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The purpose of this paper is to propose a processual framework of psychological contract breach, which maps holistically the interactions among concepts drawn from the trust and justice literature. However, the price of a holistic picture is frequently a lack of depth of analysis of any single variable, and consequently the second part of the paper seeks to unpack a central variable, circumstances of breach.

Draws on findings from a four‐year qualitative study and investigates the psychological contract in situ. The issue of circumstances of breach was explored inductively by applying in‐depth employee case histories using theory‐based sampling.

Key findings indicate that breach may occur as a result of direct or indirect organisational actions. Further the degree of reaction may differ according to the type of trigger (i.e. a distributive, procedural or interactional justice issue) and also the extent to which the organisation is held responsible.

Based on an in‐depth study of one organisation over time; further research is required to ascertain the generalisability of the key findings.

The implications for the practice of management surround the issue of unanticipated results of actions. Changes to substantive, distributive justice issues are likely to result in psychological contract violation or rupture unless handled with care. The repercussions of relationship fracture include diminished employees attitude and, perhaps more importantly for the organisation, negative behaviour.

The key contribution of the paper is that it presents a new model of psychological contract and elucidates a key aspect of the holistic model using empirical data.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of psychological contract breach on destructive by developing a moderated mediation model. The model focuses on the mediating role of moral identity and moral disengagement and the moderating role of moral belief.

This study conducted a three-wave questionnaire survey and used 377 matched-sample data to test the hypotheses. PROCESS bootstrapping program in SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS software were adopted in this study.

Results reveal that psychological contract breach has a positive effect on destructive leadership behavior, and the relationship is mediated by moral identity and moral disengagement; moral belief not only moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and destructive leadership behavior, but also moderates the mediation effect of moral identity and moral disengagement.

First, this study enriches the destructive leadership behavior literature by verifying psychological contract breach as an antecedent. Second, this study discusses the role of morality in the formation mechanism of destructive leadership behavior by testing the mediating effect of moral identity and moral disengagement and the moderating effect of moral belief.

This paper introduces the concept of dysfunctional customer behavior toward a brand and argues that when customers perceive that a brand has failed to fulfill its promises, a psychological brand contract breach occurs, which in turn leads to a psychological brand contract violation, which evokes dysfunctional customer behavior toward the brand. In addition, this study investigates whether the impact of a breach of this contract is dependent on brand relationship quality, brand apology and restitution.

Study 1 conducted the online survey and 224 respondents were used for data analysis and the moderating role of brand relationship quality was examined. Study 2 conducted an experiment with 201 participants to test the moderating role of brand apology and restitution.

This study found the moderating role of brand relationship quality, brand apology and brand restitution on the relationship between a psychological brand contract breach and dysfunctional customer behavior toward a brand (i.e. brand-negative word-of-mouth, brand retaliation and brand boycott), which is mediated by psychological brand contract violation.

This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of dysfunctional customer behavior toward a brand by integrating the literature on brand management with the organizational literature on psychological contracts between organizations and their employees. Furthermore, this study sheds light on the effectiveness of reparative actions by the firm after occurrence of the psychological brand contract breach.

This study aims to explore the high turnover intention issue in Taiwan’s tourist hotel industry. Due to a lack of empirical research regarding front-line employees’ psychological contract breach perceptions in tourism literature, this study develops an integrated model to examine the causal relationship among transformational leadership behaviors, leader–member exchange (LMX), psychological contract breach and turnover intentions.

Data from the 226 frontline employees in Taiwan’s tourist hotel industry were employed to examine the proposed hypotheses by using a series of structural equation modeling analyses.

Statistic results revealed that transformational leadership behaviors influence LMX and LMX in turn influences psychological contract breach, which consequently leads to lower turnover intention.

The results of this study suggest that hospitality organizations should recruit individuals who have the potential to exhibit transformational leadership skills, along with designing leadership training programs for middle- and high-level managers.

This study provides hospitality organization leaders with the necessary information to formulate a beneficial relationship with their front-line employees, which, in turn, weakens their perception of psychological contract breaches and reduces their willingness to leave the organization.

It seems that some aspects of employees' experience can lead to their “losing faith in the system of paid employment”. This disillusion can be studied and measured through the theoretical construct of a psychological contract breach experienced by the employee. This exploratory article thus examines whether the conditions of paid employment could lead to a new dimension of psychological contract breaches: a breach with paid employment itself that could drive to self-employment.

The authors use a structural equation modeling on a sample of 403 people who have declared their intention to leave paid employment for self-employment.

