The impact of psychological contract violation and generation difference in the workplace: An empirical study of China

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Financial rewards might not the only way to keep employees’ stay and to have high performance. We attempt to introduce the perspective of psychological contract (PC) to study the employment relationship. OBJECTIVE: This study is based on the Chinese private enterprise context to explore the effect of psychological contract violation (PCV) and explore whether there are generational differences in the organization. METHODS: We adopt PLS-SEM for empirical research evaluation. A total of 313 valid sample questionnaires were taken. RESULTS: The statistical analysis results show that the psychological contract violation has a significant positive impact on turnover intentions. Psychological contract violation also has significant negative effects on in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior. In the analysis of generational differences for generation Y employees and generation X employees, when facing psychological contract violations, generation Y employees are more likely to have a stronger turnover intention, lower in-role performance, and less organizational citizenship behavior than generation X employees. CONCLUSIONS: The revised psychological contract violation model is confirmed in the Chinese context. There are significant differences in the influence of generational factors on the psychological contract violation model.