Moderating Role of Well-Being on the Relation between Psychological Contract and Intention to Leave

This study aims to determine the relationship between psychological contract, psychological well-being and the intention to leave. The sample of this study consists of 118 teachers in 10 schools that were selected randomly with clustered sampling methods from the schools in Osmaniye province in the 2015-2016 academic year. Data were analyzed using a hierarchical multiple linear regression method with SPSS 22; a modgraph was used to moderate tests. The results of the moderator tests showed that psychological well-being was a moderator of the relationship between the short-term relations component of the psychological contract and teachers’ intention to leave levels. This study also indicated that transactional psychological contracts (short-term relations) had a negative effect on teachers’ intention to leave levels, and psychological well-being had a positive effect on teachers’ intention to leave levels. In the light of the findings, to create more positive educational environments, it would be beneficial for policy makers and top managers to take psychological constructs into consideration at all stages of management. However, future researchers should focus on the different dimensions of psychological contracts and psychological well-being that may also be related to the intention of teachers to leave.


Introduction
In the previous literature, researches have highlighted numerous factors about the achievements of organizations. These factors include employees' emotions and attitudes as well as financial things. Providing individuals with the means to develop positive emotions and attitudes is extremely important for an organization to survive for a long time.
Good belief efforts have been discussed as important for keeping our promises as "proceeding contractually," but such efforts are not clear to members of groups who have signed a contract in terms of convincing them that its terms and conditions have been honored. There are subjective views in all psychological contracts (Rousseau, 1989). When an employee starts to work, this act constitutes a psychological contract besides a work contract. It's seen in research that contracts that only address work matters, which individuals sign before taking the job, haven't been enough to provide them with job satisfaction, keep them in their position and discourage their intention to leave. If employees haven't constituted a psychological contract in addition to a work contract, they have lower psychological well-being and motivation and a greater level of intention to leave (Mimaroglu, 2008).
A number of studies have previously focused on mediating factors between the state of the psychological contract and work-related behaviours (Bal, De Cooman & Mol, 2013), but there has been a gap about moderating factors between the state of the psychological contract and work-related behaviours. Carmeli and Weisberg (2006) indicated that it is necessary to reveal the factors that would decrease an employee's intention to leave the organisation, since many researchers have revealed intention to leave as the best predictor of turnover (Cho, Johanson & Guchait, 2009). A high intention to leave may be decreased if the resource of dissatisfaction is coped with (Vandenberg & Nelson, 1999), but it is important to reveal the resource first.
The factors may be direct or indirect which would increase an employee's intention to leave have to be indicated (Carmeli & Weisberg, 2006). Because of intention to leave of employees, organizations which are profit or non-profit have injuries that will not to be able recover. This article was to determine whether teachers' psychological well-being moderates the relationship between the state of the psychological contract (as perceived by the teachers) and teachers' intention to leave the school.

Psychological Contract
A psychological contract is defined as an individual's perception about the states and conditions of a reciprocal exchange between themselves and their organizations (Kreitner & Kinichi, 2009;Rousseau, 1989). This contract includes how relational, cognitive, and affective processes influence intra-organizational activity (Dulac, Coyle-Shapiro, Henderson & Wayne, 2008). For a number of reasons, parties or groups having a contract, written or otherwise, can develop very different perceptions and attitudes regarding its terms and conditions (Rousseau, 1989). When terms of psychological contract are breached, individuals change some of their emotions, attitudes, and behaviors towards their organizations or another party (Dulac, et al., 2008). Research shows that as the result of a breach of psychological contract, employees have lower job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and performance and a greater likelihood of forming an intention to leave (Dikili & Bayraktaroglu, 2013;Dulac et al., 2008). Thus, the breach of psychological contract causes undesired emotions and attitudes in organizations.
A psychological contract has two main categories: transactional (short term relations and performance focused) and relational (long term relations) (Rousseau, 1990). Relational contracts describe an understanding based on transactions that include socioemotional factors, such as confidence and support, rather than economic exchanges. Contrary to relational contracts, transactional contracts are short-term agreements that are financial. In general, employees are more interested in financial rewards and individual benefits than being with productive organizational members (Chin & Hung, 2013;Rousseau, 1990).

