Work and Organizational Psychology (WOPs), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
Experimental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
BMC Psychol. 2021 Jan 6;9(1):5. doi: 10.1186/s40359-020-00505-2.
Workplace stress carries considerable costs for the employees' wellbeing and for the organization's performance. Recent studies demonstrate that perceptions of psychological contract breach are a source of stress for employees. That is, when employees notice that their employer does not fulfil certain obligations, they will perceive that certain resources are threatened or lost, which in turn translates into increased stress. In this study, we zoom in on how stress unfolds in the aftermath of breach, dependent on the organization's reaction to the breach. More specifically, we examined the influence of different types of social accounts (i.e., denial, apology, blaming and exonerating justification) on individuals' stress resolution process using physiological (i.e., heart rate) and psychological (self-report) data.
We used an experimental design in which we manipulated psychological contract breach and social account type. To test our hypotheses, we performed two sets of functional Principal Component Analyses: first to examine the effects of breach and second to examine the effects of social accounts.
Our results indicate that breach elicits a physiological stress reaction, reflected in a short-lived increase in heart rate. However, no increase in the self-reported stress measure was found. Further, we did not find a significant effect of social accounts on the psychological and physiological recovery process.
The current research allows us to demonstrate that psychological contract breach will trigger a short-lived increase in heart rate. Further research is needed to better understand unfolding trajectories of physiological reactions to contract breach and the effect of social accounts as organizational recovery efforts.
工作场所压力给员工的健康和组织的绩效带来了相当大的成本。最近的研究表明，心理契约违背感是员工压力的一个来源。也就是说，当员工注意到他们的雇主没有履行某些义务时，他们会认为某些资源受到威胁或丧失，这反过来又会增加压力。在这项研究中，我们关注的是在违反后的情况下压力是如何展开的，这取决于组织对违反的反应。更具体地说，我们使用生理（即心率）和心理（自我报告）数据，研究了不同类型的社会账户（即否认、道歉、指责和开脱理由）对个体压力缓解过程的影响。
我们使用了一个实验设计，在这个设计中，我们操纵了心理契约违背和社会账户类型。为了检验我们的假设，我们进行了两组功能主成分分析：首先检验违背的影响，其次检验社会账户的影响。
我们的结果表明，违背会引起生理应激反应，表现为心率的短暂升高。然而，自我报告的压力测量值并没有增加。此外，我们没有发现社会账户对心理和生理恢复过程有显著影响。
本研究允许我们证明心理契约违背会引发心率的短暂升高。需要进一步研究，以更好地理解对契约违背的生理反应的展开轨迹，以及社会账户作为组织恢复努力的效果。
