Unraveling Disruptions: How Employees Pick Up Signals of Change

Abstract

Psychological contracts reside in the eye of the beholder and capture the employee-employer exchange relationship. It is a dynamic relationship as employees deliberately manage and change their psychological contract over time. Triggers seem to be the drivers underpinning this dynamism. Yet little is known about how these triggers operate and affect the psychological contract. To address this, we explore triggers and their impact using a 6-week daily diary study ( N = 117). We found a linear chain of positive relationships from initial triggers to connectedness of past triggers, to the experience of negative emotions, to the expected reoccurrence of the initial trigger, ultimately disrupting the psychological contract. The findings revealed the dynamic effect of triggers on the employment relationship, not only by exposing the underlying micro-processes, but also by revealing that the impact of triggers can linger for approximately 11 days before leveling off. These findings suggest that the psychological contract may fluctuate on a daily basis due to the influence of triggers. The theoretical implications for understanding the dynamic nature of the psychological contract are discussed in relation to the disruptive role of triggers.