That's Not What I Was Promised! Psychological Contracts and Quiet Quitting

Abstract

The phrase “quiet quitting” has become a popular topic within the workplace and academia. However, the nomological network of quiet quitting is unclear. We contribute to quiet quitting research by incorporating organizational justice and job characteristics theories with a psychological contract and social exchange lens to illuminate antecedents and outcomes of quiet quitting. Prior to doing so, we address the conceptual and measurement challenges that threaten the knowledge accumulation of quiet quitting research. Using a qualitative study (N = 42) and prior research, we disentangle quiet quitting from its antecedents and outcomes to define it as intentionally performing to the minimum requirements of the job. We then develop a measure of quiet quitting across a subject matter expert review (N = 51), a naïve rater review (N = 90), and an assessment of the measure's psychometric properties (N = 198). Finally, we assess our conceptual model (N = 540) and find that psychological contract fulfillment has a negative indirect effect on quiet quitting through job satisfaction. Furthermore, psychological contract breach increases quiet quitting through job satisfaction. We find that quiet quitting subsequently increases CWBs and decreases OCBs. Our findings point toward an optimistic outlook: by accurately communicating expectations regarding organizational justice and job characteristics, human resource managers may be able to limit the prevalence of quiet quitting and subsequent detrimental behaviors within their organizations.