When Broken Promises Stifle Innovation: How Forgiveness Restores Idea Championing

What is it about?

This study explores how psychological contract violations—when employees feel their organization has broken implicit promises—reduce idea championing, or efforts to promote and gain support for new ideas. Based on Conservation of Resources theory, such breaches drain emotional and motivational resources, weakening confidence and reciprocity toward the organization. As a result, employees may disengage from promoting ideas, seeing little reason to invest energy in improving a disappointing employer. Based on survey data from 208 employees in a Portuguese retail organization, the research finds that beliefs about inadequate career support mediate the link between contract violations and reduced idea championing. When employees perceive that their organization fails to support their professional growth, they experience a loss of self-worth and career optimism—resources critical for sustaining innovative behavior. This frustration can lead to a cycle of disengagement in which employees stop advocating for new ideas and instead adopt complacent attitudes toward change. Crucially, the study identifies organizational forgiveness as a key buffer. Employees who perceive their organization as forgiving—tolerant of mistakes and non-punitive—are less likely to internalize contract breaches or interpret them as personal betrayals. A forgiving climate helps restore emotional resources, encouraging employees to move beyond disappointment and continue championing improvements.

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Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is unique in revealing how psychological contract violations reduce idea championing through employees’ perceptions of inadequate career support, while a forgiveness climate mitigates this process. By integrating COR theory with the emerging concept of organizational forgiveness, it reframes innovation not as a purely cognitive effort but as an emotionally resilient response to perceived organizational betrayal. It is also timely, as organizations face greater instability, shifting expectations, and rising employee cynicism. Conducted in Portugal, a context that values social harmony and loyalty, the findings underscore the strategic importance of cultivating a forgiving culture that replenishes depleted emotional resources. The research highlights that maintaining innovation during times of disappointment requires more than formal career systems—it depends on empathy, fairness, and a willingness to forgive.