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The employee-organization relationship (EOR) has increasingly become a focal point for researchers in organizational behavior, human resource management, and industrial relations. Literature on the EOR has developed at both the individual – (e.g. psychological contracts) and the group and organizational-levels of analysis (e.g. employment relationships). Both sets of literatures are reviewed, and we argue for the need to integrate these literatures as a means for improving understanding of the EOR. Mechanisms for integrating these literatures are suggested. A subsequent discussion of contextual effects on the EOR follows in which we suggest that researchers develop models that explicitly incorporate context. We then examine a number of theoretical lenses to explain various attributes of the EOR such as the dynamism and fairness of the exchange, and new ways of understanding the exchange including positive functional relationships and integrative negotiations. The article concludes with a discussion of future research needed on the EOR.

In highly digitalised countries such as Denmark, statistics show that one out of four employees has experienced high levels of stress. However, despite ample research evidence on the presence of technostress, the knowledge on this phenomenon is not yet part of the material and guidelines from official authorities. Previous research on technostress provides quantitative psychological and neurophysiological perspectives on technostress, focussing on the individual, the technology or the technological environment. The authors see this as a limited approach, as it leaves out the social environment in which technostress arises. The authors aim to expose the sociological mechanisms that contribute to technostress by using the sociological lens of obligation. The authors ask: ‘What is the knowledge that the sociological lens of obligation can bring to the theoretical understanding of technostress?’ To answer our research question, the authors employ an embedded case study in Denmark by looking into the existing political material and interviews with 14 employees across 6 organisations. The authors find that stress in practice is mostly addressed from a response perspective, which points to the individual. This view is inherent in how the individuals take responsibility for the technostress they experience. Another critical finding from our data is that technostress is socially constructed. The authors contribute to theory by using a new-to-IS theory and a qualitative approach to technostress research, which allows us to uncover how the social construction of obligation impacts the individual employee. Our theoretical contributions point to a need for practice to move in the direction of seeing technostress as a societal, rather than solely individual, responsibility.

Measuring the normative obligation to obey the police, a key component of police legitimacy, has proven difficult. Pósch et al.’s (2021) proposed scales appear to overcome the problems associated with traditional measures. This study introduces new items for these scales and empirically assesses whether such additions have the desired effects on scale performance.

This study uses data from a national online survey administered in July 2022 (N = 1,494). Measures of internal consistency and factor analysis were used to evaluate the properties of the obligation to obey scales. Linear regression was used to test the hypothesized effects.

The results show that adding the new items to the existing scales increased the level of internal consistency and improved how well the factor model fit the data. In terms of antecedents, procedural justice and bounded authority concerns were correlated with normative and non-normative obligations to obey the police in the expected direction and relative magnitude, findings that held for both the original and expanded scales. Although both normative obligation scales were significantly associated with willingness to cooperate with the police and significantly mediated the effect of procedural justice on cooperation, the relationship for the expanded scale was stronger and the mediation more pronounced.

This study extends previous research working to overcome some of the setbacks associated with measuring a crucial feature of police legitimacy. Effectively navigating this challenge will help advance legitimacy studies in criminal justice settings.

Drawing on the socioemotional selectivity theory and the volunteerism literature, this study aims to examine the influence of empathy, altruism and opportunity recognition, on social entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) of people who have retired from a full-time career. Furthermore, the study examines whether the above-mentioned relationships are mediated by moral obligation.

A set of hypotheses is tested by applying partial least squares structural equation modelling on a survey sample of 227 retirees in Oman, who had participated in an entrepreneurial leadership training after retirement. Using SmartPLS software, the path model is tested through bootstrapping.

The findings suggest that altruism and opportunity recognition do not have a direct relationship with SEI, however, they are significant only when mediated through moral obligation. Nevertheless, empathy has a significant direct association with SEI, and an indirect relationship through moral obligation.

The findings of this study demonstrate that to develop intentions to indulge in social entrepreneurship, among retirees who are approaching their senior years, the focus should be on driving their sense of moral obligation to society. Hence, policymakers and authorities connected to social wellbeing goals can fine-tune their initiatives, such as training, by emphasizing on moral obligation to address social issues through social entrepreneurship.

The novelty of this study is twofold. Firstly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it seems to be among the first empirical study that is at the crossroads of the senior entrepreneurship and the social entrepreneurship literature. Secondly, this study fills a gap in the extant literature by deploying the socioemotional selectivity theory to examine the antecedents of SEI of people who have retired from full-time employment in their early to late senior years.

While compassionate and morally motivated people are theorised to be more likely to engage in activities that contribute to the social good, the literature provides contradictory evidence regarding the role of empathy and moral obligation in building social entrepreneurial intention (SEI). This study aims to clarify how empathy and moral obligation influence SEI.

The authors used survey data (n = 307) from Bangladesh, a frontier economy, to test the hypothesised relationships between empathy, moral obligation and SEI by applying partial least square–structural equation modelling in Smart PLS 3. They then conducted a second study with a larger sample (n = 339) from Saudi Arabia, an emerging economy, to further investigate how the findings withstand in a different socio-economic context.

