An Investigation of the Relationship between Psychological Contract Breach and Counterproductive Workplace Behaviours

Abstract

The psychological contract is one of the most important concepts in organizational context. Simply, psychological contract mean unwritten agreement between employee and employer. Several reasons cause to breach the psychological contract and breaches of the psychological contract generated many negative consequences to organizations such as, reduce organizational commitment, citizenship and increase counterproductive behaviours in the workplace etc. Among above mentioned consequences, counterproductive behaviors in the workplace have significant importance in the organization. Hence, this paper focuses on investigate the relationship between psychological contract breach and counterproductive workplace behaviors. To test the relationship, a standard questionnaire was developed and the questionnaire was pre-tested, modified and used to capture the relevant data. This questionnaire is distributed among 100 students in Faculty of Postgraduate, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Accordingly, the research subjected to 53 percent response rate. Collected data is analyzed using quantitative method. Findings revealed that, psychological contract breach was positively correlated with counterproductive workplace behavior.

 Keyword: Psychological contract, Psychological contract breach, Counterproductive workplace behaviors