Leaders' and Employees' Psychological Contract Fulfillment in Teams

This paper presents a model of psychological contract fulfillment in teams that is tested in a study among 609 employees and their team leaders from 81 teams. We introduce the construct of team psychological contract fulfillment climate defined as team members’ shared perceptions of psychological contract fulfillment. Drawing on social information processing theory, climate research and social exchange theory, we model the relationships between team leader psychological contract fulfillment evaluations, team leader commitment to the team, team members’ shared and individual evaluations of psychological contract fulfillment and employee outcomes (team commitment and employee psychological contract obligations). Results from the multilevel analyses largely support our hypotheses, but only mixed evidence was found for the cross-level direct and moderating effects of psychological contract fulfillment climate level and strength on employee outcomes. This paper contributes to emerging research on psychological contract climate at the team level, thereby including the team leader as an important organizational agent. Avenues for future research are discussed. Key words: psychological contract fulfillment, leader commitment, multilevel-analyses