Climbing the Ladder of Performance: Are Psychological Contract and Organizational Commitment Steps?

Abstract Low attrition and high job security in public organizations make the risk low for consequences of performing poorly. Climbing the ladder of job performance, what are the steps that should be in mind? The effects of fulfillment of the psychological contract and of affective organizational commitment on job performance were examined in a longitudinal study with employees and their line managers in a Brazilian public sector agency. We tested three models of mediation, aiming to better explain variance in job performance. This research design with employees and their bosses (N = 202) relieves common method bias and demonstrates in a robust and unique way, through a study carried out over two years, the effects of the fulfillment of the psychological contract on in-role job performance as well as the role of organizational commitment in this process. We found that fulfillment of the psychological contract explained variance in job performance, while commitment did not. However, the addition of organizational commitment as a mediating variable increased the explanatory power of the psychological contract. In our metaphor, psychological contract would be a significant step on the ladder, while commitment would be the difference in how much an individual can stretch his/her arms to reach the best job performance.