PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT BREACH: ASSESSING UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS.

Existing research demonstrating negative relationships between psychological contract breach and employee attitudes and behaviors suggests that organizations fulfill the promises they make to employees. This may be interpreted to mean that organizations promise little to newcomers from the beginning of their employment relationship. The present study questions the validity of such advice on the basis of the measurement techniques used to assess breach (i.e., difference scores and direct measures) in past research. In a three-wave longitudinal study of employees on a co-operative education work term, we assessed the underlying assumption of past research that perceptions of psychological contract breach and their effects on outcomes are due to a discrepancy between promised and delivered inducements. Our findings suggest that breach perceptions are not composed of a mere discrepancy between promised and delivered inducements, and that the relations among these component variables and satisfaction, feelings...