The Effect of Psychological Contract Fulfilment on Innovative Work Behavior—An Investigation of Skilled Service Workers ()
1. Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of hairstyle as a tool for self-expression, first impressions, and social status. Unlike fashion choices such as clothing and accessories, a desired hairstyle goes beyond simply choosing a high-end salon; it relies heavily on the hairdresser’s skills, effective communication, and the overall salon experience. This unique dynamic makes hairdressers crucial partners in shaping clients’ personal appearance.
Cultivating skilled hairdressers, however, takes time and effort. Their daily work demands not only interpersonal skills to understand and to deliver on client expectations, but also continuous technical advancement, knowledge of new materials and tools, awareness of current trends, and the ability to meet performance goals.
Facing the dual pressures of client expectations and salon-imposed KPIs, hairdressers might find it challenging to demonstrate innovative work behavior (IWB), which involves seamless collaboration with colleagues and passionate, friendly customer service. The mental frustration can lead to increased turnover intentions, negating the investment in their training and development. For salon management, fostering IWB and ensuring hairdresser retention are critical for sustainable operations and attracting customers.
Previous research ( Lin, Wang, & Yeh, 2020 ) has established a positive correlation between psychological contract fulfilment (PCF) and IWB in various startup teams. Knowledge sharing and organizational citizenship behaviors have also been confirmed to affect employees’ willingness to engage in innovative work behaviors. Building on the existing body of knowledge gleaned from a comprehensive literature review presented in the next section, this study establishes a research framework to further explore the phenomenon of IWB in the hairdressing industry and the effect of psychological contract fulfillment on turnover intention through collaborating with Davie Hair Salon, a prestigious hair salon group. The methodology section delves into the intricacies of research implementation process including questionnaire design, data collection procedures, and rigorous data analysis methods employed. To culminate the investigation, the concluding section draws together key findings, elucidates their practical implications, acknowledges potential limitations, and proposes fruitful avenues for future research within the domain of innovative work behavior.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Innovative Work Behavior
Technological disruption and ever-evolving global markets continuously reshape the work sphere. In the era of service economy, individual employees are expected to be flexible, adaptable, and agile during the interaction with various customers for ensuring operational excellence and securing competitiveness though pushing boundaries, challenging status quo, bring forth revolutionary ideas, modifying existed products/services, or developing new products/services ( De Jong & Den Hartog, 2007 ). This quest has propelled “innovative work behavior” to the forefront, becoming a coveted asset sought after across industries ( Axtell et al., 2000; De Jong & Den Hartog, 2007; Janssen, 2000; Mumford & Licuanan, 2004; Scott & Bruce, 1994; Sharma & Chrisman, 1999; Smith, 2002; Unsworth & Parker, 2003; Van de Ven, 1986 ).
Innovation denotes something new ( Tidd & Bessant, 2020 ). At the core, IWB encompasses a spectrum of extra-role, discretionary behavior employees undertake to generate, champion, and implement novel ideas within the work environment ( Katz & Kahn, 1978 ). IWB goes beyond mere brainstorming; it demands translating innovative ideas into tangible solutions, overcoming resistance, and driving them towards successful implementation ( Janssen, 2000; Kanter, 1988; Scott & Bruce, 1994; De Jong & Wennekers, 2008 ; Yuan & Woodman, 2010 ). This multi-faceted behavior manifests in various forms, including:
1) Idea generation: This involves actively seeking out problems and opportunities, venturing beyond established methods, and proposing unconventional solutions. It necessitates breaking free from mental models and embracing divergent thinking.
2) Idea championing: Once an idea is conceptualized, passionately advocating for its merits becomes crucial. This entails overcoming skepticism, building support from colleagues and superiors, and garnering resources. Strong communication and persuasion skills are vital at this stage.
3) Idea implementation: Bringing ideas to life is the ultimate objective. This requires meticulous planning, collaboration with diverse stakeholders, navigating organizational hurdles, and adapting to unforeseen challenges. It demands initiative, resilience, and a results-oriented approach.
The benefits of fostering IWB are multifaceted and impactful. IWB could breed a culture of continuous improvement, propelling organizations to stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving world. IWB enhances employee engagement and morale, as individuals feel empowered to contribute meaningfully and witness their ideas shape the organization’s trajectory. Moreover, IWB fuels innovation, leading to the development of new products, services, and processes, ultimately translating into a competitive edge ( West & Farr, 1989 ). It is then considered a reasonable decision for practitioners to figure out possible causes to encourage employees to demonstrate IWB.
