In this cross-sectional research design, the authors explore and
offer evidence of differential obligations of permanent and contingent
workers to their organization. Additionally, they holistically
investigate the relationships between different psychological contract
obligations and two dimensions of organizational commitment. They found
limited support for the hypotheses that psychological contract
perceptions varied across permanent and contingent workers and levels of
commitment. Additionally, they discovered that organization-based
self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between psychological
contract and organizational commitment. Implications for management
practice, limitations of the study, and directions for future research
are also offered.
Keywords: contingent workers; OBSE, organizational commitment;
psychological contract
**********
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2005), nearly 10% of
the workforce in early 2005 was composed of contingent workers, a trend
that has held steady for several years and is foreseen to continue. As a
phenomenon relevant to management, many scholars have found the area of
the contingent workforce and alternative work arrangements worthy of
study (for a review, see Feldman, 2006). The contingent workforce,
coupled with the variety of occupations in which these phenomena occur,
presents managers with myriad challenges, for example, the challenge of
managing workers in high-tech industries (Riolli-Saltzman & Luthans,
2001), but also provide organizational scholars with a research area of
considerable importance and opportunity.
The contingent worker is defined as one without an explicit or
implicit ongoing employment contract with their client firms. Workers
with alternative work arrangements, such as on-call workers, are
included in this definition (Kraimer, Wayne, Liden, & Sparrowe,
2005). Also, other contingent workers without a permanent employment
arrangement are independent contractors and temporary-services employees
(Gallagher & McLean Parks, 2001).
The aforementioned dynamism of the contemporary organization
provides management researchers with an opportunity to explore existing
constructs with time-tested measures but within this dynamic context. As
Johns (2006) pointed out, context should be considered when studying
organizational behavior. For example, psychological contracts,
organizational commitment, and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) are
important and established constructs in the organizational sciences.
Over time, scholars have offered explanations of these constructs
as well as measures to capture their effects. Rousseau (1995, 2001),
among others (cf. Dabos & Rousseau, 2004; Deery, Iverson, &
Walsh, 2006; Ho, 2005), has engaged in considerable theorizing and
research to support the development of the psychological contract
literature. Pierce and colleagues (Pierce, Gardner, Cummings, &
Dunham, 1989; Pierce, Gardner, Dunham, & Cummings, 1993)
conceptualized the OBSE construct and developed and validated a measure
in the process. Many scholars have built a substantial research base by
studying organizational commitment and have developed and validated a
variety of organizational commitment measures (cf. Allen & Meyer,
1990a; Angle & Perry, 1981; Mayer & Schoorman, 1992, 1998; Meyer
& Allen, 1984; Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979; Porter, Steers,
Mowday, & Boulian, 1974).
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the
relational and transactional dimensions of the psychological contract on
OBSE, and continuance and value commitment, of both permanent and
contingent workers in a technology firm. In this article, we advance a
set of hypothesized relationships between these constructs and discuss
the results of a study that indicate a positive relationship between
perceptions of the psychological contract and organizational commitment.
We also hypothesize and discuss the partial mediating effect that OBSE
has on the relationships between the two dimensions of psychological
contract and the two dimensions of organizational commitment.
Literature Review
The emergence of the contingent workforce has been a topic of
interest for organizational researchers. However, there is limited
research addressing the differences between permanent and contingent
workers' attitudes and psychological experiences.
Offered here are a model (Figure 1) and a series of hypotheses
about the interrelationships between the variables discussed in this
article. We hypothesize that the two dimensions of the psychological
contract, relational and transactional, have differential relationships
with the two dimensions of commitment, value and continuance,
respectively, as mediated by OBSE. Furthermore, we hypothesize that many
of these relationships differ with regard to the employment status of
the worker.
Psychological Contract
Szabo and Negyesi (2005) assert that the emerging knowledge-based
economy necessarily resulted in the decomposition of traditional work
arrangements. The so-called modular organization (Schilling &
Steensma, 2001) is composed of changeable units, which are intended to
adapt to the dynamism of the contemporary business climate. With the
exception of key personnel, workers are "interchangeable,
disposable, recallable, and transferable" (Szabo & Negyesi,
2005, p. 63). The contingent workforce is a response to this change in
employment relationships and offers organizations the further benefits
of altering their scope and scale. Employing a contingent workforce is
also a method to rapidly infuse an organization with knowledge
(Schilling & Steensma, 2001; Thompson, 1997).
