MEDIATING EFFECT OF UTILISATION OF EMOTION ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GRIT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT

At the contemporary workplace, employees are expecting non-tangible resources on top of economic benefits, which suggests the importance of psychological contract. However, studies to date are inclined to focus on outcomes of psychological contract. Given that psychological contract is a perception and involves fulfilment of obligations, employees’ grit and the ability of utilisation of emotion in facilitating cognitive processes might influence psychological contract. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between grit and psychological contract with emotional utilisation acting as the mediator in the relationship. Therefore, a cross-sectional survey was conducted. Data were collected from 194 university staff using three measures: Psychological Contract Inventory, Short Grit Scale, and Assessing Emotions Scale. Correlation was conducted to examine the relationships between the three constructs. Regression analysis was conducted using SPSS 23 to test for mediation effect of emotional utilisation. The results revealed that grit and utilisation of emotion had significant relationships with psychological contract respectively, and grit was also significantly related to utilisation of emotion. Moreover, utilisation of emotion mediated the relationship between grit and psychological contract. The findings provide implications for employers to take into account of grit and utilisation of emotion in addressing psychological contract of employees.