Psychological Contract Breach, Job Demands and Emotional Exhaustion in some Selected Ghanaian Organizations

Abstract

The competitive and unpredictable nature of today’s business environment is increasingly making organizations expect more from their employees. There are consistent research findings that Job Demands (JD), Psychological Contract Breach (PCB) and Emotional Exhaustion (EE) are on the rise in organizations. Though it is hard to believe that the concurrent rise in these three factors is mere coincidence, the possible links that exist between these factors seem to have eluded research attention. Considering the fact that emotional exhaustion has been found to precipitate devastating effects on employees and organizational success, this research was conducted to investigate the possible relationships that exist between PCB, JD and EE with the aim of producing a model that portrays PCB and JD as predictors of EE. Three hundred and thirty-one (331) employees were drawn from Ghana’s telecommunications, advertising, and corporate consulting industries to form the sample for the study. Data were analysed using Pearson correlation tests and regression analyses. A significant positive relationship was found between JD and EE and between PCB and EE. Hierarchical regression tests also revealed that the unmet compensations contract dimension of PCB better predicted emotional exhaustion than the unmet work environment and work characteristics contract dimensions. Emotional job demands also predicted EE better than quantitative and cognitive job demands. Over all, PCB was a better predictor of EE than JD. The findings suggest that organizations need to design interventions that either help employees to cope with the demands of their jobs or relieve them of some of the demands. Interventions will also have to involve measures that reduce the breaches of psychological contracts on the part of employers.