Assessment criteria Total marks Marks obtained A statement of the problem, research aim, objectives and research questions All criteria are equally weighted Justification and potential output of the research Conceptual framework Methodology, organisation of the study, project budget and schedule Accurate referencing, use of correct English and logical sequences between sentences and paragraphs and a good introduction Total Marks 50 Mark reduction for Turnitin similarity (It's up to the lecturer/markers/course coordinator's judgement) Mark reduction for late submission (5% mark reduction for each day of late submission) Grand total = 50BUSN20016 Research Proposal 1 Assessing Impact of Breaching Psychological Contracts on Employment Relationship from the Employers’ Perspective Student’s name: Stduent’s ID: School of Business and Law CQUniversity Australia Brisbane A research proposal submitted to the School of Business and Law, in fulfilment of the requirements of BUSN20016 (Research in Business) for the degree of Master of Management for EngineersBUSN20016 Research Proposal 2 October 2016 Table of Contents SECTION 1 ...........................................................................................................................3 Introduction .........................................................................................................................3 Problem statement................................................................................................................5 Research aim and objectives ..............................................................................................7 Justification of the project...................................................................................................8 Potential research output...................................................................................................10 SECTION2 ..........................................................................................................................11 Conceptual framework ......................................................................................................11 Methodology .......................................................................................................................17 SECTION3 ..........................................................................................................................18 Organisation of the study .................................................................................................18 Gantt chart & Milestone chart ........................................................................................19 Project budget and budget justification ..........................................................................20BUSN20016 Research Proposal 3 References ..........................................................................................................................21 Section 1 Introduction This research proposal assesses the impact of breaching psychological contracts from the employers’ perspective on employment relationships. As the first step to introduce this research, the terms psychological contracts, breaching psychological contract and employment relations will be defined, then the purpose of the assignment will be presented and finally the organisation of the assignment will be explained. To define the term psychological contracts it should be said that organisations establish reciprocal, unwritten and tacit agreements, commitments and expectations between themselves and their workers; employees’ beliefs formed by these agreements are called psychological contract (Rousseau D. , 1995; Rousseau D. M., 2004; Shahalizadegan, 2016). Psychological contract is categorized to three types; relational, transactional and hybrid. Social exchange is the key concept of a relational psychological contract whereas economic transactions are the first priority of workers who follow a transactional psychological contract. Hybrid psychological contract is a recent concept which synthesizes characteristics of relational and transactional contract (Rousseau D. M., 2004; Robinson, Kraatz, & Rousseau, 1994; Shahalizadegan, 2016). The concept of the psychological contract breach is considered as a significant aspect of psychological contracts and emerges when an employee perceives that obligations are not adequately met by the employers (Morrison & Robinson, 1997). Finally, the term employment relations is defined as a legal connection between workers and employers by which workers’ rights such as labour law and social security are protected (Employment Relationship, n.d.) As a basic research this assignment aims to comprehensively and deeply investigate the impact of psychological contracts breach from the employers’ perspective on employment relations. This investigation enables the mangers to be aware of consequences of breaching psychological contracts. As a result, some advantages of maintaining psychological contracts such as job satisfaction and organisational improvement (Rousseau D. M., 2004; Conway & Briner, 2005) can be generated within the organisation.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 4 This research is organised by three sections. The first section consists of introduction, problem statement, research aim and objectives, justification of the project, and, potential research output. Then the research is followed by the second section which includes conceptual framework and methodology. Finally, organisation of the study, project budget and budget justification, and, Gantt chart will be covered by the third section.