Perceived psychological contract violation (PPCV) is a construct that regards employees’ feelings of disappointment (ranging from minor
frustration
In psychology, frustration is a common emotional response to opposition, related to anger, annoyance and disappointment. Frustration arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of an individual's will or goal and is likely to incr ...
to
betrayal
Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. O ...
) arising from their belief that their organization has broken its
psychological contract
A psychological contract, a concept developed in contemporary research by organizational scholar Denise Rousseau,Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2: 121-139 ...
of work-related promises,
and is generally thought to be the organization’s contribution to a negative reciprocity dynamic, as employees tend to perform more poorly to pay back PPCV.
Differentiation from perceived organizational support
Both PPCV and
perceived organizational support (POS) are based on the
norm of reciprocity
The norm of reciprocity requires that we repay in kind what another has done for us.Whatley, M, A., Rhodes, A., Smith, R. H., Webster, J. M. (1999) ''The Effect of a Favor on Public and Private Compliance: How Internalized is the Norm of Reciprocit ...
. Both POS and PPCV are types of social exchanges and therefore involve implicit obligations, rather than economic exchanges, which involve explicit obligations. Perceived organizational support is focused on favorable treatment and the degree to which employees engage in positive reciprocity with the organization, whereas PPCV is focused on unfavorable treatment and the degree to which employees engage in negative reciprocity with the organization.
Recent research
David R. Hekman and colleagues in 2009 found that professional employees (e.g. doctors, nurses, lawyers) were less likely to reciprocate PPCV when they strongly identified with the organization and weakly identified with the profession. Such workers'
organizational identification and
professional identification combined to alter the influence of PPCV on performance behaviors. The results suggested that PPCV had the most negative influence on professional employees' work performance when employees strongly identified with the profession and weakly identified with the organization.
Measurement items
PPCV is typically measured with the four-item PPCV scale developed by Robinson & Morrison in 2000.
Respondents are asked to indicate the extent to which they agree with the following statements on a seven-point scale.
# I feel a great deal of anger toward my organization.
# I feel betrayed by my organization.
# I feel that my organization has violated the contract between us.
# I feel extremely frustrated by how I have been treated by my organization.
These "contract breach" items are less commonly used:
[
# Almost all the promises made by my organization during my recruitment have been kept so far.
# I feel that my organization has come through in fulfilling the promises made to me when I was hired.
# So far my organization has done an excellent job of fulfilling its promises to me.
# I have not received everything promised to me in exchange for my contributions.
# My organization has broken many of its promises to me even though I've upheld my side of the deal.
]
See also
*Emotional exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion is a chronic state of physical and emotional depletion that results from excessive job, personal demands, and/or continuous stress. It describes a feeling of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by one's work. It is ...
* Misplaced loyalty
* Stress
References
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Industrial and organizational psychology
Organizational studies