Psychological Well-being
Psychological well-being enables individuals to have positive perceptions about themselves, to be content with themselves when they realize their limitations, to have friendly relationships with others, to behave independently and freely, to have a purposeful life, to be conscious of their capacities, and to have an opportunity to develop their capacities (Keyes, Shmotkin & Ryff, 2002). According to Ryff et al. (1999), the psychological well-being of an individual is comprised not only of his or her happiness, but also of efforts to carry out his or her capabilities as well.
Psychological well-being has six components: autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, self-acceptance, positive relationships, and growth (Ryff, 1989). Autonomy refers to one's using personal standards when deciding on states on his or her own; environmental mastery refers to one's capacity to be able to influence one's life; purpose in life refers to the extent whether one has a meaning and purpose for his or her efforts; self-acceptance refers to one's positive assessments of himself and his past life; positive relationships with others refers to having sincere and close relationships with others; and growth refers to one's perception of keeping development (Ryff, 1989;Ryff et al., 1999).

Intention to Leave
Individuals sometimes change their work and organizations because they think their expectations will be fulfilled better in another work and organization. Before leaving the workplace, employees have an intention to leave. This state shows that the intention to leave is conscious, planned, and purposed. The factors causing intention to leave can be individual or organizational (Barlett, 1999).
An employee's leaving work can increase the cost, waste time, and also influence others negatively in an organization. Social relationships can be damaged (Daloglu, 2002). Losing an experienced employee causes a lot of increased costs. Another employee will be chosen and developed for the position instead of the experienced employee who has left the work. This process requires time, labor, and money (Khatri, Budhwar & Fern, 1999). It's extremely important for the productivity and the efficacy of an organization to provide qualified employees to work continuously. If employees have a good psychological contract and psychological well-being, their commitment and satisfaction will increase and intention to leave will decrease.

The Relationship between the Psychological Contract and Psychological Well-being and Intention to Leave
The relationship between psychological contract and psychological well-being and intention to leave has not been studied enough especially in educational organizations in world literature. A number of studies have identified a relationship between the psychological contract of individuals and its desirable and undesirable outcomes. Recent publications have highlighted the significance of the breach of psychological contract and the employees' behaviors and attitudes related to work. Some employees' attitudes change towards their organizations because of the breach of psychological contract. Changing attitudes of employees affect their behaviors in an organization. In the literature, a number of related studies have found a positive relationship between psychological contract and positive attitudes such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behaviors, and a negative relationship between psychological contract and negative attitudes such as intention to leave (Chin & Hung, 2013;Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982;Tett & Meyer, 1993;Freese & Schalk, 1996;Vaart, Linde & Cockeran, 2013). Ozgen and Ozgen (2010) found that a relational contract was correlated with positive attitudes, and short-term relation (transactional contract) was correlated with negative emotions. Research has indicated that there is a positive relationship between psychological well-being and positive attitudes and emotions such as organizational commitment (Murthy, 2014), and a negative relationship between psychological well-being and negative outcomes such as intention to leave (Janik & Rothmann, 2015;Vaart et al., 2013).
It's extremely important for teachers to develop long-term relations and positive attitudes in educational organizations. We want to know how, if a teacher develops short-term relations towards organizations, this relationship can be moderated. This study is designed to clear up how psychological well-being moderates the relationship between the short-term relations component of psychological contracts and teachers' intention to leave levels.
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between psychological contracts, psychological well-being, and intention to leave. For that purpose, we have three research questions; 1) Do short-term relations (transactional contracts) predict teachers' intention to leave? If so, in which ways do they predict the intention to leave? 2) Does psychological well-being predict teachers' intention to leave? If so, in which ways does it predict intention to leave? 3) Do the interactive effects of short-term relations and psychological well-being predict teachers' intention to leave? If so, in which ways do they predict intention to leave?

