Navigating the unspoken: the impact of socio-institutional factors on employees’ understanding of implicit promises

Chaudhry, Sara and Aldossari, M. and Aboubichr, B. (2025) Navigating the unspoken: the impact of socio-institutional factors on employees’ understanding of implicit promises. Journal of Managerial Psychology , ISSN 0268-3946.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the under-studied construct of implicit promises within the broader field of psychological contracts by highlighting the impact of external, socio-institutional factors on employee perceptions of implicit promises. Design/methodology/approach: A total of fifty-three in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted in four foreign MNEs operating in Pakistan. A purposive sampling technique was applied and the four-case study MNEs chosen differed considerably in terms of size, subsidiary age, organizational structure, HR strategy and industry/sector. Findings: Our findings highlight that employees continually process their social environments, subsequently constructing a web of unwritten, perceived obligations and implicit promises, that are influenced by a range of external factors outside organizational control such as social stratification, relational networking both within and outside the employing organization, the economic health of the industry/sector etc. We underline how implicit promises are socially constructed and therefore, the socio-institutional components of implicit promises are likely to vary across contexts/countries and time. Originality/value: Despite extensive literature on psychological contracts, implicit promises in particular remain theoretically and empirically under-operationalized, largely because of methodological challenges and a preponderance of cross-sectional, self-reported and a-contextual studies in extant psychological contract literature. Our study offers a reworked definition of implicit promises that highlights the impact of contextually-specific, socio-institutional factors on employees’ unspoken expectations and beliefs about future organizational outcomes and opportunities.

Metadata

Statistics

DownloadsShow export options

Export as JSONCSVXML

Activity Overview

6 month trend

3Downloads

6 month trend

47Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

Archive Staff Only (login required)

Edit/View Item