Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstract Drawing on social exchange theory, this study aims to expand the literature on despotic leadership as a prominent indicator of organizational deviance using a moderate mediation framework. Data were collected from a two-wave study involving 185 randomly chosen full-time administrative staff members in October 2024, in six colleges at the University of Mosul. Hypotheses have been tested by hierarchical multiple regression analysis and an estimated confidence interval for the indirect effect using SPSS 21.0 and Mplus 6.0. The results indicated a positive effect between despotic leadership and between Psychological Contract Breach (PCB) (β = 0.23, p < 0.01), as well as a positive effect between PCB and organizational deviance (β = 0.17, p < 0.01). The results also demonstrated a mediating role for PCB, as its presence rendered the association between despotic leadership and organizational deviance non-significant (β = 0.04, p = n.s.). Furthermore, we demonstrated a moderating role for moral identity, as its interaction with PCB reduced the negative impact on organizational deviance (β -0.15, p < 0.01). The study recommends that organizations should focus on discouraging despotic leadership and addressing subordinates’ perceptions of PCB. Moreover, the results emphasize the importance of ethical identity and its beneficial influence on the reduction of the influence of despotic leadership on the deviance within the organization.AcknowledgmentsWe would also wish to thank the University of Mosul and the colleges, which constituted study population in this work. Their support was significant to facilitate us conduct and complete the study.

Purpose The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a public health and economic crisis. Therefore, many countries implemented furlough policies, but the impact of these policies on employees and organizations has not been adequately investigated. This study aims to analyze the relationship between job insecurity and organizational trust, mediated by psychological contract breach (PCB) and moderated by perceived organizational support (POS) through the lens of both Conservation of Resources Theory and Social Exchange Theory. Design/methodology/approach The study uses an online survey conducted over two chronological waves, involving 122 furloughed employees and 134 continuing employees. Findings PCB is found to fully mediate the relationship between job insecurity and organizational trust, while POS does not serve as a moderator. The mediation path was significantly stronger for the furloughed employees. The authors also find significant differences in the levels of PCB, perceived job insecurity, POS and organizational trust between furloughed employees and those who continued to work. Originality/value This study discovers that PCB can act as a mediator between job insecurity and organizational trust during times of crisis. The study findings provide insight into the employee–employer relationship in the distinct context of furlough policy.

This study identifies when and how ethical leadership is linked to employees’ perceptions of organizational fairness. We propose and test a mechanism in which followers’ moral identity explains this link, and the state of the psychological contract sets its boundaries, highlighting a novel, process-focused view of fairness formation. Using a cross-sectional survey of 306 white-collar employees in Türkiye’s industrial sector, we estimated a moderated-mediation model with partial least squares structural equation modeling and bootstrap inference. Results revealed that ethical leadership related to perceived organizational fairness indirectly through the symbolization (outward expression) facet of moral identity, whereas internalization (inward conviction) was unrelated. This indirect link emerged only when employees perceived that promised obligations were honored, indicating that psychological-contract fulfillment enables ethical signals to be read as fair. The findings clarify that visible moral behavior matters more than inward conviction for fairness judgments and that relational integrity is a precondition for leader influence. We discuss implications for theory and for building fair climates by making ethics visible and keeping promises.

HPWS which refers to bundle of inter-consistent HR practices is found to be leading to several employee related outcomes. However, the underlying mechanism of how HPWS leads to negative employee outcomes is still less understood. The issue is significant from HR perspective as it can enable devising suitable strategies to foster positive employee outcomes and avoiding the negative one. In this study, we investigate this issue by focusing on two negative aspects namely turnover intention and psychological contract breach. The psychological contract breach is proposed and tested as a mediator in HPWS and turnover intention (employee outcomes) relationship. Data is collected using the survey approach from the employees of selected retail firms from Pakistan. Through the sampling approach, we generated a usable sample of 182. The findings indicate that HPWS links to turnover intention and perceived psychological contract breach among the retail sector staff. We found positive influence of perceived psychological contract breach on staff turnover intention. Furthermore, the perceived psychological contract breach partially mediates the relationship between HPWS and turnover intention. Overall, result implies that perceived psychological contract breach is an important aspect of work and should not be ignored by the HR and general management. Keywords: High Performance Work System, Psychological Contract Breach, Turnover Intention, Pakistan.

