Psychological Contract, Organizational Commitment and Work Satisfaction: Survey of Researchers in Chinese State-Owned Engineering Research Institutions

This research analyzed the effect of knowledge workers’ psychological contract on organizational commitment and work satisfaction. Data was collected thru a questionnaire survey given to 517 randomly selected Chinese knowledge workers in two state-owned engineering research institutions. The questionnaire contained items about the demographic profile of the respondents, psychological contract, organizational commitment and work satisfaction. The last three items were answered using a Likert rating scale ranging from 1 to 5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree). Descriptive statistics of the information on demographics was done together with reliability analysis, Pearson correlation and multiple regression of the data on the last three items on the questionnaire. The two dimensions of psychological contract were found to have a significant positive correlation with organizational commitment and work satisfaction. The three dimensions of organizational commitment were found to have a significant positive correlation with work satisfaction. From the regression model it was found that the fulfillment of knowledge workers’ psychological contract contributed to the development of increased organizational commitment which in turn contributed to increased knowledge workers’ job satisfaction level. This research investigated further the application of psychological contract in Chinese context and bridges the literature gap on analyzing the effects of Chinese psychological contract on work satisfaction through organizational commitment.