In conclusion, innovative work behavior is the cornerstone of organizational success in the dynamic and competitive world. By understanding its multifaceted nature, recognizing its benefits and impact, and actively fostering its development, organizations can unlock a wealth of potential, propelling themselves forward on the path towards sustainable growth. It’s not just about finding the next big idea; it’s about creating a culture where every employee feels empowered to contribute, challenge the norm, and ultimately, become an agent of positive change within their organization. Fostering IWB is an ongoing journey, requiring continuous evaluation and adaptation based on organizational context and evolving needs. By embracing this commitment, organizations can tap into the boundless potential of their workforce, creating a future where innovation thrives while success becomes the common phenomenon.
2.2. Psychological Contract Fulfillment
The concept of the “psychological contract”, initially introduced by Argyris (1960) , refers to the unwritten yet potent agreement between employees and employers ( Sims, 1994; Sonnenberg et al., 2011 ). Drawing on SET, Rousseau (1995: p. 9) defines psychological contract fulfillment as “individual beliefs, shaped by the organization, regarding the terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and their organization”. However, this agreement is inherently subjective, with potential discrepancies in how employees and employers perceive its content and fulfillment ( Coyle-Shapiro & Kessler, 2000 ). Conway & Briner (2005) aptly describe fulfillment as a relationship built on reciprocity and norms of social exchange. Therefore, mutual understanding and shared beliefs are crucial aspects of the psychological contract within the work environment ( Ho, 2005; Rousseau & Greller, 1994; Ye et al., 2012 ).
Three main research streams of psychological contract could be found from the literature, including: psychological contract breach, psychological contract violation, and psychological contract fulfilment. Psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation focus more on the negative outcome of psychological contract; the fulfilment of psychological contract, on the other hand, indicates the employees’ perceptions of the extent to which the organization realizes its part of the exchange relationship ( Conway & Coyle-Shapiro, 2012; Rousseau, 1995 ). The fulfilment of psychological contract, in the context of work environment, signified the perception of achieving a common ground on the terms and conditions between the employer and the employees ( Ye et al., 2012 ).
Psychological contract fulfilment is believed to have positive impact on employees’ attitudes and motivation that would then contribute to the operational performance and the effectiveness as well as efficiency of the company ( Morrison & Robinson, 1997; Turnley et al., 2003 ). Providing servicers in the hair salon demands interactions between the employees and the customers; psychological contract fulfilment could act as the glue to ensure the provision of a holistic satisfying experience, improve the establishment of long-term relationship between a specific customer, the hairdresser, and the hair salon, and enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the business.
2.3. Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Organizational citizenship behavior, a term firstly mentioned by Organ (1988: p. 4) , was defined as “an individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization”. Moreover, the behavior mentioned above is neither enforced nor listed in the job description or stated in the employment contract. Shortly speaking, participating in organizational citizenship behavior is just a matter of personal choice.
Organizational performance and success are believed to be significantly enhanced through employees’ active engagement in organizational citizenship behavior ( Organ, 1988 ). Based on their extensive review of literature, Podsakoff et al. (2000) listed the following reasons signifying the importance of organizational citizenship behavior, including: enhancing productivity at different organizational levels, freeing up resources that could be used for more productive purposes, reducing the need to pour limited resources to maintain basic organizational functions, facilitating coordination within and across work groups, attracting and retaining best employees for ensuring the sustainability of the organization, increasing the stability of the organization’s performance, and enabling the organization to adapt more effectively to environment changes.
However, while organizational citizenship behavior attracted lots of attention from academia/practitioners in different areas, Podsakoff et al. (2000) argued that a consensus about the dimensionality of organizational citizenship behavior is missing and categorized those citizenship-like behaviors into seven types, including: helping behavior, sportsmanship, organizational loyalty, organizational compliance, individual initiative, civic virtue, and self-development. Lam et al. (1999) identified two types of organizational citizenship behavior (helping and civic virtue); “helping” refers to the actions conducted by individual employee to help colleagues with work related problems while “civic virtue”, based on the study of Podsakoff et al. (1997) , concerns about the behavior indicating an employee responsibly participates in the life of the organization. Farh et al. (1997, 2004) , in the same vein, stated several forms of organizational citizenship behavior such as sportsmanship, courtesy, interpersonal harmony, and protecting company resources. Bachrach et al. (2007) utilized “helping” and “civic virtue” to represent individual employee’s organizational citizenship behavior and investigated its effect on managerial performance evaluation decisions. Organizational citizenship behavior, facing the limitation of resources and the pressure from the environment, is considered vital for the survival and sustainability of companies of various industries and sizes.
