A study on work stress of real estate industry knowledge workers on the basis of psychological contract

Knowledge workers have become the key forces of the human resource in real estate industry. In the context of restructuring, the intensified market competition makes the external stress confronted by companies increasingly enhance, which compels the companies to put organizational transformation in practice. And the changes related with working inherent characteristics firmly affect workers' psychological contract and work stress. By way of managing psychological contract, controlling work stress within a reasonable range has far-reaching effect on corporations' strategic development. With exploratory factor, confirmatory factor and regression analysis, this paper finds that psychological contract of knowledge workers in real estate industry consists of three dimensions: transaction, obligation and development. The transaction dimension and the obligation dimension respectively have negative and positive effect on work stress. The effect of the transaction dimension on work stress is greater than that of the obligation dimension. The development dimension has no effect on work stress. In addition, this paper also discusses the moderating effect of education background on the relationship of psychological contract dimensions with work stress. Thus, this paper concludes a model to match psychological contract dimensions with work stress, and brings forward policies and suggestions to manage work stress for real estate industry knowledge workers.