The findings contradicted extant conceptualisations and revealed that empathy and moral obligation influence SEI indirectly through other individual and contextual factors, such as social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and perceived social support. The findings indicate that a person with a feeling of compassion and moral responsibility to help others will not start a social venture unless they feel capable and supported to start and run the venture.

The study contributes to a contentious area of research in SEI by demonstrating the links between various individual-level (empathy, moral obligation and social entrepreneurial self-efficacy) and contextual-level (perceived social support) variables and their relationship with SEI.

Promotive and prohibitive voice behavior is essential for effective team performance and organizational sustainability. However, the existing literature is limited on the role of team voice in predicting employee voice behavior. The authors proposed that team members' voices serve as a cue for engagement in felt obligation for constructive change, which sets the path for employees' engagement in promotive and prohibitive voice behavior. This study further proposed that supervisor expectation for voice may alter the relationship between team voice and felt obligation for constructive change of employees. The authors' proposed model is based on social information processing theory.

The data were collected from 313 telecommunication sector employees and the companies supervisors through a multi-source time-lagged design. Linear regression analysis and the Preacher and Hayes Process for mediation and moderation were used to test the proposed hypothesis.

The results support the direct effect of team voice on promotive and prohibitive voice behavior, and the indirect effect of team voice on promotive voice behavior through the mediation of felt obligation for constructive change was also supported. However, mediation of felt obligation for constructive change between team voice and prohibitive voice behavior was not supported. The results also support the moderation of supervisor expectation for voice between team voice and felt obligation for constructive change.

Findings of the study may help organizational practitioners and managers about the value of promotive and prohibitive voice behavior for better team functioning through team voice. The study also highlights the importance of supervisor expectations for voice to strengthen the association between team voice and felt obligation for constructive change among employees. Both dimensions of voice behavior, i.e. promotive and prohibitive voice, are crucial for improved organizational functioning and preventing the organization from harm and loss. Organizations should create environments high on voice behavior to remain competitive and meet the challenges of dynamic business environments.

Wine and accessories bought partly or fully out of a perceived need to repay services received at a winery are defined here as gratuity purchasing. The purpose of the research is to identify factors that predict gratuity purchasing at wineries. Specifically, the study seeks to investigate the role of gratitude and obligation, along with other consumer characteristics, in purchasing.

Winery visitors were sampled from six Texas wineries. A total of 357 questionnaires were analyzed. Hierarchical multiple regression, correlation and factor analyses were employed.

Gratitude and obligation were found to be strong predictors of purchasing at wineries. Visitors who feel grateful to personnel and/or obliged to buy wine are likely to spend more money at wineries. Involvement and knowledge also appear to be related to purchasing.

Since gratitude and obligation appear to be strong predictors of buying decisions, winery managers need to find ways to enhance visitor feelings of appreciation. Although developing a sense of obligation may have an impact on sales, obligation may also create feelings of not wishing to return. It is important for managers to consider the extent to which they would like to have people feeling obligated or guilty about making a purchase.

The research offers new insights into an understudied area of consumer behavior – the role of reciprocity in purchasing behavior. An innovative feature of this study is the development of a new instrument to measure gratitude and obligation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cross-level relationship between moral obligation violation, overall justice climate, and survivors’ commitment.

Data were obtained from 25 companies with 261 individual employees’ cases from three main industries in Taiwan (n=25/261).

Organizations which have moral obligation violation during layoff would directly influence survivors’ perceptions of justice and further affect survivors’ level of affective commitment.

This is one of the first studies to provide evidence of the relationship between moral obligation violation, overall justice climate and survivors’ affective commitment. Additionally, most studies of survivors’ attitude and behavior are based on the third-party perspective; this study is the first to argue that survivors are also affected by employers’ layoff as well as victims. The influence of layoff will lead to survivors’ subsequent attitude and behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of felt obligation for constructive change on the relationship between responsible leadership and organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) in a China corporate environment, and this paper also analyze the moderated mediating effect of supervisor-subordinate guanxi on indirect relationship between responsible leadership and OCBE via felt obligation for constructive change.

This paper used 380 employee samples to analyze the relationship between responsible leadership and OCBE. Hierarchical regression analyses and structural equation modeling was adopted to analyze the data.

The authors found that the felt obligation for constructive change plays a fully mediating role between responsible leadership and OCBE. The authors also found a positive interaction between responsible leadership and supervisor-subordinate guanxi on felt obligation for constructive change, and then the indirect effect of responsible leadership on OCBE via felt obligation for constructive change was stronger when employees perceived a high-level supervisor-subordinate guanxi.

When responsible leadership stimulates employees to generate a high sense of constructive change, employees are more likely to engage in OCBE. This study provides evidence for cognitive evaluation theory. This study further demonstrated the importance of establishing high-quality supervisor-subordinate guanxi for responsible leaders and subordinates in China.

In the management practice of the organization, the role of responsible leadership should be strengthened in terms of leadership development and, employee training and promotion, and high-quality supervisor-subordinate guanxi help to promote the effectiveness of responsible leadership.

This paper discusses how and when responsible leadership influences OCBE in a China corporate environment.