Serving the cause when my organization does not: A self-affirmation model of employees’ compensatory responses to ideological contract breach

Hong Deng; Jacqueline Coyle-Shapiro; Yanting Zhu; Chia huei Wu

doi:10.1111/peps.12546

Serving the cause when my organization does not: A self-affirmation model of employees’ compensatory responses to ideological contract breach

Hong Deng^*, Jacqueline Coyle-Shapiro, Yanting Zhu, Chia huei Wu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Human Resource Management

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Transactional and relational contract breach occur when organizations fail to deliver on promised personal benefits for employees and are associated with negative behaviors reciprocating such mistreatment. However, recent research suggests that ideological contract breach, a unique form of contract breach, may yield constructive behaviors because it is not organizations’ direct personal mistreatment of employees, but organizations’ abandonment of a valued cause to benefit a third party. Such an interesting prediction goes beyond the dominant social-exchange framework, which mainly forecasts destructive responses to breach. In this research, we develop a novel self-affirmation model to explain how ideological contract breach results in counterintuitive positive outcomes. In a hospital field study among medical professionals (N = 362) and their supervisors (N = 129), we found that ideological contract breach induces employees’ rumination about the breach, which in turn prompts them to self-affirm core values at work. This self-affirmation eventually spurs proactive serving behavior and self-improvement behavior to compensate for the breached ideology. Professional identification enhances this self-affirmation process.

Original language	English
Journal	PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12546
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 2022

Keywords

ideological contract breach
proactive behavior
professional identification
self-affirmation

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10.1111/peps.12546

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title = "Serving the cause when my organization does not: A self-affirmation model of employees{\textquoteright} compensatory responses to ideological contract breach",

abstract = "Transactional and relational contract breach occur when organizations fail to deliver on promised personal benefits for employees and are associated with negative behaviors reciprocating such mistreatment. However, recent research suggests that ideological contract breach, a unique form of contract breach, may yield constructive behaviors because it is not organizations{\textquoteright} direct personal mistreatment of employees, but organizations{\textquoteright} abandonment of a valued cause to benefit a third party. Such an interesting prediction goes beyond the dominant social-exchange framework, which mainly forecasts destructive responses to breach. In this research, we develop a novel self-affirmation model to explain how ideological contract breach results in counterintuitive positive outcomes. In a hospital field study among medical professionals (N = 362) and their supervisors (N = 129), we found that ideological contract breach induces employees{\textquoteright} rumination about the breach, which in turn prompts them to self-affirm core values at work. This self-affirmation eventually spurs proactive serving behavior and self-improvement behavior to compensate for the breached ideology. Professional identification enhances this self-affirmation process.",

keywords = "ideological contract breach, proactive behavior, professional identification, self-affirmation",

author = "Hong Deng and Jacqueline Coyle-Shapiro and Yanting Zhu and Wu, {Chia huei}",

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year = "2022",

doi = "10.1111/peps.12546",

language = "English",

journal = "PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY",

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T2 - A self-affirmation model of employees’ compensatory responses to ideological contract breach

AU - Deng, Hong

AU - Coyle-Shapiro, Jacqueline

AU - Zhu, Yanting

AU - Wu, Chia huei

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Transactional and relational contract breach occur when organizations fail to deliver on promised personal benefits for employees and are associated with negative behaviors reciprocating such mistreatment. However, recent research suggests that ideological contract breach, a unique form of contract breach, may yield constructive behaviors because it is not organizations’ direct personal mistreatment of employees, but organizations’ abandonment of a valued cause to benefit a third party. Such an interesting prediction goes beyond the dominant social-exchange framework, which mainly forecasts destructive responses to breach. In this research, we develop a novel self-affirmation model to explain how ideological contract breach results in counterintuitive positive outcomes. In a hospital field study among medical professionals (N = 362) and their supervisors (N = 129), we found that ideological contract breach induces employees’ rumination about the breach, which in turn prompts them to self-affirm core values at work. This self-affirmation eventually spurs proactive serving behavior and self-improvement behavior to compensate for the breached ideology. Professional identification enhances this self-affirmation process.

AB - Transactional and relational contract breach occur when organizations fail to deliver on promised personal benefits for employees and are associated with negative behaviors reciprocating such mistreatment. However, recent research suggests that ideological contract breach, a unique form of contract breach, may yield constructive behaviors because it is not organizations’ direct personal mistreatment of employees, but organizations’ abandonment of a valued cause to benefit a third party. Such an interesting prediction goes beyond the dominant social-exchange framework, which mainly forecasts destructive responses to breach. In this research, we develop a novel self-affirmation model to explain how ideological contract breach results in counterintuitive positive outcomes. In a hospital field study among medical professionals (N = 362) and their supervisors (N = 129), we found that ideological contract breach induces employees’ rumination about the breach, which in turn prompts them to self-affirm core values at work. This self-affirmation eventually spurs proactive serving behavior and self-improvement behavior to compensate for the breached ideology. Professional identification enhances this self-affirmation process.

KW - ideological contract breach

KW - proactive behavior

KW - professional identification

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Serving the cause when my organization does not: A self-affirmation model of employees’ compensatory responses to ideological contract breach

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Keywords

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