Do challenging jobs make employees feel better or worse? Two types of psychological contract have the answer.

Purpose
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, we researched the characteristics of challenging job experiences, analysed their implications to career success, and elucidated the coping mechanism.

Design
To collect research data, we 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, we conducted questionnaire surveys at three stages, with a final sample of 396 employees. We used SPSS AMOS to analyse survey data.

Findings
Employees formed psychological contract with their organisation in two ways. These were: relational-contract and transactional-contract. When experiencing challenging jobs, the relational-contract employees felt their career more successful and satisfactory, but the transactional-contract employees felt their career in an opposite way. Research findings have advanced the CJE knowledge by clarifying the coping mechanism of psychological contract. Specifically, psychological contract mediates the influence of CJE on the perception of career success, therefore enriching the understanding of CJE intervention effect.

Originality
The current research is the first in its kind to explain why and how CJE and psychological contract may affect the perception of career success. Research findings have provided statistical evidence to elucidate the mechanism of psychological contract (i.e., relational-contract vs. transactional-contract) in tackling CJE, including their characteristics respectively.

Practical Implications
We advise managers to remain cautious and monitor CJE through daily management practices. Organisations should also provide a positive work environment, which in turn facilitates healthy psychological contract between organisations and employees. By doing so, employee feel their own career more successful and satisfactory too.