Search Results (19)

The hospitality industry faces increasing challenges in retaining employees, enhancing employee engagement, and ensuring long-term organizational sustainability. There is ample quantitative research regarding employee engagement and talent management; however, there is a lack of qualitative evidence demonstrating how employee engagement can be sustained in the Middle East’s hospitality industry through the fulfillment of the psychological contract. This study examines how talent management and the fulfillment of the psychological contract contribute to the employee engagement of hotel organizations within the Middle East. The study was designed with an inductive qualitative methodology based on the Psychological Contract Theory and utilized semi-structured interviews with 37 hotel managers, human resource directors, chief executive officers (CEOs), and general managers of four- and five-star hotels from nine Middle Eastern countries. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis with the support of NVivo software. Participants identified psychological contract fulfillment as a primary relational mechanism supporting employee engagement, organizational commitment, and workforce retention. They identified that organizational support, transparent communication, responsive leadership, development opportunities, and employee-focused HRM practices strengthened trust and organizational commitment. The findings reconceptualize talent management as a relational and psychologically embedded organizational mechanism supporting employee engagement and workforce sustainability. Full article

The low-carbon transition depends not only on technologies and regulation, but also on how employees interpret and enact organizational environmental commitments. This study examines whether carbon anxiety—employees’ perception of organization-focused uncertainty and insufficient preparedness regarding carbon accounting, emissions reduction, reporting, and operational adaptation—and perceived regulatory pressure are associated with employee green behavior (EGB) through psychological contract fulfillment for the environment (PCFE), and whether pro-environmental consciousness strengthens the PCFE–EGB association. Using a cross-sectional computer-assisted web interview survey of 857 employees in Poland’s energy sector, the proposed second-stage moderated mediation model was tested with structural equation modeling and bootstrap analysis. Carbon anxiety and regulatory pressure were positively associated with psychological contract fulfillment for the environment, which was positively associated with employee green behavior. Pro-environmental consciousness strengthened the psychological contract fulfillment for the environment–behavior relationship, and both conditional indirect associations increased at higher pro-environmental consciousness levels. The model explained 33.2% of the variance in psychological contract fulfillment for the environment and 37.1% in employee green behavior; the main pattern remained stable across robustness and subsector analyses. The observed associations support psychological contract fulfillment for the environment as a theoretically specified relational mechanism linking transition pressures with the employee-level implementation of decarbonization. Given the cross-sectional design, the results indicate associations rather than causal effects. Organizations should translate transition pressures into credible environmental commitments, workforce capabilities, transparent communication, and meaningful employee participation. Full article

Turnover is a major concern for hotel and hospitality industry on a global scale. This research focuses on Dubai 5-star hotels in terms of transactional leadership and how employees perceive its influence on climate and contract fulfillment. This research combines the premises of social exchange, organizational support, and psychological contract, and organizational climate theories to support the development of hypotheses. A total of 24 employee interviews from two 5-star hotels in Dubai were gathered using semi-structured interviews. The research used inductive qualitative approach via thematic network analysis using QSR NVivo software (version 14). Transactional leadership can stabilize the execution of services by clarifying roles, adequate monitoring, and contingent exchanges in the luxury hotel setting. The thematic qualitative evidence demonstrates that organizational climate is an immediate interpretive medium, while psychological contract fulfillment is an emergent factor that is formed through repetitive interactions between employees and leadership. The results provide an in-depth understanding of these dynamics in the luxury hotel context, which can be beneficial for both scholars and practitioners alike. Full article

Turnover is a major concern for the hotel and hospitality industry on a global scale. This research focuses on several Middle Eastern five-star hotels in terms of transactional leadership and its relationship with employees’ turnover intentions. In addition, the mediating effect of organizational climate, along with the moderating influence of psychological contract fulfillment are examined. This research combines the premises of social exchange, organizational support, and psychological contract theories to support the development of hypotheses. A total of 350 employee data from five-star hotels in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain was gathered using surveys using a convenience sampling method. The research used Partial Least Squares—Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the hypotheses, which were supported by the results obtained. The importance of organizational climate and fulfilling psychological contracts is highlighted, which, under transactional leadership, can reduce turnover intentions. This is critical for the labor-intensive hotel sector with high turnover rates and random and unpredictable tasks. Transactional leadership is found to be a good fit for the Middle Eastern hotel sector through routinization and a structural approach. The current findings can be beneficial for scholars and practitioners. Full article

