Celebrating Success: Dr Benjamin Bader

Congratulations to Benjamin for his nomination for the Alan M. Rugman Most Promising Scholar(s) Award (formerly Haynes Prize https://aib.msu.edu/awards/youngscholar.asp) for a paper to be presented at AIB.

The title of the paper is “Tit for Tat VS. Kicking the Dog: The Role of Displaced Aggression in Expatriates’ Psychological Contracts”. The paper will be presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Academy of International Business in June. With the work on expatriate psychological contracts, this is addressing an important issue in international business research and integrate HR and psychological perspectives.

The paper has been extensively revised (after several friendly reviews) and now is soon ready to be submitted to a journal.

Abstract:

The severe effects of psychological contract violations (PCV) in single-agency settings are the subject of considerable research. Yet, their effect in multiple-agency settings is largely unknown. Multiple-agency settings are work arrangements in which individuals simultaneously form multiple psychological contracts with different entities. A critical difference from single-agency work arrangements is the potential for displacement of the negative effects of PCV by one entity towards another not responsible for it. Using data from a two-wave survey among 221 expatriates, we find that PCV by one organizational entity not only can reduce commitment to that entity, but also negatively can impact commitment to the other. Drawing on displaced aggression theory, we find that incidence of this spillover effect depends on the individual’s relationship with the violating entity. Spillover exists from PCV by the parent organization to PCV by the subsidiary but not the reverse. Emotional regulation self-efficacy moderates the effect of displaced aggression on the non-violating entity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.