Norm of Reciprocity - in Organizational Research

In Organizational Research

Perceived organizational support (POS) and Perceived psychological contract violation (PPCV) are the two most common measures of the reciprocity norm in organizational research. POS is the degree to which employees’ believe that their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being (Eisenberger, Huntington, Huntington, & Sowa, 1986). POS is generally thought to be the organization’s contribution to a positive reciprocity dynamic with employees, as employees tend to perform better to pay back POS (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002). PPCV is a construct that regards employees’ feelings of disappointment (ranging from minor frustration to betrayal) arising from their belief that their organization has broken its work-related promises (Morrison & Robinson, 1997), is generally thought to be the organization’s contribution to a negative reciprocity dynamic, as employees tend to perform more poorly to pay back PPCV (Robinson, 1996; Robinson, Kraatz, & Rousseau, 1994; Turnley & Feldman, 1999).

David R. Hekman and colleagues (2009) recently found that professional employees, like doctors and lawyers, are most likely to repay POS with better performance when such workers have high levels of organizational identification combined with low levels of professional identification. They also found that professional employees are most forgiving of PPCV when they have high levels of organizational identification combined with low levels of professional identification.