange content. Rousseau and Schalk suggest that these features are weighted and interpreted differently across different countries. The purpose of this paper is to test this proposition in the island state of Malta, a European Union micro‐state.

Semi‐structured interviews are used. Three questions are addressed: do employment obligations vary from promises in this context? Are employment obligations in this context necessarily explicited? Who is considered the employer in this context?.

The results show that some findings are similar to those found in other settings (e.g. acknowledgement of an exchange relationship in employment), others are more context‐bound (e.g. the meaning of obligations as predicting future reciprocal behaviours compared to promises). The paper also shows that many of these understandings are related to and construed by the way the employment relationship is construed in a country like Malta.

These findings strengthen the need to incorporate the contextual realities in which the features of the construct are employed as this has implications for both the generalizability of results and theory building.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the currency underlying the employment relationship of allied health workers by investigating the mechanisms of their psychological contracts.

Path analyses were conducted on the survey responses from Australian allied health professionals (n=112; a 46 per cent response rate).

The analyses revealed that psychological contract promises decreased organizational citizenship behaviours relating to the organization (OCBO), while contract fulfilment increased commitment and reduced psychological distress. Contract breach reduced organizational commitment.

The results indicate that obligations may be the primary currency in their psychological contract, with career commitment forming a set of obligations by which employees determine their OCBO, highlighting the nature of the resources exchanged to be targeted to their perceived source, in this case organizational promises begetting discretionary contributions to the organization. Further, fulfilment may reduce uncertainty, which in turn can reduce strain and increase OCBO.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of psychological contract breach on the relationship between job insecurity and counterproductive workplace behavior (CWB) and the moderating effect of employment status in this relationship.

Data were collected from 212 supervisor–subordinate dyads in a large Chinese state-owned air transportation group. AMOS 17.0 software was used to examine the hypothesized predictions and the theoretical model.

The results showed that psychological contract breach partially mediates the effect of job insecurity on CWB, including organizational counterproductive workplace behavior and interpersonal counterproductive workplace behavior. In addition, the relationships between job insecurity, psychological contract breach and CWB differ significantly between permanent workers and contract workers.

The present study provides a new insight into explaining the linkage between job insecurity and negative work behaviors as well as suggestions to managers on minimizing the harmful effects of job insecurity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between employer psychological contract (PC) fulfillment and employee attitudes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intention to leave the organization) by using employees’ perceptions of PC violation and organizational justice as serial mediators.

Data from 44 managers and 880 employees from 44 Spanish organizations were analyzed through multilevel structural equation modeling.

Results showed that employees’ feelings of PC violation and justice perceptions mediated the relationships between the employers’ PC fulfillment assessed by managers and job satisfaction and organizational commitment assessed by employees. The mediation effect was not significant for employees’ intention to leave the organization.

This study contributes to understand the process through which PC influences work outcomes, outlining the relevance of organizational justice as social exchange theory and PC theory (Guest, 2004) stated. In addition, present results extend the influence of PC on work outcomes from the individual to the organizational level.