University of Twente Student Theses

Login

An investigation into psychological contract formation from recruitment material in the context of public administration system: A case study on Moldovan Ministry of Finance

Onici, T. (2009) An investigation into psychological contract formation from recruitment material in the context of public administration system: A case study on Moldovan Ministry of Finance.

[img] PDF
681kB
Abstract:In the past 15 years the concept of psychological contract has reached considerable attention due to circumstances such as technologies, increased competition, downsizing, demographic diversity, etc. Both academics and practitioners have acknowledged that the concept of the psychological contract can be applied to understand and manage the shifting employment relationships. The majority of research on psychological contract theory has been carried out on the dyad between the employer and the employee, and the reciprocal expectations and obligations they perceive. However, some researches state the importance of forming the psychological contract at the early beginning of the hiring process. It is at the R&S phase when its concept starts to develop and have significant effects on the further employment and performance activity within the organization. Hence, the research on how to understand the formation of the psychological contract from the recruitment material and how to develop it in a more accurate way is vital. Here, both organizational and sectorial contexts play a critical role in the contract creation. As such, public sector seems to carry specific features in this respect. William et al (2004) stress the point that in the last decade challenges in the public sector arose due to a great pressure in order to deliver high quality and custom oriented services. The initiatives taken by the public sector organizations in trying to increase performance changed the employment relationship with their employees. The obligations toward public servants have changed and augmented, the same happened to the employees expectations (Willem et al, 2004). This affects negatively the state of the psychological contract which in its turn influences in line job satisfaction of the employee, employee performance, early turnover and finally the organization performance in long run (Tekleab, Takeuchi, Taylor, 2005). Thus, the focus of the research lies in a particular category of the employees which are civil servants. Hence, in this thesis I search for the components of the psychological contract presented already in the R&S material derived from a public authority. By doing so, I assume to find enough elements which can form a primary psychological contract of a prospective civil servant, even for that who reads job advertisement for the first time. The research on the developing inaccurate psychological contracts has shown that it often leads to its breach. Then, employees perceive decreased job satisfaction, organizational commitment, performance and increased turnover intention. All these factors also point to the effectiveness of R&S process. Therefore I have reasons to believe that the formation of the psychological contract at an early stage of the R&S is crucial for positive the R&S outcomes as well as the organizational performance within public administration system. The project is organized as a case study in a public authority, in which qualitative data are analyzed from the available recruitment material oriented to the job seekers from the organization itself and from legislative framework as well. A document analysis and a qualitative interview are carried out to explore the psychological contract elements which can lie at its formation. As communicated obligations are at the foundation of the psychological contract content I search for identifying the explicit organizational/employee obligations (as variables) explored in the specified sources. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the psychological contract formation during the R&S process using the recruitment material, as well as to show how psychological contract in the R&S phase could be managed more accurately by improving it h communication through.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:88 social and public administration
Programme:Public Administration MSc (60020)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60277
Export this item as:BibTeX
EndNote
HTML Citation
Reference Manager

 

Repository Staff Only: item control page