Examining the mediating-moderating role of psychological contract breach and abusive supervision on employee well-being in banking sector

Abstract

Previous research rarely examined the antecedents of employee wellbeing with the interactive effect of abusive supervision and mediating impact of psychological contract breach especially in the developing country context. Drawing upon the social exchange theory, this study attempts to bridge a research gap by investigating work engagement, work-life balance, and turnover intention with employee well-being directly and through the moderating and mediation effects of abusive supervision and psychological contract breach. To validate these relationships, 208 employees who are working in banks of Pakistan were investigated, through a survey-based questionnaire. The Smart PLS 3.0 was employed to measure the association and test the hypotheses in which structural equation modelling played a role in checking the relationships among variables. The results demonstrate that work engagement, work-life balance, and turnover intention directly affect employee well-being. This study also found that psychological contract breach has a partial mediation effect between work engagement, work-life balance, turnover intention, and abusive supervision with employee well-being. Additionally, Saba Gulzar ABOUT THE AUTHORS Saba Gulzar is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM), Pakistan. She has more than 13 years of teaching. Experience her main focus: employee wellbeing, psychological contract, employee competencies and abusive supervision. She is a reviewer for few research journals. She is also a PhD Scholar.Nadia Ayub is an Associate Dean at College of Economics & Social Development, Institute of Business Management (IoBM), Pakistan. She has more than 15 years teaching experience. Her area of research, includes psychometrics, organizational behavior, and positive psychology.

The influence of the psychological contract on employee engagement in a South African bank

“…The concept of the psychological contract has attracted attention mostly for two reasons; first, it is a way of understanding and managing the attitude and behaviours of employees within a company ( Agarwal et al, 2021 ); and secondly, it helps us understand how the relationship between employee and employer evolves ( Griep and Vantilborgh, 2018 ). A breach of a psychological contract occurs when either the employee or employer feels that the other party has not fulfilled a perceived expectation ( Gulzar et al, 2021 ). A breach of this contract can lead to either party feeling psychologically and emotionally aggrieved, therefore leading to a loss of loyalty, motivation, and overall, duty underperformance ( Gulzar et al, 2021 ).…”

“…A breach of a psychological contract occurs when either the employee or employer feels that the other party has not fulfilled a perceived expectation ( Gulzar et al, 2021 ). A breach of this contract can lead to either party feeling psychologically and emotionally aggrieved, therefore leading to a loss of loyalty, motivation, and overall, duty underperformance ( Gulzar et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Organisations have to meet the expectations created to ensure that employees are engaged with the organisation’s objectives ( Dash, 2021 ). When employees’ expectations are not met, this can result in a breach of the psychological contract, as such a breach is defined as an organisation’s failure to meet the created expectations ( Gulzar et al, 2021 ). Breach of the psychological contract may negatively affect the employee’s attitudes and behaviours toward an organisation, leading to a loss of confidence, respect, and possible negative emotional responses ( Abbas and Al Hasnawia, 2020 ).…”

Consequences of abusive supervision on Indian service sector professionals: a PLS-SEM-based approach

“…To fulfil the supervisors’ expectations, customer requirements, organizational targets and the repetitive and mundane nature of tasks, the employees undergo a lot of pressure (Wang and Wang, 2020). Additionally, supervisory abuse (Gulzar et al , 2021) and mistreatment such as ostracism (Wang et al , 2020) create harmful effects on an employee’s well-being. As per COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989), resilience acts as a possible cause of vigour (Davies et al , 2019) and permits an individual to remain energetic, engaged and involved in essential life chores even during difficult times (Hobfoll et al , 2018).…”

Influence of psychological contract fulfillment on job outcomes: A case of the academic sphere in Jordan

“…On the other hand, several empirical studies reported that breaching a psychological contract is one of the primary reasons influencing workers' performance (Amoah et al, 2021;Gulzar et al, 2021;Said et al, 2021). The breach of a psychological contract occurs when the fulfillment of one of the obligations interferes with a psychological contract between employer and employee, which leads to adverse consequences influencing satisfaction and mutual trust (Jayaweera et al, 2021).…”