심리적 계약위반이 스트레스에 미치는 영향:긍정심리자본의 매개효과

Modern organizations constantly change their processes and structures in order to meet the requirements of continuously changing external environments. The changes within organizations, however, may influence the effectiveness of organizational members as well as organizations because those changes are likely to impact on the implicit psychological contracts perceived by organizational members. Based on psychological contract theory and conservation of resources theory, the present study investigates the effect of psychological contract violation on employees’ stress. Moreover this study intended to explore the mechanism through which psychological contract violation affects employees’ stress. In order to achieve this end, this study introduced positive psychological capital and proposed the mediating role of positive psychological capital on the relationship between psychological contract violation and employees’ stress. In order to test the hypotheses, data were collected from the sample of 165 employees in the public organization which was on the process of restructuring for the management efficiency. The results of the research are summarized as follow. First, perceived psychological contract violation of employees is positively related to their stress, which indicates that when people perceive that their organization violates psychological contract, they are more likely to experience stress. Second, psychological contract violation has a negative effect on the employees’ positive psychological capital, which implies that psychological contract violation is supposed to reduce the level of psychological capital of the focal people. Third, when employees have more psychological capital, they experience less stress. Finally, employees’ psychological capital partially mediates the relationship between psychological contract violation and stress. In summary, the findings of this study suggests that the violation of psychological contract by organization might reduce the psychological state of their employees, which in turn have them experience high level of stress. Psychological capital reduced by the perception of psychological contract violation not only becomes the factor increases stress but makes the person not to be very efficient to handle stressful situations. These results suggest several theoretical and practical implications. First, this study shows the hidden mediating mechanism of psychological capital on the relationship between psychological contract and stress. Second, this study suggests that managers should recognize importance of psychological contract of organizational members in the process of change management of organizations.