THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACTS AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT: A CASE STUDY IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Abstract

Tourism industry in Turkey has been increasing rapidly since the 2000s, especially in hospitality. It has been argued that the development of the industry depends largely on employees’ behavior. To understand how employees feel in terms of organizational behavior, it is necessary to refer and examine term of organizational commitment. Psychological contract reflects the belief system of employees to mutual responsibility and obligation between individuals and organizations. There are obvious links between the nature of the psychological contract and the individual’s commitments to the organization. This study aims to measure the relationship between psychological contracts and organizational commitment in hospitality establishments. Through this aim, the hypothesis of the study is given below. There is a significant relationship between psychological contracts and organizational commitment in establishments. The data was collected from 375 employees of 10 establishments in Ankara in Turkey. But 340 observations were just used to analyze because of technical problems. Questionnaires consist of 3 parts. The first part has some descriptive information about characteristics of participants. In the second part, there are “psychological contracts questionnaire” for 21 different items. In the last part, there are “organizational commitment questionnaire” for 15 different items. The results of the analyses suggest that there is a negative relationship between psychological contract and organizational commitment. Perception level of psychological contract of the employees with bachelor degree is more positive than the high school degree and lower degrees. Perception level of organizational commitment of the employees with bachelor degree graduate is more positive than the high school degree and the lower degrees. It is remarkable that the employees who work at the food & beverage department have most negative perception about psychological contracts and organizational commitment.