Research On Relationship Between Organizational Psychological Contract And Organizational Commitment In Family Business

Family business has become an important component of China's market economy since the reform and opening up.A number of problems have emerged in the development process of family business,such as short life cycle,difficult to become huge.One of reasons relates to human resource management issues.Previous research on the management of the family business focused on the evolution of governance structures and systems,etc.Little study has explored the human resource management in family business especially the relationship between organization and staff.Most of previous psychological contract literatures were based on the individual perspective instead of organizational perspective.This study tries to construct a psychological contract framework based on organizational perspective,in terms of its typology.Empirical research has also been conducted in the context of family business.At the same time,the relationship of organizational psychological contract, organizational commitment and job satisfaction has also been examined in this study, as well as the impact of family business's organizational culture on those variables.This study conducted interviews and questionnaire aimed at family business of the industrial clusters in Zhejiang province,after a critical review of previous studies. The main conclusions of this study are:(1) Organizational psychological contract has been conceptualized.Based on economic exchange and social exchange theory,organizational psychological contract is composed of two dimensions referred to earning and caring pattern,which can further be divided into interaction absence,emotional interdependence,interests exchange and long-term development.(2) Four types of organizational psychological contract can evolve in "match-performance" dynamic modes.(3) Family business organizational commitment and job satisfaction were significantly different in those four types of organizational psychological contract. Organizational psychological contract has a significant effect on them and organizational commitment also has a significant effect on job satisfaction.The organizational commitment mediates the relationship between organizational psychological contract and job satisfaction.(4) Organizational culture's key factors include affective caring,family authority and performance oriented in the context of family businesses.Organizational culture of family business has a significant effect on organizational psychological contract and organizational commitment.This study further discussed the different distribution on organizational psychological contract types among family business and other sorts of organizations. The correlation between organizational psychological contract characteristic and related variables has been explored in family business context,leading to a theoretical enrichment of organizational psychological contract construct.This study also makes some contributions to the managerial implications in terms of improving employee satisfaction and organizational performance.