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 5 Problem statement Although the term Psychological Contract is not a recent concept in the context of employment relations, it has been considered as a precious concept for organisations in recent years. It is for this reason that traditional employment relations have experienced significant, fundamental, quick and revolutionary changes in terms of context, issue, process and structure within the last two decades (Baruch, 2004; Jafri, 2012; Guest D. E., 2004; Zhao, Wayne, Glibkoeski, & Bravo, 2007; Guest & Conway, 2002; Tomprou, Nikolaou, & Vakola, 2012; Coyle‐Shapiro & Kessler, 2000; Arnold, 1996). Decrease of permanent employment contracts, increase of flexible and diverse employees, growth of individualism, technological and informational breakthroughs, increase of competition, globalization, and transforming organisations to a flat, downsized and outsourced structure can be indicated as some of these major changes which have had an extensive impact on the way of managing organisations (Rousseau, 2004; Guest, 2004; Baruch, 2004; Zhao et al., 2007; Herriot, Manning, & Kidd, 1997). On the other hand, organisational values have altered; money and supervision are not the solitary factors to motivate the employees to contribute to the organisational goals anymore (Rousseau, 2004; Guest, 2004). These uncertain conditions have caused a new era of career systems which need a different analytic framework called psychological contracts to understand and assess the relationship between workers and employers and fulfil organisation’s missions (Guest, 2004; Rousseau, 2004). Having said all the above, Robinson& Rousseau (1994) argue that due to the competitive environment and high-rate changes happening in the organisations, preventing psychological contracts breach has become a strongly difficult objective for managers from the mid-1980s (as cited in Restubog, Zagenczyk, Bordia, & Tang, 2013). This issue which is the main problem of this research, causes many consequenses such as reduction of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and increase of cynicism for employment relationships within the organisations (Pate, Martin, & McGoldrick, 2003). According to the explained circumstance in which maintaining a psychological contract is extremely unlikely, understanding the impact imposed by breaching psychological contractsBUSN20016 Research Proposal 6 can play a vital role for employers to try to limit the extent of psychological contract breach and establish a sufficient employment relationship in the organisations.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 7 Research objectives and questions: As it was mentioned earlier, breaching psychological contracts which is almost a nonpreventable phenomenon in the organisations (Restubog et al., 2013) has been considered as the main problem of this research. Based on this problem, investigating the impact of breaching psychological contracts on the employment relationships within the organisations is the overall goal of this research. To elaborate more on this goal some research questions will be answered within this study including: 1) What are the consequences of psychological contract breach on the employment relationship? 2)What are the situations in which breaching psychological contracts occurs? 3) How can the managers avoid breaching psychological contracts by understanding the impact of psychological contracts breach on employment relationships? 4) Is the concept of psychological contract is a prevalent event in the organisations or not? 5) Which model (full-mediated, partial mediated, direct-effect or null?) is more suitable to demonstrate the relationship among psychological contract breach and its impact on employment relationships components? 6) To what extent three components of employee reactions including affective reactions, work attitudes and work behaviours are negatively affected by breach?BUSN20016 Research Proposal 8 Justification of the project To demonstrate the importance of this research, a brief comparison between the traditional and current model of employment relationship in the organisations can play a useful role. To elaborate more on this comparison it should be said that in traditional organisations, employees were dominated by supervision and monetary stimulants (Rousseau D. M., 2004). Moreover, the workers were able to stabilize long-term security for their jobs by being loyal and hard working for the organisations (Pate et al., 2003). In opposition to traditional organisations, the employment relationship in the current structurally flattening and downsizing organisations consists of the mutual exchanges and engagements between workers and employers (Rousseau D. M., 2004). On the other hand, today’s organisations are faced with an environmentally and competitively turbulent business (Pate et al., 2003; Abu-Doleh & Hammou, 2015). Given all of the above, not only the nature of psychological contracts has changed in regard of today’s organizational environment, but also preventing psychological contracts breach has become extremely difficult. The extent of the psychological contracts breach can be expressed by Pate et al. (2003) who assert that there is an increasingly common misinterpretation and breaching of psychological contracts in the organisations. As this psychological contract breach will impose negative consequences for organisations (Bal, Chiaburu, & Jansen, 2010), assessing psychological contracts breach can be considered as an important issue which will be shown by this research. The results provided by this research can bring about some benefits including: 1) First and foremost, this research will demonstrate the impact of breaching psychological contracts from the employers’ perspective. Therefore, by knowing this impact both employers and employees can establish a more sufficient employment relationship between themselves within the organisation. 2) The results of this research make the employers aware of the impact of psychological contracts breached by them. In such a way, they will be able to revise and improve their performance in regard of their obligations and commitments toward the employees. 3) This research study causes the decision-making managers of the organisations to assess, analyse and monitor the current employment relationships in their organisations.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 9 Therefore, the supervisors can be trained to develop their knowledge and skills regarding psychological contracts. 