In recent years, the rapid development of e-commerce live streaming has made influencer streamers an important force in brand marketing. However, several high-profile live streamer fiascos have led to a public trust crisis in live streaming commerce. This paper introduces the psychological contract theory, selects typical cases (Dong Yuhui, Li Jiaqi, Dongbei Yujie, Viya, Xue Li), and analyzes the process of establishing and breaking the psychological contract between streamers and consumers by integrating media reports and social media information. It demonstrates the complete application of the psychological contract theory in the field of e-commerce live streaming and provides suggestions for e-commerce brands and platforms in streamer selection, risk management, and consumer relationship maintenance.

ABSTRACT Crises create significant challenges for organizations to fulfil their commitments to employees, so employees often experience psychological contract (PC) breach during crises. However, it remains unclear how employees react to organizational breaches during crises and whether employees are likely to forgive such breaches. Drawing on the risk management theory of corporate social responsibility (CSR), we argue that organizations’ CSR efforts create an insurance-like effect, which tempers employees’ destructive reactions and facilitates constructive reactions to breach during crises. Study 1, in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, demonstrates that employees who perceive high levels of CSR from their organization are more likely to attribute the PC breach to factors outside the organizations’ control and subsequently exhibit reconciliation behaviours. Study 2, a scenario-based experiment manipulating CSR (high/low), crisis context (crisis/non-crisis), and PC breach (high/low), reveals that a crisis context amplifies the insurance-like effect of CSR strengthening the positive association of PC breach with employees’ external attributions.

Employee turnover remains a major concern for businesses globally. In Western contexts, the concept of psychological contract breach (PCB) is often employed to understand this phenomenon. This paper takes Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) sector as a case study to explore the factors that support employee retention in their jobs, despite reported poor working conditions and associated issues in garment factories. Data were gathered among 400 RMG workers and linear regression analysis was used to answer this question. We demonstrated that while PCB was positively related to turnover intention, its impact on the retention of Bangladeshi garment workers was relatively minimal. Qualitative data showed how cultural and social factors distinct from known Western retention causes shaped our findings. The evidence presented in this paper sheds new light on employee retention in a Bangladeshi context, where socio-cultural issues challenge the PCB theory, which was developed largely based on Western economies.

This study examines how demographic factors (education level, marital status, and gender) moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach (PCB) and turnover intention among Taiwanese employees. Using survey data from 398 respondents and structural equation modeling, three PCB dimensions are investigated: employee care, fair pay, and fair evaluation. Results reveal three key findings that challenge existing Western theories: First, fair pay significantly predicts turnover intention across all demographic groups (β = 0.400‒0.600), confirming the primacy of transactional breaches in East Asian contexts. Second, fair evaluation shows differential effects based on gender, marital status, and education level, with only male, married, and postgraduate employees showing significant turnover responses to evaluation unfairness. Third, contrary to relational contract theory, employee care showed no significant relationship with turnover intention across all groups, suggesting that paternalistic care may be less valued than economic fairness in contemporary Taiwan. These findings challenge assumptions about overeducated employees’ hypersensitivity to PCB and highlight the need for culturally sensitive HR strategies that prioritize compensation fairness while tailoring evaluation systems to employee demographics.

breaking promises, breaking trust: How psychological contract breach relates to trust trajectories and performance

How and when illegitimate tasks affect hospitality employees’ service sabotage? The roles of psychological contract breach and collectivism

This study examines the relationship between psychological contract breach, work engagement, and life satisfaction in Generation Z individuals working in various sectors in Jakarta. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected through questionnaires distributed to 158 respondents aged 21 to 27 years working in various sectors. The sampling technique employed was purposive sampling, while data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and regression tests via Jamovi software. The study's results indicate that psychological contract breach has a negative and significant impact on life satisfaction. In contrast, life satisfaction has a positive and significant impact on work engagement. In addition, psychological contract breach also harms work engagement, both directly and indirectly, through its impact on life satisfaction. This study provides new insights into the complex dynamics between psychological contract breach and work engagement, especially in understanding the engagement of Generation Z employees.

