The moderating role of conscientiousness between psychological contract breach and loyal boosterism

The current study examines the relationships between relational psychological contract, psychological contract breach, loyal boosterism and conscientiousness in the performing arts context. Based on the literature, we develop and test a moderated-mediation model that investigated the mediating role of psychological contract breach in the relationship between relational psychological contract and loyal boosterism, and the extent to which this relationship is moderated by conscientiousness. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of 281 full-time dancers in training in Australia. Results of the PROCESS analyses support the notion that individuals with higher relational psychological contract tend to have lower perceptions of psychological contract breach, which results in higher levels of loyal boosterism, and that the relationship is attenuated for individuals high on conscientiousness. Such an effect has important implications for how performing art organizations manage expectations of performers in training and how they should intervene if psychological contract breach occurs.