Many events in recent decacies have made promotion opportunities increasingly scarce, thus significantly changing the career prospects of a large number of individ uals. Feelings of career failure can have negative consequences for both individuals and organizations. Based on a survey of 192 managers and professionals in the Quebec public sector, our results indicate that the absence or inadequacy of practices linked to career planning, development, and support, as well as the lack of opportu nities to play new roles and participate in work groups, accentuates the perception of career plateauing. In order for working conditions to be conducive to individual development, Quebec's public sector organizations will need to modify management practices related to the career plateau phenomenon.Many events in recent decades have changed the career prospects for a large number of individuals. For example, structural changes, techno logical progress, reduction of levels of supervision, changes in organi zational demographics, the growing use of temporary employees, reduction of the size of administration in the public sector, and the withdrawal of the state from numerous sectors of the economy have combined to exercise strong pressure on anticipated career paths.^ Even though they are better educated and more career-oriented than their predecessors,^ managers and professionals of the public sector must now deal with manpower reduction, combined with a decrease of promotion opportunities due to a growing number of individuals whose leveled-off career prospects are blocking those of individuals following them in the organizational structure. For instance, from 1986 to 1996, the proportion of senior managers in the Quebec civil service went from 4.7% to 3.8% of regular employment and the proportion of middle managers went from 4.5% to 3.8%. While there was a significant decrease for these two employment categories over the last decade, the proportion of professionals increased from 22.9% to 28.5% for the same period .3 Furthermore, some analysts believe that 70% of employees are presently in a situation of career plateauing,* and still others predict that this rate could reach 90% in the coming years.s As a result, career promotions and/or salary increases are increasingly scarce. Thus, the traditional career of our dreams is becoming less and less achievable.

PurposeThe purpose of the research is to demonstrate the impact of psychological contract infringement (independent variable) on organizational commitment, exit, voice and neglect (dependent variables) within a Canadian federal public organization located in Quebec, where individual (e.g. age), organizational (e.g. stricter rule enforcement) and situational (e.g., employment alternatives) variables are controlled.Design/methodology/approach – A pre‐tested questionnaire (204 questions) on the psychological contract was distributed to 357 Canadian civil servants in a one site federal department. One hundred and thirty‐two questionnaires were returned and considered usable for research, for a 37 per cent response rate. Bivariate analysis was performed on the various determinants and individual responses to psychological contract violation, including organizational commitment, departure designs and counterproductive behaviors.Findings – Results clearly illustrate the great complexity of the link between organizational variables and individual reactions and shed light, on a higher level, on the need to outgrow arguments that reduce bureaucracy to its mere perverse effects. These results suggest that the managerial challenge is not so much to produce a shift from an environment where the rule of law, standards and regulations prevails to an open and flexible environment where individual autonomy is prized as it is to ensure compliance with normative and regulatory constraints.Originality/value – The research seeks to enrich the knowledge base on the subject area because previous research has dealt almost exclusively with the psychological contract within large private companies.

