Dear colleagues,
Our apologies for (potential) cross-posting.
For nearly 3 decades the psychological contract has been a valuable tool in understanding and managing positive employee-employer relationships. Although a significant body of findings exists on the immediate negative attitudinal (e.g., reduced job satisfaction and organizational commitment) and behavioral (e.g., increased turnover and counterproductive work behavior) reactions (for meta-analyses see Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, & Bravo, 2007) to perceived psychological contract breach and its associated violation feelings, little is known about the evolving nature of employee attitudes and behaviors in the days, weeks, months, and years following an initial breach perception.
Recent theoretical work (e.g., Post-Violation Model, Tomprou, Rousseau, & Hansen, 2015) draws attention to the dynamic nature of the psychological contract and its related processes. For instance, Rousseau, Hansen, and Tomprou have proposed a phase-based model (informally referred to as Psychological Contract Theory 2.0) depicting psychological contract processes over the duration of the employment relationship from Creation, to Maintenance, to Repair and Renegotiation, and back to Maintenance. In line with such work, psychological contract scholars (see Bankins, 2015; Griep, Vantilborgh, Baillien, & Pepermans, 2016; Solinger, Hofmans, Bal, & Jansen, 2015) have begun to incorporate the study of time in psychological contract processes to broaden understanding of practically important issues (e.g., the duration of negative employee attitudes and behaviors in the aftermath of violation). Indeed, the incorporation of time as a key variable in psychological contract research will allow for greater understanding of the emergence of, or change in, the psychological contract and its antecedents/consequences, the stability (or lack thereof) of psychological contract breach reactions, the rate of change (e.g., minutes, hours, days or weeks) and duration (e.g., immediate, delayed, or lingering) of these psychological contract breach reactions.
To stimulate scholarly thought on this exciting area research, we are organizing a symposium that is aimed at advancing the field of psychological contracts by furthering our knowledge of intra-phase processes (e.g., duration of violation reactions in Repair or how perceived obligations change over time in Maintenance), inter-phase transitions (e.g., how and when employees move from Creation to Maintenance or from Renegotiation to Maintenance), and post-violation reactions. We will aim to have 4 to 5 scholars speak about their original work in this symposium and a Discussant facilitate an exciting discussion on the topics presented.
Possible topics (non-exhaustive list) that can be addressed in these presentations include:
- The emergence and formation of the psychological contract over time.
- How employees move through the psychological contract phases as identified in Psychological Contract Theory 2.0 (Rousseau, Hansen, & Tomprou, 2016).
- How employee attitudes and behaviors evolve in the aftermath of psychological contract breach.
- The role of the employee, supervisors, and peers in the evolving nature of post-violation reactions.
- Identifying the time scope in which phases or post-violation reactions emerge, evolve, and dissipate.
- Differential immediate versus lingering employee reactions to perceptions of psychological contract breach and violation feelings.
- Dynamic relationships (e.g. feedback loops) between psychological contract breach, fulfillment, antecedents and outcomes.
If you have research that fits any of the abovementioned topics and if you are interested in participating in this EAWOP symposium, please contact Yannick Griep (yannick.griep@ucalgar.ca) or Samantha D. Hansen (shansen@utsc.utoronto.ca)
with the following information:
- Title of research
- Abstract (max 250 words) containing information on:
o Purpose
o Design/methodology
o Results
o Limitations
o Research/practical implications
o Originality/value
- Contact information (name, e-mail, phone-number)
The submission deadline for the EAWOP 2017 conference is September 27th, 2016. We therefore request that you e-mail either of us before September 1st 2016.
Regards,
Yannick Griep, University of Calgary
Samantha Hansen, University of Toronto