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Rousseau (1989 and elsewhere) argued that a defining feature of psychological contract breach was that once a promise had been broken it could not easily be repaired and therefore that the effects of psychological contract breach outweighed those of psychological contract fulfillment. Using two independent longitudinal surveys, this paper investigated whether changes in breach and fulfillment differentially affected work-related attitudes and affective well-being outcomes. Results generally supported differential effects, where increases in reported breach had greater effects on outcomes than increases in fulfillment, for the outcomes of affective wellbeing, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The present study underlined the importance of breach as a determinant of negative affect and attitudes. However, fulfillment had a lesser impact, in that it maintained (i.e., had no effect) or had only a modest positive effect on wellbeing and attitudes. (Contains 4 tables.)

This paper serves as an introduction to this issue focused on the importance of work-life balance. Developments at work, in organizations and in society at large are drawing attention to the importance of work-life balance. Work-life balance cannot be understood unless we continue to understand the role that leisure plays in this relationship. Leisure has been described as a coping resource and a coping strategy that has strong active and passive components. Its role as a coping strategy is, quite clearly from the papers presented, complex. This complexity should not be ignored, nor should researchers use this complexity to ignore the explanatory potential that resides in such a construct. Challenges exist for those wishing to research the role of leisure as a coping strategy. Challenges are also there for those wishing to further develop the role of leisure counseling and the knowledge that must be shared and developed by researchers and practitioners alike. There is also the challenge to better understand contextual issues and how they influence leisure attitudes. This understanding should focus not only on what may be described as more global issues like the changing nature of work and leisure but also focus at the level of the individual. Here the emphasis should be on exploring both those developmental processes that influence leisure attitudes and the way individuals assign importance to why they engage in leisure activities and how these reasons influence the role leisure is performing and the way different leisure activities are being used.

The past three decades have seen an explosion of interest into the nature, causes and consequences of stress in both work and non-work settings. Given that leisure is of growing importance in most people's lives and that the impact of stress influences the way in which leisure is used, then the role that leisure plays as a means of coping with stress represents an important research agenda. In order to explore leisure's role in coping with work stress this research explored, using a sample of secondary school principals and deputy principals, three issues: (1) why an involvement in leisure was important, (2) what reasons were given as to why leisure was important to cope with stress, and (3) what coping strategies were actually used to cope with stress in relation to whether or not leisure had always been regarded as an important part of life. Each of these issues was explored using a technique called sequential tree analysis. This technique identifies patterns of data and arranges them in hierarchical order to provide a visual display that captures the richness of relationships not always present when more traditional methods are used. The different patterns that emerged point to the complex role that leisure plays. The results also point to the need to better understand combinations and patterns before it is possible to determine the exact nature of the presumed emotion-focused role that leisure may play in coping with work stress. These findings have implications for stress management interventions and the role of leisure in them and the need to distinguish between the meanings people give to the importance of leisure as distinct from the actual use of leisure as a coping strategy.

Despite the enthusiasm for coping research, reviewers are concerned that much of the research has failed to live up to expectations as to its practical relevance. Yet the debate about the application of coping research is not short on writers pointing the way forward. By examining a number of issues at the heart of the debate on coping research this paper focuses on what may be ways of bridging the gap between coping research and practice. What follows is a discussion around the belief that if coping research is to become more clinically relevant, then researchers need to make better use of transactional models of stress. More specifically this paper points to the explanatory potential in concepts like appraisal that provide the psychological links between the individual and the stressful encounter. Moreover if coping researchers are to focus on more process-focused models, then what is needed is a time of quiet reconstruction where researchers consider where current methodologies are taking us and what alternative methods can provide. The argument here is that coping research needs to adopt measurement methods that reflect the techniques of clinicians. The emphasis is for coping methods to become more ecologically sensitive, person- and meaning-centred, daily processing and narrative in application.

This research explored whether respondents who self-identified as New Zealand Europeans experienced less bullying and less severe outcomes than those who self-identified as Maori, Pacific Island or other ethnic groups. Social support was also examined as a potential buffer against the negative effects of bullying. One thousand, seven hundred and thirty-three respondents from four sectors (health, education, hospitality and travel) responded to a self-report questionnaire. Despite reporting higher levels of bullying than New Zealand Europeans, Pacific Island and Asian/Indian respondents reported lower levels of psychological strain. A possible explanation for this may lie in the somewhat higher levels of supervisor support reported by Pacific Island, Asian/Indian and Maori respondents, compared to those who self-identified as New Zealand European. Respondents with more supportive supervisors and colleagues reported experiencing less bullying and less strain. Bullying was related to negative outcomes for all groups. The implications of these findings for management of workplace bullying are discussed. Keywords: Bullying, strain, social support, ethnicity, Workplace bullying is defined as a situation where a person feels they have repeatedly been on the receiving end of negative actions from one or more other people, in a [...]

Workplace bullying is known to be a psychosocial stressor for targets. Meanwhile, the effects of bullying on observers have received scant attention. This study investigated whether greater exposure to bullying, through observation as well as direct experience, was associated with a poorer work environment, and poorer individual wellbeing and work attitudes. Data were collected from 1733 employees, with 586 of these identified as suitable for further analyses. From the total, 13% (225) had neither experienced nor ever observed bullying, 3% (53) were categorized as observers, 13% (228) were identified as targets, and 5% (80) as both observers and targets. Planned statistical data contrasts across the four groups showed that non-bullied employees had the most positive perceptions of the work environment followed by observers, then targets, and finally those who had been both observers and targets. Broadly similar results were found for individual wellbeing and work attitudes. These results support the negative impact of observing bullying, with greatest impact for those who are both observers and targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullying at work, a severe form of anti-social behaviour, has become an issue of major concern to workers, organisations, unions and governments. It has also received considerable attention in organisational behaviour and human resource management research over the past 20+ years. Research has been conducted on the prevalence of bullying at work and factors which contribute to bullying, but less attention has been accorded to personal coping with bullying and organisational-level responses to counteract bullying. The present paper reports findings from a survey of over 1700 employees of 36 organisations in New Zealand. We describe the reported incidence of bullying at work, along with relevant work attitudes and experiences, including psychological strain, ratings of subjective well-being, and levels of commitment to the organisation. Personal experience of bullying was reported by 17.8% of respondents, and was significantly correlated with higher levels of strain, reduced well-being, reduced commitment to their organisation, and lower self-rated performance. Personal coping strategies were generally unrelated to these outcomes. On the other hand, the perceived effectiveness of organisational efforts to deal with bullying was considered an important contributor to both the occurrence of bullying and reduced negative effects of bullying. Overall, our findings illustrate the importance of developing organisational-level strategies to reduce the incidence of bullying and to counteract its negative impact, rather than expecting individuals to develop personal strategies to cope with this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study aimed to evaluate the development of benefit schemes in China since the commencement of economic reforms in 1978 and to examine whether the current provision of employee benefits was associated with organizational outcomes. Based on the results of interviews with 16 HR managers/directors from different firms across China’s industries, this study concluded that the present benefit types in China have become more varied and more attractive to employees compared to those in the planned economy period. The reasons were identified (e.g. employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)), profit sharing, travel incentive and flexible benefit plans being adopted). In addition, this study found that provision of employee benefits was generally perceived to have an impact on organizational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]