Psychological Contract of Digital Natives: Are We Measuring What They Expect?

Supported by media technologies, today’s employees can increasingly decide when and where to work. The present study examines positive and negative aspects of this temporal and spatial flexibility, and the perceptions of control in these situations based on propositions of self-determination theory. Using an exploratory approach we conducted semi-structured interviews with 45 working digital natives. Participants described positive and negative situations separately for temporal and spatial flexibility, and rated the extent to which they felt autonomous and externally controlled. Situations appraised positively were best described by decision latitude, while negatively evaluated ones were best described by work–nonwork conflict. Positive situations were perceived as autonomous rather than externally controlled; negative situations were rated as autonomously and externally controlled to a similar extent.

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Psychological Contract Fulfillment and Employee Responses to Pay System Change

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000186 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 172-185 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Christine J. Syrek ◽

Conny H. Antoni

Keyword(s):

Transformational Leadership ◽

Psychological Contract ◽

Pay For Performance ◽

Psychological Contracts ◽

Change Processes ◽

Affective Organizational Commitment ◽

Before And After ◽

Psychological Contract Fulfillment ◽

Pay System ◽

Employee Responses

Abstract. The implementation of a new pay system is a balancing act that produces uncertainty and draws employees’ attention to the fulfillment of exchange agreements. Transformational leadership may be essential during these change processes. Based on psychological contract theory, we expected that transformational leadership impacts job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment through the fulfillment of relational psychological contracts, while the fulfillment of transactional psychological contracts may be crucial for employees’ pay and bonus satisfaction. We assessed 143 employees nested within 34 teams before and after (24 months) a pay for performance (pfp) system was introduced. Our results supported the mediation hypotheses considering job and pay satisfaction, but not considering commitment. Unexpectedly, the effect on bonus satisfaction was mediated via relational psychological contracts.

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