Impact of transactional, relational and balanced contract on affective commitment Meaningful work as mediator Nishant Singh Department of Management (HR and OB), CMS Business School, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Bengaluru, India Harsha Tyagi Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Pilani, India, and Umesh Bamel HRM & OB, IIM Amritsar, Amritsar, India Abstract Purpose – This paper is aimed at examining the impact of three types of psychological contracts such as transactional, relational and balanced contract on affective commitment by keeping meaningful work (MFW) as a mediator in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach – The data of 355 employees was collected from the large heavy Indian manufacturing organizations. The mediation path was analyzed through SPSS macro computational tool, i.e. PROCESS. Findings – The result suggests that MFW partially mediates the relationship between all three types of psychological contract and affective commitment. Originality/value – The study adds value to research in organizational behavior and human psychology by providing new insights on employee-employer relationships, MFW, and commitment. Keywords Psychological contract, Meaningfulness, Commitment Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction India has attracted investors from across the globe because of its vast natural resources, cheap and huge manpower, and strong economic fundamentals (Mehta and Rajan, 2017). The manufacturing sector, with a share of 16 percent has helped in the significant growth of the Indian GDP (Deloitte, 2016). Presently, the manufacturing sector accounts for only 12 percent of the aggregate workforce, which is much below its actual potential (Kapoor, 2015). The Indian government has envisaged a national manufacturing policy for enhancing the share of manufacturing sector to 25 percent by 2025 and providing employment to 100 million people by 2022 (Shanbaug, 2017). Despite the upsurge of this sector, several organizations still focus on the hardcore production-oriented approach for maximizing their output (Singh and Rangnekar, 2018). Employees not only encounter tough work conditions and hectic schedules, but they also have to run heavy machinery. Moreover, the repetitive nature of mechanical work undertaken in several shifts reduces meaningfulness of work, increases routine monotonous work activity and which impacts their attachment with their organizations (Singh, 2018). An “employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement in the organization” is stated to be affective commitment (Allen and Meyer 1997). Krishnan and Singh (2010) suggested that in the manufacturing sector, employee– employer relationships are complex and play a crucial role in creating meaningfulness of Meaningful work as mediator The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1741-0401.htm Received 5 December 2018 Revised 14 August 2019 14 January 2020 Accepted 31 January 2020 International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management © Emerald Publishing Limited 1741-0401 DOI 10.1108/IJPPM-12-2018-0432