4) Knowing the impact of psychological contracts can make the employers try to prevent breaching and it can enable the organisations to significantly generate some improvements regarding the organisational factors such as job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviours, in-role performances of workers, organisational goals and strategies, meeting customer needs and productivity. 5) Knowing the model which shows the relationship among psychological contract breach and its impact on employment relationships might help the organisations to find out the main defective breach and effectively try to address it.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 10 Potential research output Firstly, answering the presented questions of this study can be considered as one of the potential outputs of this research. Secondly, as a basic research in the context of management, this study tries to comprehend the concept of psychological contracts breach from the employers’ perspective and produce further knowledge in regard of this phenomenon. In addition to this, managerial theories can be generated by results of this study. As a result, this study will provide some beneficial outcomes for both managers and theoreticians. In other words, although preventing psychological contracts breach is considered as an approximately impossible phenomenon (Restubog et al., 2013), assessing this concept will bring about some useful results for administrative and academic audiences. To clarify, this study can be significantly helpful for executives who want to establish organisation because they will be able to use the results of this study to control and reduce the amount of breaching psychological contracts by adopting some courses of actions such as focusing on the current employment relationships and human resources training. This way, organizations’ performances can be greatly improved. The other side of the coin is that theoreticians can utilize the results of this study to expand the academic knowledge regarding the field of management especially with respect to the area of psychological contracts.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 11 Section 2 Conceptual framework Foundation of employment relationship is based on psychological contracts which have largely been the centre of attention within recent years (Roehling, 1997; Robinson & Morrison, 2000). Subsequently, fulfilment or breach of psychological contracts play a determinative and direct role to increase or lessen the amount of workers’ intentions for working in the organisations respectively (Paracha, 2014). There are some denial and affirmative points of view regarding prevalence and extent of psychological contracts breach from the employers’ perspective in the organisations. Both of these perspectives will be clarified by some statements. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that there is much more affirmative evidence. Based on research applied by Turnley and Feldman (1998), only a quarter of sampled employers stated that some aspects of psychological contracts had been breached in their workplace, however, the research’s results of Robinson and Rousseau (1994) show that about 55 per cent of the interviewed employees had claimed that one or more than commitments or promises were breached in the organisations (as cited in Robinson & Morrison, 2000). As another affirmative statement, it can be said that psychological contracts breach is an event which frequently occurs in organisations (Pate et al., 2003; Robinson & Morrison, 2000). In addition to this, Lester, Turnley, Bloodgood, & Bolino (2002) found that 65 per cent of workers expressed that there was at least one psychological contract factor which had been breached in their organisation. Based on Conway and Briner (2002), 69 per cent of employees believe that one or more commitments or obligations were broken by their employers approximately once every ten days. According to Turnley and Feldman (2000), 52 per cent of four assessed samples claimed that there was a psychological contract breach in their workplace. Also, a research applied by Robinson and Morrison (2000) showed that some cases of psychological contract breach had been experienced by 94 percent of interviewed workers. As another affirmative statement it should be said that approximately half of respondents in research of Turnley, Bolino, Lester and Bloodgood (2003) experienced a kind of breach in their organisations. Lastly, according to Robinson and Rousseau (1994) majority of workers experience a kind of psychological contract breach by their employers.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 12 The noteworthy point here is that, as the mentioned researches have been performed before the global recession, their results in today’s weak economic conditions could be expected to highly increase (Zottoli, 2003). Considering all of the above, as the first step to conceptualize the topic impact of psychological contract breach on employment relationship, it can be derived that employment relationships highly suffer from a prevalent psychological contract breach imposed by the employers within organisations. In subsequent paragraphs the impact of this breach on employment relationships will be identified in depth. Based on Zhao et al. (2007) the impact of breaching psychological contracts can be assessed in respect with three categories of employee reactions including affective reactions, work attitudes and work behaviours. Each of these categories and the impact of breaching psychological contract on them will be explained in the following paragraphs. I. Affective reactions: Significant events in workplace cause the workers to reveal some emotional responses which are referred to affective reactions (Zhao et al., 2007). As psychological contracts breach is considered as a significant event in workplaces (Morrison & Robinson, 1997), it will bring about some negative affective reactions including Psychological contract violation (PCV) and mistrust (Zhao et al., 2007). (a) PCV: To elaborate on the concept of PCV, it should be said that when the expectations and obligations are not fulfilled by the employers, they might make the workers feel one or more of some undesired senses such as frustration, oppression, anger, deception, disrespect, betrayal, injustice, wrongdoing