Abstract
Orientation: When employees perceive psychological contract breach, they default to withdrawal of organisational commitment and, subsequently, develop turnover intentions. This is detrimental to the performance and productivity of organisations, particularly those in the fields of science, technology, economics, and mathematics (STEM), as these organisations place a high value, and depend greatly, on technology-based jobs such as engineer, information technology specialist, data engineer, and developer.
Research purpose: This study’s purpose was to examine psychological contract breach in relation to organisational commitment and turnover intention. Below is a summary of the concomitant research questions:
Does psychological contract breach predict organisational commitment when controlling for other pathways?
Does organisational commitment predict turnover intention when controlling for other pathways?
Does psychological contract breach predict turnover intention when controlling for other pathways?
Motivation for the study: The decline in economic activity (in terms of gross domestic product) contributes to a feeling of hopelessness, leading to psychological recession — a state of vulnerability and emotional despair that employees feel due to economic hardships — among employees in the STEM industry. To mitigate this outcome, it was necessary to examine psychological contract breach in relation to organisational commitment and turnover intention.
Research approach/design and method: This study was conducted using the quantitative approach and a cross-sectional research design. The data were collected using surveys. The sample (n = 206) represented three South African organisations in the STEM industry. Analysis of data was conducted using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as structural equation modelling.
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Main findings: The study yielded five main results. First, career development had no significant association with affective or normative commitment. Job content was found not to have a statistically significant impact on affective commitment or normative commitment.
Second, social atmosphere was found to impact affective commitment significantly. This means that an increase in social atmosphere would lead to an increase in affective commitment, and that employees who value relationships with their colleagues develop an emotional attachment to their organisations.
Third, financial rewards showed a positive significant association with affective and normative commitment. This implies that, when employees are financially rewarded, they become emotionally attached to their organisations and feel obligated to remain with the organisation, because they view the pay as lucrative.
Fourth, affective commitment and normative commitment showed a significant negatively association with turnover intention, meaning that an increase in affective and normative commitment leads to a decrease in turnover intention.
Fifth, there was a non-significant association between career development and turnover intention, indicating that an increase in career development could lead to a decrease in turnover intention.
The link of job content and social atmosphere with turnover intention was not statistically significant, indicating that job content and social atmosphere do not statistically have a significant impact on employees' turnover intention.
Practical/Managerial implications: The sub-constructs of psychological contract breach, namely career development, job content, social atmosphere, financial rewards, and work–life balance, can best be managed by employers by advancing employees’ career development and sustaining an accommodative social atmosphere at work. Organisations should endeavour to offer competitive financial rewards and promote employees’ work–life balance, in order to enhance and sustain business productivity, service delivery, and, ultimately, overall organisational performance.
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Contribution/Value-add: The study contributes to human resources practice by providing insights that inform decisions regarding talent management strategy to enhance organisational commitment.
Keywords: psychological contract breach, violation, organisational commitment, turnover intention