La mesure de l'efficacité des pratiques de gestion est une préoccupation forte de la « nouvelle » gestion des ressources humaines (GRH). Pourtant — au-delà du discours — peu de recherches empiriques ont été effectuées sur ce sujet à cause de la complexité des devis de recherche qui exigent le contrôle de nombreuses variables influençant la relation entre les pratiques de GRH et la performance organisationnelle. En mesurant l'efficacité des pratiques de GRH à partir de leur capacité à réduire l'insatisfaction professionnelle de 2 497 professionnels syndiqués québécois, le devis de cette recherche s'avère non seulement réaliste mais aussi efficace puisque cette insatisfaction professionnelle (due à la confrontation des valeurs professionnelles avec les exigences organisationnelles) s'avère positivement reliée à la faible loyauté organisationnelle, au faible rendement perçu et à de nombreux comportements contre-productifs. Une analyse multivariée de 66 pratiques de GRH (qui se regroupent en 26 grappes homogènes) met en évidence l'importance des pratiques de participation, de communication, de formation et de valorisation professionnelle. Le modèle « idéal » de gestion de la main-d’œuvre professionnelle qui se dégage de l'analyse explique 41,3 % de la variance totale de l'insatisfaction professionnelle. Il continue à expliquer 28,3 % de cette variance alors même que 37 variables individuelles et 6 variables organisationnelles sont contrôlées.Evaluating the effectiveness of human resource (HR) practices is a key dimension of the "new" Human Resource Management model. However, despite a great deal of prescriptive literature, little empirical research has been conducted on this topic, mainly because of the complexities involved in designing research that controls for the major variables intervening between the HR practices and organizational effectiveness.By choosing to measure HR management effectiveness in terms of the capacity of HR practices to reduce professional dissatisfaction, the design of the present research is not only practical, but also effective. Based on a sample of 2497 unionized professionals in Quebec, the study shows that professional dissatisfaction — related to the clash of values between managerial and professional cultures — is positively correlated with low organizational commitment, low perceived performance and several deviant behaviors (Raelin 1986a).Among the many HR practices treated in the literature on the management of professionals, a number of practices are given special prominence for their potential to diminish the clash of values between managerial and professional cultures. The sixty-six practices selected for the study can be grouped as follows: (l)job enrichment/enlargement practices (allowing a better use of abilities), (2) communication practices (allowing a better understanding of the corporate vision), (3) "weak" control practices (allowing more autonomy to professionals while maintaining some control over their work), (4) participation practices, (5) development and ca...

Le malaise professionnel — vu comme un conflit entre les valeurs professionnelles et les exigences organisationnelles — a donné lieu à une abondante littérature au cours des quarante dernières années. Le concept est ici repris dans le but d'élaborer un construit qui s'appuie sur les huit principaux points de tension entre les cadres et les professionnels, soit la nature du travail, l'autonomie, la participation à la prise de décision, le style de gestion du supérieur, les conditions de travail, le développement de carrière, la reconnaissance et l'éthique. Construit à partir de questions mesurant tant les attentes professionnelles que les perceptions de réalisation de 2497 professionnels syndiqués du Québec, le construit de 16 indicateurs se révèle cohérent et valide puisqu'il est significativement corrélé avec les attitudes et comportements généralement associés au malaise par les auteurs.The number of salaried professionals in Canada is steadily growing and their contribution to organizational performance is crucial. Unfortunately, professional values are often in conflict with organizational norms and rules, especially in large organizations or mechanistic bureaucracies, and this frequently results in deviant behaviour and low commitment. Is the problem one of excessive expectations on the part of the high-talent manpower or of an incapacity of organizations to implement innovative management practices? Whatever the answer, the golden collar "malaise" or professional-organizational conflict — first put forward during the 1950s and the 1960s — is still a problem today. The goal of this research is to focus on the clash of values, to highlight their incompatibilities and to build a construct whose validity and reliability will open the door to an examination of the key determinants of the malaise and the analysis of its effects.In the first part of this paper, the authors briefly review the roots of managerial and professional cultures. They then examine the complaints that each side makes of the other. From the managerial point of view, professionals wish to remain overprofessionalized, demand excessive autonomy, resist close supervision by insisting on professional standards of evaluation, disregard organizational procedures and display little regard for real-world practices. From the professional point of view, managers are reluctant to share information, maintain excessive and formalized control, set unchallenging and useless tasks, are unable to create an egalitarian atmosphere, do not provide an environment favourable to intellectual work and override their ethical responsibilities. Based on these grievances, well documented by Raelin (1986a) and confirmed by the authors' exploratory interviews, the eight following dimensions of professionals' dissatisfaction (or professional malaise) have been recognized : task content ; autonomy ; involvement ; leadership from superior ; physical settings ; career development ; recognition ; and ethics. In the second part of the paper, the research methodology is...