A Study Of The Effect Of Psychological Contract Breach And Locus Of Control On Trust

To explore the effects of different types of psychological contract breach on trust, the role of expectation and unmet expectation in the process that psychological contract breachs have impact on trust and the effects of locus of control on individuals' trust on organization to breachs, 60 undergraduates and graduates were put into 2 scenario-based experiments. In the first experiment, it is showed that (1) the effect of the social breach on unmet expectation was stronger than the effect of the economic breach, while the effect of the intentional breach on unmet expectation was stronger than the effect of the unintentional breach. (2) the effect of the social breach on trust was stronger than the effect of the economic breach, while the effect of the intentional breach on trust was stronger than the effect of the unintentional breach. (3)The locus of control had no main effect on unmet expectation when promises were broken, while the locus of control displayed a significant negative relation with unmet expectation only in the unintentional breach situation and unintentional and economic condition. (4) The locus of control was correlated negatively with trust when promises were broken, while the locus of control displayed a significant negative relation with trust only in the unintentional breach situation and not so in the intentional condition. (5) unmet expectation displayed a significant positive relation with trust when promises were broken. In the second experiment, it is showed that (1)the effect of broken promise on trust is similar with the effect of the unmet expectation which is derived from the other information. Expectation and unmet expectation mediated the relationship between breach and trust. (2) the locus of control displayed a significant negative relation with trust only when expectation which is derived from the other information wasn't met.