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The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study of the link between psychological contract fulfilment and affective states at work. The paper argues that perceived organizational support is the key attitudinal intervening variable that arises from the cognitive assessment of the exchange relationship between employer and employee and is in turn related to the generation of affective states at work.

The paper tests this assumption using a manager sample of 249 participants and a longitudinal design.

Perceived organizational support mediates the relationship between psychological contract fulfilment and workplace affect.

Affect was not measured in real time, but through self‐reports. Future research could study how and under what conditions psychological contract fulfilment generates perceived organizational support.

One of the few studies that have sought to research the affective dimension of the psychological contract.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how temporary agency workers’ job attitudes are influenced by the fulfilment of the psychological contract; a set of employees’ expectations, formed with the temporary work agency and its client: the host organisation.

The paper estimated moderated regressions with data collected through an online survey of 352 temporary agency workers employed by a large temporary work agency in Switzerland.

Results suggest that temporary agency workers’ job satisfaction, commitment towards the host organisation, and intentions to stay with the temporary work agency relate positively to the fulfilment of the psychological contract by both organisations. Additionally, reported spill-over-effects imply that the fulfilment of the psychological contract by one organisation moderates job attitudes towards the other organisations.

Results of the explorative study reveal that future research should consider the interrelated nature of psychological contracts in working arrangements when multiple employers are involved. However, for more generalisable results, a greater international sample, including different temporary work agencies, would be favourable.

Findings will help temporary work agencies to better understand how they rely on host organisations to fulfil the temporary agency workers’ psychological contract to attract and retain temporary agency workers.

This paper contributes to the literature in the understudied field of non-traditional work arrangements as one of the few to examine these spill-over-effects both empirically and theoretically.

It has been hypothesized that perceived contract fulfilment is positively associated with affective commitment, leading also to reduced turnover intentions, and with mental health, and that these relationships are fully mediated by work engagement. Employing the job demands resources (JDR) model, the purpose of this study is to examine the motivational and health‐enhancing properties driven by perceived employer psychological contact fulfilment.

The hypotheses were tested in a sample of 178 Finnish employees using structural equation modelling.

The hypotheses were supported. Perceived psychological contract fulfilment had both motivational (psychological contract → work engagement → affective commitment → reduced turnover intentions) and health‐enhancing (psychological contract → work engagement → mental health) effects.

The findings highlight the centrality of perceived psychological contract fulfilment to employees, and the importance of work engagement as a positive affective‐cognitive state at work.

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 investigate the impact of human resource management (HRM) systems (expressed by content, process and climate) on organizational performance through the mediating role of psychological contracts (expressed by employer and employee promises fulfilment).

The study examines theoretical relationships in the Greek context, based on structural equation modelling (SEM) estimation, using a sample of employees from both private and public sector organizations.

The study finds that the impact of HRM content on organizational performance is less strong compared to its impact through HRM process. Additionally, the study finds that psychological contract partially and positively mediates the HRM – performance relationship, where the impact of HRM on organizational performance through employee promises fulfilment is stronger than that through employer promises fulfilment.

The study does not allow for appropriately investigating dynamic causal inferences due to the cross-sectional nature of data. Additionally, considering that Greece is experiencing a severe economic and financial crisis, the findings from this unique context may not generalize across borders.

For improving organizational performance, managers and decision makers should make their HRM systems more visible, understandable, legitimate and relevant. At the same time they should make HRM systems more instrumental, valid and consistent of HR messages.

Investigations into the relationship between HRM systems and organizational performance have become increasingly common. Nevertheless, empirical studies that measure the influence of HRM systems, which integrate both content and process, on organizational performance are still rare. This paper partially fills this gap.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of psychological contracts on the adjustment and organisational commitment of expatriates during international business assignments. The study also aims to investigate the influence of psychological barriers to expatriate adjustment.

A unique survey questionnaire was developed to collect data from 219 Taiwanese business expatriates during the first quarter of 2007. A LISREL analysis is used to test the hypotheses of the research framework.

The study finds that: perceived fulfilment of the psychological contracts of expatriates significantly influences both their adjustment to foreign situations and their organisational commitment; psychological barriers to adjustment have a negative influence on both socio‐cultural adjustment and psychological adjustment; and expatriate psychological adjustment has both a direct and an indirect influence on organisational commitment.

International managers should implement appropriate human resource measures to meet expatriates' expectations for their psychological contracts. Managers should ensure that expatriates receive adequate counsel and training to assist them in minimizing any psychological barriers they might have to adjustment in a foreign environment.

