The aim of this thesis is to explore employment relations in young, growth-oriented, technology-driven (high-tech) start-ups. It takes a closer look at the exchange relationship between founders and their first employees in this specific context. At its core, the research is interested in employees motivation to work for a growth-oriented start-up and their understanding of the employment deal. The study uses the psychological contract as an analytical framework to gain deeper insights into individuals perceptions of this deal. The research is embedded within an interpretivist paradigm and includes eight case studies involving growth-oriented high-tech start-ups in Berlin and London. For each case, in-depth interviews with three full-time employees as well as the founder(s) were conducted. The findings of this thesis demonstrate that the employment deal in growth-oriented start-ups is a short-term, faith-driven contract, which differs substantially from the current understanding of the psychological contract. In contrast to the long-term or open-ended contract often offered by larger, more established organisations, this deal has a defined expiration date . Moreover, the findings challenge the current understandings on remuneration, relationship building and power dynamics within growth-oriented start-ups and add to the literature by offering a re-conceptualisation of the psychological contract. This thesis helps to inform prospective employees about the advantages and challenges of joining a start-up and encourages entrepreneurs to further tailor their management and compensation strategies.

[pt] Relevantes mudanças organizacionais vêm ocorrendo nos últimos anos, trazendo diversas conseqüências para as relações de trabalho. Cada vez mais, as empresas precisam se adaptar às novas estruturas de trabalho e compreender como a flexibilização tem ocorrido nessa nova realidade. O espaço físico organizacional passou a ter uma nova forma de caracterização. Este trabalho procura identificar as percepções dos trabalhadores que atuam em diferentes níveis de presença (ou ausência) no espaço físico de uma organização, além das influências que este nível de presença exerce sobre os elementos que compõem a sua relação com a empresa. Realizou-se estudo de caso em uma empresa multinacional instalada no Rio de Janeiro, na qual co-existem três níveis distintos de inserção de empregados no espaço físico da organização: (a) indivíduos que trabalham em tempo integral no escritório da empresa; (b) indivíduos que atuam nas instalações dos clientes (sistema de outsourcing); (c) indivíduos que trabalham no sistema home office. Foram realizadas 15 entrevistas semi-estruturadas, sendo cinco com cada grupo. Os resultados apontam que determinadas expectativas dos indivíduos, além de outros elementos que influenciam a formação dos contratos psicológicos, diferenciam-se de acordo com o grau de presença física no espaço organizacional. Por outro lado, aspectos como a identidade organizacional dos indivíduos não se mostram tão afetados por essa dimensão espacial. / [en] Relevant organizational changes have occurred during the past few years with several impacts on work relations. More often companies need to adapt themselves to the new working environment and understand how flexibility has taken place in this new scenario. Organizational space has been analyzed from a new point of view. This paper expects to identify the employee s perspectives based on their presence (or absence) on the physical organizational space. Also it intends to verify how this level of presence can influence the components part of the relations between the employee and the employer. A study case was taken in an international company located in Rio de Janeiro, where there are three different levels of presence on the physical organizational space: (a) individuals who work full time in the company s office; (b) individuals who work from customer- site (outsourcing model); (c) individuals who adopted the home office system. 15 semi-structured interviews took place considering five by each group. Results point that specific expectations and aspects related to the physiological contract differ according to the level of physical presence in the organizational space. From the other side, organizational identity does not seem to be impacted by this spatial dimension.

[pt] Este trabalho tem como objetivo entender as bases do contrato psicológico estabelecidas entre trabalhadores e empresas de alta performance, no atual cenário em que as relações de trabalho estão cada vez mais pautadas em uma dedicação intensa à organização e ao aumento da jornada de trabalho, para muito além das oito horas contratuais. Buscou-se entender o que atrai esses profissionais às empresas consideradas de alta performance; o que essas empresas oferecem aos funcionários, de forma explícita e, principalmente, implícita, que as tornam atraentes para os mesmos. Para fundamentar teoricamente o trabalho foi realizada uma revisão da literatura acerca de temas como o contrato psicológico, sistemas e práticas de trabalho relacionados à alta performance, bem como sobre os impactos positivos e negativos gerados pela alta performance (como, por exemplo, a intensificação do trabalho). Para alcançar os objetivos do trabalho realizou-se uma pesquisa qualitativa, com entrevistas semi-estruturadas com doze funcionários de empresas privadas cujo modelo de gestão fosse fortemente pautado em valores de alta performance. Os resultados das entrevistas foram analisados à luz da literatura consultada, buscando-se entender quais as bases das relações de troca entre os entrevistados e as empresas nas quais atuam. Os resultados da análise indicam que, embora boa parte dos profissionais aprecie as atividades realizadas em seu trabalho, os custos atrelados à alta performance são consideráveis, impactando na vida pessoal destas pessoas e prejudicando muitas vezes a relação familiar. / [en] This study aims at understanding the basis of the psychological contract between employees and high performance organizations in the current scenario where labor relations are increasingly linked to an intense dedication to the organization and to an increase of the workload far beyond eight o clock contract. We sought to understand what attracts these professionals to companies considered to be high performance ones, what these companies offer to employees, explicitly and, primarily, implicit, that make these organizations attractive to them. The theoretic basis of the work lies on a literature review on topics such as the psychological contract, systems and work practices related to high performance, as well as the positive and negative impacts generated by high performance (eg, intensification of work). To achieve the objectives of the work we carried out a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews with twelve employees of private companies whose management style was strongly based on values of high performance. The results of the interviews were analyzed according to the literature, seeking to understand what the basis of exchange relations between the respondents and the companies in which they operate. The results of the analysis indicate that although most of the professionals enjoy the activities they carry out in their work, the costs linked to high performance are significant, impacting their personal lives and many times affecting the family relationship.

