Psychological contract breach and turnover intention

Conventional wisdom tells us that only if the employees are paid enough, they can be made happy and consequently can be retained by the organization. However, studies have suggested that the nature the employee-employer relationship has a vital role to play in employee's job satisfaction and intention to stay with the organization. Psychological Contract is a model that helps one to understand the employer-employee relationship. The mutual expectations and obligations proportionate to employer's and employee's contribution is a general way to define psychological contract. Research suggests that a breach of this contract affects the employee reactions in a negatively. This study considers the psychological contract breach from employees’ perspective. Although studies have been made on the effect of psychological contract breach on several organizational outcomes, attempts made to study the effect of gender and tenure on the relation between psychological contract breach and turnover intention have not been noticed. This work is noteworthy as it examines the effect of individual level variables- tenure and gender- on the relationship of psychological contract breach and turnover intention. Respondents to this study were 228 teachers from the self-financing colleges in the district of Ernakulam, Kerala in India. The results suggest that psychological contract breach will lead to significant increase in the turnover intention. Although gender does not have a significant moderating effect, tenure moderates the relationship between contract breach and turnover intention.