The Impact of the Psychological Contract on Academics

Abstract

While the literature reveals some disagreement on the specific features and definition of new managerialism and its practices, there is consensus on six features (Lynch, 2014) that define the practice.

Scholar’s Online Organizational Engagement and its Consequences for Higher Education Sustainability

“…The scientific literature has not yet provided a universally acknowledged definition of the concept of psychological contract. This concept is highly complex, but the perception between employee-employer obligations is always a common platform (Burch, Batchelor, Burch, & Heller, 2015;Eichler, Lemos, & Neves, 2019;Guerrero, 2005;Jafri, 2014;Larkin & Neumann, 2012;Maia & Bastos, 2019;Mittal & Mishra, 2017;Nutakki et al, 2015;O'Toole & Prince, 2015;Peirce et al, 2012;Richard, McMillan-Capehart, Bhuian, & Taylor, 2009;Rios & Gondim, 2010;Smithson & Lewis, 2004;Swepresad et al, 2019;Tavares, 2006;Tipples et al, 2007).…”

“…Nutakki et al (2015) for example, highlight that -understanding the mutual expectations of the teaching staff and the employer to build a positive psychological contract is crucial to the institutions' ability to manage the commitment and work performance of the faculty‖ (p. 35). In turn, Swepresad et al (2019) describe the characteristics of the psychological contract, making a comparison between the old and the new psychological contract, depicted in Table 1. Next sub-section analyses the influence of online organizational engagement (Sandu, 2019) on the psychological contract for academics.…”

“…According to Swepresad, Ruggunan, Adam, and Krishna (2019) qualitative studies on new management policies and how they shape higher education academics' psychological contracts are not abundant. Furthermore, the few existing studies on this topic demonstrate that there is an influence of the new management practices in the psychological contract that is not easily perceived, and that entails positive and negative consequences.…”

“…Although there are several perspectives on the academic profession, legitimate autonomy, as control over its action, emerges as one of the key characteristics of this concept (Dubar, 1997). One of the professions where this feature emerges(ed) as most evident is that of the academic/scholar, and legitimate autonomy is, to a large extent, incorporated in the academics' expectations (Fenton & Smith, 2019;Nutakki, Reddy, & Balan, 2015): autonomy in their performance (Swepresad et al, 2019).…”

“…Recently, in higher education institutions (HEIs), there has been a change towards an increase in marketization, national and international competition, and a form of managerialism that hyper values economic performance and the centrality of training for the market. Thus, the State is no longer the only source of control and funding, and the private sector starts to take on an increasingly relevant role and centrality in this arena (Koskina, 2013;Krivokapic-Skoko & O'Neill, 2008;Nutakki et al, 2015;Swepresad et al, 2019;Tipples, Krivokapic-Skoko, & O'Neill, 2007;Topa & Morales, 2008;Whitchurch & Gordon, 2013).…”