Influence of Pre-Merger Employment Relations and Individual Characteristics on the Psychological Contract

Abstract

Organisational changes and transformations, in which employees are exposed to mergers, acquisitions and take-overs of their organisations, are a common phenomenon these days. Empirical evidence on the formation of initial trust in new organisational relationships has shown that past experiences are an important determinant of an individual's intention to trust another party. In this article the aim is to assess the influence of a prior employment relationship in a pre-merging workplace on the experience ofthe psychological contract by the employees ofthe actually merged institution. The individual characteristics of the employees are also investigated to identify how these characteristics influence the psychological contract. The population consisted of employees of two previously independent universities (N 1 = 887, N 2 = 1 649, Ntotal = 2 536) that merged into one university with three campuses (two associated with a historically white university and one with a historically black university). The former universities had very different histories with very dissimilar employment relations, demographic compositions and management structures. One year after the merger, a questionnaire was handed out to a randomly stratified sample (n, = 191, n 2 = 301, ntotal =492) at all the workplaces. The questionnaire included a psychological contract measure, assessing the employee's experience of employer obligations (43 items) and employee obligations (21 items), as well as items measuring the influence of the merger on the experience of the psychological contract. Various significant differences were found between the previous universities, especially with respect to the experience of employer obligations not being kept by the employer. The individual characteristics of the respondents had less influence on the experience of the psycholoqlcal contract than the social context of the previous employment relationships.

EI training and sales performance during a corporate merger

“…In a second example examining the impact of a corporate merger on the employee psychological contract, undertaken by Linde and Schalk (2008), the results indicate mergers have the potential to breach the psychological contract, which impacts an employee's obligations to the organisation at three important levels: (1) performance;…”

“…For example, Länsisalmi et al (2000) identified the key outcomes of organisational mergers to be “collective stress”. In another study, Linde and Schalk (2008) examined the impact of a corporate merger on the employee psychological contract. The results indicated that mergers have the potential to breach the psychological contract, which impacts an employee's obligations to the organisation at three important levels:performance;extra‐role behaviour; andethics.More specifically, poorly conducted corporate mergers tend to result in reduced employee performance, lower levels of employee discretionary effort, and lower levels of trust shown towards the employer by the employee.…”

The state of the psychological contract and employees’ intention to leave: The mediating role of employee well-being

“…For employer obligations, three dimensions are covered by the scale, namely, transactional aspects, career prospects, and chance to influence decision-making. Linde and Schalk (2008) established that these three dimensions can be grouped into one factor through exploratory factor analysis. Employer obligations were measured by means of 15 items (e.g., 'Has your organisation promised or committed itself to provide you with interesting work').…”

Los niveles de actuación en las relaciones de trabajo y la formación de contratos psicológicos

“…En la perspectiva de esta autora, el CP comprende creencias respecto de acuerdos de intercambio entre un individuo y la organización para la cual trabaja; tales creencias, constituyen un aspecto idiosincrásico en la relación de trabajo (Rousseau, 2001). En este nivel la manera como un individuo concibe sus compromisos implícitos en una relación de trabajo está asociado a sus características individuales y al contexto social en que el CP se forma y se mantiene (Linde & Schalk, 2008). De esta manera, la formación de un CP tiene como uno de sus fundamentos o referentes la singularidad del individuo, su idiosincrasia, su forma de ver e interpretar el mundo.…”