Szabo and Negyesi (2005) said, "Traditional, irreversible
employment ... is simply inconsistent with the dynamics of the economy
in the post industrial age" (p. 73). Thus employment now exists on
a continuum--a notion introduced earlier by McLean Parks, Kidder, and
Gallagher (1998)--ranging from the absolute extremes of irreversible
employment to reversible, ad hoc employment. How workers are actually
employed exists somewhere in the middle, depending on a number of
factors. These employment situations necessarily introduce a variety of
issues or certain trade-offs in managing a dynamic workforce. There is
evidence that contingent workers can rapidly bring knowledge to their
host organizations but also that their loyalty is less than that of
long-term employees (Schilling & Steensma, 2001).
The psychological contract is a social or intangible contract that
is implicit in organizational membership. Psychological contracts exist
when an individual and an organization's management each have
expectations that are based on the aggregate obligations between
employees and the firm (Rousseau, 1995).
The psychological contract is defined as "systems of beliefs
that an individual and his or her employer hold regarding the terms of
their exchange agreement" (Dabos & Rousseau, 2004, p. 53). In
other words, psychological contracts are highly subjective, and what
makes them binding is what an individual perceives the agreement to be
(Rousseau, 1995). There are, however, inevitable similarities in
people's perceptions, often determined by their common work
situation, such as employment status.
Considerable empirical evidence supports the existence and
importance of psychological contracts in the workplace. Following, we
present examples of the different aspects of the psychological contract.
Scholars have studied the effects of psychological contract breach on
customer service workers (Deery et al., 2006) and the mutuality and
reciprocity in psychological contracts at work (Dabos & Rousseau,
2004). As related to contingent employment, Kraimer et al. (2005)
studied the relationship between contingent workers' perceptions
and their performance, and McDonald and Makin (2000), whose measure is
employed in this study, considered the psychological contract of
contingent workers in relation to organizational commitment and job
satisfaction.
Obligations under psychological contracts. McDonald and Makin
(2000) said that psychological contracts exist on a continuum ranging
from transactional to relational. These extremes comprise the two
distinct anchors of psychological contract obligations.
The transactional obligation is short-term and economic in nature
(Rousseau, 1995). Examples include a willingness to work overtime, to
provide high levels of performance for contingent pay, and to give
notice before quitting, all without loyalty to the organization.
Contingent work is indicative of the transactional contract, where
temporary workers fulfill a legal employment contract that states the
precise remuneration for services rendered.
The relational obligation is composed of more long-term reciprocal
expectations and obligations (McDonald & Makin, 2000). Relational
factors are representative of a long-term employment relationship and
focus on open-ended relationships involving considerable investments by
both sides (Rousseau, 1995). For example, employees may believe that
employers are obliged to provide job security (Kraimer et al., 2005) but
understand that performance is their reciprocation for such security
(Rousseau & McLean Parks, 1993).
For contingent workers, the employer's obligations tend to
fall within the realm of the transactional, whereas the salience of
relational obligations by employers is more likely to be perceived by
more permanent employees (Rousseau & Wade-Benzoni, 1995). McLean
Parks et al. (1998) suggested that the dimensions of psychological
contracts, more so than content, are more generalizable across
contingent work arrangements than other types of jobs. In other words,
the temporally bounded or transactional aspect of the psychological
contract may be more predictable across the work situation than it would
be based on workers' perceived obligations owed to them by the
client organization. The relational aspects of the psychological
contract may be predicted in a similar manner. McDonald and Makin (2000)
published the first empirical test of this relationship between
employment status and the differential obligations. This study is, in
part, an extension of their work. Having presented the above arguments,
we thus advance Hypotheses la and 1b:
Hypothesis 1a: Contingent, contract workers will indicate higher
levels of transactional obligations to their employer than do full-time,
permanent employees.
