The relationship between psychological contract breach and job insecurity or stress in employees engaged in the restaurant business

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between psychological contract breach and job insecurity or stress in employees engaged in the restaurant business. To do this, four hypotheses were proposed. First, job insecurity has a significant positive effect on psychological contract breach. Second, job insecurity has a significant positive effect on job stress. Third, psychological contract breach has a significant positive effect on job stress. Fourth, job insecurity has a significant positive effect on job stress via psychological contract breach. Then, eligible respondents (n = 384; 183 men and 201 women) were recruited from a total of five restaurant business companies and then evaluated for a self-administered questionnaire survey. Results showed not only that job insecurity had a significant positive effect on psychological contract breach and job stress but also that psychological contract breach had a significant positive effect on job stress and mediated the interaction between job insecurity and stress. It can therefore be concluded that restaurant business owners should establish rational criteria for compensating job insecurity and stress arising from psychological contract breach in employees engaged in the restaurant business because of an inconsistency between psychological contract breach arising from job insecurity and compensation for work performance of employees engaged in the restaurant business.