Psychological contract fulfillment and expatriate intrinsic career success: the mediating role of identification with the multinational corporation

Abstract

In this study, we examined to what extent psychological contract fulfillment (PCF) positively affected two dimensions of expatriate intrinsic career success - job and career satisfaction. Moreover, we assessed whether these relationships were mediated by identification with the multinational corporation (MNC). One hundred ninety-seven expatriates of a large multinational technology company participated in this study. We used structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses. Results showed that identification with the MNC partially mediated the relationship between PCF and job satisfaction, and PCF and career satisfaction. This study highlights the important role of fulfilling promises vis-à-vis expatriates and identification with the MNC for expatriate intrinsic career success. Since intrinsic career success is an important predictor of intentions to remain with the organization, it is particularly important that MNCs attend to and manage the psychological contracts of their expatriates.

Keywords:

• Psychological contracts
• intrinsic career success
• organizational identification
• expatriates
• multinational corporations