Hypothesis 1b: Full-time, permanent employees will indicate higher
levels of relational obligations to their employer than do contingent,
contract workers.
Organizational Commitment
Job attitudes (i.e., organizational commitment) are important
predictors of workplace outcomes such as turnover, lateness,
absenteeism, and performance (Harrison, Newman, & Roth, 2006). In
the aggregate, strong positive relationships have been found between
organizational commitment and desirable work outcomes, such as
performance, adaptability, and job satisfaction (Angle & Perry,
1981; Mowday et al., 1979). Porter et al. (1974) reported that
organizational commitment was a better predictor of turnover than was
job satisfaction. Other studies have found negative relationships
between organizational commitment and negative work outcomes, such as
absenteeism and turnover (Angle & Perry, 1981; Horn, Katerberg,
& Hulin, 1979).
Over time, the construct of organizational commitment has been
developed through a variety of definitions and operationalizations. One
frequently cited definition is the strength of one's identification
with and involvement in a specific organization (Porter et al., 1974),
which was proposed to contain three psychological factors: (a) desire to
remain in the organization, (b) willingness to exert considerable effort
on its behalf, and (c) belief in and acceptance of its goals and values.
In measuring organizational commitment, there are differing
opinions about the number of dimensions that compose it. Originally,
Porter et al. (1974) developed the unidimensional Organizational
Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). Later, scholars focused on the
multidimensionality of organizational commitment, such as Meyer and
Allen's (1984) three-component model and Mayer and Schoorman's
(1992) two-component model.
Allen and Meyer's (1990a) three-component model consisted of
continuance, normative commitment, and affective commitment. All three
factors were presumed to increase a member's likelihood to remain
with an organization, but the reasons for doing so differ, thus the
distinction between the factors. For example, organization members with
high affective commitment remain because they want to, whereas those
with high levels of continuance commitment remain because they must.
Members with high normative commitment simply feel that they should have
to remain.
Despite considerable validation of Meyer and Allen's scale
(Allen & Meyer, 1990a, 1990b; K. Lee, Allen, Meyer, & Rhee,
2001; Meyer, Bobocel, & Allen, 1991), there is only limited evidence
tying these factors to the behavioral outcomes predicted by the theory
(see also Meyer, Paunonen, Gellatly, Goffin, & Jackson, 1989).
Mayer and Schoorman (1998) considered the value of the March and
Simon (1958) framework in the development of their two-factor model.
March and Simon used two dimensions of commitment antecedents and
labeled them as decisions to participate (continuance commitment) and
decisions to produce (value commitment). In doing so, they clarified the
relationships between antecedents to organizational commitment and the
two dimensions. This framework was then used to validate the
two-dimensional organizational commitment measure (Mayer &
Schoorman, 1992). Value commitment is a "belief in and acceptance
of organizational goals and values and a willingness to exert a
considerable effort on behalf of the organization" (Mayer &
Schoorman, 1992, p. 673). Continuance commitment is exchange based and
is the cost that members associate with their departure from the
organization (Angle & Perry, 1981).
In this article, we have employed Mayer and Schoorman's (1992)
measure of value and continuance commitment. Angle and Perry (1981) and
Caldwell, Chatman, and O'Reilly (1990) previously found support for
the two-dimensional model with factors that aligned closely with the
continuance and affect-based factors. Furthermore, there is
differentiation between the two factors, as validated by Mayer and
Schoorman.
Mayer and Schoorman (1998) posit that the two-factor model is the
only multidimensional commitment measure that has differentially
predicted important outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction). Furthermore,
managers who desire to increase their workers' organizational
commitment should focus on one dimension, because their interventions
will probably not affect both. For example, Mayer and Schoorman
suggested that a manager might employ citizenship behaviors (e.g.,
helping behaviors or modeling loyalty to the organization) to increase
workers' value (affective) commitment to the organization and to
not simultaneously attempt to increase the costs of leaving the
organization (continuance commitment).
