Employee Org Relationship (Social Exchange Theory, Psych Contracts, and POS)

Question 1

Shore et al. (2012)

Answer 1

Employee Org Relationship

-includes psych contracts, perceived organizational support, and employment relationship

Psych contracts (Rousseau, 1989) shifted focus from Blau’s (1964) interplay of expectations between two parties to each party’s PERCEPTION of one another’s obligations

Reciprocity norms is the explanatory mechanism linking POS and Psych contract breach/fulfillment to outcomes
-but consequences from org support are based on perception of treatment from org and consequences from psych contract are based on perceived discrepancy between what was promised and what was fulfilled

Question 2

Rousseau (1989); Rousseau et al. (2013)

Answer 2

Psychological contract is individuals’ systems of beliefs regarding the obligations that exist between themselves and exchange partners

• draws on social exchange norm of reciprocity (Blau, 1964; Gouldner, 1960)
• draws on Social Info Processing (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978) people selectively attend to certain info and interpret exchanges through that lens

Employees join orgs with expectations, beliefs evolve over time (supervisor, formal policies, coworkers)

Breach and Violation are different

Zhao (2007) meta demonstrating the strong negative effects that breach of relational contracts have on employee affect, attitudes, and behaviors.

Changes over time, need to examine as such

Question 3

Cropanzano & Mitchell (2005; 2013)

Answer 3

Social Exchange Theory

Four main streams:

Interdependent interactions (Kelley & Thibaut) outcome matrices reflecting consequences of individuals’ choices, has been applied to both romantic and professional relations

Self-interest - early focus on exchanges enacted to achieve self-goals…later views incorporated motivations like altruism

Reciprocity - eye for an eye, kiss for a kiss

Interpersonal Relationships - two types of transactions - economic & social, distinction is obligations (social leaves these ambiguous)

Key Applications:

OCBs (work of Organ), Fairness, leadership, org commitment, org support, psych contracts, LMX, trust formation

Question 4

Hom et al. (2009)

Answer 4

2 empirical surveys in China with students and state employees

Showing that job embeddedness is a longer lasting mediater between positive social exchange forms and affective commitment & quit intentions

Question 5

Dulac et al. (2008)

Answer 5

Why might employees retain favorable attitudes despite psych contract breach or violation?

Integrated social exchange with psych contracts and suggested that high quality exchanges (LMX) may bias the employee such that perceptions of breach are tempered

Violation mediates between breach and outcomes
Exchanges (POS, LMX) moderate between breach and violation

Two-wave (six-months) in Belgian Org (hard for affective commitment and trust to build up, and LMX in such short time)

Question 6

Morrison & Robinson (1997)

Answer 6

When employees feel betrayed…

Theoretical piece

• -Development of violation is highly subjective and imperfect. (can be due to reneging or incongruence)
• Vigilance of people, comparison processes, interpretation (Social information processing tie in?)
• Violation-Anger/Betrayal that often are experienced when an employee believes that the org has failed to fulfill one or more of its obligations.
• Lots of negative outcomes for violation- (less OCB, exit, less trust)
• Perception of an unmet promise depends on Salience(degree to which a stimulus stands out from its immediate context. Side of the discrepancy so on) and Vigilance (extent to which the ee monitors the fulfillment of the promise)
• Breach is cognitive, violation is affective

Perception of breach depends on comparison (self-serving biases, self-esteem, equity sensitivity, power asymmetries, type of exchange)

Question 7

Coyle-Shapiro & Conway (2005)

Answer 7

Surveyed 347 public sector employees over 4 time periods

Wanted to establish if POS & Psych Contacts are distinct (THEY WERE) and their relationship over time…linked social exchange and organizational support theory

Both POS & Psych Contracts rely on norm of reciprocity and focus on outcomes for the EOR (affective commitment & OCB)

Key Findings: Psych Contract Fulfillment predicts POS which negatively predicts employee’s perceptions of orgs’ obligations.

When inducements & obligations are independently looked at, we see that inducements predict POS and high POS predicts obligations.

Question 8

Eisenberger et al. (1986)

Answer 8

Perceived Organizational Support

Employees form global beliefs about how the org values their contributions and cares about their well-being

POS predicts absenteeism and this relationship is stronger for those with a strong exchange ideology

Surveyed teachers

POS should increase affective attachment to the org & Expectancy that effort towards goals will be rewarded (Goal Setting, Cognitive Theory Tie In).

Question 9

Eisenberger et al. (2010)

Answer 9

Supervisor Org Embodiment (SOE)

• (SOE), which involves the extent to which employees identify their supervisor with the organization. His shared identity with the org.
• 2 studies US & Portuguese
• Rely on Org support theory
• The greater the SOE, the more that employees experience treatment received from the supervisor as treatment by the organization
• Employees are motivated to determine the degree to which their social exchange relationship with the supervisor is indicative of their exchange relationship with the organization.