The information technology professional\u27s psychological contract viewed through their employment arrangement and the relationship to organizational behaviors

Information technology (IT) professionals are continually placed in diverse employment arrangements as organizations continually look for ways to cut costs, enhance performance and maximize organizational goals. Organizations are using strategies beyond hiring permanent employees to achieve objectives in alternative sourcing. Even though the cost differential is positive when employing non-permanent individuals instead of permanent employees, little is known about the effects on the IT professional.This field study was designed to test the effects of employment arrangements on the IT professional\u27s psychological contract and the effects of the level of fulfillment of their psychological contract on their organizational citizenship and innovative work behaviors using psychological contracts and social information processing theories. IT professionals were sampled from four different employment arrangements.The empirical findings show that there are differences in the IT pro proessional\u27s psychological contract as explained by their employment arrangement, as well as by their perceptions of the characteristics of their particular employment arrangement. Permanent full-time IT professionals consistently had higher perceptions of their employer\u27s obligations to them, than did IT professionals from the other employment arrangement categories. The level of fulfillment of the IT professional\u27s psychological contract explained differences in their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) as a collective, with significant differences in the advocacy participation and obedience citizenship behaviors. This study also found significant relationships with the level of fulfillment of the IT professional\u27s psychological contract and their innovative work behavior, as well as their organizational citizenship behaviors individually, specifically loyalty, advocacy participation, obedience, and functional participation. The primary predictors of the dimensions of OCB were the levels of fulfillment of the psychological contract as it relates to the scope, focus, and tangibility dimensions.The exploratory analysis into the characteristics of the employment arrangement provides a clearer understanding as to what encompasses the actual employment arrangement for IT professionals of differing categories. Independent contractors indicated significantly more job control than permanent full-time and contract company workers. Permanent full-time and permanent part-time have greater job stability than do independent contractors and contract company workers. Permanent full-time have greater benefits provided than the other three categories of IT professionals