Tim Vantilborgh

Effects of ideological and relational psychological contract breach and fulfilment on volunteers’ work effort

The ideological psychological contract (PC) describes perceived obligations related to an organization’s mission, values, and principles. The lack of research regarding ideological PC breach and fulfilment is surprising, as theory states that this PC type has distinct effects on outcomes. We address this gap in the literature and investigate how ideological PC breach and fulfilment influence volunteers’ work effort and whether this effect differs from relational PC breach and fulfilment. We measured promised and delivered ideological and relational inducements on two separate occasions and used polynomial regressions and response surface analyses to test our hypotheses. In the case of ideological PC fulfilment, results indicated that work effort increases in situations of mutual-low and mutual-high obligations. In the case of ideological PC breach, work effort increases in situations of under- and overfulfilment. We conclude that underfulfilment of ideological PCs differed from relational PCs, as work effort decreases in the case of the latter. Hence, our findings demonstrate the importance of considering the unique nature of ideological obligations in the PC literature.

The role of learning agility and career variety in the identification and development of high potential employees

Purpose – A survey study was conducted in seven best practice organizations in the field of talent management. By cross‐checking their existing high potential lists, the authors aimed to examine to which extent assessments of learning agility were able to predict being identified as a high potential or not above and beyond a baseline prediction by job performance. Furthermore, they aimed to investigate whether learning agility increased with career variety.Design/methodology/approach – The study had a case‐control design, comparing supervisor ratings of employees recently identified as high potentials (n=32) with supervisor ratings of a carefully matched control group of non‐high potentials (n=31).Findings – Learning agility (mediated by job content on‐the‐job learning) was found to be a better predictor of being identified as a high potential than job performance. Career variety was found to be positively associated to learning agility.Research limitations/implications – This studys design did not allow...

Volunteers’ Psychological Contracts Extending Traditional Views

There is a growing interest in applying the psychological contract concept to the relationship between volunteers and nonprofit organizations. However, previous studies overlook certain elements of volunteers’ psychological contracts as they build on theory established with reference to paid employees. We argue that the inclusion of a value-based psychological contract type, next to transactional and relational types, enables a more thorough understanding of perceived mutual obligations between volunteers and nonprofit organizations. We use the critical incidents technique to map volunteers’ perceived (un)fulfilled obligations and find that volunteers perceive both fulfilled and unfulfilled value-based obligations. Moreover, we describe specific terms related to the mission and values of the organization reported by volunteers. We conclude that future psychological contract research needs to take this value-based dimension into account, especially in volunteerism.

Volunteer decisions (not) to leave: Reasons to quit versus functional motives to stay

In this article we test whether reasons to quit volunteering can be structured as the commonly used six functional motives to volunteer of Clary et al. (1998). We conjecture that owing to volunteer involvement in an organization, additional contextual factors influence the choice to stop volunteering for that organization. Based on a literature review and a qualitative exploratory analysis, we present items respectively measuring motives to volunteer among active volunteers and reasons to quit among former volunteers in the context of the Scouts and Guides Organization in Flanders (Belgium). We test content-wise symmetry based on expert-rater agreement, while structural symmetry is tested based on factor analyses. Results show that no symmetry can be found. However, additional contextual factors clearly determine the decision to leave an organization. We theorize on how these individual, interpersonal and organizational factors are continuously traded off by volunteers during their involvement in a particular organization.

The mitigating role of leader‒member exchange when perceiving psychological contract violation: a diary survey study among volunteers

Several scholars in the field of volunteering emphasized the pivotal role of psychological contract (PC) violation in explaining maladaptive behavioural reactions—such as counterproductive work behaviour (CWB)—of volunteers. Reactions to violation feelings are, however, interrelated and may intensify over time. Extending this dynamic perspective, we introduce momentary leader–member exchange (LMX) as a buffering social resource in the relationship between violation feelings and (1) CWB and (2) the likelihood to perceive a PC breach. Using weekly diary survey data from 247 volunteers (827 observations), we conducted a moderated multilevel zero-inflated Poisson regression analysis. As hypothesized, experiencing feelings of violation during one week related positively to CWB towards the organization (CWB-O), but not to CWB towards individuals (CWB-I) during the next week. Moreover, experiencing violation feelings during one week increased the likelihood to perceive a PC breach during the subsequent week. Finally, experiencing a high-quality LMX relationship effectively mitigated the positive relationship between violation feelings during one week and (1) CWB-O, and (2) the likelihood to perceive a PC breach during the next week. Our study highlights momentary LMX as an effective redressing mechanism in the relationship between violation feelings and undesirable employee outcomes.