It is likely that workers with different obligations to their
employers will have differing levels of commitment depending on their
employment status. For example, contingent workers may not share the
same affective attachment to the organization as that of more permanent
workers. In fact, Gallagher and McLean Parks (2001) suggest that there
is, theoretically, no reason that contingent workers should develop
levels of affective commitment to their host organizations. When we
consider the transactional nature of contracts (legal and psychological)
of contingent workers, they may simply be committed to stay
(continuance) with the host organization only long enough to fulfill the
contract (McLean Parks et al., 1998). By focusing on the fulfillment of
obligations most relevant to a worker's employment status, managers
can arguably elicit the appropriate level of commitment.
There is prior research to support this notion. Gallagher and
McLean Parks (2001) presented the relationships between psychological
contract and commitment in contingent work arrangements. Beard and
Edwards (1995) developed a model in which the transactional obligations
of the psychological contract, among other processes, negatively
affected commitment and other attitudes of contingent workers. In a test
of Beard and Edwards's (1995) propositions, Sloboda (1999)
discovered high correlations between both transactional and relational
contracts and affective organizational commitment.
In light of the preceding evidence, we advance the following
hypotheses:
Hypothesis 2a: Positive perceptions of a relational psychological
contract will have a larger positive relationship with organizational
value commitment than continuance commitment, regardless of employment
status.
Hypothesis 2a1: Permanent, full-time employees will reveal a
stronger relationship between relational psychological contract
obligations and value commitment than will contingent, contract workers.
Hypothesis 2b: Positive perceptions of a transactional
psychological contract will have a larger positive relationship with
organizational continuance commitment than with value commitment,
regardless of employment status.
Hypothesis 2b1: Contingent, contract workers will reveal a stronger
relationship between transactional psychological contract obligations
and continuance commitment than will permanent, full-time employees.
OBSE
Many organization-based variables, related to organizational
commitment, are more under the control of the firm employing contingent
workers and not their contract agency (Gallagher & McLean Parks,
2001). For example, managers and coworkers in the client organization
assign the work, supervise the completion of the work product, and work
alongside of the contingent workers as if they were of the same status.
Furthermore, environmental antecedents of organizational commitment
include managerial communication (Gallagher & McLean Parks, 2001).
An example of an environmental construct related to this discussion is
OBSE.
The global concept of self-esteem is not new to the organization
sciences. Stepping beyond the individual worker, there have been
attempts to apply self-esteem specifically to consideration of its
effects on the organization.
OBSE is the "self-perceived value that individuals have of
themselves as organization members acting within an organization
context" (Pierce et al., 1989, p. 625). It has been additionally
defined as "the degree to which organizational members believe that
they can satisfy their needs by participating in roles within the
context of an organization" (Pierce et al., 1993, p. 275). In other
words, OBSE is one's esteem beliefs in relation to an organization.
Pierce and colleagues (Pierce et al., 1989, 1993) argued that the
aggregate of individual responses within OBSE is what makes it an
organization-based phenomenon.
Pierce et al. (1989) based their OBSE construct definitions on the
work of "self" scholars (e.g., Korman, 1976). Essentially,
esteem is an attitude of approval or disapproval of oneself, and people
develop self-evaluations based on these attitudes. In self-esteem
research, the self is complex and is affected by internal and external
contextual factors. The self-evaluation perspective of self-esteem is
what informed Pierce and colleagues' work.
There are three primary antecedents to OBSE: managerial respect,
organizational structure, and job complexity (cf. J. Lee, 2003).
Managers who are committed to their workers' need fulfillment can
evoke OBSE (McAllister & Bigley, 2002). High OBSE scores show that
workers believe their supervisors have a genuine concern for their
welfare. Furthermore, flexible organization structures with complex and
challenging job tasks generate higher OBSE scores than do mechanistic
organizations with more mundane tasks. The modular organization is an
example of the flexible organization structure, and the employment of
contingent workers is thought to be more appropriate within this dynamic
context (Schilling & Steensma, 2001), one purpose of which is the
infusion of knowledge (Szabo & Negyesi, 2005).
There are also environmental antecedents to OBSE (Pierce et al.,
1989), some of which, offered previously, are focused more specifically
on organizational design. However, worker perceptions of managers'
respect for them can also influence OBSE. In other words, self-esteem is
a socially induced phenomenon (Korman, 1976), and if a manager
communicates to workers that they are valued members of the
organization, workers will feel more valued and thus their OBSE should
be enhanced.