2.4. Knowledge Sharing Intention
The value of knowledge would be increased through sharing with others ( Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995 ); knowledge sharing between individuals and across organizations has become increasingly important in today’s knowledge economy. Effective knowledge sharing could lead to improved organizational competitiveness, innovation, and performance ( Wang & Noe, 2010 ). However, individuals often do not share their knowledge due to various personal and organizational barriers. Therefore, understanding the factors that influence employees’ knowledge sharing intention is considered an important research area in the fields of knowledge management, human resource management, and organizational behavior.
The concept of knowledge sharing intention refers to the willingness and motivation of an individual to share their knowledge with others within their organization ( Bock et al., 2005 ). Research on knowledge sharing intention has predominantly built on the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior ( Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1975 ). An individual’s intention to perform a specific behavior is the most proximal predictor of their future behavior. In the context of knowledge sharing research, individuals’ willingness and motivation to share knowledge influence their actual knowledge sharing behaviors within organizations ( Bock et al., 2005 ).
Previous studies have also drawn from SET to understand what drives individuals to share or withhold knowledge ( Blau, 2017 ). The basic premise is that a person will choose to share knowledge when the perceived benefits exceed the expected costs ( Kankanhalli et al., 2005 ). Researchers have used these theoretical lenses to identify the key factors associated with knowledge sharing intention.
Three categories of factors have been identified to influence individual’s knowledge sharing intention. At the individual level, individuals with higher extraversion, openness to experience, and prosocial motivation tend to exhibit greater knowledge sharing intention ( Cabrera et al., 2006; Matzler et al., 2008 ). Enjoyment in helping others is another individual trait positively associated with knowledge sharing ( Kankanhalli et al., 2005 ). At the interpersonal and social level, several studies have highlighted the importance of social capital, relationships, and interactions. Briefly specking, high-quality relationships with the recipients, communication ties, identification with teams or organizations would enhance individual’s intention to share knowledge ( Chow & Chan, 2008; Hu & Randel, 2014 ). At the organizational level, a collaborative culture, leadership support, rewards and recognition, the availability of time, and technological infrastructure were all confirmed to facilitate knowledge sharing ( Riege, 2005; Taylor & Wright, 2004 ). Diversity, decentralization, absorptive capacity, organizational identification and socialization tactics were also recognized to affect knowledge sharing intention ( Miller et al., 2007; Van Den Hooff & De Ridder, 2004 ).
As for the consequences of knowledge sharing, previous research indicated that effective knowledge sharing contributes to quicker completion of new product development projects, superior innovation capacity, improved organizational performance and competitiveness ( Collins & Smith, 2006; Mesmer-Magnus & DeChurch, 2009 ). Therefore, cultivating a climate and culture conducive for knowledge sharing might assure sustained competitive edge for contemporary companies.
2.5. Turnover Intention
Defined as the conscious willfulness of an employee searching for opportunities elsewhere, employee turnover intention (TI) has been widely recognized as the best predictor and immediate antecedent of actual employee turnover ( Mobley, 1977; Tett & Meyer, 1993 ). Given the high costs associated with replacing employees, understanding, and managing turnover intention is critical for organizations across industries. Employee turnover represents a significant cost and disruption for organizations. High levels of TI can have various detrimental consequences for organizations, including decreased productivity, loss of institutional knowledge, and increased recruitment and training costs. Witnessing the global phenomenon of quiet quitting and the great resignation, understanding factors influencing TI has become an urgent and central focus; a substantial body of research spanning multiple disciplines including management, organizational behavior, human resource management and psychology has investigated the topic over the past few decades.
A predominant theoretical lens applied in turnover research is the Unfolding Model of Voluntary Turnover ( Lee & Mitchell, 1994 ). The authors proposed that employees’ decisions to leave comprise a series of cognitive and behavioral paths rather than a single uniform path. Therefore, psychological, economic, and social factors triggering different turnover decision paths play out over time. Integrating classic models such as Intermediate Linkage Model ( Mobley, 1977 ) and Causal Model ( Price, 1977 ), previous studies have adapted and expanded on these decision models to further explore the concept of turnover intention.
