Scholars studied challenging job experiences (CJE) from various perspectives. The majority of studies focused on the triggers and consequences of CJE, rather than the coping mechanism, hence leaving a glaring knowledge gap. Inspired by the social exchange theory, the authors researched the characteristics of CJE, analysed their implications to career success and elucidated the coping mechanism.
To collect research data, the authors recruited research participants (employees) from six sectors. These were: manufacturing, finance, IT services, mass communication, health care and civil department. To alleviate the common method variance bias in data analysis, the authors conducted questionnaire surveys at three stages, with a final sample of 396 employees. The authors used SPSS AMOS to analyse survey data.
Employees formed psychological contract (PC) with their organisation in two ways. These were: relational-contract and transactional-contract. When experiencing challenging jobs, the relational-contract employees felt their career were more successful and satisfactory, but the transactional-contract employees felt their career in the opposite way. Research findings have advanced the CJE knowledge by clarifying the coping mechanism of PC. Specifically, PC mediates the influence of CJE on the perception of career success, therefore enriching the understanding of CJE intervention effect.
The authors advise managers to remain cautious and monitor CJE through daily management practices. Organisations should also provide a positive work environment, which in turn facilitates a healthy PC between organisations and employees. By doing so, employee feel their own career is more successful and satisfactory too.
To the best of authors’ knowledge, the current research is the first of its kind to explain why and how CJE and PC may affect the perception of career success. Research findings have provided statistical evidence to elucidate the mechanism of PC (i.e. relational-contract vs transactional-contract) in tackling CJE, including their respective characteristics.
