Corporate Social Responsibilities, Psychological Contracts and Employee Turnover Intention of SMEs in China

Internet Addiction and Academic Anxiety Among Chinese College Students During COVID-19: The Mediating Role of Psychological Contract

Purpose

The objective of this study is to investigate the underlying mechanism connecting internet addiction and academic anxiety, with the aim of assisting higher education professionals and administrators in developing comprehensive solutions to effectively mitigate the systemic risks associated with these issues.

Patients and Methods

This study utilizes the smart data collection instrument of Wenjuanxing to gather data from 270 Chinese college students through an online questionnaire survey. Through building and analyzing a structural equation model that consists of four latent variables, such as internet addiction, relational psychological contract, transactional psychological contract, and academic anxiety. The study analyzed the fundamental characteristics of the transformation mechanism of Internet addiction and academic anxiety. It specifically focused on conducting a mediating effects test of the psychological contract variable to validate the significant role of both relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract in this transformation mechanism.

Results

First, the study found that internet addiction (β=0.094; p=0.179) cannot directly impact academic anxiety. It can only influence academic anxiety through the mediating effects of the relational psychological contract (β=0.088; p=0.022) and the transactional psychological contract (β=0.123; p=0.003), with the latter having a more significant impact. Second, the destructive effect of Internet addiction on relational psychological contracts (β=-0.496; p<0.001) is greater than that on transactional psychological contracts (β=-0.476; p<0.001). Third, compared to the weakening of the relational psychological contract (β=-0.177; p=0.017), the weakening of the transactional psychological contract (β=-0.258; p=0.001) has a more significant impact on college students' academic anxiety.

Conclusion

This study shows that the weakening of the corresponding psychological contract is the key link for the development of Internet addiction into academic anxiety. Stabilizing the psychological contracts at the psychological level of college students can help suppress the vicious transformation process from internet addiction to academic anxiety, ensuring students' mental health and reducing systemic risks in educational work.

Factors Affecting Employee’s Retention: Integration of Situational Leadership With Social Exchange Theory

Sketching on the Social Exchange Theory (SET), the present study aims to investigate the direct relationship between training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction with employee retention. The contingent role of transformational leadership was also analysed under the Situational Leadership Theory (SLT). Accordingly, we collected data from 287 employees of SMEs in northern China by employing a convenience sampling approach, exhibiting a response rate of 57.40 percent. The Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis was then run to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings revealed a significant positive impact of training and development, work environment, and job satisfaction on employee retention. However, no moderating effect of transformational leadership was indicated on their direct relationship. This study has enriched the literature on employee retention and the leadership arena. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no prior evidence concerning the study’s integrated relationship of the continuous variables. The implications and limitations were finally expressed at the end of this manuscript.

Chief Executive Officer Tenacity and Employee Intrapreneurial Behavior: The Mediating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility

Chief executive officer (CEO) tenacity plays an important role in corporate entrepreneurial activity. However, much less is known about its impact on employee intrapreneurship. Drawing from social information processing theory and upper echelons theory, this article examines the hitherto unexplored nexus between CEO tenacity and employee intrapreneurship, as well as the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Quantitative data were collected through a survey administered to 294 employees working in different sectors that engage in CSR activities in China. Data analysis was performed using hierarchical regression method through Stata 16.0. It was found that CEO tenacity was significantly positively correlated with employee strategic renewal behavior (β = 0.523, p < 0.001) and employee venture behavior (β = 0.510, p < 0.001). The positive correlation between CEO tenacity and CSR was also significant (β = 0.578, p < 0.001). Besides, CSR partially mediated the relationship between CEO tenacity and employee strategic renewal behavior (40.0%) or employee venture behavior (50.2%). This study extends research on CEO tenacity, CSR, or employee intrapreneurial behavior by providing a better understanding of the direct effects of CEO tenacity on employee intrapreneurial behavior and CSR. From the perspective of cross-fertilization between psychology and management, this study establishes the interface role of CSR by elucidating the intrinsic mechanism of CEOs with high levels of tenacity to stimulate employee intrapreneurial behavior through CSR.