The affect of organizational change by type and frequency on employee psychological contracts

The current study investigated the relationship between organizational change (first-order and second-order) and psychological contracts to include psychological contract violation and psychological contract breach. One-hundred and eleven persons responded to the solicitation to participate in the study. Results indicate that individuals experienced more first-order organizational changes than second-order changes. In addition, participants who experienced more second-order organizations changes than first-order changes had stronger psychological contract breaches more so than individuals who experienced more first-order organizational changes within their respective organizations. Moreover, individuals with weak or unfilled relational psychological contracts experienced greater breaches to their psychological contracts more so than individuals with weak or unfilled transactional contracts. Both relational and transactional psychological contracts are the most common subcomponents of the Psychological Contract Inventory scale. The study expands on existing psychological contract research and organizational change research by investigating the two concepts in one to examine the affect of organizational changes on employee psychological contracts.