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.摘要：公共部门组织普遍存在的低人员流失率与高工作保障性，使得履职不佳所引发的后果风险极低。若想攀升工作绩效的阶梯，应当牢记哪些关键环节？本研究针对巴西某公共部门机构的员工及其直属上级开展纵向研究，探讨了心理契约（psychological contract）履行与情感组织承诺（affective organizational commitment）对工作绩效的影响。我们测试了三类中介模型，以期更好地阐释工作绩效的变异量。本研究采用员工与直接上司配对的研究设计（N=202），有效缓解了共同方法偏差（common method bias）；并通过为期两年的纵向研究，以稳健且独特的方式证实：心理契约履行对角色内工作绩效具有影响，同时明确了组织承诺在该过程中的作用。研究结果显示，心理契约履行能够解释工作绩效的变异量，而组织承诺则无此直接效应。不过，将组织承诺作为中介变量纳入模型后，心理契约对工作绩效的解释力得到了提升。正如我们的隐喻所示：心理契约恰似职场晋升阶梯中的关键台阶，而组织承诺则决定了个体能够伸展双臂、触及最优工作绩效的程度差异。