[pt] Nos últimos anos tem sido observado um aumento crescente do interesse da mão de obra de nível superior no Brasil pelos postos de trabalho oferecidos pelas entidades públicas. Esse fenômeno reflete tanto a busca dos novos entrantes do mercado de trabalho por essas oportunidades, quanto uma migração daqueles que atuavam em empresas privadas e decidem ingressar no setor público. Esse aumento de interesse pela área pública se justifica pela existência de um grupo de fatores, considerados importantes pelos empregados, que seriam melhor atendidos nesse setor. Dentre essas questões, encontram-se a necessidade de gerenciamento do próprio tempo, remuneração, estabilidade e prestígio. O objetivo desse trabalho foi compreender os principais pontos que formam a base do contrato psicológico estabelecido entre uma empresa pública e os seus funcionários que são egressos de empresas privadas, com vistas a entender melhor o crescente interesse por essas entidades. Para tal, realizou-se uma pesquisa qualitativa em que foram entrevistados nove indivíduos, atuais funcionários de três empresas públicas federais. Essas pessoas foram entrevistadas com base em um roteiro semiestruturado com perguntas abertas, o que deu espaço para que cada participante contribuísse com aquilo que considerasse mais relevante acerca do tema. Através dessas entrevistas, o pesquisador buscou entender as três etapas do contrato psicológico desses funcionários, de acordo com o modelo de Côrtes e Silva (2006). O resultado foi abrangente e trouxe não apenas as expectativas que contribuíram para a formação inicial do contrato dessas pessoas, mas também os termos que foram agregados no decorrer da relação com a empresa. / [en] The college graduated brazilian workforce has been showing a growing interest to occupy positions in Brazil’s public companies. This phenomenon reflects not only an intention of the labor force newcomers to fill in these opportunities, but also a migration of professionals that used to act in private organizations and decided to enter the public sector. This growth in interest for the public area is explained by the existence of a group of factors, important for the workers, that would be better accomplished in this sector. Among these factors, there’s a need from the worker to manage his/her own time, salary, stability and prestige. This research’s objective was to understand the most important points that built the psychological contract’s basis established between a public company and its workers that were previously employed in the private sector, what would explain the growing interest for these companies. To reach this objective, a qualitative research was made, in which nine employers from three different brazilian federal enterprises were interviewed. These interviews were based on a semi structured questionnaire with wide content questions that intended to give the interviewee the possibility to cooperate with the subjects that he/she understood as the most relevant. Through these interviews, the researcher looked after to understand the three steps that underlie the public worker’s psychological contract, according to the template designed by Côrtes e Silva (2006). The result was wide and embraced not only the expectations that involved initial moment of the contract, but also the terms that have been added through the worker’s relationship with the company.

