Psychological contract breach and teachers’ organizational commitment: mediating roles of job embeddedness and leader-member exchange

Abstract

Purpose – The study examined the relationship between psychological contract breach and organizational commitment and whether leader-member exchange and job embeddedness mediate this relationship. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a quantitative approach and is based on a sample of 298 teachers in basic schools in Accra, Ghana. Participants completed surveys with standardized measures on psychological contract breach, job embeddedness, leader-member exchange and organizational commitment. Hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modeling in AMOS 21.0. Findings – Psychological contract breach had a direct negative relationship with affective and normative commitment but had no significant direct relationship with continuance commitment. Psychological contract breach was indirectly related to affective and normative commitment through both job embeddedness and leader-member exchange, and indirectly related to continuance commitment through only job embeddedness. Practical implications – Findings from the study suggest that employers’ failure to fulfill their obligations to employees has significant potential cost to the organization, and underscore the need for managers, particularly in educational institutions, to institute measures to eliminate or minimize the occurrence of psychological contract breach. Originality/value – The study contributes to research examining antecedents of organizational commitment as well as the mechanisms linking psychological contract breach to organizational commitment in the educational context.