Psychological contract breach and withdrawal behavior: Mediating role of psychological ownership of job and organization in Nepal

Abstract

Employees cannot benefit more from formal and legal relationships alone, and a framework for addressing their psychological aspects at the workplace is essential. Therefore, this study aims to gauge the direct effect of psychological contract breaches on employee withdrawal behaviors and ownerships and the mediating role of ownerships in the relationship between psychological contract breaches and withdrawal behaviors in Nepal. This study adopted the cross-sectional survey to gather the perceptional data on a 5-point Likert scale from the 701 staff members working in the Nepali travel and tourism business. The hypotheses were tested via the positivist research philosophy and deductive reasoning approach aligning with the social exchange and equity theories. The study used structural equation modeling for data screening and analysis. The current study revealed a positive impact of psychological contract breach on predicting psychological-withdrawal behavior (B = .22, p < .001) and physical-withdrawal behavior (B = .18, p < .001) and a negative impact of psychological contract breach on job-based ownership (B = –.15, p < .001) and organization-based ownership (B = –.19, p < .001). Job-based ownership mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological-withdrawal behavior (B = .08, p < .001) and between psychological contract breach and physical-withdrawal behavior (B = .06, p < .001). Finally, organization-based ownership mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological-withdrawal behavior (B = .02, p < .01) and between psychological contract breach and physical-withdrawal behavior (B = .05, p < .001).

Keywords

• mediating role
• Nepalese context
• perceived ownership
• unwritten contract
• withdrawal behavior