[pt] As constantes mudanças organizacionais provocadas pela tecnologia da informação e pelo aumento da competitividade global implicam em transformações profundas nas relações de trabalho. Nas grandes empresas, é clara a intensificação da prática da terceirização do setor de TI para empresas especializadas na prestação de serviços em tecnologia. Isso faz com que o profissional de TI terceirizado passe a se relacionar diretamente com duas empresas: a contratante e a contratada. O presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar como este indivíduo constrói o seu contrato psicológico com essas empresas e como ele percebe a sua situação no novo contexto do mercado de trabalho. Para tal, foram realizados estudos de caso em três empresas de atuação nacional que contratam este tipo de serviço em TI. Utilizou-se o método de pesquisa qualitativa com a realização de entrevistas semi- estruturadas com os profissionais de TI terceirizados em tais empresas. Nos resultados observou-se que o contrato psicológico é moldado por fatores que vão além dos limites do vínculo empregatício, sendo influenciado, entre outros aspectos, pelas forças do mercado, pelo contexto de vida pessoal, e pelo grau de identificação do indivíduo com as duas empresas. / [en] The continuous organizational changes caused by information technology and by the increase in global competition entail deep transformations in work relationships. The IT sector of large companies are increasingly resorting to outsourcing these services from IT specialized firms. It makes the outsourced IT professional deal directly with two firms: the contractor and the contracted. The present study aims at analyzing how this individual develops his psychological contract within these two firms, and how he becomes aware of his situation in a new labor market context. To this end, case studies were carried out in three companies operating domestically. The qualitative research method was used for effecting semi-structured interviews with outsourced IT professional in such firms. Results showed that the psychological contract is molded by factors other than the limits of the employment contract. For example, such factors as market forces, one´s personal life, and the degree of individual identification with both firms.

[pt] Os eventos organizacionais dos últimos 10 anos - outsourcing, downsizing, reengenharia, aquisições, fusões, etc - estão desafiando os departamentos de Recursos Humanos tradicionais e as práticas executivas estabelecidas desde a metade dos anos de 1970 (John P. Morgan, 2001). Como conseqüência destas mudanças surgiu, em meados da década de 1990, uma abordagem inovadora conhecida como HPWS (High Performance Work Systems ou Sistemas de Trabalho de Alto Desempenho): Conjuntos de práticas de alto desempenho com a finalidade de selecionar, desenvolver e reter a força de trabalho, com habilidades, conhecimentos e competências superiores e motivá-la à aplicar seu know-how no local de trabalho. Verificou-se, entretanto, que o resultado da aplicação destas práticas poderia variar em função: da indústria, da cultura da organização, dos valores dos empregados, da estratégia da empresa, etc. Considerou-se razoável, então, observar a teoria sobre Contratos Psicológicos de Trabalho como uma das ferramentas necessárias à maior compreensão do tema. O entendimento das bases de um Contrato Psicológico traz a possibilidade de compreensão dos acordos implícitos da relação empregado/empregador, o que pode ajudar no estudo da influência destes em uma aplicação tradicional de HPWS. A razão da escolha, como cenário de estudo, de uma operação de consultoria é simples: operações de consultoria são, por sua natureza, ambientes complexos e possuidores de uma cultura forte e singular onde a utilização de HPWS é uma prática bastante conhecida, reunindo, portanto, todas as variáveis necessárias à observação do fenômeno. O objetivo principal desta dissertação, é, portanto, ratificar que os consultores pesquisados percebem a aplicação de cada HPWS de maneira distinta. Esta verificação é metodologicamente fundamental para que se possa seguir na busca de possíveis relações entre: a importância que cada consultor dá aos HPWS, os tipos predominantes de Contratos Psicológicos e a Cultura da Organização; objetivos secundários desta dissertação mas não por isso menos importantes desde o ponto de vista do autor. / [en] The organizational events of the last 10 years - outsourcing, downsizing, reengineering, acquisitions, joint ventures, etc - are challenging the traditional HR and established executive practices since the decade of 1970 (John P. Morgan, 2001). As a consequence of these changes, an innovative approach was developed in the middle of 90´s, the HPWS (High Performance Work Systems): a group of high-performance practices with the objective of select, develop and retain the work-force with superior skills, knowledge and abilities, motivating them to the use of this know-how in the workplace. Although, verifying that these implementations could present different results, impacted by the industry, the organizational culture and strategy, etc, was reasonable to accept the theory about Psychological Contracts at Work as a necessary instrument to a deeply comprehension of the subject. To understand the basis of a Psychological Contract helps the comprehension of the implicit agreements built between the employer and the employee, what can help the study of the influence of these agreements in a traditional HPWS implementation. The reason of the choice of a consulting operation, as the environment of the survey, is simple: consulting operations are complex environments with a strong organizational culture where the utilization of HPWS is a usual aspect, resuming all necessary variables to the observation of the phenomenon. So, the primary objective of this dissertation is to verify if this evaluated group perceives the implementation of each HPWS in a different way. This verification is, methodologically speaking, a fundamental step to the search of possible relationships between: how important is each HPWS for these consultants, what is the predominant Psychological Contract in place and the typology of organizational culture, all secondary objectives of this dissertation but, from the point of view of the author, as important as the primary one.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka om det fanns en skillnad mellan män och kvinnor gällande hur de upplever det psykologiska kontraktets uppfyllelse samt om någon av kommunikationsdimensionerna (personlig feedback, relation med överordnad, kommunikationsklimat och delaktighet i organisationen) kan predicera upplevelsen av det psykologiska kontraktet. Data samlades in genom en webbaserad enkät som besvarades av 62 respondenter. Enkäten bestod av tre delar som behandlade bakgrundsfrågor, psykologiska kontrakt (med frågor från Psychological contracts across employment situations, PSYCONES) och nöjdheten med kommunikationen (Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire, CSQ). Genom t-test och regressionsanalys i SPSS, konstaterades det att det inte fanns någon signifikant skillnad mellan hur män och kvinnor upplever det psykologiska kontraktet samt att kommunikationsdimensionen delaktighet i organisationen predicerar upplevelsen av det psykologiska kontraktet. / The aim of the study was to investigate whether there was a difference between men and women how they perceive the fulfilment of the psychological contract and if any of the communication dimensions (personal feedback, relationship with supervisor, communication climate and organizational integration) can predict the psychological contract. Data was collected through a web-based survey that was answered by 62 respondents. The survey had three parts that included background questions, psychological contracts (questions from Psychological contracts across employment situations, PSYCONES) and communication satisfaction (Communications Satisfaction Questionnaire, CSQ). Through t-test and regression analysis in SPSS it was found that there was no difference between how men and women perceived the psychological contract and that participation in the organization predicts the experience of the psychological contract.

