Stress in the Workplace
Stress in the workplace has an impact on employee well-being and organizational performance, and recent studies indicate that perceptions of psychological contract violations are a source of stress for employees.
In other words, when employees notice that their employer is not fulfilling certain obligations, they realize that certain resources are being threatened or lost, which leads to increased stress. This study examines how stress is generated in the aftermath of a breach, depending on the organization's response to the breach.
Physiological (i.e., heart rate) and psychological (self-report) data will be used to examine the impact of different types of social explanations (i.e., denial, apology, blame, and justification of immunity) on an individual's stress resolution process.
Psychological Contract Violation and
The experiment was conducted using a design of experiments manipulating social account types. To test our hypotheses, we performed two sets of functional principal component analyses, one to examine the impact of breach and the other to examine the impact of social account.
Results.
We found that the violations elicited a physiological stress response, which was reflected in a short-term increase in heart rate. However, we are unable to confirm the increase in self-reported stress measures. Furthermore, there was no significant effect of social explanations on the psychological and physiological recovery process.
In conclusion, we have observed an increase in heart rate as a response to stress in the workplace, but we have not been able to confirm any self-reported increase in stress.
Achnak, S., Schippers, A. & Vantilborgh, T. To deny, to justify, or to apologize: Do social accounts influence stress levels in the aftermath of psychological contract breach? To deny, to justify, or to apologize: Do social accounts influence stress levels in the aftermath of psychological contract breach? BMC Psychol 9, 5 (2021). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-020-00505-2
Summary
This study does not show that increased heart rate is the only effect of "psychological contract breach" on the accumulation of mental stress. Since the study is about psychological contract violation, the only thing that applies to the real thing is when a boss betrays what he promised.
Isn't that a common occurrence? For example, he may tell you that you can go home after working until a certain time today, but when he gets busy, he may ask you to stay a little longer, or he may tell you that he will give you an incentive if you meet your target by a certain date, but he may not give you any reason.
In such cases, your heart rate increases and your body becomes tense, and the repetition of this may cause your body and mind to become overwhelmed.
So, don't make promises you can't keep.
