رابطه بین نقض قرارداد روانی و تعهد سازمانی : عدم تعادل تبادل به عنوان یک تعدیل کننده نقش واسطه ای تخطی

This study tested the mediating role of violation in the relationship between breach and both affective and continuance commitment and the extent to which this mediating role is moderated by exchange imbalance amongst a sample of 103 sales personnel. Results suggest that violation mediated the relationship between breach and commitment. Also, results suggest that perceived exchange imbalance moderates this mediating pathway: Low exchange imbalance increases the mediating role of violation in the case of affective commitment. On the other hand, exchange imbalance failed to moderate the mediating influence of violation in the case of continuance commitment. Results are discussed in view of the importance of a) including both measures of violation and breach in future studies and b) the role of social exchange in explaining psychological contract violation.

Three main features of psychological contract theory continue to capture the interest of researchers (Conway & Briner, 2009). First, is its role as a general framework for understanding the employment relationship and its evolution over time. Second, is the insight it provides into individual reactions to organizational change. And, third, is its role in helping to understand how employees react when promises are breached. The present study contributes to the body of research on the last of these features elaborating our understanding of some of the mechanisms through which breach affects employee affective and continuance commitment. Moreover, its implications suggest the need to take account of distinctions between breach and violation and the role of measurement in understanding breach–violation mechanisms.

These results indicate that violation has a role in the breach process as it mediated the link between breach and commitment. Hence both terms together explain more variance. Also, ExI moderated this mediation through violation. More effort should be made in future research to view violation as an integral part of breach measures (e.g. through saliency weights) rather than keeping them separate. Also the role of ExI through reciprocal and social exchange behaviors needs to be more carefully examined in order to better understand psychological contract processes.