Motivation theories focusing on needs, goals, and motives, job embeddedness theory highlighting employees’ organizational, social and community attachments ( Mitchell et al., 2001 ), social exchange theory examining employee reciprocation perceptions ( Griffeth et al., 2000 ), and the job demands-re- sources model assessing burnout tendencies ( Bakker et al., 2005 ) are investigated by researchers from various fields. These contributions provide diverse, yet complementary lenses for further understanding the concept of turnover intention.
Several levels of factors were identified from previous studies that might affect turnover intention of employees. From the individual level, demographic variables like younger age and tenure ( Ng & Feldman, 2009 ), problematic personality traits such as high neuroticism ( Ewen et al., 2013 ), stress and burnout ( Rubenstein et al., 2018 ), and perceived ease of movement ( Allen et al., 2010 ) were recognized. Interpersonal level factors consist of detrimental supervisor- subordinate relationships marked by abusive supervision ( Tepper, 2000 ), authoritarian leadership approaches ( Aarons & Sawitzky, 2006 ) and lack of supervisor or mentor support ( Payne & Huffman, 2005 ). Adversarial or isolated peer relationships also elevate intentions to quit ( Ballinger et al., 2010 ). At the organizational level, compensation structure ( Griffeth et al., 2000 ), invasive performance monitoring ( Chalykoff & Kochan, 1989 ) as well as deficient career development paths and promotion opportunities ( Koster et al., 2011 ) were linked to heightened turnover intentions. Researchers have also examined how leadership styles, ethical climates and diversity policies shape turnover intent ( McKay et al., 2007; Schwepker Jr., 2001 ).
The current study focuses on the effect of psychological contract fulfillment on turnover intention of hairdresser. Influential factors investigated in previous studies would not be discussed.
3. Hypotheses Formulation and Research Method
Based on the literature review presented in the previous sessions, the current proposed six hypotheses and a research framework for validation.
3.1. Hypotheses Formulation
Psychological contract fulfillment denotes the extent to which an employer meets the expectations and obligations that employees believe they are entitled to in the workplace; both explicit commitments and implicit expectations are included. Previous studies suggested that psychological contract fulfillment has a significant impact on employee attitudes and behaviors; furthermore, the fulfillment of psychological contract is essential for building trust, motivation, and the sense of belongness of the company/organization. To encourage the extra-role behavior such as innovative work behavior, the intention of knowledge sharing and organizational citizenship behavior, it would be crucial for the employees to recognize the fulfillment of psychological contract. Furthermore, psychological contract fulfillment is believed to affect employee engagement, job satisfaction, and employee retention. Four hypotheses of the current study are then formulated as follows:
Hypothesis 1: Psychological Contract Fulfilment has a positive significant effect on Innovative Work Behavior.
Hypothesis 2: Psychological Contract Fulfilment has a positive significant effect on Knowledge Sharing Intention.
Hypothesis 3: Psychological Contract Fulfilment has a significant positive effect on Organizational Citizenship Behavior.
Hypothesis 4: Psychological Contract Fulfilment has a significant negative effect on Turnover Intention.
The value of existed knowledge would be increased through sharing ( Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995 ); knowledge sharing could foster individual thriving, increase self-efficacy, and enhance employee’s ability to innovate. In addition, knowledge sharing could lead to the creation of new knowledge that might trigger innovative work behavior. In the hyper competitive age, continuous innovation is considered of crucial importance for the mere survival of companies. Organizational citizenship behavior refers to the voluntary behavior that extends beyond the daily obligation of employees. Demonstrating organizational citizenship behavior could help construct a positive organizational culture that fosters innovation and enhance individual employee’s ability to innovate. Two hypotheses are then formulated as follows:
Hypothesis 5: Knowledge Sharing Intention has a significant positive effect on Innovative Work Behavior.
Hypothesis 6: Organizational Citizenship Behavior has a significant positive effect on Innovative Work Behavior.
The research framework of the current study is provided in Figure 1.
3.2. Questionnaire Design
In order to examine the plausibility of the proposed research framework, a 41-item 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was developed; 6 demographic items were added for further understanding the characteristics of participants. The
items incorporated in the questionnaire are adopted with necessary modification from previous studies to secure the face validity and content validity of the questionnaire. Details of the questionnaire are provided as follows:
To assess perceptions of psychological contract fulfillment within the workplace, 12 items from the scale developed by Coyle-Shapiro and Conway (2005) were utilized. A sample item is: “I received a fair salary relative to staff in comparable roles at other organizations.”
