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Integrating the perspectives of psychological contract and sex differences, this study examines how organizational decision to reduce labour costs influences employees' perceived psychological contract breach and their commitment to their organizations. Using two experiments, we found three-way interaction effects among the decision to reduce labour costs, employee sex, and the managerial control over the decision. The decision of labour costs reduction leads to stronger feelings of psychological contract breach for females when the decision is in low than in high levels of managerial control, but the same decision leads to stronger psychological contract breach for males when the decision is in high than in low levels of managerial control. Furthermore, the indirect effect of labour costs reduction on employees' organizational commitment through psychological contract breach is also contingent upon the interaction between employee sex and managerial control. Our findings expand the literature of psychological contract and shed light on timely practical issues of management's decisions regarding labour costs reduction. Practitioner points Labour costs reductions in economic downturns lead to different responses from employees, and managers are advised to plan their actions bearing in mind such differences., Management in crisis or difficulties calls for more delicate considerations of employees' psychological feelings towards the organization., Nuanced empirical evidence informs us about the different needs and responses of a diverse group of employees and how their responses contradict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on conservation of resources ( COR) theory, this study examines conditions under which psychological contract breach relates to employees' use of work-role innovation as a means to acquire or conserve resources. Specifically, we used the organizational embeddedness dimensions of links, person-organization ( P- O) fit, and sacrifices ( Mitchell et al., , Academy of Management Journal, 44, 1102) to capture the kinds of resources that are likely to determine whether breach relates to more (resource acquisition) or less (resource conservation) innovation. We expected breach to relate to more innovation among employees with more links, better P- O fit, or fewer sacrifices. Using survey data from 90 university professionals and alumni in Australia, we found that links, P- O fit, and sacrifices moderated the breach-innovation relationship as hypothesized. Specifically, breach was related to more innovation after 6 months among employees with more links, better P- O fit, or fewer perceived sacrifices, as compared to those with fewer links, lower P- O fit, or greater perceived sacrifices. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed. Practitioner points To promote constructive employee responses to resource loss, organizations should find ways to increase employees' instrumental social and psychological resources., Employees' social resources (links) can be increased through social events, mentoring programmes, or the use of role models during on-the-job socialization., Building employees' psychological resources ( P- O fit) starts with recruitment and selection. Realistic information about the organization's values should be provided to job candidates, so they can make informed choices about their compatibility with this value system., Binding employees to the organization with material and psychological job benefits (e.g., bonuses and interesting projects) might not encourage constructive employee responses to resource loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study explored newcomer turnover in a unique population: dirty workers. Based on social identity theory (SIT) and conservation of resources theory (COR), a set of individual level predictors theoretically relevant to dirty work turnover were identified. We examined whether differences in access to job information prior to hire, career commitment, belief in the value of the job, negative affectivity (NA), and maladaptive coping style were related to turnover of animal shelter employees with euthanasia responsibilities. Results supported the potential importance of all variables for understanding turnover amongst these dirty workers. Access to job information, NA, and maladaptive coping style were found to have the highest relative importance amongst the set of predictors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curvilinear relationships between role stress and innovative performance were explored in a study conducted in Taiwan and mainland China. Results showed that when perceived support for innovation was low, role conflict showed a U-shaped relationship with both self-rated and supervisor-rated innovative performance, which contrasts sharply with the well known inverted U-shaped relationship between challenge stress and performance. Role ambiguity showed a similar but weaker pattern with regard to supervisor-rated innovative performance. When perceived support for innovation was high, role conflict showed a generally positive relationship with both self-rated and supervisor-rated innovative performance, but role ambiguity showed no significant relationship with supervisor-rated innovative performance. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]