With a little help from my friends (and substitutes): social referents and influence in psychological contract fulfillment.

This study investigated employees' choice of social referents and the impact of social influence on their beliefs of psychological contract fulfillment. Using data from a field study conducted with 99 employees in a research organization, we found that one's referent choice varied with the domain of promise evaluated. When evaluating the organization's fulfillment of organization-wide promises, employees' referents were primarily coworkers with whom they had close direct ties, namely, friends and advice givers. On the other hand, when evaluating the fulfillment of job-related promises, employees' referents were mainly fellow workers who could substitute for them and people with whom they had multiple relationships.

The effects of social influence also varied with the domain of promise evaluated. For organization-wide promises, employees' fulfillment evaluations were similar to those of their friends. However, for job-related promises, their fulfillment evaluations were dissimilar to those of coworkers who played the dual roles of friends and substitutes.

This study advances psychological contracts research by demonstrating that third parties to the psychological contract can influence fulfillment evaluations. In turn, the effect of such influence is contingent on the domain of promises being evaluated and the nature of the networks. We discuss implications for research in psychological contracts, social networks and influence, and referent choice.

Key words: psychological contract fulfillment; social network theory; social influence

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A common phenomenon in contemporary organizations is the development of psychological contracts between workers and their employers. Defined as an individual's beliefs about the terms of an exchange agreement between the individual and the organization (Rousseau 1995), the psychological contract and its fulfillment play a vital role in the employment relationship. For example, there is copious evidence that psychological contract fulfillment has significant repercussions on key organizational outcomes such as job and organizational satisfaction (Robinson and Rousseau 1994, Turnley and Feldman 2000), loyalty to the organization (Turnley and Feldman 1999), and job performance (Robinson 1996). On the other hand, a breach or underfulfillment of the psychological contract results in high turnover (Robinson and Rousseau 1994) and low citizenship behavior (Robinson 1996, Robinson and Morrison 1995). Thus, the effective management and understanding of psychological contract fulfillment, i.e., employees' evaluation of whether the organization has fulfilled its promised obligations in the psychological contract, are critical from both practical and theoretical standpoints.

Several models have been advanced about how employees' perceptions of psychological contract fulfillment are shaped. For example, Rousseau (1995) developed a theoretical model of contract outcome discrepancy and breach. Subsequently, Morrison and Robinson (1997) proposed a distinct theory of psychological contract violation, describing how employees' experiences of unmet promises may eventually result in their perceiving a breach and feeling betrayed. While both models take into account the roles of individual differences, formal organizational influence, and the employment relationship, they do not consider the influence of informal social relationships in shaping employees' fulfillment evaluation, despite the prevalence of such relationships in most organizations.