Impact of psychological contract breach on academics in the higher-education sector in Hong Kong

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a model that investigates the effect of psychological contract breach on teaching staff in the higher education sector of Hong Kong. It focuses on the correlation between psychological contract breach, affective organisational commitment, turnover intention and job involvement. It also evaluates the moderating role of occupational identity on the relationships between psychological contract breach and job involvement. This study was designed to be a cross-sectional study, in which data were collected via a stratified sampling online survey. The final sample consisted of 237 full-time teaching staff from five higher education institutions in Hong Kong. Data analysis and hypotheses testing were conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and AMOS structural equation modelling programs. The results indicate that affective organisational commitment is negatively related to psychological contract breach and partially mediates the effect of psychological contract breach on turnover intention. The results also indicate that occupational identity acts as a significant moderator on the negative relationship between psychological contract breach and affective organizational commitment, but not job involvement. The results of this study provide new insights for management of higher education institutions in terms of the importance of understanding and fulfilling the psychological contracts of teaching staff. The findings reveal that avoiding psychological contract breach is important in the higher education sector in Hong Kong, and could begin as early as the recruitment stage. In addition, the findings suggest that building affective organisational commitment and occupational identity is an effective tool in encouraging positive organisational behaviour. Theoretically, this study introduces a conceptual model that includes the consequences of perceived psychological breach. Further research is proposed, including repetitive study using longitudinal observation data, study of the causes and other effects of psychological contract breach, study of the psychological contract content of teaching staff in the higher education sector in Hong Kong, and study of the differences in psychological contract breach evaluation between long-service and newly joined teaching staff.