Manager-employee psychological contracts: enter the smartphone.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how company-provided smartphones and user-device attachment influence the psychological contract between employees and managers in terms of connectivity expectations and outcomes. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using qualitative semi-structured interviews with 28 participants from four organizations. Findings The study showed that when organizations provide smartphones to their employees the smartphones become a part of the manager-employee relationship through user-device attachment and this can change connectivity expectations for both employees and managers. Research limitations/implications Due to participant numbers these findings may not be generalizable to all employees and managers who receive company smartphones. However, they have important implications for theory. The smartphone’s influence on the psychological climate and its role as a signal for workplace expectations suggest that mobile ICT devices must be considered in psy...