Work stress as mediator and religious orientation coping as moderator in the relationship between stressor dimensions and psychological contract breach among academics in Malaysian private Institutions of higher education

Abstract

Private Institutions of Higher Education (PvIHE) are the hub for regional education and contribute toward an income to nations. Serious efforts in ensuring the quality of education are to increase the number of quality generations. The enrollment and graduates from higher educational institutions have shown increments over the years. It has no doubt of how important is educational services to our nation. To align with demand in education services, academics play a vital role in the development of quality graduate students. To deliver that, maintaining quality academics are vital. In line with retaining quality academics and increasing demands of job responsibilities, academics might experience work stress. Severe work stress may influence the occurrence of psychological contract breach. The prevalence of work stress in private universities was under explored with regards to the increase number of PvIHE registered in Malaysia and past research could not provide a clear picture between stressors and work stress among academics in private universities. Therefore, this research seeks to examine the relationship between specific stressors and the psychological contract breach among academics in Malaysian Private Institutions of Higher Education with the mediating role of work stress and moderating role of religious orientation coping. Religious orientation coping is one type of coping styles as a way to curb the work stress on psychological contract breach. The items of stressor dimensions in this study are role conflict, career development, responsibility for people, and student misbehaviour. The research model for the recent study is extended from Transactional Model. The structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to answer the hypotheses. Surveys were distributed to the respondents who are among the academics in five selected Private Institutions of Higher Education (PvIHE). Cluster probability sampling is used in this study as the PvIHE in Malaysia are separated by state division. This study contributes to the knowledge and practical spectrum. Not only that, it creates a positive dynamic in the previously established theoretical aspects. The findings of this study showed that there is a positive significant effect of several stressors (role conflict, concern about career development, responsibility for people, and student misbehaviour) on work stress. The findings contribute to the psychological contract literature by showing that perceptions of stressors influence perceptions of psychological contract breach. The results of this study could help institutions and academics to eliminate unnecessary stress variables.

Keywords: Role Conflict, Concerns about Career Development, Responsibility for People, Student Misbehaviour, Work stress, Religious Orientation Coping, Psychological Contract Breach.