Pierce et al. (1993) found that measures of both satisfaction and
performance were moderated by self-esteem. Furthermore, OBSE will affect
workers' commitment (Tang & Gilbert, 1994). Other research on
OBSE has revealed its influence on organizational uncertainty (Hui &
Lee, 2000), global self-esteem, need for achievement, organizational
citizenship, and motivating potential score (Tang & Gilbert, 1994).
Therefore, in the context of a dynamic organization, as found in
high-tech firms, OBSE can be developed by managers, specifically in
workers' perceptions of the fulfillment of obligations in the work
arrangement. Furthermore, OBSE has been found to influence workers'
ratings of organizational commitment. In light of the antecedents and
outcomes of OBSE, presented previously, we advance Hypotheses 3a and 3b:
Hypothesis 3a: OBSE will partially mediate the relationship between
perceptions of relational psychological contract and organizational
value commitment, regardless of employment status.
Hypothesis 3b: OBSE will mediate the relationship between
perceptions of transactional psychological contract and organizational
continuance commitment, regardless of employment status.
Study Design and Methodology
A cross-sectional design was employed to study the hypothesized
relationships presented earlier. A small technology firm hosted the
population from which the primary data for this project were collected.
A benefit of using a technology firm is the contractual nature of the
work. This firm, like many in its industry, employed a number of
contractors. Approximately 75% of the members of this organization were
full-time, permanent employees. The remaining 25% were contractors. Most
were working 1-year contracts; others were brought on-site to work as
their skills were needed. Previously, we offered evidence that
contingent workers view organizational obligations differently, which we
also suggest influences levels of commitment.
Participants
The employee base at this site totaled 151 people at the time of
the survey. All employees were asked to complete a series of survey
measures using the organization's intranet. More than half (95
members) responded to the request for participation. Eleven did not
complete the full survey and their partial contributions were removed
from the data set, leaving a sample size of 84 on which the following
analyses were based.
Procedure
All employees were provided with the survey via the company's
e-mail server. Respondents self-selected and reviewed the informed
consent, then completed the survey. At the end of the survey,
respondents clicked a button labeled submit, which placed their
responses into a secure file on the company's server, from which
the first author retrieved these data. All responses were confidential
and no identifying information was apparent in the electronic cache.
Employees were allowed 10 days to complete the survey. The results were
then downloaded to a local spreadsheet, and data were erased from the
server. As an alternative, employees could secure and submit a paper
version made available on the company intranet. Eighteen responded in
this manner, with completed paper copies of the survey delivered in
sealed envelopes or completed in this format, scanned, and e-mailed to
the first author.
Variables and Measures
After completing the informed consent section, but before answering
the survey, respondents were asked to provide background information
(e.g., age, sex, race, etc.). The survey consisted of a series of
scaled-response questions (41), a dichotomous yes-no question, and a
field for open comment.
Psychological contract. An adaptation of the McDonald and Makin
(2000) Psychological Contract scale was employed to measure
employees' perceptions about whether the employer fulfilled its
(perceived) obligations to them. The responses were scaled from strongly
disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). McDonald and Makin found
reliabilities for the combined scale of [alpha] = .84.
The scale consists of two factors: relational and transactional.
Three of the 12 questions were based on relational obligations, which
are generally long-term and reciprocal (e.g., "Does this
organization recognize your contributions?"). The remaining 9
questions were based on transactional obligations, which are typically
short-term and economic (e.g., "Is your salary competitive?").
As a further assessment of contact fulfillment, a dichotomous,
forced-choice, yes-no question was asked of participants: "Has the
organization ever failed to fulfill what you believe to be its
obligations and promises to you?" McDonald and Makin (2000)
correlated the results of this question with their scale to ensure that
the full scale measured the phenomenon they called psychological
contract.
Organizational commitment. Mayer and Schoorman's (1992)
refinement of the OCQ was used to measure organizational commitment. The
9-item Value Commitment scale assesses the followers' desire to
engage productively in the firm's endeavors. The Continuance
Commitment scale (10 items) assesses the potential for turnover.
