Effect of psychological contract forms on employee attitudes toward Affirmative Action

Résumé du document

Psychological contracts are individual beliefs in reciprocal obligations between employees and employers. In a sample of 1377 South African white collar-employees, this study examined the effects of Affirmative Action on psychological contract attributes and how these changes influence employees' attitude towards Affirmative Action according to their psychological contract form (Relational, Balanced and Transactional). Using empirical research, the effects of Affirmative Action were found to be seen differently for employees with different psychological contracts. Relational employees from both designated and non-designated group were found to have a positive attitude towards Affirmative Action. Balanced designated and non-designated employees were found to have a negative attitude towards Affirmative Action.
Furthermore mentorship was seen as having an interaction effect in such a way that the relationship between relational psychological contract and positivity towards Affirmative Action is stronger when mentoring is high. Organisational Level was also found to have an interaction effect between non-manager and balanced psychological contract were non-manager have a stronger positive attitude than middle managers. Finally interaction effects of age were found in such a way that negativity towards Affirmative Action is lower when employees are older for transactional and balanced employees. The implications of these results and their possible reasons are investigated as well as recommendation for manager on how to improve employees' attitude towards Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is one of the major issues facing companies in South Africa. Its implementation aims at changing the workforce distribution in companies and increasing diversity. By implementing Affirmative Action companies have to make changes in the manner they interact with their employees: the way they are hiring, promoting and even dealing with their staff will be transformed. In so doing, current and future employees see their psychological contracts: "the employee's subjective belief as to their reciprocal obligations with their company" (Rousseau, 1990) with their organisation changed and influenced by Affirmative Action.

Extraits

[...] The sample consisted of 184 ( 13.36 non-designated employees and 1156 ( 83.95 designated employees of which are more relational are more balanced are more transactional and are in between two types of psychological contracts. Employees' attitude toward Affirmative Action is show in Table 14. Table 14: Attitude toward Affirmative Action On average (both groups combined), respondents tended to be satisfied with their jobs = S.D. = 3.72 had average commitment to their companies = S.D. = 1.97 were in favour of mentorship = S.D. = 3.13 prefer good supervisor = S.D. = 1.03 ) and prefer working with similar co-workers = S.D. [...]

[...] (1987). Pack your Own Parachute. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Homecoming Revolution. (2004). ‘Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment', URL:http://www.homecomingrevolution.co.za/html/article_economic.php?article_ id=34 (22/06/05). Hui, C., Lee, C., and Rousseau, D.M. (2004). ‘Psychological Contract and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in China: Investigating Generalizability and Instrumentality', Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 89 311-321. [...]

[...] Some or all of those factors might be affected by Affirmative Action. Loses in pay could happen in term of lower wage or no wage increase Designated Employees Equitable pay, as discussed previously is not in place. The department of Labour (1999) has highlighted that Whites usually have a 104% wage premium over Africans; men have about a 43% higher wages than woman in similar occupational level and that Black men receive an average of 25% of White male incomes at the same level of education (Thomas, 2002:237). [...]

[...] In most companies, managers do not take into account the diversity of their workforce when making decisions and often, companies do not adapt or change with their new employees but requires their new employees to change to adapt to the current corporate culture. The management of diversity created by Affirmative Action is the principal challenge faced by organisations in the near future (Visagie, 1999:158). The introduction of Affirmative Action has been seen as possibly increasing the amount of violence and discrimination between the designated and non-designated population groups (Sowell, 2004:178). This increase in conflict could lead to an unfriendly environment in companies and consequently lower productivity. [...]

[...] This is a bit of a contradiction in terms of Affirmative Action. It shows that companies are probably trying to implement Affirmative Action measures quickly with populations groups that do not possess the necessary skills, once the company realises this, non-designated group are re-hired as they have the qualification. Nevertheless, they are still more white male employees being retrenched and layed-off than being recruited. This has two effects for non-designated group employees: Firstly, the formation of psychological contract is affected. [...]