Supervisors ’ perceptions of how fairly they are treated by their own supervisors can influence their subordinates ’ perceptions, attitudes, and behavior. We present a moderated mediation model that demonstrates how work group structure can enhance or constrain these effects. Results show supervisors’ perceptions of the fairness of the interactional treatment they receive relate to their subordinates’ perceptions of interactional justice climate, and this relationship is stronger in work groups with more organic structures. Furthermore, consistent with the moderated mediation prediction, interactional justice climate mediates the relationship between supervisors ’ perceptions of interactional justice and outcomes when work group structures are more organic. We discuss the implications of the findings for research on justice and trickle-down effects.

Results from four studies in multiple contexts drawing on different data sources provide full support for the proposition that Machiavellian employees prefer forming transactional psychological contracts (schemas of their employee–employer relationship that are economic in nature) and that such contracts mediate the relationship between Machiavellianism and supervisor-rated (a) organizational citizenship behaviors and (b) deviant behaviors, respectively. The authors ’ research contributes to scholars ’ understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of the relationship between Machiavellianism and contextual performance as well as to the psychological contracts literature by demonstrating that Machiavellianism influences contextual

Applications of social exchange theory in organizational research have tended to ignore the resource context and its impact on a focal dyadic social exchange. Integrating insights from the social exchange theory and the conservation of resources theory, we examine the role of resource availability in the social exchange of resources. The type of social exchange we focus on is the psychological contract. Specifically, we examine the antecedents and consequence of breach of employee obligations to an employer. We test our predictions using multisource data obtained from employees over three measurement periods in Sample 1 and matched triads (employee, supervisor, and coworker) in Sample 2. We found that family–work conflict (FWC) and breach of employer obligations are positively, while conscientiousness is negatively, related to employees ’ perceptions of breach of their obligations. Conscientiousness moderated the FWC–breach relationship: Employees low on conscientiousness have a stronger positive rela-tionship between FWC and breach of employee obligations. Breach of employee obligations is, in turn, negatively related to employee career progression (a job promotion over the following Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Matthijs Bal, Bob Eisenberger, Patrick Garcia, Samantha Montes, and Tom Zagenczyk for their comments on previous versions of this manuscript and Chris Asuncion, Susie Eala, and Marigirl

Psychological contracts in the workplace: A mixed methods design project