Responses were delivered on a 7-point Likert-type scale from strongly
disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). Scale reliabilities in previous work
were [alpha] = .89 for value commitment and [alpha] = .81 for
continuance (Mayer & Schoorman, 1998).
OBSE. We used the 10-item Pierce et al. (1989) scale to measure
OBSE. The responses were delivered on a 5-point Likert-type scale from
strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). High scores on this scale
indicate people who view themselves as effective, important, and adding
value within the context of their organization. Pierce et al. found
alpha reliabilities of .86 to .96 across seven different studies. More
recent work revealed a reliability of [alpha] = .93 (J. Lee, 2003).
Results of the Study
Several data analyses were conducted and the findings are provided
here. A discussion of participant demographics and the various scale
reliabilities are followed by a presentation of the results of factor
analysis and hypothesis testing.
Demographics
Most of the 84 respondents provided basic demographic information
(n = 72), such as employment status, sex, age, and level of education.
The results of the demographic questions are provided in Table 1.
Forty-six of the respondents indicated that they were permanent,
full-time employees of the firm; 38 respondents were contractors working
on 1-year appointments. The age demographic was categorized in ranges,
with the average respondent approximately 35 years old. Nearly 70% of
the respondents were men, which was about half of the total number of
men at the site. Twenty-three women, or more than half of the total
population of women in the organization, responded to the survey.
Nearly 65% of respondents indicated holding a 2-year academic or
technical degree and above. Although one third indicated that they did
not hold a degree, company officers said that nearly everyone in the
firm had undergone periods of training related to their positions,
especially those in specialized technical areas (e.g., information
science).
A correlation analysis of the demographics with the variables
explored in this study revealed that none of the demographics shared
significant relationships with the outcomes. Therefore, no covariates
were considered in the following analysis.
Factor Analysis and Scale Reliabilities
Wilcox (1998) argued that researchers should collect and give
consideration to the data before determining the best tool for
estimation. Oftentimes the best analysis tool depends on the situation
presented by the data. Limitations of this study include a relatively
small sample size and the likelihood that the organization members who
elected to respond to the survey were not random. This potential for
imbalance may have resulted in changes in the dependent variables
(Kerlinger & Lee, 2000).
A useful method for analyzing data under these circumstances is
partial least squares (PLS), which is highly flexible; places less
rigorous demands on measurement scales, sample size, and residual
distributions (Chin & Newsted, 1999); and does not require the
restrictive assumptions of data distributions, observation independence,
or variable metrics (Barclay, Higgins, & Thompson, 1995). We used
PLS-Graph (Version 3.0; Professor Wynne W. Chin, University of Houston;
e-mail: wchin@uh.edu) to conduct the analyses.
Descriptive statistics, scale reliabilities, and average variance
extracted from each variable are reported in Table 2. Composite scale
reliabilities were assessed using the traditional .7 cut-off value. All
scales exceeded this criterion.
PLS can also be used to explore the convergent and discriminant
validity of measurement items employed in a study (cf. Howell &
Avolio, 1993). Each variable's average variance was extracted from
its items. The average variance shared by a variable with its items
should be greater than its correlation with other variables, thus
indicating adequate convergent and discriminant validity. As evidenced
in Table 2, all variables met this criterion. It is important to note,
however, that the average variance extracted from continuance commitment
was not considerably greater than its correlation with value commitment.
One reason for this stems from the previous discussion about the
multidimensionality of organizational commitment and the argument that
the construct is a one-factor, affective phenomenon.
We also used PLS to generate factor loadings that can be
interpreted similar to principal-components analysis (Bookstein, 1986).
Those loadings with a value of .7 or greater indicate that less than
half of an item's variance is because of error. All items met or
exceeded the cut-off value. In each case, the loading was considerably
greater on its intended scale than on any other scale. The individual
item loadings on the latent variables were statistically significant,
with the exception of one item from the Continuance Commitment scale CI
am grateful for the opportunity this organization has provided
me."). This item was removed. This did not come as a surprise,
because Mayer and Schoorman (1992) dropped the same item for the same
reason: The factor loading was small and nonsignificant. No other
indicators were removed from the model because their inclusion was not
apparently detrimental to the PLS analyses.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
Participants were asked whether the organization fulfilled its
obligations to them, to which they answered with a yes-or-no response.
