The Disruptive Nature of Triggers in Psychological Contracts

Psychological contracts are dynamic as employees deliberately shape, manage, and change their psychological contract. Triggers jolt employees’ awareness to the contract terms, disrupting the ongoing routine. They mark the moment in the flow of stimuli, that attention is activated, signaling personally relevant events within the employment relationship that necessitates attention, with the potential to create disruption in the psychological contract. Little is known about the nature and consequences of these triggers. To address this, we explore different triggers, their impact on the psychological contract and their frequency of occurrence as a way of capturing dynamism in psychological contracts. Over 600 triggers were reported from 117 lecturers using a (daily) diary study over six weeks in five universities. We then applied a concept mapping method with the input of independent researchers (performing the sorting task: n = 33) and stakeholders (performing the rating task: n = 77) in seven universities to analyze the nature of the reported triggers. We systematically classified positive (e.g., social support of colleague or having the ability or skills to act effectively in a working situation) and negative triggers (e.g., lack of recognition or perceptions of unfairness) and their impact on the psychological contract. This resulted in a taxonomy of 14 clusters that advance understanding of how and when messages and events may ultimately lead to disruption in ongoing exchange relationships. This perspective offers new insights into psychological contracts as dynamic processes and offers employers alternative modes for addressing, handling and managing psychological contract disruptions."