Two essays on psychological contracts in the information technology (IT) context.

This thesis consists of two essays. The first essay is "The impact of IT outsourcing on psychological contract breach and employee performance". The second essay is "Turnaway and turnover of IT professionals: The role of psychological contract and professional obsolescence". Essay one examines the impact of outsourcing on the psychological contracts of employees. It also investigates the relationship between psychological contract breach and employee performance. Survey questionnaires were administered to employees who were affected by outsourcing. Employees from the same organization who were not affected by the outsourcing exercise served as a natural control group. The supervisors of the employees provided responses for employee performance. MANCOVA results show that employees affected by outsourcing feel a lower sense of psychological contract breach regarding advancement, employability, good job, and resources. Hierarchical regression tests reinforce findings of previous studies that employees with a higher degree of psychological contract breach have lower performance. An interesting finding from this study is that group status moderates the relationship between the psychological contract facet of employability and performance. For the "outsourced" group, the positive relationship between the two constructs is stronger. This study provides evidence to the criticality of managing and renegotiating psychological contracts in times of organization change.​Master of Busines