Abstract Understanding the development of newcomers' job future ambiguity is crucial for their adjustment, especially as the workforce becomes increasingly mobile. Based on Masterson and Stamper's (2003) framework of perceived organizational membership, we examined whether newcomers' experience of psychological contract breach affected their perceived insider status, which in turn influenced their job future ambiguity. We tested our hypotheses using data from a three‐wave panel design, involving a sample of 126 recent college graduates in China who had just joined the workforce. Cross‐lagged mediation panel analysis indicated that psychological contract breach had a negative effect on subsequent perceived insider status and job future ambiguity, and perceived insider status acted as the underlying mechanism through which psychological contract breach partially influenced subsequent job future ambiguity. Our cross‐lagged reciprocal analyses further supported that psychological contract breach preceded job future ambiguity and perceived insider status rather than the other way around. Our study contributes to the literature by identifying two untested antecedents of job future ambiguity and providing the first formal empirical testing of the conceptual linkage between psychological contract breach and perceived insider status in the newcomer context. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Purpose Taking conservation of resources (COR) theory as a theoretical base, the study aims to examine the role of psychological contract breach (PCB) as an underlying mechanism through which workplace conflict impacts employee silence. Task and relationship conflicts were considered two dimensions of workplace conflict, while three forms of employee silence (acquiescent, defensive and prosocial) were considered dependent variables. Design/methodology/approach Responses were collected from 430 employees working in the Indian Information Technology sector. Variance-based PLS-SEM and necessary condition analysis (NCA) were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings The results showed that task and relationship conflicts significantly impact acquiescent, defensive and prosocial silence. PCB significantly mediated the relationship between workplace conflicts (task and relationship conflict) and employee silence (acquiescent, defensive and prosocial). Practical implications This research’s implications are beneficial for organizations that want to assess the silence behavior of employees that arises due to conflict at the workplace and further breach of the psychological contract. Originality/value The study’s novel contribution examines how PCB mediates the association between workplace conflict (task and relationship conflicts) and the three silences (acquiescent, defensive and prosocial).

Purpose This study draws on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to examine the mediating role of work−family conflict (WFC) in the relationship between psychological contract breach and burnout, and the moderating role of mindfulness. Design/methodology/approach A daily diary study was conducted over five consecutive workdays with 83 employees, yielding a total of 415 measurement occasions. Findings Multilevel analyses revealed that psychological contract breach was positively associated with increased WFC, which, in turn, predicted higher levels of burnout at the intra-individual level. Moreover, the strength of this indirect effect was moderated by mindfulness: the link between psychological contract breach and burnout via WFC was stronger among employees with lower levels of mindfulness. Originality/value These findings provide valuable insights for organizations by highlighting both preventive strategies − such as addressing psychological contract breaches − and interventional approaches − such as mindfulness-based practices to mitigate emotional exhaustion. The results also pave the way for future research into the mechanisms underlying the psychological contract–burnout link and the buffering role of mindfulness.

“Demanding perfection, losing innovation”: The sequential mediating roles of psychological contract breach and knowledge-hiding behavior and the buffering effect of artificial intelligence technology acceptance

This study investigates deviant workplace behavior through moral disengagement, focusing on how psychological contract breach (PCB) influences employee conduct. It examines whether work motivation and procedural justice moderate this relationship, aiming to deepen understanding of these dynamics within the Pakistani banking sector. Using a quantitative research design, data were collected from 350 banking sector employees via a survey, and relationships among PCB, moral disengagement, work motivation, procedural justice, and deviant behavior were analyzed through structural equation modeling and moderated mediation techniques. Findings confirm that PCB positively predicts deviant workplace behavior, primarily through the mediating role of moral disengagement. Contrary to expectations, neither work motivation nor procedural justice significantly moderated this mediation pathway. Instead, both variables showed unexpected patterns, indicating a more complex interplay with PCB and moral disengagement than theorized. These results underscore the nuanced ways in which ethical disengagement operates in high-pressure environments. Organizations seeking to reduce deviant behavior should address contract breaches directly while promoting comprehensive motivation strategies and justice perceptions. This study contributes to workplace ethics literature by confirming a known mediation mechanism and offering insight into the limits of commonly assumed moderators in the context of emerging economies.

Purpose Illegitimate tasks, as a prevalent source of workplace stress, may foster employee silence in the hospitality industry. Drawing on Conservation of Resources Theory and Social Exchange Theory, this study aims to investigate the effect of illegitimate tasks on hospitality employees’ silence behavior, focusing on the mediating role of psychological contract breach and the moderating role of collectivist orientation. Design/methodology/approach The theoretical model was tested through two sub-studies: a scenario experiment and a survey. The scenario experiment used a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, recruiting 252 employees with hospitality work experience, while the survey involved 302 hospitality employees. Findings The results reveal that illegitimate tasks lead to psychological contract breach, which in turn induces employee silence behavior. Moreover, collectivist orientation attenuates the effect of illegitimate tasks on psychological contract breach, thereby weakening the mediating role of psychological contract breach between illegitimate tasks and employee silence behavior. Practical implications It is important for hospitality managers to minimize illegitimate task assignments and recognize their potential to erode psychological contracts and suppress employee voice. Organizations are encouraged to clarify role expectations and leverage collectivist orientation as a buffer against the negative effects of task-related stressors on employee communication and engagement. Originality/value This study refines the understanding of the negative impact scope of illegitimate tasks and offer deeper insights into the antecedents of employee silence from a task pressure perspective within the hospitality industry.

