ROLE-BASED STRESS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL BREACH OF CONTRACT AS CORRELATES OF FORMAL SECTOR EMPLOYEES’ ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS

Abstract

Entrepreneurial intentions among formal sector workers are believed to be greatly hindered by breach of contract and stress related to employees’ work lives. This present study examined role-based stress and psychological breach of contract as correlates of entrepreneurial intentions among formal sector employees. Participants in the study were made up of 156 non-academic staff of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. They comprised of 85 males (54.5%) and 71 females (45.5%) with a mean age of 34.37 years and a standard deviation of 8.54 years. Their age ranged from 22 to 58 years. Three instruments were used to measure the variables. Role-based stress inventory by Rizzo, House & Lirtzman, (1970) was used to measure role-based stress, psychological breach of contract and violation scale by Robison & Morrison, (2000) was used to measure psychological breach of contract and entrepreneurial intention scale by Kaiser, (1974) was used to entrepreneurship intention of the workers. The study adopted correlational study design and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and Multiple Regression analysis was used for the statistical test. The result of hypothesis one revealed that role-based stress positively and significantly correlated with entrepreneurial intentions at r= .55, p <.01, level of significance. The result of hypothesis two indicated that psychological breach of contract positively and significantly correlated with entrepreneurial intentions at r= .85, p <.01, level of significance. Thus, hypotheses one and two of the study were accepted. The result of the multiple regression analysis using an enter method revealed that a jointly and significantly interaction effect exists between role based stress and psychological breach of contract on entrepreneurial intentions among employees at adjusted R2 = .69, p <. 01; F (2, 153) = 172.34, p<.01. Therefore, hypothesis three was also accepted. It was however recommended that employers of public sector should encourage entrepreneurial intentions and ensure that that the agreements it has with workers upon employment are not reneged