Exchange relationships : examining psychological contracts and perceived organizational support

Three hundred and forty seven public sector employees were surveyed on four measurement occasions to investigate the conceptual distinctiveness of the psychological contract and perceived organizational support (POS) and how they are associated over time. Results support the distinctiveness of the two concepts. In terms of their inter-relationships over time, drawing on psychological contract theory, we found little support for a reciprocal relationship between POS and psychological contract fulfillment. Under an alternative set of hypotheses, drawing on organizational support theory and by separating psychological contract fulfillment into its two components (perceived employer obligations and inducements), we found that perceived employer inducements was positively related to POS which, in turn, was negatively related to perceived employer obligations. Finally, the results suggest that POS and the components of psychological contract fulfillment are more important in predicting organizational citizenship behavior than psychological contract fulfillment.