Innovative work behaviors were measured using 10 items from the scale created by De Jong and Den Hartog (2010) tapping the dimensions of idea exploration, idea generation, idea championing, and idea implementation. A sample item is: “How often do you pay attention to issues that are outside the scope of your daily responsibilities?”
Intentions to share knowledge were assessed with 4 items from the measure developed by Lin (2007) . A sample item is: “I intend to share knowledge with my colleagues more frequently going forward.”
As universal forms of organizational citizenship behaviors, helping and civic virtue were measured with 10 items adapted from Bachrach et al. (2007) . A sample item is: “I would assist my colleagues if someone falls behind with their work.”
Turnover intentions were gauged using 5 items from the scale of Hom et al. (1984) to determine prospective decisions to remain with the organization. A sample item is: “I would opt to stay with this company even if presented with another job offer.”
Additionally, 6 demographic items tapped gender, marital status, education, age, organizational tenure, and monthly income.
3.3. Data Collection and Data Analysis Plan
Cooperating with Davie Hair Salon, one of the most prestigious hair salon groups with 3 sub-brands targeting different customer segments established in 1989 in Taiwan, the current study utilized online questionnaire distributed through the internal corporate portal site to collect data from hairdressers working in different branches. During the period of data collection, 205 valid responses were received. Details would be provided in the following section.
In addition to descriptive analysis for having a thorough understanding of the sample through demographic items, multiple regression was employed to verify the hypotheses formulated in the current study. Through verifying the plausibility of those hypotheses, the current study would be able to get a clearer picture of the relationships among those concepts and provide practical advice for the management levels of Davie Hair Salon and practitioners in other service industries.
4. Results
In this section, results of the current study would be presented. Following the description of the sample collected, statistical results of hypotheses testing would be provided.
4.1. Descriptive Analysis of the Demographic Items
From the 205 responses, 79% of them are female hairdressers (162/205); around 52% of them are married (106/205); most of them have a degree of senior high school or vocational school (142/205), 4 respondents receive the master degree; most of the hairdressers are above 25 years old, around 27% of them are over 45; 35.6% of the respondents have work experience of more than 20 years; around 40% of the respondents earn NTD 80,000 (about USD 2600) per month. Details of the demographic items of the current study are summarized in Table 1.
4.2. Descriptive Analysis of the Measurement Scale
Details of descriptive analysis for the measurement scale are provided as follows:
Twelve items adopted from Coyle-Shapiro & Conway (2005) were used for measuring the perception of psychological contract fulfillment. The mean of the items ranged from 3.75 to 4.40; the standard deviation of the items ranged from 0.638 to 0.901. Innovative work behavior was measured using 10 items developed by De Jong & Den Hartog (2010) . The mean of the items ranged from 4.00 to 4.52; the standard deviation ranged from 0.639 to 0.731. Four items used for measuring knowledge sharing intention was developed by Lin (2007) . The mean of the items ranged from 4.03 to 4.18; the standard deviation ranged from 0.604 to 0.710. Ten items used for measuring organizational citizenship behavior were developed by Bachrach et al. (2007) . Finally, 5 items used for measuring turnover intention was developed by Hom et al. (1984) . The mean of the items ranged from 3.01 to 4.01; the standard deviation ranged from 0.849 to 1.085. Details are provided in Table 2.
![]()
Table 1. Descriptive analysis of the demographic items.
![]()
Table 2. Means and standard deviations of the research instrument.
To understand the reliability of the measurement scale, Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated. Ranged from 0.803 to 0.940, the high values (over 0.7) of Cronbach’s Alpha for different variables used in the current study indicated that the measurement scale is reliable for conducting further statistical analysis ( Guilford, 1965 ).
As mentioned above, the items used for the current study were adopted from previous studies; advice for necessary modifications for using those items in the context of hairdressing industry were derived from fields experts and the management levels from Davie Hair Salon. Supported by the positive result of pre-test, it is concluded that the measurement scale had expert validity and content validity.
4.3. Results of Regression Analysis
As mentioned above, regression analysis was used to verify the plausibility of the proposed hypotheses of the current study.
The first hypothesis concerned about the causal relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and innovative work behavior. Result of regression analysis is provided in Table 3; as the p value (<0.005) suggested, Hypothesis 1 cannot be rejected.
The second hypothesis focused on the relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and knowledge sharing intention. Result of regression analysis is provided in Table 4; as the p value (<0.005) suggested, Hypothesis 2 cannot be rejected.
