Predicting Commitment Forms From Psychological Contract Breach And Violation Among Survivors Of Merged Banks In Nigeria

Abstract

In this study three forms of commitment were assumed to be predicted by the different dimensions of psychological contract breach and Psychological contract violation measures from employees who survived mergers and acquisition in some selected banks in Lagos metropolis, Nigeria. Using an ex post facto design, a sample of 280employees comprising of 174(62.7%) males, with age ranging between 22 and 51 years, mean age of 33.2 years and a S.D of 6.182 from eight (4 merged and 4 acquiring) banks in Lagos metropolis completed the questionnaire designed for the purpose. It was hypothesised that dimensions of psychological contract breach will significantly predict different forms of employee commitment, and that psychological contract violation will significantly negatively predict commitment. The results of the multiple regression analysis reveal that psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation resulting from mergers and acquisition contributed least to continuance, and affective commitments. A significant joint and independent influence of psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation on affective (R² = .17 = F( 8, 272) = 6.76 p<..001), continuance (R2 = .13 = F( 8, 272) = 5.21; p<..001) and normative (R² = .25 = F(8, 272) = 11.37; p<..001) commitments respectively were found. The result clearly demonstrate that the increasing high incident of job switch across banks by employees is borne out of negative affective reaction to changes in their psychological contract occasioned by dissatisfaction with outcomes of mergers and acquisitions. Measures to be taken by management at equilibrating employees' psychological contract breach, reducing labour turnover and increasing commitment are suggested.

Keywords: Mergers, acquisition, Commitment, psychological contract breach, and psychological contract violation, human resource management.

African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Vol. 11 (1&2) 2008: pp. 185-203