Psychological Contract Breach: Consequences of Unkept Promises of Permanent Employment

Adopting a psychological contract perspective, this study examines attitudinal and behavioral reactions of temporary employees to repeated broken promises of permanent employment by their employers. Data were collected through self-report and co-worker rating surveys from 140 bank employees in Bangl...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ahmed, E., D'Netto, Brian, Chelliah, J., Fein, E.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Academy of Taiwan Information Systems Research 2015
Online Access:http://www.cmr-journal.org/index
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/47614
_version_ 1848757881737838592
author Ahmed, E.
D'Netto, Brian
Chelliah, J.
Fein, E.
author_facet Ahmed, E.
D'Netto, Brian
Chelliah, J.
Fein, E.
author_sort Ahmed, E.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Adopting a psychological contract perspective, this study examines attitudinal and behavioral reactions of temporary employees to repeated broken promises of permanent employment by their employers. Data were collected through self-report and co-worker rating surveys from 140 bank employees in Bangladesh. To identify psychological contract breaches and employees’ reactions, the data were analyzed using correlations and regressions. Past research has focused mainly on the organizational benefits of using temporary employees. In contrast, the results of our empirical study indicate that the continuous extension of involuntary temporary status resulted in lower self-reported and co-worker-rated organizational citizenship behaviors, higher self-reported and co-worker ratings of job neglect, and increased turnover intentions. The implications of a psychological contract breach in terms of managing a temporary workforce are also discussed. The findings present new knowledge of the attitudinal and behavioral consequences arising from employers’ failure to honor their promise of permanent employment to long-term temporary employees. This research will be of particular interest to employers, employee advocates, human resource management practitioners, and academics in the field of management. However, the results cannot be generalized to all industry sectors or all types of temporary employees as the study covered temporary employees in the banking sector only.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T09:35:09Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-47614
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:35:09Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Academy of Taiwan Information Systems Research
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-476142017-01-30T15:34:27Z Psychological Contract Breach: Consequences of Unkept Promises of Permanent Employment Ahmed, E. D'Netto, Brian Chelliah, J. Fein, E. Adopting a psychological contract perspective, this study examines attitudinal and behavioral reactions of temporary employees to repeated broken promises of permanent employment by their employers. Data were collected through self-report and co-worker rating surveys from 140 bank employees in Bangladesh. To identify psychological contract breaches and employees’ reactions, the data were analyzed using correlations and regressions. Past research has focused mainly on the organizational benefits of using temporary employees. In contrast, the results of our empirical study indicate that the continuous extension of involuntary temporary status resulted in lower self-reported and co-worker-rated organizational citizenship behaviors, higher self-reported and co-worker ratings of job neglect, and increased turnover intentions. The implications of a psychological contract breach in terms of managing a temporary workforce are also discussed. The findings present new knowledge of the attitudinal and behavioral consequences arising from employers’ failure to honor their promise of permanent employment to long-term temporary employees. This research will be of particular interest to employers, employee advocates, human resource management practitioners, and academics in the field of management. However, the results cannot be generalized to all industry sectors or all types of temporary employees as the study covered temporary employees in the banking sector only. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/47614 http://www.cmr-journal.org/index Academy of Taiwan Information Systems Research restricted
spellingShingle Ahmed, E.
D'Netto, Brian
Chelliah, J.
Fein, E.
Psychological Contract Breach: Consequences of Unkept Promises of Permanent Employment
title Psychological Contract Breach: Consequences of Unkept Promises of Permanent Employment
title_full Psychological Contract Breach: Consequences of Unkept Promises of Permanent Employment
title_fullStr Psychological Contract Breach: Consequences of Unkept Promises of Permanent Employment
title_full_unstemmed Psychological Contract Breach: Consequences of Unkept Promises of Permanent Employment
title_short Psychological Contract Breach: Consequences of Unkept Promises of Permanent Employment
title_sort psychological contract breach: consequences of unkept promises of permanent employment
url http://www.cmr-journal.org/index
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/47614