The Impact of Psychological Contracts Fulfillment on Behavioral Consequences: Investigating the Mediating Role of Employee Engagement

Abstract

Psychological contract is defined as the belief of employees about the extent to which the organization adheres to its commitments in employment relationships. The mechanism that explains the relationship between the fulfillment of various types of psychological contracts (transactional, relational and ideological) and behavioral outcomes, has received less attention so far. Therefore, based on the social exchange theory and positive norm of reciprocity, the conceptual model of the present study was formed. This paper focused on the mediating role of employee engagement in the relationship between fulfilment of psychological contract (PC) types and outcome behaviors (i.e., organization citizenship behavior, counter-productive behavior). The sample of this cross-sectional study included hospital nurses (N=338) in Iran. First, the measurement model of study was confirmed using Amos package and then Macro PROCESS v.4 in SPSS which is based on bootstrapping method, was used to analyze the data and investigate the mediation variable. The results confirmed the mediating role of employee engagement in the link between fulfillment of all three types of PC and both outcome behaviors. The results and research suggestions taken from the results are provided at the end.

Keywords

• psychological contract
• employee engagement
• organization citizenship behavior
• counter-productive work behavior
• nurse