Behavioural Outcomes of Psychological Contract Breach in a Non‐Western Culture: The Moderating Role of Equity Sensitivity*
| Author | Simon Lloyd D. Restubog,Prashant Bordia,Robert L. Tang |
| Date | 01 December 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2007.00531.x |
| Published date | 01 December 2007 |
RESEARCH NOTE
Behavioural Outcomes of Psychological
Contract Breach in a Non-Western
Culture: The Moderating Role of Equity
Sensitivity
*
Simon Lloyd D. Restubog, Prashant Bordiawand Robert L. Tangz
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, 4072 Queensland, Australia, wSchool of
Management, University of South Australia, Australia, and zSchool of Management and Information
Technology, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Philippines
Corresponding author email: simonr@psy.uq.edu.au
This study tests the effects of psychological contract breach on several employee
outcomes: workplace deviant behaviours directed at the organization (WD-O) and its
organizational members (WD-I), in-role performance, and organizational citizenship
behaviours directed at the organization (OCB-O) and its co-workers (OCB-I). It also
examines the moderating effects of equity sensitivity in the relationship between breach
and these outcomes. Data were collected from 162 sales executives and their direct
supervisors. We found that breach was related to all behavioural outcomes. Equity
sensitivity and breach also interacted in predicting OCB-I, OCB-O and WD-I. The
negative relationships between breach and OCB-O and OCB-I were stronger for
employees with an outcome-focused approach to organizational relationships than for
those with an input-focused approach. In addition, breach had stronger positive effects
on WD-I especially for those individuals who are output-oriented compared to those
who are input-focused.
Psychological contracts consist of a set of beliefs
about the exchange terms and conditions between
the employee and the employing organization
(Guest, 2004; Rousseau, 1995). An important
aspect of the psychological contract is the
employees’ expectation that the organization will
adequately deliver on its promises. When em-
ployees perceive that the organization has not
lived up to its promises, then this results in
psychological contract breach (Rousseau, 1995).
Breach of the psychological contract has negative
implications for a wide spectrum of employee
attitudes and behaviours (Coyle-Shapiro and
Kessler, 2000; Guest, 2004; Herriot, Manning
and Kidd, 1997; Kickul and Lester, 2001; Rest-
ubog and Bordia, 2006; Restubog, Bordia and
Tang, 2006; Restubog et al., 2005; Robinson,
1996; Robinson and Morrison, 1995; Sturges
et al., 2005; Turnley et al., 2003). Because
psychological contract breach is a subjective
experience which emanates from a sense-making
process (Rousseau, 1995), its effects on employee
*
We are grateful to Wesley King and Liz Hobman for
their insightful comments on an earlier version of this
manuscript. We also thank Ricky Bartolome, Paolo
Lopez, Janina Ongpico and Carla San Pedro for
assistance in data collection, and Peter Lemuel Cayayan
for his help in the earlier stages of manuscript
preparation. An earlier version of this manuscript was
presented at the Fifth Australian Industrial/Organiza-
tional Psychology Conference, 1–23 July 2005, Gold
Coast, Queensland, Australia.
British Journal of Management, Vol. 18, 376–386 (2007)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2007.00531.x
r2007 British Academy of Management
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