Triggers at Work
Authors:   , Wiechers Henderika Engelina 
Published: July 2023

In the current era of global competition, innovation, digital transformation, and societal disruptions, organizations are constantly undergoing changes. These changes not only reshape organizations but also impact the psychological contracts of employees. The psychological contract refers to the mutual expectations and obligations between the organization and the employee, forming the basis for how employees evaluate their work environment. When organizations fail to fulfill their obligations, either in a direct or indirect way or as a result of procrastination in delivering on promises, it can lead to a breach of the psychological contract. This breach can have negative consequences for employees, including reduced organizational commitment, lower motivation, higher turnover intention, absenteeism, decreased job satisfaction, lower performance, and even counterproductive work behavior. In times of change, the risk of psychological contract breaches is high, making research on psychological contracts more important than ever.
While there has been extensive research on the effects of psychological contract breach, little is known about the process through which it develops. In fact, the dynamics leading to contract breach have not been fully established. The studies in this thesis shows that the process of breach is non-linear rather than linear, an iterative process that involves the perceiving, appraising, and coping with triggers over time. Triggers are those selected stimuli that signal a personally relevant situation within the employment relationship that require attention. They prompt a shift from automatic processing to conscious attention and activate the mental model of the psychological contract, initiating higher order reasoning. Moreover, triggers are highly idiosyncratic, making the process of breach highly idiosyncratic too. The level of attention is the guiding principle for identifying triggers, and as a consequence, comparable or related stimuli from previous triggers will be activated faster. This is due to the memory effect, whereby a stimulus that was (repeatedly) attended to in the past will now be more efficiently identified and selected. As a result, these interconnected triggers can steer conscious attention to the psychological contract more quickly. This interconnectedness of triggers drives an accumulation process that strains the employment relationship until a threshold has been surpassed and the psychological contract breach is perceived.
There are fourteen clusters of potential disruptions in which positive and negative triggers, respectively, buffer or increase the strain that is placed on the employment relationship. Hybrid triggers’ impact on the psychological contract seems to level out because of the opposing feelings experienced. The negative impact of triggers with respect to the psychological contract heightens awareness of and attention to new triggers for an average eleven days. This means that managers can use this window of opportunity to intervene and to de-escalate the cumulative effect of triggers. In this way, they can minimize the negative consequences of felt disruptions, for the benefit of employees as well as the organization. Overall, triggers fuel psychological contract dynamics, and it is important to note that more in-depth research from a process perspective is needed to gain more insight into these dynamics. Understanding the triggers as well as the interconnectedness of these triggers and their origin can help managers and organizations mitigate and prevent psychological contract breaches. This can ultimately lead to a more positive and productive employment relationship for both the employee and the employer.