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A wealth of today's research is becoming increasing interested in the area of psychological contracts. The psychological contract is defined as the unwritten agreement that exists between the employee and employer that contains a set of mutual expectations. In a Journal of Organizational Behavior Special Issue on the subject, Anderson & Schalk (1998) highlight measurement, definition, added value and dynamics of the psychological contract as the major areas that future research should attempt to remedy. This paper is an attempt to elucidate several of these areas by examining the impact of individual difference variables (more specifically personality) on reports of psychological contract violation. The following sets forth a theoretical argument with practical implications for the developing the field and the management of psychological contracts in the workplace.
Overview
Introduction
Research in the area of psychological contracts is possibly the most emergent area for organizational research in the current landscape. Recently, in a discussion about Academy of Management Organizational Behavior Division conference submissions, Angelo DeNisi (communication, March 2002) stated that the psychological contract garnered by far the most attention from submitters to the program. Going further, he stated that papers dealing with psychological contracts were 1.5 times as numerous as the next most popular area. In light of this development it seems that this amount of attention should now focus this stream of research away from the traditional area of focus on outcomes based evaluation (positive attributes of the intact psychological contract) and content based evaluation (the content of the psychological contract) but focus itself on other influences on the evaluation of the contract.
Robinson & Rousseau (1994) report that Vi of all employees in their study report their psychological contract as 'violated'. While this finding is compelling, examination under a different lens might seek to offer alternate explanations. This offers the niche where this paper is placed.
Alternatively, personality researchers have recently focused their efforts on determining the individual level outcomes of different 'personality mixes'. The five-factor model affords the opportunity to examine individual predispositions towards certain behaviors. This successful line of research has found personality traits to have significant relationships to outcomes such as transformational leadership abilities, job satisfaction and job performance to name a few. In short, the impact of individual...