or inequity; these feelings lead to the occurrence of PCV (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994; Morrison & Robinson, 1997). (b) Mistrust: Communications in which the welfare of each party is genuinely concerned and cared by another party are called trust-based relationships and emotional investments are made within these relationships (McAllister, 1995). However, when a psychological contract breach occurs, the concept of mistrust will emerge. Mistrust can be defined as an emotional response to breach which represents some negative employees’ feelings includingBUSN20016 Research Proposal 13 disintegration, overwhelming scepticism, cynicism, distress and hostility towards employers (Zhao et al., 2007; Raja, Johns, & Ntalianis, 2004). II. Work attitudes: in opposition to affective reactions, the term work attitudes is referred to an evaluative concept which is defined as workers’ general evaluation of both job situation and employers. Work attitudes consist of three evaluations including job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and turnover intentions (Zhao et al., 2007). (a) Job satisfaction: it is a function by which the workers compare what they expect from a job to what they are offered by a job. Given this definition, the higher difference between employees’ beliefs and the received job outcome leads to a higher amount of job dissatisfaction (Zhao et al., 2007). (b) Organisational commitment: Tendency of workers to consistently adhere to a firm is described as organisational commitment. Like job satisfaction, as psychological contract breach increase, the level of organisational commitment of workers decreases and workers are less willing to sustain their commitments (Zhao et al., 2007). (c) Turnover intention: the possibility of attaching to or quitting organisations is referred to the concept of turnover intention. There is a negatively corresponded relationship between breaching psychological contract and turnover intention (Zhao et al., 2007). III. Work behaviours: actions performed by the workers in respect with their job conditions are called work behaviours. Comparing affective reactions and work attitudes, work behaviours are more sensible (Zhao et al., 2007). This concept consists of three components as follows: (a) Actual turnover: workers might quickly respond to the occurred breach by quitting the organisation. This punishing reaction which is called actual turnover does not only push the firm to spend extra money and time to train a new employee but also hurts other employee’s morale (Zhao et al., 2007). (b) Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB): it is defined as informal workers’ performances which are not officially included in their job description. In other words, OCB can function as a criterion to measure the workers’ internal willingness to engage in their job (Zhao et al., 2007).BUSN20016 Research Proposal 14 According to Robinson and Morrison (1995), increase of breach leads to decrease of OCB. (c) In-role performance: unlike OCB, in-role performance is formally related to workers’ commitments in regard of their particular position (Zhao et al., 2007). Based on Turnley et al. (2003), in-role performance and psychological contract breach are negatively correlated to each other. Zhao et al. (2007) have conceptualised the relationships among breach and its outcomes by four models demonstrated by Exhibit 1: Model A: Full Mediation (Hypothesised) Breach Affect Attitude Individual Effectiveness Breach Affect Attitude Individual EffectivenessBUSN20016 Research Proposal 15 Model B: Partial Mediation Model Model C: Direct- effect model (Traditional View) Model D: Null Model Exhibit 1: Conceptual Models of Relationships Among Breach and Outcomes (Adopted from: (Zhao et al., 2007)) Exhibit 1 depicts four models of relationships among breach and outcomes including full mediation, partial mediation, direct-effective and null (Zhao et al.,2007). Based on these four models four hypothesises will be assessed in this research as follows: Breach Individual Effectiveness Attitude Affect Breach Affect Attitude Individual EffectivenessBUSN20016 Research Proposal 16 H1: there is a full-mediated relationship among Psychological contract breach and its impact on the employment relationships components. H2: there is a partial-mediated relationship among Psychological contract breach and its impact on the employment relationships components. H3: there is a direct-effect relationship among Psychological contract breach and its impact on the employment relationships components. H4: there is a null relationship among Psychological contract breach and its impact on the employment relationships components.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 17 Methodology Type of methodology: To research on this topic which is categorised in the field of human science, mixed methodology is better to be chosen; both words and numbers are assessed in mixed methodology (Azhar, Latif, Murtaza, Khan, & Hussain, 2013) and this feature helps to describe all aspects of this topic. Type of the study: As there is a lot of information and research regarding the stated problem, this research is not exploratory. On the other hand, as psychological contract breach is not the single factor affecting employment relationships, it can be derived that this research is not causal either. Therefore, this research can be considered as a descriptive study which will gather data to describe the situation of breaching psychological contracts and its impact on employment relationships (Sekaran & Bougie, 2013). How you will source the required data: Primary data: as the researcher of this study tries to obtain first-hand information, primary data is used in this research (Sekaran & Bougie, 2013). The following methods will be used to collect data: Focus group: four members educated in human resource which are led by a moderator will deeply discuss and investigate the topic of this study. Questionnaire: to collect quantitative data, questionnaires will be handed to the sample employees. Face-to-face: the research assistant will visit the sample employees to interview them. What methods and tools you will use to analyse the collected data: As the mixed methodology will be used to collect data both qualitative and quantitative methods will analyse the gathered data.