Background: High-performance work systems (HPWSs), while designed to boost corporate performance, can inadvertently create a core organizational paradox, triggering a negative feedback loop. Specifically, their intense focus on performance outcomes can create a climate conducive to unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), as employees navigate the pressures and perceived obligations, ultimately undermining the organization’s long-term sustainability and viability. While prior research has identified important singular pathways, the mechanisms through which HPWSs simultaneously generate both perceived obligations and performance pressures remain ambiguous. Methods: Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, we propose and test a moderated dual-mediation framework. Using survey data from 473 employees, we examine psychological contract fulfillment and bottom-line mentality as parallel mediators, with moral identity as a moderator, in the HPWS-UPB relationship. Results: The analysis demonstrated that HPWSs influence UPB through two distinct and paradoxical pathways: a pressure-driven path via an increased bottom-line mentality, and a reciprocity-driven path via enhanced psychological contract fulfillment. Moral identity emerged as a crucial, albeit asymmetrical, buffer, with its buffering role being particularly consequential for the pressure-driven pathway, as moral identity also significantly weakened the indirect effect of HPWSs on UPB channeled through bottom-line mentality. Conclusions: These findings offer a holistic, systems-based understanding of the performance-ethics paradox. The validation of a dual-pathway model provides a new blueprint for how a single management system produces contradictory outcomes through competing mechanisms. The identification of key intervention points (e.g., fostering moral identity) offers practical strategies for managers to foster systems that support both high productivity and a sustainable ethical climate. Full article

This study adopts an evolutionary game theory framework and focuses on the strategic interaction between brands and KOLs. It examines how the two parties interact under conditions of uncertainty and risk, especially when the KOLs’ contract fulfillment capability is low, and how they adjust strategies to achieve sustainable collaboration. Different from previous studies, this paper not only examines objective parameters such as commission rate, brand value, return cost, and reputation risk, but also introduces behavioral factors, including risk preference, loss aversion, and the psychological perception of gains and losses. By modeling the decision-making process of KOLs and brands under uncertainty and risk, the key factors affecting the evolution of cooperation strategies are identified. The simulation results show that although the cooperation strategy (such as information disclosure and truthful promotion) can achieve stability under certain conditions, the system is highly sensitive to external factors (such as environmental uncertainty) and internal psychological factors (such as risk preference and loss sensitivity). This study provides practical suggestions for brands and KOLs to promote long-term cooperation, emphasizing the importance of incentive coordination, reputation risk management, commission structure optimization, and psychological perception regulation. These findings provide practical guidance for enhancing the sustainability of brand–KOL collaborations. Full article

The psychological contract is a fundamental construct for understanding the relationships established between employee and employer. However, the current literature states that there is no validated instrument to measure this construct. The present research aims to validate the psychological contract questionnaire developed by the PSYCONES team, providing empirical evidence on its reliability and validity in the current labor context. A sample of 1764 workers in the Spanish labor market was used, and a cross-validation process was applied, in which exploratory factor analysis was performed and various models (CFA, ESEM, CFA bifactor and ESEM bifactor) were tested to evaluate the structure of the questionnaire. In addition, multigroup invariance analyses were performed to examine the stability of the model according to gender and job level. The results indicated that the four-factor ESEM model showed the best fit and representation of the following dimensions of the psychological contract: fulfillment of company promises, fulfillment of employee promises, psychological contract violation, and perception of justice and trust. Likewise, the scale showed significant relationships with job satisfaction and organizational commitment, reinforcing its concurrent validity. This study provides a psychometrically robust instrument to assess the psychological contract in the workplace, offering a basis for future research and practical applications in different organizational contexts. Full article

The functioning of the energy sector in Poland has been changing over recent years, influenced by growing concern for the environment. The concept of inclusive leadership can play a key role in the emergence of behavioral changes related to the development of environmental awareness and the initiation of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors by employees. The guiding objective of this study is to verify a moderated mediation model of the impact of pro-environmental consciousness (PEC) on the mediating role of the fulfillment of the psychological contract for the environment (PCFE) in pro-environmental inclusive leadership (PEIL) and pro-environmental work behavior (PEWB) relationships in the energy industry. By self-completing a survey questionnaire using the computer-assisted web interview (CAWI) method, responses were collected from 649 respondents employed in various energy industry organizations. Structural equation modelling based on maximum likelihood with bootstrap estimation was used to test the hypothesis model. The findings confirm the assumptions of the research model, demonstrating a direct relationship between pro-environmental inclusive leadership and pro-environmental work behavior. Additionally, a mediating condition was found, where the fulfillment of the psychological contract for the environment mediates the relationship between pro-environmental inclusive leadership and pro-environmental work behavior, and pro-environmental consciousness moderates this process. It was found that higher pro-environmental consciousness enhances the indirect effect of pro-environmental inclusive leadership on employees’ pro-environmental work behavior through the fulfillment of the psychological contract for the environment. This highlights the importance of the fulfillment of the psychological contract for the environment and a pro-environmental consciousness in the effectiveness of pro-environmental leadership. The analysis indicates that managers who apply a pro-environmental inclusive management style contribute to an increasingly pro-environmental consciousness and the promotion pro-environmental work behavior among employees. Furthermore, the indirect effect of green leadership on employees’ green actions, through the fulfillment of a psychological contract for the environment that is moderated by their pro-environmental consciousness, highlights the importance of environmentally conscious leaders in building effective employee–employer relationships. These relationships facilitate the implementation of initiatives that accelerate the pace of change and enhance efforts to build tomorrow’s modern energy industry based on low- and zero-carbon energy sources. Additionally, this is one of the first studies in the Polish energy industry to provide insight into the role and importance of green leadership and green behavior in the energy industry. Full article

Inconsistent findings regarding psychological contracts may be due to the variety of contexts studied. Sensemaking processes inform the psychological contract and may explain contextual differences. This study examines the psychological contract components of promises, fulfillment and breach, with negative affectivity, in relation to employee-level outcomes in two related but different contexts. Surveys were completed by 162 hospital nurses and 218 aged care nurses, in a situation where many potential contextual moderators were held relatively constant. Both fulfillment and breach were significant and predicted multiple outcomes in each context. Similar patterns of results for fulfillment and breach suggests there may simultaneously be two forms of discrepancy mechanism underpinning the impacts of the psychological contract: assessment of continuous discrepancy (fulfillment) and assessment of discontinuous discrepancy (breach). Negative affectivity appears to have prevented relationships, particularly between breach and stress, and should be included in future psychological contract research. The consistent relationships of fulfillment and breach with organizational and occupational commitment highlights the importance of career management. The main differences by context were the negative effects of breach and the lack of an effect for promises for aged care nurses, possibly due to prestige and other differences to be investigated in future research. Full article

The organizational citizenship behavior of teachers holds paramount significance in elevating school organizational effectiveness and sustaining competitive advantage. To address this, this study examines the cross-level influence of group-focused transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior among secondary school teachers. This exploration includes investigating the mediating role of individual-level psychological contract fulfillment and the moderating impact of group-level collectivism. An empirical investigation involving 1162 secondary school teachers in China was designed for this purpose. The results demonstrate that group-focused transformational leadership significantly positively impacts teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior. Moreover, this relationship is positively moderated by collectivism at the group level, suggesting a stronger effect of transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior in more collective-oriented groups. Additionally, the findings reveal that psychological contract fulfillment at the individual level mediates this cross-level relationship, providing evidence for its role in translating leadership’s influence to organizational citizenship behavior. The findings underscore the significance of concentrating on group-focused transformational leadership, cultivating a collectivist atmosphere, and guaranteeing the fulfillment of psychological contracts as pivotal strategies for bolstering organizational citizenship behavior among teachers. Full article

Virtual brand communities and users’ knowledge contributions have become strategic resources for enterprises. It is of great significance to explore the driving mechanism of users’ willingness to contribute knowledge in virtual brand communities to promote the sustainable development of enterprises. Previous studies on the potential drivers of users’ willingness to contribute knowledge placed a great emphasis on either communities or users alone but overlooked the synergistic effects generated by both. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of person–environment fit on users’ willingness to contribute knowledge. Based on two theories, we develop and test a mediation model to investigate the effects of person–environment (P–E) fit and psychological contract fulfillment on users’ willingness to contribute knowledge in virtual brand communities. Hierarchical regression methods and bootstrap analysis were used to examine data collected from 287 online survey responses. The results indicate that the three constructs of P–E fit, including values–culture (V–C) fit, needs–supplies (N–S) fit and demands–abilities (D–A) fit, have significant positive effects on users’ willingness to contribute knowledge, and transactional and relational psychological contract fulfillments partially mediate these relationships. We provide some theoretical contributions to explore users’ willingness to contribute knowledge in virtual brand communities, and practical implications are also offered. The limitation of this study is that it does not consider the influence of users’ willingness to contribute with regard to actual contribution behavior. Full article

Proactivity is a particularly important attribute of knowledge-intensive companies, where work that requires enhancing the potential of knowledge-intensive employees in a sustainable working environment is crucial. Another important challenge for these firms is to account for the increasing importance of the functioning of the cognitive mechanisms leading to the increased well-being of knowledge workers following the implementation of a psychological contract. The aim of this article is to identify the relationship between inclusive leadership, the fulfilment of a psychological contract, two dimensions of well-being (workplace and life-related well-being), and knowledge workers’ proactivity. Based on survey data collected using the CAWI method from 1000 knowledge workers employed in Polish companies in the business services sector, the research hypotheses proposed in this study were tested using a stepwise equation-modelling (SEM) technique, which resulted in a model containing all the main constructs. The results obtained indicate that inclusive leadership positively relates to the fulfilment of the psychological contract. Furthermore, the fulfilment of the psychological contract positively associates proactive working behavior with the wellbeing of knowledge workers. Along with proactive work behavior, two dimensions of well-being were examined as outcome variables. Our analysis also shows that knowledge-intensive organizations, intending to develop the proactivity of their employees and nurture a high level of well-being in their lives and in the workplace, should ensure that they fulfil the expectations and obligations of the psychological contract. One way to achieve this is for managers to employ an inclusive management style, which supports an atmosphere of a safe working environment in a diverse setting and allows employees to feel comfortable sharing their opinions and ideas. The study of inclusive leadership in the context of knowledge-intensive organizations provides human resource professionals and employee managers with important insights into how inclusive leadership can effectively contribute to the psychological contract, which, consequently, will lead to proactive work behavior and improve employees’ workplace and life-related well-being. Full article

