Changing Obligations and the Psychological Contract: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

In an exploratory longitudinal study of business school alumni, we investigated changes in employment obligations as perceived by employees. During the first two years of employment, employees came to perceive that they owed less to their employers while seeing their employers as owing them more. An employer's failure to fulfill its commitments was found to be significantly associated with decline in some types of employee obligations. We discuss implications for managing employees' beliefs regarding obligations and for future research on psychological contracts.