Participants
The population of the study consists of teachers who worked in Osmaniye province during the 2015-2016 academic year. With the cluster sampling method, a total of 15 schools were selected randomly, with minimum requirements and scales applied to all the teachers at these schools. Each school was accepted as a cluster. In order to decide the number of the study group, we used a formula prepared for the size whose main mass number was defined as 118 teachers, sufficient at a 95% confidence interval for this population (Field, 2009).
While 75.4% of the teachers participating in this study were male (n=89), 24.6% were female (n=29). 84.7% of the participants were married (n=100), whereas 15.3% of them were single (n=18). 72% of the participants had a bachelor's degree (n=85), and 28% had a master's degree (n=33). The most frequent age range of the participants is 21-33 years (n=66), with a percentage of 55.9%. The most frequent seniority range of the participants is 11 and up years (n=92) with a percentage of 78%.

Research Design
This study used a correlational design. We learn whether variables change together or not, and if there is a change, how this change is manifesting (Field, 2009). After psychological contracts, psychological well-being, and teachers' intention to leave levels have been determined through correlations, the relationships among these variables were determined.

Measuring Instruments and Procedure
Data for this study was obtained using a five-point Likert-type scale. The points of the scale were formed as "1=I don't agree at all"; "2=I don't agree"; "3=I agree partially"; "4=I agree"; and "5=I totally agree." Information about these scales is as follows: Psychological Contract Scale: Psychological Contract Scale was developed by Rousseau (2000) and adapted to Turkish by Demirkasimoglu (2012). With the remaining 12 items (of 18), the original five-dimensioned factorial structure has been confirmed. Cronbach's Alpha of the overall scale was 0.74.
Psychological Well-being Scale: The scale was developed by Ryff (1989), shortened by Ryff and Keyes (1995), and translated into Turkish by Imamoglu and Beydogan (2011). The short version of the Psychological Well-being scale was used in the present study. Cronbach's Alpha of this scale was found to be 0.73.
The Intention to Leave from School Scale: It was developed by Karakus, Toprak, and Gurpinar (2014). None of the items was deleted, and a single-factor scale consisting of four items was presented as a good fit to the data. Cronbach's Alpha of this scale was 0.89.

Data Analyses
After collecting the data, the missing value (z value), skewness, and kurtosis were checked. Data showed normal distribution. Exploratory factor analysis (with SPSS 22.0) was performed for each scale in this study. After proving the reliability and validity of each scale, the means of these scales was taken and linear hierarchical regression analysis was performed with SPSS 22. The model tested whether a psychological contract had an effect on teachers' intention to leave levels through moderating the effect of psychological well-being.
Moderation examined whether there was a significant interaction in addition to the main effects. The advantage of moderation was that the analysis occured in multiple regression and took advantage of all of the mathematical information in the data (Baron and Kenny, 1986).

Results
Descriptive statistics and correlation matrix of the variables in the study is given at Table 1.  Table 1 shows descriptive statistics of the teachers who participated in this study. The findings indicated that psychological contract, relational contract, and psychological well-being were moderately high (4); transactional relation (short-term relations) was moderately high (3); and teachers' intention to leave levels were moderately high (2). According to the correlation matrix, psychological contract and relational contract were positively correlated with psychological well-being and negatively correlated with intention to leave. Transactional relation (short-term relations) was positively correlated with intention to leave. There was a negative correlation between psychological well-being and intention to leave. Baron and Kenny's (1986) procedure had been used to calculate z-scores.
The moderating effect of psychological well-being on the relations between short-term relations components of psychological contracts and intention to leave from a school is given in Table 2. According to the hierarchical multiple regression analysis results, when demographic variables were kept under control in step 1, short term relations predicted teachers' intention to leave levels (β= .372, p< .001). When demographic variables were kept under control in Step 1, and short-term relations and psychological well-being were integrated into the model in Step 3, psychological well-being predicted intention to leave, too (β=0.-175, p<0.05). In the last step, the interaction of short-term relations and psychological well-being was a significant predictor of intention to leave (β = .215, p< .01).
The significant interaction term showed that the association between short-term relations, and intention to leave was significantly different among the three groups. The pattern of the interaction showed under what conditions the moderation occurs. For example, in the case of continuous moderation, the main effect of short-term relations on intention to leave is qualified by the interaction, "higher short-term relations are associated with higher intention to leave under conditions of higher psychological well-being." Psychological well-being had a moderating effect on the relations between the short-term relations component of psychological contracts and intention to leave school (β=0.215*, p<0.05).