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 18 Section 3 Organisation of the study This study is organized by five chapters including: Chapter one: The research proposal will be covered in the first chapter. Chapter two: the concept of psychological contract breach and some related concepts to this term will be deeply assessed through a literature review in this chapter. Chapter three: Data collected through questionnaires and face-to-face interviews will be demonstrated in this chapter. Chapter four: Process of analyzing data will be performed in the fourth chapter of this study. Chapter five: the results and outcomes of this research will be covered in this chapter.BUSN20016 Research Proposal 19 Gantt chart Task Name From to Period (days) Organising the Project Proposal 21/11/2016 30/11/2016 9 Literature review 01/12/2016 31/01/2017 62 Process of Collecting data 01/02/2017 12/03/2017 40 Process of Analyzing data 13/03/2017 22/04/2017 40 Presenting the finalized report 23/04/2017 03/05/2017 10 Presenting the finalized report Process of Analyzing data Process of Collecting data Literature review Organising the Project Proposal Milestone Chart 21/11/16 01/12/16 01/02/17 13/03/17 23/04/17 30/11/16 31/01/17 12/03/17 22/04/17 03/05/17BUSN20016 Research Proposal 20 Project budget and budget justification The total amount which can be budgeted for this study is $7400. The items which make the researcher pay money are represented as follows: 1) As a basic research, collecting data for this study may be time consuming. Therefore, getting help from a research assistant can be a useful solution to save time. $2000 can be allocated to the research assistant. 2) buying books, e-books, journal articles to collect data will cost $1000. 3) traveling to organisations and companies to do face to face interviews with the employees will need $1500. 4) using some data analysis software will be needed which will cost $200. 5) $500 is needed for getting help from a consultant to design a sufficient questionnaire. 6) $1000 will be paid to the moderator of the focus group and $1200 to the four members of the focus group. Objective Guesstimated budget needed Hiring a research assistant $2000 Buying books, e-books and journal articles $1000 Traveling costs $1500 Data analysis software $200 Consultant to design a questionnaire $500 Moderator and the focus group members $2200 Total Budget Estimated $7400BUSN20016 Research Proposal 21 References Abu-Doleh, J. D., & Hammou, M. D. (2015). the impact of psychological contract breach on organizational outcomes: The moderating role of personal beliefs. Journal of Competitiveness Studies, 23(1), 34-54. Arnold, J. (1996). The psychological contract: A concept in need of closer scrutiny? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 5(4), 511-520. doi:10.1080/13594329608414876 Azhar, S., Latif, U., Murtaza, G., Khan, S., & Hussain, I. (2013). mixed methodology approach in pharmacy practice research. Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica,, 70(6), 1123- 1130. Bal, P. M., Chiaburu, D. S., & Jansen, P. G. (2010). Psychological contract breach and work performance: is social exchange a buffer or an intensifier? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25(3), 252-273. doi:10.1108/02683941011023730 Baruch, Y. (2004). Transforming careers:From linear to multidirectional career paths: Organizational and individual perspectives. Career Development International, 9(1), 58-73. doi:10.1108/13620430410518147 Conway, N., & Briner, R. B. 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The impact of psychological contract violation on employee attitudes and behaviour. Employee Relations, 25(6), 557-573. doi:10.1108/01425450310501306 Restubog, S. L., Zagenczyk, T. J., Bordia, P., & Tang, R. L. (2013). When employees behave badly: The roles of contract importance and workplace familism in predicting negative reactions to psychological contract breach. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(3), 673-686. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2013.01046.x Robinson, S. L., & Morrison, E. W. (2000). The Development of Psychological Contract Breach and Violation: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21(5), 525-546. doi:10.1002/1099-1379(200008)21:5<525::AID-JOB40>3.0.CO;2-TBUSN20016 Research Proposal 23 Robinson, S., Kraatz, M., & Rousseau, D. (1994). Changing obligations and the psychological contract:a longitudinal study. The Academy of Management Journal, 37(1), 137-152. doi:10.2307/256773 Roehling, M. V. (1997). The origins and early development of the psychological contract construct. Journal of Management History, 3(2), 204-217. doi:10.1108/13552529710171993 Rousseau, D. (1995). Psychological contracts in organizations. Thousand Oaks: CA: Sage. Rousseau, D. M. (2004). Psychological Contracts in the Workplace: Understanding the Ties That Motivate. Academy Of Management Executive, 18(1), 120-127. Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2013). Research methods for business: A skill-building approach (6th ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Shahalizadegan, M. (2016). Revision of the article: Psychological Contracts in theWorkplace: Understanding the Ties That Motivate. Unpublished manuscript. Tomprou, M., Nikolaou, I., & Vakola, M. (2012). Experiencing organizational change in greece: The framework of psychological contract. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(2), 385-405. doi:10.1080/09585192.2011.561223 Zhao, H., Wayne, S. J., Glibkoeski, B. C., & Bravo, J. (2007). The Impact of Psychological Contract Breach on Work-Related Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis. Personnel Psychology, 60(3), 647–680. Zottoli, M. A. (2003). Understanding the process through which breaches of the psychological contract influence feelings of psychological contract violation: An analysis incorporating causal,responsibility,and blame attributions (Doctoral dissertation,The Ohio State University).