Voluntary Work and the Relationship With Unemployment, Health, and Well-Being: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study Contrasting a Materialistic and Psychosocial Pathway Perspective

In the present study we contrast materialistic (i.e., income and economic inequality) and psychosocial (i.e., social circumstances) pathway perspectives on whether volunteering while being unemployed mitigates the well-documented negative effects of unemployment on health, health behaviors, and well-being. We test our hypotheses using data from the 2010 and 2012 waves of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Study of Health (SLOSH; n = 717). This is a nationally representative, longitudinal, cohort survey. We compared groups of individuals who were (a) unemployed and volunteering during both SLOSH waves (n = 58), (b) unemployed and not volunteering during both SLOSH waves (n = 194), (c) employed and volunteering during both SLOSH waves (n = 139), and (d) employed and not volunteering during both SLOSH waves (n = 326). Conducting a path analysis in Mplus, we examined the interaction effects between labor market status (i.e., employed or unemployed) and voluntary work (i.e., volunteering or not) when predicting changes in health, health behaviors, and psychological well-being. Our results indicate that volunteering during unemployment significantly decreased the likelihood to smoke, the amount of cigarettes smoked, the likelihood of consuming alcohol, and the likelihood of being diagnosed with hypertension. These results support a psychosocial pathway perspective. For all other indicators no such buffering interaction effect was obtained, thereby supporting a materialistic pathway perspective. Nevertheless, for some indicators, volunteering was found to be beneficial for both the unemployed and employed. Consequently, integrating both perspectives might offer a better explanation for the onset of ill-health and ill-being.

Revisiting the Relationship between Personality and Psychological Contracts: A Moderated Mediation Model Explaining Volunteer Performance

For many nonprofit organizations, it is of the utmost importance to understand why some volunteers donate more time than others. This article examines how the Big Five personality traits relate to the amount of time donated by volunteers and proposes that transactional, relational, and ideological psychological contracts mediate this relationship. Moreover, this study examines whether the interaction among extraversion, agreeableness, and tenure explains additional variance in the ideological contract. Path analysis is used to estimate a moderated mediation model, on the basis of data from two time-lagged surveys (). The results reveal direct relationships between personality traits and the three psychological contract types and support hypothesized interactions in explaining the ideological contract. This study also finds that transactional and relational contracts act as mediators. The authors conclude that psychological contract types can help explain why, on the basis of personality differences, some volunteers donate more time to their nonprofit organization than others.

Antecedents of Psychological Contract Breach: The Role of Job Demands, Job Resources, and Affect

While it has been shown that psychological contract breach leads to detrimental outcomes, relatively little is known about factors leading to perceptions of breach. We examine if job demands and resources predict breach perceptions. We argue that perceiving high demands elicits negative affect, while perceiving high resources stimulates positive affect. Positive and negative affect, in turn, influence the likelihood that psychological contract breaches are perceived. We conducted two experience sampling studies to test our hypotheses: the first using daily surveys in a sample of volunteers, the second using weekly surveys in samples of volunteers and paid employees. Our results confirm that job demands and resources are associated with negative and positive affect respectively. Mediation analyses revealed that people who experienced high job resources were less likely to report psychological contract breach, because they experienced high levels of positive affect. The mediating role of negative affect was more complex, as it increased the likelihood to perceive psychological contract breach, but only in the short-term.

Creating Inclusive Teams Through Perceptions of Supplementary and Complementary Person–Team Fit Examining the Relationship Between Person–Team Fit and Team Effectiveness

Using a multi-wave, multi-level design, this study unravels the impact of subjective (dis)similarities in teams on team effectiveness. Based on optimal distinctiveness theory and the social inclusion model, we assume combined effects of individual and shared perceptions of supplementary and complementary person–team fit on affective and performance-based outcomes. Furthermore, at the team level, we expect this relationship to be mediated by team cohesion. In a sample of 121 participants (across 30 teams), we found that teams in which members share perceptions of high supplementary as well as high complementary fit outperform those in which they do not. In addition, members of such teams report higher levels of team satisfaction and viability. Both of these occur through positive effects on the cohesion within the team. Thereby, our results support the central tenet of the social inclusion model. At the individual level, this enhancing effect of the interaction was not supported, providing additional evidence for considering perceived person–team fit as a collective construct.

From “getting” to “giving”: Exploring age-related differences in perceptions of and reactions to psychological contract balance

We assess how age relates to the degree of balance in volunteers’ psychological contracts (PCs). Research on PCs treating age as a substantive variable remains scarce in the literature. Nonetheless, this seems important in light of the increasing age-diversity in the voluntary workforce, as several theories suggest that younger and older individuals may prefer different degrees of balance in their PC. Moreover, previous studies have empirically shown that age influences how people respond to other aspects of the PC, such as breach and fulfilment. We hypothesize that volunteers perceive different levels of PC imbalance depending upon their age. More specifically, we argue that older volunteers tend to perceive organization underobligation, whereas younger volunteers tend to perceive organization overobligation. In addition, we hypothesize that age moderates the effects of PC imbalance on the intention to stop volunteering in an organization. We use polynomial regressions and response surface analysis to examine survey data of 401 volunteers. Our results support our hypotheses, thus emphasizing the importance of including individual differences, such as age, in future research on PC balance.