Significant differences between the yes and no responses were found
across both types of obligations. Furthermore, these responses were
significantly correlated with both the relational (r = .43, p < .01;
t = 4.21, p < .001) and transactional (r = .45, p < .01; t = 4.14,
p < .001) obligations. In other words, the responses to the yes-no
question were indicative of the results of the psychological contract
measurement scales. As a result, we are confident that our measurement
tool reliably captured worker attitudes about our dependent variable,
the psychological contract.
Hypothesis Testing
Chin (1998) suggested that standardized paths in PLS should have
values of about 0.20, and ideally above 0.30, to be considered
meaningful. Lower path values (<0.20) represent a 1% or lower
explanation of variance and may result from multicollinearity or some
unknown residual effect. Path values above 0.90 might be considered
spurious. Although the statistical significance of path coefficients is
important in interpreting findings, the question we are most interested
in is whether the relationships are theoretically interesting.
Using the aforementioned criteria for evaluating the paths in the
PLS, we will turn to a discussion of the model. A resampling technique
known as bootstrapping was employed with these data. Using t tests, we
found that all but one of the paths was statistically significant and
confirmed that these paths were representative and useful in the
analyses.
The research model, with findings, is depicted in Figure 2. The
paths are labeled as betas ([beta]) and are referenced accordingly
throughout the following section. All hypothesized relationships were
statistically significant, with the exception of the relationship
between transactional psychological contract perceptions and OBSE
([beta] = .12). This was problematic by PLS standards. The path between
the items measuring relational psychological contract perceptions and
OBSE was significant and substantive ([beta] = .39). OBSE was related
similarly to both the continuance and value factors of organizational
commitment ([beta] = .70 and [beta] = .78, respectively). Therefore,
with the exception of the nonsignificant relationship, all paths in this
model were substantive and significant.
Hypotheses 1a and 1b. These hypotheses suggested that the
participants who were contract workers would indicate higher levels of
transactional, psychological contract obligations to their employer than
would the permanent employees. Conversely, Hypothesis 1b suggested that
permanent employees would indicate higher levels of relational
obligations than their colleagues with temporary employment status.
Although the means for each group represented these assertions (Table
3), the differences were nonsignificant, thus indicating that these
discoveries were no greater than by chance. Therefore the first two
hypotheses were not supported by these data.
Hypotheses 2a and 2b. We asserted that there would be a larger,
positive relationship between perceptions of relational obligations and
value commitment than with continuance commitment, regardless of
employment status. This hypothesis was supported as a result of a
bootstrap analysis using PLS. The path relationship between relational
perceptions and the affect-based value commitment ([beta] = .37, SE =.
14, p [less than or equal to] .05) was greater than the path between
relational perceptions and continuance commitment, or the desire to
remain with the organization ([beta] = .34, SE = .12, p [less than or
equal to] .05).
Conversely, we hypothesized that there would be a larger, positive
relationship between continuance commitment and perceptions of
transactional obligations, regardless of employment status. This
phenomenon was hypothesized to occur regardless of employment status.
This hypothesis was also supported. The relationship between
transactional perceptions and the continuance commitment ([beta] = .30,
SE =. 13, p [less than or equal to] .05) was greater than the path
between perceptions of transactional obligations and value commitment
([beta] = .25, SE = .14, ns).
Hypotheses 2a1 and 2b1. In addition to the relationships
hypothesized in 2a and 2b, we also asserted that permanent
employees' perceptions of relational obligations by their employer
would reveal a stronger positive relationship with value commitment.
Additionally, we asserted that contingent workers' perceptions of
transactional obligations by their employer would reveal a stronger
positive relationship with continuance commitment.
Relational perceptions by full-time employees were more strongly
related to the affect-based value commitment ([beta] = .37, SE =. 14, p
[less than or equal t