‘Content to be sad’ or ‘runaway apprentice’? The psychological contract and career agency of young scientists in the entrepreneurial university

Abstract

This article examines employee agency in psychological contracts by exploring how young scientists proactively shape their careers in response to unmet expectations induced by academic entrepreneurialism. It uses the lens of social exchange to examine their relationships with the professors engaged in two types of activities: collaborative research characterized by diffuse/reciprocal exchange, and commercial ventures, by restricted/negotiated exchange. These two categories show how career agency varies in orientation, form and behavioural outcome depending on the relational context within which their psychological contracts evolve. Those involved in collaborative research experienced a relational psychological contract and responded to unfulfilled career promises by ‘extended investment’ in their current jobs. They use ‘proxy agency’ by enlisting the support of their professors. However, some become ‘trapped’ in perennial temporary employment and are ‘content to be sad’. By contrast, those involved in research commercialization experienced a transactional contract and assert ‘personal agency’ by crafting their own entrepreneurial careers. They are ‘runaways’ who seek autonomy. The evidence is based on interviews with 24 doctoral/postdoctoral researchers and 16 professors from three leading UK universities. The article extends psychological contract theory by incorporating career agency and sheds new light on changing academic careers.

Flying the Nest: How the Home Department Shapes Researchers' Career Paths

“…This in line with the notion that entrepreneurial spirit may be formed within the socialization environment (Nabi et al 2006;Lam and de Campos 2014), however, it does not confirm that companies may be looking for more applied researchers.…”

“…Indeed, several papers have shown that academics in departments with high levels of commercial activity are more likely to be entrepreneurial themselves (Bercovitz and Feldman 2008;Aschhoff and Grimpe 2014;Lam and de Campos 2014). Kyvik and Olsen (2012) also report that PhD holders in Norway working outside academia and in non-research jobs would have preferred a stronger emphasis on commercialization than those that remained in academia.…”

“…Early studies by Crane (1965Crane ( , 1970, Long (1978) and Long and McGinnis (1985) stressed the influence of department reputational effects on the first academic job, whereas more recent studies focus on sector preferences of PhD students between industry and academia (Roach and Sauermann, 2010;Gemme and Gingras, 2012;Agarwal and Ohyama, 2013;Balsmeier and Pellens, 2014;Lam and de Campos, 2014).…”

Temporary contracts: effect on job satisfaction and personal lives of recent PhD graduates

“…We expect this is because temporary employment can lead to insecurity about career prospects, which in turn affects job satisfaction, as also found by Van der Weijden et al (2016) among postdoctoral researchers (by definition employed on a temporary contract). As such, on the whole the PhDs studied here do not appear to experience a balanced psychological contract as found by Lam and de Campos (2015). However, further qualitative research would be needed to study which psychological contract PhDs experience with their employers, whether subgroups can be discerned, and whether the effects of temporary employment differ by psychological contract.…”

“…In this case, temporary employment does not necessarily lead to decreased job satisfaction. Indeed, a recent study by Lam and de Campos (2015) found that young scientists involved in so-called collaborative research experienced a balanced psychological contract with their professor or employer and remained invested in their current job, despite the fact that some of them seemed trapped in perennial temporary employment. On the other hand, Thunnissen (2015) described the human resources policy at Dutch universities as an unbalanced situation, in which the long spells of temporary employment for scientists led to dissatisfaction.…”