Do broken promises matter? The effects of psychological contract breach on job embeddedness and nurses' work attitudes

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-07-2021-0143
• Published date: 03 May 2022
• Date: 03 May 2022
• Pages: 515-533
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Healthcare management,HR & organizational behaviour,Human resource policy,Employee welfare
• Author: Decha Dechawatanapaisal

Do broken promises matter? The

effects of psychological contract

breach on job embeddedness and

nurses’work attitudes

Decha Dechawatanapaisal

Chulalongkorn Business School, Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy,

Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Purpose –This research investigates the effects of psychological contract breach on the fit, links and sacrifice

dimensions of job embeddedness as well as the mediating roles of these three subcomponents in the

relationships between psychological contract breach and nurses’work attitudes.

Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected from 591 nurses from private general hospitals in

northern Thailand. The hypotheses were tested and analyzed by means of a confirmatory factor analysis,

structural equation modeling and a bootstrapping procedure.

Findings –The results indicate that psychological contract breach was negatively associated with the three

dimensions of job embeddedness, signifying that the fit, links and sacrifice dimensions are distinct constructs.

Also, these three subcomponents mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and loyal

boosterism. Only the links and sacrifice dimensions were found to have mediating effects on turnover intention.

Research limitations/implications –Future research may consider longitudinal data to avoid potential

method biases and draw causal inferences among study variables. Employing cross-cultural research in future

studies would also be beneficial.

Practical implications –If possible, health care organizations should not make any promises that they

cannot keep or fulfill. Fine-tuning expectation and managing communication in a timely manner may signal

commitments to fulfill the contracts and minimize any potential inducement-outcome discrepancies.

Originality/value –This study adds to the literature by furthering understanding of the employee-

organization relationship through the lens of psychological contract and job embeddedness theories.

Keywords Psychological contract, Job embeddedness, Organization citizenship behavior, Loyal boosterism,

Turnover intention, Nurse

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Today’s health care situation highlights the global nursing shortage, which is a critical issue

in many countries (Moloney et al., 2018). The World Health Organization (2020) has predicted

that there will be a shortage of nurses in the next ten years, which would be a key concern for

health care managers. The health care sector is also challenged by a decreasing workforce

and deals with higher patient expectation levels, advanced technological developments and

increasing demands upon nursing care due to an aging population (Buchan et al., 2015). This

applies to Thailand, the location of the present study, as well as to other countries (Khunthar,

2014;Abhicharttibutra et al., 2016). These trends are challenging for the nursing profession,

and influence workforce’s decision to leave their job. As a result, the issue of staff retention

Effects of

psychological

contract breach

515

The researcher would like to thank each hospital’s executive committee who supported this work and

also the respondents who voluntarily participated in the survey.

Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial

or not-for-profit sectors.

Conflict of interest: No conflict of interest to declare.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/1753-8351.htm

Received 30 July 2021

Revised 8 December 2021

24 March 2022

Accepted 19 April 2022

InternationalJournal of Workplace

Health Management

Vol. 15 No. 4, 2022

pp. 515-533

© Emerald Publishing Limited

1753-8351

DOI 10.1108/IJWHM-07-2021-0143

has become critical worldwide to ensure high-quality health care services. From a managerial

perspective, it is of great importance to gain more comprehensive knowledge and better

understanding of nurses’experiential viewpoints, to determine which factors cause desirable

work attitudes and behaviors and to encourage nurses to remain with their job and

organization (Haaland et al., 2021).

This study is based on job embeddedness theory (Mitchell et al.,2001), which

represents a broad set of influences on an employee’sdecisiontostayonthejob.Unlike

conventional models of retention, job embeddedness highlights the accumulated non-

affective reasons for why people are willing to stay, and are motivated to better perform

(Kiazad et al.,2015;Lee et al.,2014). A number of studies have followed this research

direction and reported that highly embedded employees are less likely to quit (e.g.

Bambacas and Kulik, 2013;Dechawatanapaisal, 2017;Thakur and Bhatnagar, 2017).

Additionally, subsequent research has extended the literature by further linking job

embeddedness to non-turnover outcomes such as innovative behaviors (Ng and Feldman,

2010), job performance (Karatepe, 2016) and organization citizenship behavior (OCB)

(Takeuchi et al.,2015).

Despite the growing body of related research, there is still much to uncover. Further

investigation is needed, particularly to determine how job embeddedness is induced so that

employees and organizations can be psychologically attached, and what processes lead them

to detachment (Kiazad et al., 2018;Lee et al., 2014;Nguyen et al., 2017). Though Moloney et al.’s

(2018) study underscores the need for seeking ways to retain the nursing workforce in today’s

changing work environments, a review of the literature suggests that evidence about nurses’

perceptions of job embeddedness is still limited (Dechawatanapaisal, 2018;Karatepe and

Avci, 2019). These indicate the need for more empirical research, especially of the antecedents

that clarify how nurses become embedded, and of the related influences on their work

attitudes and behaviors.

Key to understanding the employee-organization relationship and feeling of attachment is

employees’psychological contracts with their organization (Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2019;

Robinson and Morrison, 2000). Psychological contracts represent beliefs held by employees

about the reciprocal obligations between themselves and their workplace, where these

commitments are based on perceived promises (Rousseau, 2001). The concept is founded on

the Social Exchange Theory (Blau, 1964), which suggests that reciprocity is an important

characteristic of social relationships. Employees tend to hold more positive work attitudes

and exhibit sound behaviors when they perceive that their psychological contracts have been

fulfilled (Conway and Coyle-Shapiro, 2012). On the other hand, this may imply that not

fulfilling or breaching such obligations may engage employees to associate with occupational

stress (Duran et al., 2019) and lead them to negatively reciprocate by adjusting their

contributions, lowering their performance, displaying undesirable behaviors or leaving their

job (Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2019;Zhao et al., 2007).

This study attempts to broaden theoretical understanding of psychological contract

effects on nurses’reactions by drawing insights from the perspective of job

embeddedness. Kiazad et al. (2018) suggest that psychological contracts are an

important source of embeddedness perceptions in the workplace. Prior studies also

confirm that either fulfillment or breach of such reciprocal obligations is likely to trigger

attitudinal and behavioral work outcomes (e.g. Conway and Coyle-Shapiro, 2012;Ghosh

et al., 2017;Jacobs et al., 2020;Lub et al., 2016). From these arguments and findings, this

study assumes that employees feel more or less embedded, intend to stay or leave or

perform their roles as usual or demonstrate extra-role work activities that go beyond their

formal tasks (e.g. protecting their workplace, promoting the organization’simageto

others), depending on how they experience the psychological contracts promised and

fulfilled by their employer.

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