The study extends concepts from organisational behaviour theory and applies them to the process of international manpower management.

This study seeks to examine the contents and the nature of the academic psychological contract. It aims to explore to what extent the contract has been fulfilled and the impact of demographic variables on the contract and its fulfilment.

Data for the study were collected through a survey of 280 academic staff of a middle‐ranked Australian university. To identify the contents of the academic psychological contract, three focus groups, each comprising eight academic staff, were conducted in three schools. The ordered probit model was employed to explore the impacts of various demographic variables.

The elements of the academic psychological contract to a certain extent differ from that of the contracts of other professions. Also, the academic psychological contract is more transactional than relational in character. Overall, the academic psychological contract has been fulfilled at the low level.

The study contributes to the debate on the different interpretation of employer obligations and their fulfilment between research‐oriented and teaching‐oriented academics. Exploring the psychological contract from both employee and employer perspectives will assist in the understanding of mutual expectations. Further research should involve a wide range of universities and make comparisons across national boundaries.

Some items, such as ensuring a safe workplace, the provision of adequate resources to do work, the provision of equal and competitive pay, fair promotion, consultation and recognition of skills and talents, ranked considerably higher than others and should, therefore, be given priority over others. More support should be provided to young, research‐oriented academics who are enthusiastic about research, but mobile and marketable in order to develop university sustainability.

The study contributes to the literature by arguing that the contents and the perceived significance of the academic psychological contract are to a certain extent different from those of the contracts in other sectors.

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of shared psychological contract beliefs between colleagues in a work team, in team in-role performance and extra-role behaviours.

Employees and team managers of 113 work teams answered questions about their working environment and relationships with experiences and perceptions. The data were used in CFA and structural modelling.

The results indicated that evaluations of co-worker psychological contracts in work teams are significantly associated with team in-role performance and extra-role behaviours through work engagement.

Employees with perceived contract fulfilment not only contribute more to their team but also change their expectations of what a team should offer. Managers should be informed that these new and enhanced expectations have repercussions for existing HRM practices.

Laulié and Tekleab (2016) have suggested that perceptions of psychological contract fulfilment shared by team members may act as a motivational driver for team performance, team attitudes and behaviours. This study is one of the first applications of this proposition in a mediation model and empirically tested for non-hierarchical co-worker relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of nurses’ experience of the fulfilment of their psychological contract on their intention to leave the nursing profession and to consider employee engagement as a mediator between the fulfilment of the psychological contract of nurses and their intention to leave their profession.

The authors used a quantitative, cross-sectional research design. In total, 1,039 Australian nurses completed an anonymous online survey conducted via the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation website. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.

The fulfilment of promises related to interesting job content and social atmosphere were negatively associated with intentions to leave the nursing profession, and these relationships were mediated by engagement. The fulfilment of promises related to career development, financial rewards and work–life balance were not associated with intentions to leave the nursing profession.

To ensure professional nurse retention, it is necessary to not just promise nurses interesting jobs and a supportive social atmosphere, but to manage nurse perceptions regarding the fulfilment of these promises.

Although there has been extensive research on nurse intention to leave their current job, the important area of nurse professional turnover has received less attention. The research highlights the importance of fulfilling expectations and promises related to interesting nurse job content that encourages nurse responsibility and autonomy as well as promises of a social atmosphere that includes co-operative relationships and good communication with colleagues.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how employees in different generational groups (or cohorts) and different career stages perceive their psychological contracts.

A survey of 345 working adults included psychological contract obligations, incentives and importance and the cognitive responses of job satisfaction, affective commitment and intention to leave. Super's “Adult career concerns inventory” measured career stage.

Small but significant differences between individuals' psychological contract perceptions were based on both career stage and generational cohort: higher levels of balanced obligations and fulfilment were found than either relational or transactional obligations and fulfilment; relational and transactional obligations were significantly higher for Baby Boomers than Generation Xers; a stronger negative relationship was found between transactional fulfilment and intention to leave for Generation Xers than Generation Yers; higher balanced fulfilment had a significantly stronger positive relationship with job satisfaction for exploration compared with other career stages and commitment for exploration compared with maintenance stages.

Cross‐section methodology and difference scores in the female‐dominated sample limits generalisability. The study's key theoretical contribution is the need to further investigate whether the protean career concept is operating within employees' perceptions of their psychological contractual terms.

Despite widespread colloquial use of generational cohort groupings such as Baby Boomer, Generation X and Generation Y, small effect sizes were found. Implications for employers looking to manage employees' psychological contracts include that there are greater similarities than differences between the different career stages and generational cohorts.