ABSTRACT The phrase “quiet quitting” has become a popular topic within the workplace and academia. However, the nomological network of quiet quitting is unclear. We contribute to quiet quitting research by incorporating organizational justice and job characteristics theories with a psychological contract and social exchange lens to illuminate antecedents and outcomes of quiet quitting. Prior to doing so, we address the conceptual and measurement challenges that threaten the knowledge accumulation of quiet quitting research. Using a qualitative study ( N = 42) and prior research, we disentangle quiet quitting from its antecedents and outcomes to define it as intentionally performing to the minimum requirements of the job . We then develop a measure of quiet quitting across a subject matter expert review ( N = 51), a naïve rater review ( N = 90), and an assessment of the measure's psychometric properties ( N = 198). Finally, we assess our conceptual model ( N = 540) and find that psychological contract fulfillment has a negative indirect effect on quiet quitting through job satisfaction. Furthermore, psychological contract breach increases quiet quitting through job satisfaction. We find that quiet quitting subsequently increases CWBs and decreases OCBs. Our findings point toward an optimistic outlook: by accurately communicating expectations regarding organizational justice and job characteristics, human resource managers may be able to limit the prevalence of quiet quitting and subsequent detrimental behaviors within their organizations.

Purpose Understanding what drives turnover among nurses and how to address that is an important issue facing hospitals, society and organizational researchers. While turnover has many causes, the perception that organizations have failed to meet expected norms (a perceived psychological contract breach – PCB) is a salient cause. Due to dynamic changes in the workplace, PCBs increase in the workplace, and when PCBs are perceived, turnover intention (TI) increases. We investigate whether individual differences among nurses in the need to belong (NTB) determine exit or voice behavior when PCB is perceived. Design/methodology/approach Using survey methodology and a sample of nurses currently employed, we tested the moderating effects of individual differences in NTB on the PCB–TI link. Findings The strength of PCB leading to TI was significantly moderated by the level of NTB. After accounting for perceived job alternatives and the need for affiliation, the interaction between NTB and PCB was statistically significant ((Δ R2 = 0.02) in explaining TI. Originality/value There is limited research on the boundary conditions surrounding the PCB–TI relationship, and this study brings in a unique perspective by incorporating an individual difference on the PCB–TI relationship. The study has implications for the social exchange theory, refinement of the NTB construct and models of turnover, and its results highlight the importance of supervisors and managers honoring obligations and promises made to nurses.

ObjectiveThis research aims to systematically investigate the mechanisms between psychological contract fulfillment and job burnout/job satisfaction among pharmacists, addressing the research gap in this population.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional research that employed convenience sampling to recruit 384 pharmacists from private medical institutions in Guiyang between May and August 2024. The research utilized scales for psychological contract, job burnout, and job satisfaction for analysis. After conducting reliability and validity tests on the questionnaires, correlation analysis, mediation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis were employed to explore the relationships among psychological contract fulfillment, job burnout, and job satisfaction among pharmacists in private medical institutions.ResultsThe findings indicate that pharmacists’ psychological contract fulfillment is significantly weakly negatively correlated with job burnout (r = −0.187, p < 0.01) and significantly strongly positively correlated with job satisfaction (r = 0.528, p < 0.01), and a significant strongly negatively correlation between the job burnout and the job satisfaction (r = −0.436, p < 0.01). Mediation analysis shows that job burnout plays an weakly mediating role in the relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and job satisfaction (12.16%, p < 0.01). This suggests that burnout is merely a minor component within a much broader context. In addition, a considerable proportion of pharmacists 43.23% indicated that their level of psychological contract fulfillment did not meet the benchmark value (most of the responsibility has been fulfilled). indicating significant psychological contract breaches within this group. Multiple linear regression analysis further identifies that demographic variables (age, employment length), psychological contract fulfillment, and burnout levels collectively serve as core predictors of job satisfaction.ConclusionThe research suggests that private medical institutions should take proactive measures to ensure the stability of pharmacists’ psychological contracts. For example, during the intervention process, preventive guidance should be provided to senior pharmacists to help them avoid breaches of the psychological contract and the further development of job burnout. For newly recruited pharmacists, selective preventive interventions should be implemented to achieve personalized psychological contract interventions. Finally, this research helps fill the research gap regarding pharmacists’ psychological contracts in private medical institutions.