Changing employment contracts, changing psychological contracts and the effects on organisational commitment

Abstract

Changing workplace conditions have resulted in psychological contracts becoming more transactionally oriented. The current study addresses the question of how the `new' psychological contract affects organisational commitment. In particular, it seeks to analyse the relationship between the form of the psychological contract (relational/transactional) and type of organisational commitment (affective, continuance, normative).Data were collected from 210 randomly selected participants using the Psychological Contract Scale (PCS), and the Measure of Affective, Continuance and Normative Commitment Scale (MACNCS). The Career Commitment Scale (CCS) and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) were administered and information gathered regarding overall job satisfaction, age, gender, contract type, position held, industry sector and length of employment.The major findings from this study is that there are positive relationships between relational psychological contracts and affective commitment (â = .653, p < .05), continuance commitment (â = .222, p < .05) and normative commitment (â = .476, p <.001), and a negative relationship between transactional psychological contracts and affective commitment (â =148, p < .05), after controlling for various background and employment characteristics. This research increases the understanding of how employees commit to an organisation during times of unstable and changing employment conditions.