The third hypothesis investigated the relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and turnover intention. Result of regression analysis is provided in Table 5; as the p value (<0.005) suggested, Hypothesis 3 cannot be rejected.
![]()
Table 3. Result of regression analysis for hypothesis 1.
F = 96.289; p = 0.000.
![]()
Table 4. Result of regression analysis for hypothesis 2.
F = 193.610; p = 0.000.
The fourth hypothesis inspected the relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and organizational citizenship behavior. Result of regression analysis is provided in Table 6; as the p value (<0.005) suggested, Hypothesis 4 cannot be rejected.
The fifth hypothesis examined the relationship between knowledge sharing intention and Innovative work behavior. Result of regression analysis is provided in Table 7; as the p value (<0.005) suggested, Hypothesis 5 cannot be rejected.
The sixth hypothesis inspected the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and innovative work behavior. Result of regression analysis is provided in Table 8; as the p value (<0.005) suggested, Hypothesis 6 cannot be rejected.
![]()
Table 5. Result of regression analysis for hypothesis 3.
F = 56.318; p = 0.000.
![]()
Table 6. Result of regression analysis for hypothesis 4.
F = 232.369; p = 0.000.
![]()
Table 7. Result of regression analysis for hypothesis 5.
F = 123.345; p = 0.000.
![]()
Table 8. Result of regression analysis for hypothesis 6.
F = 232.369; p = 0.000.
![]()
Table 9. Results of hypothesis testing.
5. Conclusion, Practical Implication, and Suggestion for Further Study
5.1. Conclusion
To investigate the role of psychological contract fulfillment on innovative work behavior demonstrated by hairdressers, the current study cooperated with Davie Hair Salon and collected data from 205 participants. Based on the regression analysis using SPSS, the results of hypothesis testing are provided in Table 9.
Based on the collected data, Hypothesis 1 cannot be rejected. The result indicated that with higher perception of psychological contract fulfillment, hairdressers would be more willing to demonstrate innovative work behavior in the context of hair salon. In the similar vein, higher perception of psychological contract fulfillment would also help improving the intention of knowledge sharing; Hypothesis 2 cannot be rejected. Higher perception of psychological contract fulfillment would also encourage hairdressers to conduct organizational citizenship behavior while it is believed to be the extra-role behavior not listed on the job description; Hypothesis 3 cannot be rejected. Higher perception of psychological contract, based on the result of the current study, would also help retain hairdressers to stay in the same hair salon; Hypothesis 4 cannot be rejected. Sharing knowledge could help trigger new ideas; higher intention of knowledge sharing would increase the possibility for hairdressers to demonstrate innovative work behavior. Hypothesis 5 cannot be rejected. Finally, as an extra-role behavior, conducting organizational citizenship behavior would encourage hairdressers to demonstrate innovative work behavior. Hypothesis 6 cannot be rejected.
5.2. Practical Implication
Innovation is considered one of the key weapons for companies to survive and thrive in the hyper competitive marketplace (Janssen, 2000) . Keeping up with the fashion trend is crucial for hairdressing industry; however, on the job training and off the job training are not enough for coping with the pressure from tough competitors and demanding customers. Encouraging hairdressers to demonstrate innovative work behavior is considered a promising avenue for ensuring operational excellence and sustainability. Based on the results of the current study, improving the perception of psychological contract fulfillment, enhancing the intention for sharing knowledge, and encouraging organizational citizenship behavior are all fruitful directions for triggering innovative work behavior. The management level of hair salons could pay more attention to ensure hairdressers to have positive perception about psychological contract fulfillment, to construct a safety environment for sharing knowledge, and to reward organizational citizenship behavior. With the popularity of quiet quitting, it would be critical for the management level of hair salons to retain talented hairdressers. While different generation of hairdressers might have diverse needs, it would be of urgent needs to ensure a positive perception of psychological contract fulfillment from hairdressers.
5.3. Suggestion for Further Study
As for directions for future studies, qualitative research methods could be integrated into the process of data collection; the mediating effects of knowledge sharing intention and organizational citizenship behavior on the causal relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and innovative work behavior would be an interesting research topic. Secondly, while the current study cooperated with only one hair salon group, it might provide deeper insight to collect data from members of occupational union. Finally, other factors such as psychological safety, psychological ownership could also be incorporated for expanding the understanding of innovative work behavior.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express sincere gratitude for the help from Davie Hair Salon.