The Effect of Psychological Contract Breach by Subordinates on Job Burnout of middle managers Focusing on the Serial Multiple Mediation of Role overload and Job Stress

Middle managers carry out the pivotal task of implementing the organization's strategies and policies, establishing roles expected of their subordinates, and managing performance. However, through the recent generational change, members of the organization have become clearer in their individualistic tendencies, place a high value on work-life balance, and their perspective on work has also changed from 'live to work' to 'work to live'. Paradoxically, under the same situation in which the amount of work to be performed in a limited time and the level of performance are the same, the work expected to be performed by the members is transferred to the middle manager, who has to perform both member’s job and managerial roles at the same time. As a result, they are complaining of job burnout, depression, and helplessness. In other words, today's middle managers are faced with a situation in which they have to fulfill their duties and achieve their goals while recognizing the breach of the psychological contract in which the promises and obligations that members consider to be provided to the organization are not kept. Therefore, if existing studies have mainly focused on the effect on members when an organization breaches its psychological contract, In this study, approached from the perspective of when employees did not fulfill their psychological contractual obligations, the effect of psychological contract breach by subordinates on job burnout (emotional burnout) of middle managers and the serial multiple mediating effect of role overload and job stress in the process were verified. To test the hypothesis, an online survey was conducted targeting middle managers working in domestic companies, and the response data of 371 people were used for analysis. As a result of the analysis, first, psychological contract breach by subordinates was found to have a positive (+) relationship with emotional exhaustion of middle managers. Second, there was no mediating effect of role overload between psychological contract breach by subordinates and emotional exhaustion. Third, the mediating effect of job stress between psychological contract breach by subordinates and emotional exhaustion was found to have a positive (+) significant effect. Fourth, between psychological contract breach by subordinates and emotional exhaustion, role overload and job stress showed a positive serial multiple mediating effect. This study identified that the psychological contract breach by subordinates was an antecedent factor affecting emotional burnout of middle managers, and verified the mechanisms of role overload and job stress between independent and dependent variables. Based on the results of this study, theoretical and practical implications were presented, and the limitations of the study and future research directions were discussed.