The study's results show that working conditions affect psychological contract breaches in various dimensions. The authors propose a dimension of psychological contract breaches linked to paid employment, which can lead to the choice to leave paid employment and become self-employed. The authors also confirm the importance of working conditions as antecedents of psychological contract breaches.

The main limitations of this exploratory research are the use of unvalidated scales and a small sample size, with a population that could be better defined. As Murgia et al. (2020) point out, it is not yet clear at the moment whether this category is a special group, equivalent to traditionally distinguished groups of working people. The study's assumptions and these limitations lead us to propose the following avenues for future research.

For managers and the development of management, the possible relationship between working conditions and psychological contract breaches seems to be very important. In fact, a whole range of best management practices could be developed if this relationship is confirmed. Improving working conditions could thus be a way to repair psychological contracts.

This research field is still quite underdeveloped in comparison to its importance to organizations because the increase in self-employment challenges traditional models and assumptions in human resources management.

This study aims to expand the theoretical frameworks of psychological contracts and breaches. It thus responds to recent calls for research on psychological contracts (Bankins et al., 2020); Moreover, this research suggests, in line with the work of Aubert and de Gaulejac (2018), that there are relationships between poor working conditions and psychological contract breaches. To the authors' knowledge, this approach is missing from international research into psychological contracts, which focuses only on job characteristics and individual determinants (personality traits, etc.).

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 aim of this paper is to investigate how social exchanges modify the relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance. It aims to present two concurrent hypotheses, based on theoretical interaction effects of social exchanges (conceptualized as social exchange relationships, POS, and trust).

Data were collected from a sample of 266 employees in a service sector company in the USA. Regression analysis was used to explore the moderating effects of social exchanges on the relationships between psychological contract breach and work performance (operationalized as in‐role behaviors and organizational citizenship behaviors).

It was found that the negative relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance was moderated by social exchanges, such that the relationship was stronger for employees with high social exchange relationship, perceived organizational support, and trust.

The data were collected cross‐sectionally, and thus causal inferences have to be made with caution. Moreover, the data were collected from a single source. The study shows that the relations between contract breach and outcomes are moderated by the existing relationship between employee and organization.

Although organizations may invest in long‐term relationships with their employees, psychological contract breaches have a profound impact on work performance. Therefore, organizations should diminish perceptions of contract breach; for instance by providing realistic expectations.

The paper provides new theoretical insights on how social exchange can have two distinct effects on the breach‐outcomes relations. It shows that social exchanges moderate the relations between contract breach and work performance.

This paper aims to contribute empirical data to the under‐researched relationship between trust and the psychological contract.

A case study approach is used carrying out 41 interviews in three case study firms, adopting a critical incident technique (CIT).

Trust is present in all psychological contracts and its different bases, cognitive and affective, underpin transactional and relational obligations respectively.

A small‐scale study using CIT which identifies especially salient issues but is not necessarily exhaustive. Provides a base for more detailed study of the relationship.

Demonstrates the impact of the differing bases of trust on the employment relationship. This information could contribute to better managing the employment relationship.

There are few extant empirical data on this relationship and a contribution is made to debates on the role of trust within the psychological contract by providing detailed empirical data.

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.

This study takes a unique perspective on the role of psychological contract breach, turnover intentions and off-the-job embeddedness in influencing the behavior of reluctant stayers. More specifically, reluctant stayers are defined as employees who are high on turnover intentions and off-the-job embeddedness. It proposes that employees who perceive psychological contract breaches are more likely to develop turnover intentions. Such breaches are expected to indirectly spur organizational deviance, with turnover intentions as the mediator. Finally, a moderated-mediation model is proposed where off-the-job embeddedness is expected to moderate the relationship between turnover intentions and organizational deviance.

Data were collected from 231 employees across the energy sector within the Caribbean nation of Trinidad, using a two-wave research design and a path-analytic approach.

The findings provide support for the propositions that perceived psychological contract breach predicts turnover intentions and that turnover intentions mediate the contract breach–organizational deviance relationship. Further, the proposition that off-the-job embeddedness moderates the relationship between turnover intentions and organizational deviance was supported by the sample data. Consequently, reluctant stayers (employees with high turnover intentions and high off-the-job embeddedness) responded to perceived psychological contract breach with higher levels of organizational deviance when they were more deeply embedded.

Limited studies have explored the behaviors of reluctant stayers, and hence this study adds to research on this emerging classification of employees. Furthermore, no study has yet explored the role of high turnover intentions and off-the-job embeddedness in creating reluctant stayers.