Search results
- A psychological contract breach is a subjective experience that refers to the conception by one of the parties that the other has failed to adequately fulfill their obligations and promises.
- Theme 1: Motivation
- Theme 2: Mutual Obligations
- Employer Obligations
- Employee Obligations
- Change in Obligations
- Breach of The Obligations
- Theme 3: Stressors
- Theme 4: Negative Consequences
- Theme 5: Mediators
- Theme 6: Positive Impact of The Job
This theme refers to officers’ motivations for joining the police force. Primarily, the police officers had three reasons for joining the force. For approximately 70% (n= 13) of the participants, their reasons for joining the police force were it being a ‘life time aspiration’ and ‘looking for a better career’: I wanted a better career and also som...
This theme encapsulated police officers’ perceived unwritten obligations from their employers (‘employer obligations’), and in return their obligations to the employer (‘employee obligations’) (Conway and Briner 2009; Guest et al. 2010; Rousseau 1990). Five categories of employer obligations towards their employees, i.e. ‘fairness’, ‘appropriate eq...
Approximately two-thirds (n = 12) of the officers cited ‘fairness’ as an important obligation in terms of promotion opportunities (i.e. no favouritism) and amount of work. This obligation has been captured within existing PSYCONES (2005) measure. The female officers (n = 2) stressed equal opportunities and wanting to be treated fairly like male off...
In exchange, all the employees perceived that the employers wanted them to be ‘loyal’ towards the organisation by guarding its reputation and protecting its core values. Loyalty is an obligation reflected in several existing measures of PC (Bunderson 2001; Herriot, Manning, and Kidd Herriot et al. 1997; PSYCONES 2005; Rousseau 2000). In terms of pr...
The police officers also spoke about change in their obligations over time due to a variety of factors. The majority of them (n= 16) mentioned that their obligations have changed on the basis of their relationships with their colleagues and supervisor. For example: quotes indicated that they expect colleagues to be trustworthy, supportive and not u...
The responses in the interviews did indeed confirm that there were breaches to the officers’ psychological contract. More than half of the officers (n= 11) reported ‘feelings of being neglected’ by the police force. They spoke about management not valuing them and being more concerned about recruitment policies. Feeling undervalued was a theme that...
There were three common sources of stress identified in the interviews, namely personal (stressors outside the work), operational (incident-related stressors) and organisational stressors (work-place-related stressors) (Houdmont et al. 2012; Shane 2010). These stressors were also reported to have a negative impact on the physical and psychological ...
In terms of the consequences of these stressors and PC breach, the officers reported experiencing ‘sleep problems’, namely disturbed sleep, lack of sleep and sleepless nights due to shift pattern, no flexibility and nightmares. Sleep problems and sleep disorders have been associated with poor health and performance (Rajaratnam et al. 2011). The shi...
A number of mediators were used by the police officers to ameliorate the effects of stressors and PC breach. Social support was perceived as an effective method for dealing with stressors. This was further divided into ‘internal support’ (support within the organisation) and ‘external support’ (support outside the organisation). In terms of interna...
There were a number of aspects to the job that were affecting the personal lives of our interviewees but in a positive way. The interviewees reported experiencing ‘personal growth’ with time, such as becoming more responsible, confident, respectful and mature. Moreover, they reported becoming aware of diverse cultures and becoming more protective r...
- Fazeelat Duran, Jessica Woodhams, Darren Bishopp
- 2019
Psychological contract breaches The problem then comes when these informal psychological contracts are breached. For example a new manager comes in and stops people charging their personal phones at work or using work computers for personal issues.
Sep 10, 2020 · What is psychological contract breach? A psychological contract is defined as “individual beliefs, shaped by the organization, regarding terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and their organization” (Rousseau, 1995, p. 9, as cited in Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, & Bravo, 2007, p. 649).
Nov 23, 2022 · A psychological contract breach is a subjective experience referred to the perception of one of the parties that the other has failed to adequately fulfill its obligations and promises.
Jun 24, 2019 · In this paper, it is argued that the psychological contract (PC) could provide rich insights into the understanding of employee and employer relations within the police and the stress and ...
We tailor this retrospective look by reviewing the antecedents and outcomes associated with psychological contract breach and discussing the dominant theoretical explanations for the breach-outcome relationship.
