THE MEDIATING ROLE OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT FULFILLMENT

Abstract

The present paper describes the psychological contract fulfillment from the perspective of the Job Demands-Resources Model (J-DR) (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001) and the Social Exchange Theory (Blau, 1964). Through this study we want to integrate the concept of the psychological contract fulfillment in the job resource model and analyze the social exchange process between the results and characteristics of the job, to answer the research question whether the psychological contract fulfillment will mediate the relationship between job demands and work results (Birtch, Chiang, & Van Esch, 2016). Increased demands on the job will cause employees to experience lower levels of psychological contract fulfillment, which will lead to lower job satisfaction and organizational commitment. To achieve the objectives proposed in the present study we used a convenience sample consisting of 194 participants from the private and public medical sector. According to the results, the psychological contract fulfillment proved to mediate the relationship between the results and the characteristics of the job. Moreover, it was found that job resources (job control and support) mediate the negative effects associated with job demands on the psychological contract fulfillment. Thus, as predicted by the theoretical framework (social exchange theory), job characteristics interacted to influence satisfaction and organizational commitment by performing the contract.