Figure 2. Interactive effect of short-term relations and psychological well-being on intention to leave.
To investigate the specific nature of high and low psychological well-being more thoroughly, multiple regression methods suggested by Frazier, Tix, and Barron (2004) and Excel worksheets to plot the interaction effects Dawson (2012) were used to conduct a series of slope difference tests. These tests provided a relational measure of how the short-term relations components of psychological contracts influence teachers' intention to leave schools by the moderating effect of psychological well-being. Figure 2 shows with simple slope analysis and slope difference tests that intention to leave increases as a result of short-term relations when psychological well-being is high, and that this effect is lower when psychological well-being is low.

Discussion
Changes in the work organization can influence teachers' perception about relationships, their psychological contracts, and consequently, their work-related attitudes and behaviour. A great deal is identified about the positive effects of psychological contracts and psychological well-being and the ways in which psychological contracts and psychological well-being lead to positive attitudes and personal and organizational outcomes. The literature review and subsequent data analysis for this study attempt to look at psychological contracts with desired and undesired attitudes in education. In the related literature there have been limited moderating effect studies about psychological contracts and psychological well-being in educational organizations. Different from the other studies we examined, the short-term relations (transactional) component of psychological contracts in this study appear in the moderating test.
We know from the literature that teachers who have psychological contracts with their organizations or other parties and who have psychological well-being look positively on the events around them and are affected less by negative experiences. Guest (2007) and Mimaroglu (2008) showed that there is a negative relationship between psychological contracts and intention to leave. Chin and Huang (2013) found that higher psychological contract breaches lead to higher intention to leave levels. Differently, findings in this study indicated that transactional psychological contracts (short-term relations) cause higher intention to leave levels. Ozgen and Ozgen (2010) also reveal that relational psychological contracts are positively correlated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment and transactional (short-term relations) psychological contracts are positively correlated with intention to leave levels. Similarly, this study established that transactional psychological contracts (short-term relations) lead to higher intention to leave levels.
This study indicated that the state of psychological well-being decreases teachers' intention to leave levels. Similar to this finding, Janik and Rothmann (2015) and Vaart, et al. (2013) established that the state of psychological well-being decreases the intention to leave. In the previous literature, researchers highlighted that psychological well-being was positively correlated to positive emotions and attitudes and negatively correlated with negative attitudes and emotions.
In their study, Chin and Huang (2013) established that there was not any moderating effect of gender on the relationship between psychological contract breach and turnover intention. Differently, this study established that the short-term relations component of psychological contracts influences teachers' intention to leave schools by the moderating effect of psychological well-being. Intention to leave levels increased as a result of short-term relations when psychological well-being was high, and this effect was lower when psychological well-being was low.
The results of this study reveal that teachers who have psychological contracts and psychological well-being also have more powerful psychological resources and so are less vulnerable to the undesired effects of the experiences they face at school. Therefore, they less frequently feel the intention to leave the work environment.
This implies that if a temporary substitute teacher who has short-term relations with the school has an elevated state of well-being, this state increases his or her intention to leave. Temporary teachers think of themselves as having the capacity to be assigned instead of working for a short time. This result implies that if a teacher who has short-term relations and a state of well-being, he or she will want to work at other schools.
It is helpful for school managers to concentrate on developing and strengthening psychological contracts with schools and the psychological well-being of teachers if they want teachers to feel undesired emotions less frequently and to develop more desired attitudes at work. For establishing more positive educational environments, policy makers and top managers should consider taking into consideration psychological contracts and psychological well-being at all stages of human resource management, especially at pre-service and in-service training and recruitment and selection of teachers.
These results reveal that in order to retain employees, organisations should make an effort to carry out employees' psychological contracts and assure that this is fulfilled in a fair manner. Differently from this, pull factors should be indicated, and organisations should make activities and programmes to enhance employee well-being.