Exploitation by Economic Necessity: Using the Marxist Conceptualization of Exploitation to Investigate the Impact of Workplace Violations

This study develops and tests a model that proposes economic necessity moderates the relationship between psychological contract violations (PCVs) and organizational commitment and trust in the employing organization among non-unionized manufacturing workers (N = 226). Moderated regression analyses revealed that there was a significant interaction between PCV and economic necessity in predicting both outcomes. Specifically, the findings indicated that individuals experiencing high PCV and high economic necessity did not decrease their organizational commitment like their counterparts who endorsed lower economic necessity. They did, however, experience significantly decreased trust in their employer. The findings suggest that individuals who are forced to sell their labor power and obtain what they need through the market are more likely to continue to be exploited by their employer, as they have no other options than to continue the relationship. The importance of the findings is discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided.