When does breach not lead to violation? A dual perspective of psychological contract in hotels in times of crisis

Implicit psychological contract (PC) represents the dynamic employee-employer relationship, and unlike explicit human resource (HR) practices, PC is an underexplored topic in the crisis management literature. By capturing the dual perspective of hotel employers and employees through interviews, this study investigates the content of PCs and breaches of PCs during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The study identifies salient dimensions of employer obligations such as safety assurance and of employee obligations such as personal protection. While employees emphasized the transactional contracts to protect their individual interests, the employers tried to balance the transactional and relational contracts. The study proposes a dynamic PC breach model that indicates contract breaches lead to varied responses through a complex interpretation process. In general, the study suggests that ensuring mutual consideration is the best way for hotel employees and employers to pull through a crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

A psychological contract perspective to managing the employment relationship during the covid-19 pandemic in the aviation industry

Although the literature on psychological contracts is rich, researchers have so far paid limited attention to psychological contracts in times of crisis. To investigate how employees assess their psychological contracts during a crisis, we conducted 32 semistructured interviews during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. The interviewees worked in the airline industry, which the pandemic severely affected. Our qualitative approach allowed us to gain novel insights into the mechanisms by which contracts are managed when the typical parameters of contract assessment are not possible, thereby allowing us to expand psychological contract theory. In addition to illustrating the key employer obligations that employees perceived during a crisis, we introduce two novel theoretical concepts -psychological contract credit and psychological contract inactivation - that explain how employees managed their contracts during the crisis. The practical findings of this study are of relevance to HR managers in managing future crises and addressing the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The Effect of Remote Work on Family and Work Dynamics Within the Sport Industry

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of required remote work on work-family spillover within U.S. college sport. In particular, we examined the changes in work-family spillover (positive and negative), job commitment, and workaholism as employee's work environment changed from traditional work expectations to work from home, and if these changes were, at least partially, due to parental responsibilities. Data were collected from full-time, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic department employees (n =1,139) in November 2019 and again in May 2020 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and after the transition to remote work. Results showed that sport employees found a number of benefits associated with working remotely, including a significant decrease in negative work-family spillover. However, employees with children at home reported higher levels of negative family-work spillover after going to remote work. Workaholism was also higher after the move to remote work. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Analysing the impacts of Universal Basic Income in the changing world of work: Challenges to the psychological contract and a future research agenda

Technological developments within advanced economies are impacting organisations and working lives. With the advent of 'Industry 4.0', Universal Basic Income (UBI) is being cast as a potential 'buffer'-a social safety net-to the restructuring of organisations, jobs, and economies that are already underway. The Covid-19 pandemic is providing an additional impetus as governments instigate similar safety nets as employment falls in the wake of the virus. To date, much of the debate concerning UBI has taken place in disciplines outside the auspices of Human Resource Management with most commentary occurring within the spheres of economics and social policy. This conceptual study is one of the first within the human resource management (HRM) field to address the potential impacts of UBI on orientations to work and the management of employees. To do this, we focus on a central underpinning theory within HRM, the psychological contract and how this might be affected by its introduction. Finally, a research agenda is developed that provides options by which we might explore the implications of UBI for the practice of HRM when and if such schemes are implemented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The effects of unexpected changes to content delivery on student learning outcomes: A psychological contract perspective during the COVID-19 era.

Meta-analyses suggest that student learning outcomes (SLOs) are comparable across modalities of instruction. None of these studies examined how unmet student expectations (here, unexpected changes in course delivery) might increase perceptions of student-instructor-university psychological contract breaches (PCBs) and, ultimately, perceived SLOs within and across modalities. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to study these potential relationships because many residential institutions of higher education opted into, or were required to, offer distance and/or blended learning to accommodate COVID-19 safety mandates. This study sampled undergraduate students (n = 155) from a university, which, before the pandemic, offered exclusively face-to-face classroom instruction. During the Fall 2020 semester, however, this university offered three modalities of instruction: (1) face-to-face; (2) blended learning; and (3) distance education. The results of this study suggest that perceived PCBs by instructors and universities negatively influence underling indices of student achievement in terms of motivation, engagement, and learning within and across modalities of instruction. Given this and near universal decrements in student enrollment and retention in institutions of higher education, it is important for universities and instructors to understand, explicitly and transparently negotiate, and meet student expectations to improve student progression to graduation and maintain competitiveness among similar institutions.

The psychological contracts of university professional staff: expectations, obligations and benefits

The psychological contract shapes people's perceptions and behaviours in the workplace through how people perceive and react to feedback from their environment. Little research has been carried out on the psychological contracts of university professional staff and this oversight is particularly problematic due to the impact that the psychological contract has on employee wellbeing and performance. An online survey instrument was utilised incorporating previously validated measures of psychological contract breach, satisfaction, and positive and negative affect. 226 responses to the survey were analysed through a hierarchical linear regression analysis. This research finds that the psychological contract and psychological contract breach can be conceptualised as either contemporary or traditional, incorporating elements from those career orientations. This article concludes that psychological contract expectations of contemporary career factors are one of the most important predictor variables of psychological contract breach alongside satisfaction. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Going forward: Remote working in the post-COVID-19 era

Purpose: The urgent and unexpected transition to remote working during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic calls for an increased focus on the contemporary workplace, especially for the post-COVID-19 era. While most studies undertaken during the pandemic have focused on the consequences of remote working, this study, using the UK as the research context, focuses on the factors that may facilitate the effectiveness of remote working in the post-COVID-19 era from the perspectives of employees and employers. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses the interpretivist philosophical perspective to understand the study participants' subjective meanings and experiences. It utilises a qualitative approach, specifically data drawn from the semi-structured interviews of 31 participants. Findings: The study highlights the factors that may facilitate the effectiveness of remote working in the post-COVID-19 era. Flexible working preferences, smart working practices, self-discipline, and leadership roles and expectations emerge as enablers of remote working among the participants. It is evident from the study's findings that both employers and employees have expectations about remote working conditions. Originality/value: Due to the changing work environment, where remote working is becoming more acceptable, this study focuses on a salient topic that examines how remote working may be facilitated effectively in the post-COVID-19 era. Thus, it makes predictions concerning the future of remote working post-COVID-19. It also emphasises that employers and employees have developed clear expectations about facilitating remote working and seek to meet these expectations by implementing various strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Business Process Transformation During Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to change their business processes under the constraint that they have to try reducing the face-to-face contact between their employees and customers. In this paper, the authors present the results of an analysis of business process transformation (BPT) during the COVID-19 pandemic from the viewpoint of a psychological contract and communication tool. The concept of the psychological contract was developed by Rousseau. In order to clarify the relationship between the psychological contract and the BPT effect, the authors developed a research model that consists of a psychological contract of an ordinary work environment, a psychological contract of BPT and BPT effectiveness. A survey was conducted in October, 2021 for the analysis. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Role of Psychological Contracts in Enhancing Employee Creativity Through Knowledge Sharing: Do Boundary Conditions of Organization's Socialization and Work-Related Curiosity Matter?

COVID-19 has had a huge impact on workers and workplaces across the world while putting regular work practices into disarray. Apart from the obvious effects of COVID-19, the pandemic is anticipated to have a variety of social-psychological, health-related, and economic implications for individuals at work. Despite extensive research on psychological contracts and knowledge sharing, these domains of pedagogic endeavor have received relatively little attention in the context of employee creativity subjected to the boundary conditions of the organization's socialization and work-related curiosity. This study investigates, empirically, the role of psychological contracts in escalating employee creativity through knowledge sharing by considering the moderating role of an organization's socialization and work-related curiosity. The response received from 372 employees of the manufacturing sector has been investigated and analyzed through Smart PLS software. The results have revealed that knowledge sharing is mediating the relationship between psychological contract and employee creative performance, whereas the moderators significantly moderate the relationships between psychological contract and knowledge sharing and between knowledge sharing and employee creative performance accordingly. It has also been depicted that the moderating impact shown by both moderators is significantly high.

The future of work: Implications for organisational design and the psychological contract

The definition of work has been significantly impacted by the rise of the open talent economy and a greater focus on outcome-based work design. These changes have led to a reconceptualisation of the psychological contract as organisations seek new ways of work to achieve sustainable success, whilst employees are expecting work design as part of an attractive employee value proposition. With the acceleration of the changing world of work it has become imperative to explore how organisations respond to the changing psychological contract. The chapter provides a high-level and speculative perspective on the trends that will impact the world of work over the coming years and positions these trends as changes to what we refer to as 'work'. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Redefining the psychological contract in the digital era: Issues for research and practice

This book introduces the psychological contract as a multi-level contextual construct and closes some of the knowledge gaps on the nature of the digital era psychological contract. The digital era psychological contract gives rise to a new type of employer-employee relationship manifesting at the nexus between people and technology in a post-COVID-19 world. The book volume provides promising new approaches for psychological contract research, offering a rich compendium of reflections on the shifts in employer-employee expectations and obligations, as well as suggestions for future research and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The art of gamifying digital gig workers: a theoretical assessment of evaluating engagement and motivation

The COVID-19 global pandemic has transformed work and employment patterns within organizations. Two key emerging trends visible at the organization level are as follows. First, employees being asked to leave (which has mostly been seen within the aviation, hospitality, and travel industries) and second, employees asking to work part-time or on a contractual basis (e.g. within the education and healthcare sectors). This so-called ‘new normal’ has also given rise to an unprecedented increase and diffusion of digital workforces being engaged either full or part time within organizations. Thus, through our study, we aimed to contribute from a theoretical standpoint by exploring this phenomenon through the lenses of swift trust theory (STT) and psychological contract theory (PCT). Our goal was to understand how firms use gamification to engage their digital gig workforce. We collected our data from organizations that used some form of gamification in the process of engaging their employees and extended our inquiry to understand whether they did the same in engaging their gig workforces. We restricted our data to only those firms that had engaged white-collar gig workers. Overall, our study contributes to the literature by extending the theoretical debate pertaining to the use of STT and PCT theory to understand the phenomenon of digital gig workforce engagement and productivity. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Above and beyond: helping behaviors among nurses in positive and negative reciprocity relationships

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore antecedents of helping behaviors among nurses using a social exchange framework. The paper reports an investigation into the effects of reciprocity, perceived coworker efficacy and stress on active and passive helping behaviors. Design/methodology/approach To test hypotheses, the authors performed random coefficient modeling on Mplus with data from 155 full-time nurses. Findings Nurses were willing to help coworkers regardless of perceived reciprocity levels in the relationship. Rather, their perceptions of the coworker's efficacy and previous behavior predicted helping. Originality/value This manuscript contributes to the literature in a number of ways. First, it provides empirical evidence that individuals will suppress or ignore reciprocity norms during an interdependent task. This lends credence to the idea that social exchanges may need to be examined in light of other variables or at other levels of analysis. Second, it demonstrates that investment behaviors (i.e. helping) can and do occur in exchange relationships despite low reciprocity. Overall, the data suggest that individuals are willing to maintain relationships despite a lack of returns.

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT BREACH: THE DISRUPTION OF A WORK FROM HOME SCHEDULE

The COVID-19 Pandemic created a chain reaction that fundamentally altered many employees' day-to-day lives. In this study, we observe the impact of this shock on the breach of the employees' psychological contract. Through the lens of affective event theory, we test the research model using survey data from 239 employees who worked from home during the pandemic. Findings suggest that moving to a work from home schedule undermines the trust between the employees and employers, which, in turn, leads to an increase of work-life conflict for those working from home and promotes recognition of a breach of psychological contract. © AoM 2021.All right reserved.