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When psychological contract violation inhibits affiliative and challenging behaviors: the roles of supervisor-subordinate guanxi and job control

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Abstract

The present research sought to simultaneously examine across two field studies the effects of psychological contract violation on both affiliative and challenging forms of organizational citizenship behaviors, and, more critically, to explore how these effects varied as a function of a non-work exchange relationship factor (i.e., supervisor-subordinate guanxi) and/or a work context factor (i.e., job control). In Study 1, we found that psychological contract violation was negatively related to both helping and taking charge. Moreover, high levels of supervisor-subordinate guanxi weakened the relations of psychological contract violation with both helping and taking charge, whereas high levels of job control strengthened the relation of psychological contract violation with taking charge. These findings were largely replicated in Study 2 when using conscientiousness and voice as exemplars of affiliative and challenging behaviors, respectively. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our key findings.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71974140, 71771160, 72171053, 72102162).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, 99 Xuefu Road, Suzhou, China

    Jianqun Sun

  2. Pudong, Shanghai, China

    Junhong Zhang

  3. The School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, 193 Tunxi Road, Hefei, China

    Rui Li

  4. Department of Human Resource Management, Shanghai Normal University, No.100, Guilin Road, Shanghai, China

    Hui-Hua Zhang

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Sun, J., Zhang, J., Li, R. et al. When psychological contract violation inhibits affiliative and challenging behaviors: the roles of supervisor-subordinate guanxi and job control. Rev Manag Sci 18, 1047–1075 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-023-00632-1

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