This research explores the linkages between HR practices and business sales performance in a retail bank branch network. Whilst previous research in the last two decades has generally supported the notion that when appropriately designed HR practices can help enhance organizational outcomes, there is still ongoing debate regarding how such practices can actually influence business results. In particular, academics have highlighted the importance of the quality of HR implementation, because this can affect employee day-to-day experiences of and reactions to the HR practices which can impact on variance in the business results. In effect, it is crucial for research to take up the employee lens of the implemented practices and their reactions to these, if the HR-performance relationship is to be clearly understood. This thesis contributes to this research agenda by adopting the social exchange lens to shed light on the nature of the aforementioned relationship. A multidisciplinary and multilevel HR-performance model was employed for conducting empirical tests. Specifically, the empirical model was constructed from the literature in three different fields: strategic human resources management, social exchange theory and psychological contract, with the aim of eliciting the nature of employer-employee exchange relationships in the HR process. Subsequently, the model was tested using the data obtained from 1,286 employees in 149 bank branches and analysed so as to assess the multilevel process through which HR practices can influence business sales performance. The empirical results indicate that an organization can improve branch sales performance by paying careful attention to several processes pertaining to the implementation of HR practices. That is, through the psychological contract process, employees, based on their perceptions of the quality of the received practices (i.e. HR level and breach), reciprocate the organization with their discretionary performance, i.e. commitment attitudes and organizational citizenship behaviours and these outcomes have an impact on business results. Moreover, the findings also point to a boundary condition, whereby the HR-performance relationship can be enhanced by stressing the role of the key constituencies responsible for delivering these practices, namely: senior management and the line manager. That is, respectively, through the affective and relational processes, these agents can have an impact on employee perceptions of HR level and whether there has been a breach of the psychological contract, which in turn influence employee reactions in the causal chain. In summary, having applied the social exchange perspective to elicit the employee interaction with the different quality of HR implementation across bank branches, this study has contributed to the literature by identifying the key processes including psychological contract, relational and affective processes through which HR practices can impact on business sales performance, thereby illustrating how an organization’s human resources can serve as the source of sustained business competitive advantage.

The psychological contract provides a framework for understanding the relationship between employees and employers. The objective of the research was to determine the type of psychological contract developed by higher education academics. In addition, the research objective was to examine the effect of employees’ perception of the human resource practices of their employers on their psychological contract. There have been a number of conceptual and empirical studies on the psychological contract of employees and its relationships to other organisational variables such as human resource practices. However, there has been minimal research on the psychological contracts of academics in higher education and the effect of human resource practices on their psychological contracts. The research was based on a cross-sectional survey that comprised the Psychological Contract Inventory (Rousseau, 2000), the Human Resource Practice Scale (Geringer et al., 2002), and questions on the demographic and job characteristics of academics as employees in the higher education sector in Canada. The research involved 405 academics from Canadian higher education institutions. The response rate was 70%. The research found that employees’ perception of the recruitment and selection, training and development and compensation and benefits HR practices had significant and positive effects on the relational and balanced psychological contracts of academics, thereby building commitment, loyalty and the desire for professional and career development. The training and development HR practices were found to have the strongest positive effect on the relational and balanced types of psychological contracts. The research indicated that the psychological contract theory should be researched using newer and a combination of approaches. The research made several theoretical and practical contributions to the psychological contract theory and human resource management in the higher education sector.

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