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The article focuses on leadership effectiveness, as related to leadership self-efficacy and moderated by task complexity. It is said that task complexity did not moderate the relationship, although a positive relationship between leadership effectiveness and leadership self-efficacy was found. However, no reliable relationship between leadership effectiveness and leadership self-efficacy was found to exist when subordinates measured leadership effectiveness.

A study of 486 banking employees in Pakistan and the Netherlands investigated the effect of work-family conflict on psychological contract breach of work-family balance obligations. The results showed that 127 Dutch respondents were more likely to experience work interference with family than employees in Pakistan, despite the fact that Pakistanis have longer working hours than their Dutch counterparts. The relationship between family overload and work interference with family, however, was stronger among the 359 Pakistani study participants. In addition, the positive association between work interference with family and employees' psychological contract breach of work-family balance obligations was significant for the Pakistani respondents but not for the Dutch study participants. This analysis contributes to the work-family and psychological contract literature by observing cross-national differences in work-family overload and work-to-family conflict and their effects on psychological contract breach. It also suggests practices to address the challenge of managing the work-family interface in both developing and developed nations. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the articles within the issue on topics including testing long-term developmental theories related to work behaviour, methods for evaluating long-term development, and difference between time-related effects from age-related effects.

A holistic method for eliciting and evaluating group cognition was introduced and tested. In the study, 359 undergraduate students were assigned to 72 groups, consisting of 4 to 6 members who worked on research projects lasting for 14 weeks. In order to evaluate the way groups represent the specific knowledge related to their tasks, we used a conceptual mapping technique. Conceptual mapping proved to be a fruitful way to understand the way groups represent their knowledge. The conceptual maps were stable in time and had explanatory power for groups' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased use of temporary contracts has instigated debates on possible implications for employees’ attitudes, well-being and behaviour. The complex issues related to this debate are reviewed from a theoretical, empirical and conceptual point of view. First, the definitions of temporary employment that are currently used in OECD countries are reviewed. Second, theoretical views concerning possible determinants are elaborated. The theoretical frameworks discussed include Work Stress Theory, Social Comparison Theory and Social Exchange Theory. The determinants proposed in these theories have served to form the basis of hypotheses on differences between temporary and permanent workers on various psychological outcomes. Third, research on associations between temporary employment and the variables job satisfaction, organizational commitment, well-being and behaviour are reviewed. These variables are most frequently used in the realm of temporary work research. This review concludes that research results have been inconsistent and inconclusive, unlike the predictions that follow from the theoretical frameworks. This leads to a fourth section in which potential explanations for these inconsistent findings are advanced. In conclusion, a conceptual model is developed to inspire future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal, job, as well as contract characteristics and workplace attitudes were related to frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave of call centre employees. Frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave were found to be mainly influenced by contract characteristics and workplace attitudes, while job characteristics and personal characteristics were less important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a dynamic perspective in which the psychological contract is treated as a structured set of beliefs that are held by individual employees about the mutual obligations of the organization as employer and themselves as employees. This set of beliefs is assumed to produce a state of commitment to the organization in which the employee is willing to accept work roles and tasks offered by the organization, and to carry them out in accordance with certain standards. The dynamic model that is presented can help to explain why the commitment of employees remains relatively stable over time, and why it may suddenly decrease or increase under circumstances that are perceived as critical by the employee. The model assumes that the employee's evaluation of the organization's behavior changes over time, but that the structure of the psychological contract and the associated commitment change only when certain limits are overstepped. This perspective on changes in the psychological contract transforms the concept into a powerful construct that may lead to fruitful research on the dynamics of organization-employee relationships. Implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated Threat Theory (ITT) (Stephan & Stephan, 1993, 1996) describes four types of threats as mediators in the relation between antecedent factors (previous intergroup conflict, intergroup contact, status inequalities, in-group identification, knowledge about the out-group, and intergroup contact) and prejudice. The four mediating types of threats, which influence prejudice according to ITT are: intergroup anxiety, negative stereotyping, realistic and symbolic threats. In this study, the ITT model was tested using structural equation modeling on data collected in sample of 187 Dutch employees. Two alternative explanatory models are proposed in which, first intergroup anxiety and then negative stereotyping mediate the relation between the other ITT threats and prejudice. The data show a good fit with the model in which negative stereotypes are considered as mediator variable. The implications of these findings for ITT are discussed in the context of recent theoretical developments in the study of stereotypes and prejudice. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the information-seeking behaviors newcomers engage in relating to their psychological contract and addresses the impact of work values (autonomy, advancement, group orientation and economic rewards) and work locus of control (LOC). We propose that these individual characteristics could explain differences in the frequency with which newcomers search for information about the promises their employer has made to them. A two-wave longitudinal study was conducted in which 527 newcomers from eight organizations participated. The results largely support the proposed relationships between work values and contract-related information seeking, while the relation between work LOC and contract-related information seeking is rather weak. Implications for psychological contract formation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the theoretical framework of newcomer sensemaking this study examines factors associated with changes in newcomers' psychological contract perceptions during the socialization process. More specifically, two mechanisms are addressed that could explain changes in newcomers' perceptions of the promises they have exchanged with their employer: (1) unilateral adaptation of perceived promises to reality and (2) adaptation of perceived promises as a function of the reciprocity norm. To test our hypotheses, a four-wave longitudinal study among 333 new hires has been conducted, covering the first year of their employment relationship. Results show that changes in newcomers' perceptions of the promises they have made to their employer are affected by their perceptions of their own contributions as well as by their perceptions of inducements received from their employer. Changes in newcomers' perceptions of employer promises are affected by their perceptions of employer inducements received, but the impact of perceived employee contributions is less clear. The data provide limited support for the idea that the adaptation of perceived promises to perceived inducements and contributions occurs to a stronger extent during the encounter stage than during the acquisition stage of socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on psychological contract in retrospect and prospect. Most employees develop a positive and enduring psycho- logical bond with their organization, based on a pattern of expectations about what the organization should offer them, and what it is obligated to provide them with. If, whatever the reason may be, the organization is not able or willing to fuel these expectations and obligations, this may lead to strong emotional reactions. In the relationship between employer and employee, mutual obligations are the central issue. Talking with employers and employees it is abundantly clear that the psychological contract as an explanatory notion has impressively high "face validity." Everyone agrees that it exists and most employees appear able to describe the content of their contract. Certainly in situations of organizational transformation, which often have consequences for the existing pattern of expectations, it is clear for managers and employees that the psychological contract is an important issue.