As the public’s awareness of environmental protection and their concern for environmental issues increase, more and more companies are focusing on fulfilling their environmental responsibilities and meeting the green needs of consumers through diverse environmental behaviors. Based on the stimulus-organic-response model, this study adopts the scenario experiment method to explore the psychological response mechanism of consumers to heterogeneous corporate environmental responsibility behavior and their response to consumer behavior intentions using the two approaches of deep (psychological contract) and shallow (product sustainability perception) from the mechanisms of consumer psychological responses. Additionally, the research was conducted using the experimental scenario method and analyzed using an ANOVA and linear regression model. The results show that: consumers of Generation Z have stronger sustainable purchase intentions in the face of substantive environmental behaviors rather than symbolic environmental behaviors; consumers’ environmental self-efficacy plays a moderating role in the influence of corporate environmental responsibility behaviors on sustainable purchase intentions; and product sustainability perceptions and consumer psychological contracts have a dual mediating effect between corporate environmental responsibility behaviors and consumers’ sustainable purchase intentions. The conclusions enrich the diversity of the paths of influence of corporate environmental responsibility on consumer behavior and provide a theoretical basis for companies to effectively fulfill their environmental responsibility and choose environmentally friendly behaviors. Full article

A psychological contract is a set of individual beliefs that a person has about the reciprocal obligations and benefits established in an exchange relationship, such as an employment relationship in an organizational setting. A psychological contract breach is a subjective experience referred to the perception of one of the parties that the other has failed to adequately fulfill its obligations and promises. Breaches have been systematically connected to employees’ attitudes and behaviors that hamper the employment relationship. Despite its apparent clarity, some relevant topics about psychological contract breach, psychological contract fulfillment and the relationships with their consequences still remain unclear. The main objective of this review of reviews is to conduct a review of reviews on psychological contract breaches, considering both systematic reviews and metanalytical papers with the purpose of synthesizing the evidence to date under the psychological contract theory. Using the SPIDER tool, our systematic review of reviews focuses on: (a) Sample; (b) Phenomenon of Interest; (c) Design; (d) Evaluation; and (e) Research type. Finally, only eight systematic reviews and meta-analyses met the inclusion criteria. Of the eight reviews included, seven were meta-analyses while the other was a systematic quantitative review. This study describes the available empirical research on psychological contract breaches and fulfillment and summarizes the meta-analytical evidence on their relationships with attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, as well as the role of potential moderator variables. Due to the methodological caveats of the reviews themselves and of the primary studies they were based on, our conclusions about the impact of psychological contract breaches on outcomes still remain tentative. Full article

Employee turnover is expensive and disruptive for an organization. Studies have already mentioned that the economic cost of turnover is huge, ranging from 90% to 200% of the existing employee’s salary. With an increase in turnover rate, the social fabric of an enterprise may be disrupted. Additionally, organizations with an increasing turnover are expected to lose intangible knowledge and skills, operational effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and product or service quality. In a healthcare context, an increasing turnover rate has more consequences than other sectors because the healthcare sector worldwide is already identified as a sector facing resource scarcity. Exacerbating the situation, current evidence suggests that employee turnover has been increasing globally in the healthcare sector. The literature suggests that an ethical leadership style may reduce employees’ likelihood of quitting an organization. However, such literature is sparse in healthcare, especially from the perspective of a developing economy in the Global South, which is more resource-deficient than the Global North. To fill this knowledge gap, this study investigates the relationship between ethical leadership style and turnover intentions in the healthcare context of the Global South. This study also tests the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation and psychological contract fulfillment in the above-proposed relationship. Furthermore, the conditional indirect effect of resilience is also tested. The data are collected from the hospital employees through a self-administered questionnaire. The hypothesized relationships are tested through structural equation modeling. The empirical evidence indicates that ethical leadership reduces employees’ turnover intentions significantly. The results further confirm the mediating and moderating effects of intrinsic motivation, psychological contract fulfillment, and resilience. These results have different theoretical and practical implications for the healthcare sector. The results especially highlight the role of ethical leaders in a hospital to deal with the challenge of turnover, which has been rising worldwide. Full article