Abstract: Der Erklärungswert des Psychologischen Vertrages in drei organisationalen Kontexten.

(The psychological contract in three organisational contexts).

The psychological contract is defined as the perception of mutual expectations and obligations in the employment relationship. We further distinguish between the delivery of the deal (the perception to what extent promises are kept) and the state of the psychological contract, in terms of fairness and trust in the employment relationship. We
obtained data from 201 employees, in three branches: hospitals, retail, and temporary agency workers. To test the relationship of psychological contract with job satisfaction, commitment and turnover intention, we employed a hierarchical regression analyses by controlling for age, sex and education in the first step, volition in the second step, delivery of the deal in the third step, trust and fairness (state) in the fourth step, and the interaction of state and volition in the last step. We could find evidence that in the sense of a social exchange approach the evaluation of the employment relationship (state) is more important than the perception of the delivery of the deal. The moderating role of volition could be found for our retail and hospital sub-sample in the prediction of commitment and turnover intention. Besides the overall result emphasizing the usefulness of the psychological contract as predictor of commitment, satisfaction, and turnover intention, we also discuss effects of the three organisational contexts.