(The Relationship between Psychological Contract, Organizational Justice, Organizational Trust and Loneliness at Workplace: The Norm of Reciprocity Perspective)

Abstract

Purpose – Loneliness is a feeling not only in social life but also in the organization. One of the factors that trigger this emotion is trust. The psychological contract that evaluates the perception of justice and the relationship between the organization and the employee is important in establishing trust. These concepts are basically based on the reciprocity norm. The aim of the present study is to explain the relationship between concepts on the basis of the norm of reciprocity. Design/methodology/approach – In order to measure the norm in the research, Wu et al. (2006) 's scale was used. The organizational justice scale consists of three dimensions (distribution, transaction and interaction justice) and 20 items developed by Niehoff and Moorman (1993). Nine-item scale developed by Robinson and Morrison (2000) was used for the violation and breach of the psychological contract. The concept of organizational trust was measured by Cook and Wall (1980) scale consisting of 12 items. The scale includes two dimensions: faith in intentions and confidence in actions. Finally, loneliness in the workplace is measured by Wright et al. (2006)’s scale which is translated into Turkish by Doğan et al. (2009). The research includes employees of restaurant in Muğla. Data were collected with survey technique, 391 questionnaires of 500 distributed questionnaires were evaluated in accordance with data analysis and analyzes were carried out. Findings – According to the results of the research, the norm of reciprocity explains the concepts of organizational justice and psychological contract. Reciprocity norm increases organizational justice, while reducing the psychological contract breach and violation. On the other hand, while organizational justice increases organizational trust, breach and violation of the psychological contract decreases organizational justice. Finally, organizational trust perception reduces loneliness at workplace. Discussion – Failure to fulfill obligations within the organization affects perceptions of employees for violations and breaches of psychological contract and organizational justice. With the provision of reciprocity, employees consider the organization as a fairer organization, while employees believe that their organizations fulfill their promises. This increases the perception of trust of the employees and decreases the perception of loneliness in the workplace.