Temporal proximity matters: The impact of justice information timing on psychological contract breach resolution
Griep,Y. Vander Elst,T. Kraak,J.M. Hansen,S. Beekman,Elizabeth
Griep,Y.
Vander Elst,T.
Kraak,J.M.
Hansen,S.
Beekman,Elizabeth
Abstract
Although scholars and practitioners argue that organizations should provide justice information in the aftermath of a psychological contract breach (PC breach) to prevent or reduce violation feelings, it remains unclear whether that information should be provided within a few hours, days, or weeks following a PC breach. We estimated a 2-level time-lagged regression model on experience sampling data from 76 (226 observations), 70 (213 observations), and 70 (344 observations) employees with different intervals to test the durability of informational justice as a moderator on the PC breach-violation feelings relationship. We found that justice information should be provided in close temporal proximity (i.e., within the same day; Study 1) of PC breach to reduce violation feelings. In contrast, neither justice information provided the day (Study 2) or week (Study 3) after a PC breach successfully moderated the PC breach-violation feelings relationship. The current paper underscores the importance of being informationally just in close temporal proximity to a PC breach in line with resolution velocity as an indicator of the effectiveness of the recovery process. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
Description
Date
2025-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
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Journal Issue
Keywords
informational justice, psychological contract, time, timing, violation feelings
Citation
Griep, Y, Vander Elst, T, Kraak, J M, Hansen, S & Beekman, E 2025, 'Temporal proximity matters : The impact of justice information timing on psychological contract breach resolution', Group & Organization Management, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 331-358. https://doi.org/10.1177/10596011241238796