Organization‐Based Self‐Esteem, Psychological Contract Fulfillment, and Perceived Employment Opportunities: A Test of Self‐Regulatory Theory

• Published date: 01 November 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21648
• Author: Xiongying Niu,Donald G. Gardner,Cynthia Lee,Guo‐Hua Huang,Jon L. Pierce
• Date: 01 November 2015

Human Resource Management, November–December 2015, Vol. 54, No. 6. Pp. 933–953

© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21648

Correspondence to: Donald G. Gardner, College of Business and Administration, University of Colorado Colorado

Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80918-3733, Phone: 719-255-3727, Fax: 719-255-3494, E-mail: dgardner@uccs.edu.

ORGANIZATION-BASED

SELF-ESTEEM, PSYCHOLOGICAL

CONTRACT FULFILLMENT,

AND PERCEIVED EMPLOYMENT

OPPORTUNITIES: A TEST

OF SELF-REGULATORY THEORY

DONALD G. GARDNER, GUO-HUA HUANG,

XIONGYINGNIU, JON L. PIERCE, AND CYNTHIA LEE

This study addresses organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) development by

examining the role of perceptions of employer psychological contract fulfi ll-

ment, and the self-regulatory processes by which OBSE evolves and produces

its effects. Self-regulatory theory helps reveal why psychological contract fulfi ll-

ment relates to OBSE, how OBSE mediates its effects, and the ways in which

OBSE might interact with perceived employment opportunities to affect job sat-

isfaction, performance, and turnover intentions. The results show that OBSE is

related to and mediates the relationships between relational contract fulfi llment

and employee job satisfaction and performance, but OBSE is not related to trans-

actional contract fulfi llment. Nor does OBSE mediate the relationships between

transactional contract fulfi llment and the dependent variables. Perceived employ-

ment opportunities moderate the relationships of OBSE with job satisfaction and

turnover intentions. This study concludes with recommendations of ways man-

agers can increase their sensitivity to the types of messages they communicate

to employees. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: organization-based self-esteem, psychological contract fulfi llment,

self-enhancement, self-verifi cation

Self-esteem research has a long and rich

history (Brockner, 1988; Korman, 1970;

Rosenberg, Schooler, Schoenbach, &

Rosenberg, 1995). In addition to at-

tempts to understand the role of global

self-esteem within the work and organizational

context (e.g., Brockner, 1988), the past 25 years

have witnessed the development of a body of

knowledge focused on organization-based self-

esteem (OBSE), self-esteem that is formed around

work and organizational experiences. Reviews of

the OBSE literature (Bowling, Eschleman, Wang,

934 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2015

Human Resource Management DOI: 10.1002/hrm

We believe this

study is the first to

tie together OBSE,

psychological

contract fulfillment,

and employment

opportunity research

literatures, using self-

regulatory concepts

as integrating

mechanisms.

sense that other, different organizations might

offer better opportunities to maintain or enhance

their levels of OBSE. Thus, meeting obligations

has both theoretical and practical implications

for increasing or decreasing employees’ OBSE and

attitude and performance outcomes (Dabos &

Rousseau, 2004; Hui & Lee, 2000).

Human resource professionals and line manag-

ers may not be able to “see” or directly manipulate

employee OBSE, but they can affect employ-

ment practices that give rise to perceived fulfill-

ment of psychological contracts, which in turn

affect employees’ OBSE. That is, human resource

professionals and line managers can influence

OBSE by carefully managing the psychological

contracts employees have with the organization.

McDermott, Conway, Rousseau, and Flood (2013)

discuss this process at length and in detail, empha-

sizing that “the primary vehicle managers have

for making firms successful is the psychological

contracts they create with workers” (p. 290). As

a consequence, this research should be of interest

to both managers and the human resource profes-

sionals that advise them.

Thus far, theoretical underpinnings of psycho-

logical contract fulfillment have relied largely on

March and Simon’s inducement and contribution

model (Lee etal., 2011) or the social exchange per-

spective (Hui, Lee, & Rousseau, 2004; Rousseau,

2011). We believe that propositions from self-reg-

ulatory theory may enhance our understanding

of the psychological contracting process. Self-

regulatory theory is a prominent area of research

in social psychology (e.g., North & Swann, 2009),

and provides an explanation for a very wide range

of behaviors (e.g., drug abuse, reactions to feed-

back, motivated task behaviors), a much wider

range than more narrow personality traits (such

as the Big Five). We present a new theoretical lens

into psychological contracts by drawing upon self-

regulatory principles to suggest that cues provided

by the employer in contract fulfillment (or lack

thereof) convey messages regarding the employ-

ee’s worth in the organization, and consequently

the employee’s OBSE. In addition, the predomi-

nant explanation for OBSE–outcome relationships

also derives from self-regulatory theories—in par-

ticular, self-consistency (Korman, 1971, 1976),

self-verification (Swann, Johnson, & Bosson,

2009), and self-enhancement theories (Dipboye,

1979). These theories posit that high-self-esteem

employees strive to maintain or enhance their lev-

els of self-esteem by performing at a high level,

and are more satisfied and less inclined to leave

a job in which they can maintain their high lev-

els of OBSE. We propose that contract fulfillment

enhances OBSE through self-regulatory processes,

Kirkendall, & Alarcon, 2010; Pierce & Gardner,

2004) conclude that it has well-established re-

lationships with theoretically grounded organi-

zational antecedents (e.g., work environment

structure) and attitudinal (e.g., job satisfaction)

and behavioral (e.g., job performance) outcomes.

Yet these reviews also conclude by noting that

there is a void in our understanding of the psy-

chological processes involved in the development

of OBSE (Bowling etal., 2010; Pierce & Gardner,

2004). Although we know much about what

affects OBSE and what its consequences are, we are

less certain of how and why these forces enhance

or maintain OBSE, and under what conditions

OBSE affects employee outcomes (Bowling etal.,

2010; Pierce & Gardner, 2004). This study uses

both general self-esteem and self-regulatory theo-

ries to derive hypotheses about the direct relation-

ship between psychological contract

fulfillment and OBSE, the mediating

effects of OBSE on the relationships

between psychological contract ful-

fillment and employee outcomes,

and the moderating effect of per-

ceived employment opportunities

on the relationship between OBSE

and outcomes. We believe this study

is the first to tie together OBSE, psy-

chological contract fulfillment, and

employment opportunity research

literatures, using self-regulatory con-

cepts as integrating mechanisms.

We contribute to the growing body

of knowledge about both psycho-

logical contracts and OBSE, pro-

vide suggestions for future research,

and discuss the ramifications of

our findings for managers and HR

professionals.

Psychological contract fulfillment is “the

extent to which one party to the contract deems

the other has met its obligations” (Lee, Liu,

Rousseau, Hui, & Chen, 2011, p. 204). Research

indicates that, like OBSE, psychological contract

fulfillment has a positive effect on employees’ job

attitudes, intentions, and behavior (e.g., Lee etal.,

2011; Turnley & Feldman, 1999; Zhao, Wayne,

Glibkowski, & Bravo, 2007). We believe that psy-

chological contracts might affect OBSE because

meeting or fulfilling obligations to employees

provides external cues to employees about their

value to the organization. Once stabilized, high

OBSE employees are then motivated to perform

at a high level, and develop positive job attitudes,

to maintain cognitive consistency with their self-

perceptions (Korman, 1976). These latter relation-

ships might be weakened, however, if employees