Personal values and the features of psychological contracts
International Journal of Organizational Analysis
ISSN: 1934-8835
Article publication date: 4 April 2019
Issue publication date: 9 September 2019
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how personal values relate to the psychological contract employees establish with their employers.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consisted of 223 frontline employees from a major Portuguese company. The paper used stepwise regressions analysis to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
Collectivistic-oriented values were generally related to psychological contract features such as long time frame, lower tangibility, flexibility, inequality and collective regulation. Conversely, individualistic-oriented values were generally associated with a short time frame and a more tangible, stable, equal and individually regulated type of contract with a narrow scope.
Research limitations/implications
This study uses cross-sectional data collected from a single Portuguese company. While common method bias could potentially affect the results, various procedural remedies were used to control for it. Finally, the study relied on stepwise regression, which is a data-driven approach.
Practical implications
The study supports the contentions that internal dispositions are related to psychological contracts.
Originality/value
This paper innovates by exploring how employees’ personal values are associated with the psychological contract from a feature-oriented approach. In addition, this study was carried out in Portugal, highlighting the importance of exploring existing models and theories in different cultural contexts.
Keywords
Citation
Santos, M.C., Coelho, F., Gomes, J.F.S. and Sousa, C.M.P. (2019), "Personal values and the features of psychological contracts", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 1111-1123. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-08-2018-1507
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited