Perceived organizational support as a mediator of the relations between individual differences and psychological contract breach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine relations between five individual differences variables (positive affectivity, negative affectivity, reciprocation wariness, equity sensitivity, and Protestant work ethic) and the perception of psychological contract breach (PCB), and whether those relations are mediated by perceived organizational support (POS). Design/methodology/approach – A survey was administered to 234 professional (i.e. white‐collar) employees in the USA. Regression analyses were conducted to test the proposed relations and mediating hypotheses. Findings – In line with the hypothesized predictions, the findings indicate that POS fully mediated the relations between four out of the five individual difference variables examined (i.e. positive affectivity, reciprocation wariness, equity sensitivity, Protestant work ethic) and perceived PCB. In addition, POS partially mediated the relation between negative affectivity and perceived PCB. Research limitations/implications – The use of a cross‐sectional, non‐experimental, design does not allow for conclusions to be drawn regarding causality and it is possible that the reported results may have been influenced by common method variance. Future research should examine additional individual differences and workplace contextual features. Practical implications – Managers need to realize that some determinants of perceived PCB, and POS for that matter, are likely to be unrelated to organizational actions. Rather, perceived PCB and POS may result, in part, from an employee's individual characteristics. Originality/value – This is the first study to provide empirical evidence that positive affectivity, negative affectivity, reciprocation wariness, equity sensitivity, and Protestant work ethic may predict the perception of PCB and that POS may mediate these relations.