Psychological contract violations in pharmacy students and their affect on outcomes

Prior work in organizational behavior has applied psychological contract theory in the employee/employer context. This study explored the impact of violations of psychological contracts established between students and pharmacy schools. Specifically, this study (1) evaluated an instrument that measures perceived psychological contract violations and (2) examined the relationships between psychological contract violations, trust, met expectations, and three student attitudes.;Building on past literature, the measure of psychological contract violations asked students to indicate the amount of various aspects of their education that they have received, compared to what they feel they were promised by their school. This instrument was fielded in six schools of pharmacy with a usable response rate of 63% (N=339). Various analyses were conducted, including hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling.;A negative relationship was observed between psychological contract violations and each of the three attitudes (professional commitment, organizational commitment, and willingness to provide pharmaceutical care), even after controlling for several other variables. The largest effect was observed for organizational commitment. Results also suggest that met expectations and trust may partially mediate the relationship between psychological contract violations and students' attitudes, particularly organizational commitment.;The hypotheses were also tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM was used to assess whether mediated models (where met expectations and trust mediate the relationships between psychological contract violations and students' attitudinal outcomes) fit significantly better than direct effects models (where psychological contract violation and the mediators have independent effects on students' attitudinal outcomes). The mediated models fit the data better than the direct effects model.;Findings indicate that when schools do not deliver on what is implicitly and explicitly promised in the minds of students, erosion of students' commitment to the profession, the school, and pharmaceutical care may result. Although it is important to consider variables such as trust and met expectations, these variables do not eliminate the impact of psychological contract violations on student attitudes, especially with respect to organizational commitment.