a psychological contract perspective on ocb

Journal of Organizati onal Behavior J. Organiz. Behav. 23, 927–946 (2002) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/job.173 A psychological contract perspective on organizational citizenship behavior y JA CQUELINE A-M. COYLE-SHAPIRO* Industrial Relations, London School of Economics and Politic al Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, U.K. Summary This study examined the contribution of the psychological contract framework to understand- ing organizati onal citizenshi p behav ior (OCB) using survey data gather ed at three measure- ment points over a three-year period from 480 public sector employees. Separating perceived contract breach into its two components (perceived employer obligations and inducements), the data sugges t that perceive d employ er oblig ations explaine d unique vari ance in three dimensions of citizenship behavior (helping, advocacy and functional participation) beyond that accounted for by perceived employer inducements. Employees’ acceptance of the norm of reciprocity moderated the relationship between employer inducements and the dimensions of advo cacy and functi onal participati on. Employees’ trust in their employer moderated the relationship between perceived employer obligations and the dimensions of advocacy and functional participation. Contrary to the hypothesis, procedural or interactional justice did not moderate the relationship between employer inducements and OCB. The implications of the findings for psychological contract research are discussed. Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Introduction In the past decade, a good deal of research has been conducted on employee responses to psychological contract breach. When an employee perceives that his/her employer has failed to fulfil one or more promised obligations, he/she is likely to reciprocate in a number of ways. As such, existing empirical research demonstrates that contract breach is related to lower employer trust (Robinson, 1996), job satisfaction (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994), organizational commitment (Coyle-Shapiro & Kessler, 2000), intentions to remain (Turnley & Feldman, 1999) in-role and extra-role performance (Robinson, 1996; Robinson & Morrison, 1995). Percei ved contract breach result s in a sens e of discrepan cy between what is promised and what is fulfilled. This perceived discrepancy leads to unmet expectations, a loss of trust (Robinson, 1996) and job dissatisfaction (Turnl ey & Feldman, 2000), which in turn negativel y affects employee contribu- tions. It is the perception of a discrepancy that is the motivational mechanism underlying much of this Received 6 November 2000 Revised 21 March 2002 Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepte d 26 August 2002 * Correspondence to: Jacqueline A.-M. Coyle-Shapiro, Industrial Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, U.K. E-mail: [email protected] y An earlier version of this paper was pre sented at the annual meetin g of the Socie ty for Industrial and Organ izati onal Psych ology , San Diego, April 2001.

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