The purpose of this study is to extend the theoretical model of organizational politics in different contextual situations by using cross-level analytical framework. In accordance with the social exchange perspective, this study draws on a reciprocated subjective cognitive state that existed between the employee and workplace (psychological contract breach) as a mediator to connect the relationship between group political climate and turnover intention. Additionally, this research also employed the situational strength perspective by introducing a group characteristic variable (group interaction) to investigate its moderating effect on the relationship between group political climate, psychological contract breach and turnover intention. Data were collected from 56 work groups consisted of 750 work group members who provided the information about group political climate, psychological contract breach, turnover intention, group interaction and demographic variables. Hierarchical linear modeling techniques were applied to test the full model. The results reveal that individual employees¡¦ psychological contract breach partially mediate the relationship between group political climate and turnover intention. Further, group interaction moderates the mediated relationship between group political climate, psychological contract breach, and individual employees¡¦ turnover intention. Lastly, groups with high degree of group interaction could lessen their employees¡¦ turnover intention induced by group political climate.

This study sought to answer critical questions surrounding the impact that national culture has on specific parts of the employment experience of employees working for multinational organizations. As globalization expands and organizations are gaining larger footprints beyond regional operations, there has become a need to understand how cultural nuances could be playing a role in the employee experiences at these organizations. This study looks at two pieces of the employee experience in great detail, the psychological contract and job satisfaction. Understanding the process that builds psychological contracts between employee and employer is a critical piece to promoting a satisfied and productive workforce. The perception of a breach of the psychological contract has substantial negative implications. Understanding how the psychological contract and employee job satisfaction are linked is a key focus of this study. Binary logistic regression and path analysis were conducted on a sample of employees of multinational organizations which provided key findings and evidence that both nationality and job satisfaction play a statistically significant role in the perception of a psychological contract breach. The path analysis provided results that warrant further research, but was unable to substantiate the moderating effects of the dimensions of national culture on job satisfaction and psychological contract breach. Implications and recommendations for multinational organizations and learning technology practitioners are discussed as well as recommendations for future research.

Objective: This research intends to add to the understanding of the various factors that influence an employee’s intention to quit an organisation. Increasingly globalised markets and global competition have demanded that organisations retain scarce human resources. The moderating effect of an employees’ level of engagement on the relationship of an employees’ level of psychological contract breach and perceived supervisor support with the productivity outcome of the employees’ intention to quit the organisation is examined to deepen the understanding of the relevance and inter-relationships of these factors. Methodology: This quantitative explanatory study considered the level of an employees perceived supervisor support and psychological contract breach as the predictor of their intention to quit and their level of employee engagement as the moderator of the variable relationships. The study obtained 449 responses from the employees in the Johannesburg based business unit of a South African company. The Pearsons product moment correlation coefficients were observed to identify the extent of the relationships and a stepwise multiple regression analysis gave insight into which of the independent variables explained more of the variances in ITQ. Finally a two-way ANOVA was used to check for interaction to determine the moderating effect of EE. Outcome: The level of an employee’s engagement, perceived supervisor support and psychological contract breach were observed to have significant relationships with their intention to quit the organisation in this study. The level of employee engagement was not observed to significantly moderate the relationship of their perception of supervisor support and psychological contract breach with their intention to quit the organisation. This suggests that the relationship of an employees’ level of perceived super support and psychological contract breach on their intention to quit does not vary depending on their level of employee engagement. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / ccgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

No description available.

Globally competitive industries need to keep up with the rigorous technical innovations to ensure that they reach their targets in terms of customer satisfaction. In order to do this, businesses need to ensure that they have the correct skills and capabilities in order to meet their demands. Organisations encounter difficulties as they constantly need to replace lost skills, and once these skills have been replaced, they need to spend additional money to train and equip new employees adequately to perform the jobs that they are employed to do. These days, many companies find themselves in financial turmoil which emerges from large turnover rates. There has been a severe exodus of skilled employees in the utility industry. During the past twelve months, this industry has lost 1 479 critical skills. Scarce skills are expensive to retain and it is important that employee well-being take top priority to keep up with changing labour demographics. This upkeep relates to huge emphasis being placed on customer satisfaction. In order to keep customers happy, companies first need to keep their employees happy. Efforts made by the organisation to improve situational circumstances for its employees, will promote positive individual and organisational outcomes. Two dimensions contribute greatly to a positive employment relationship which is conducive towards promoting positive individual and organisational outcomes, namely a fulfilled psychological contract and fairness in allocating monetary rewards. Money should not be used as a Band-Aid; not everything can be remedied with money. However, money is important, although it is not the most important factor. Fulfilment of the different dimensions of the psychological contract, including, but not limited to opportunities for personal growth and career advancement, and a management-supportive work environment are vital towards establishing and maintaining a positive employment relationship. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of psychological contract breach, job satisfaction and turnover intention in the utility industry and to determine the outcomes thereof. A mixed method approach was used to gather data. In the qualitative study, managers and staff (N = 15) were interviewed and a thematic content analysis was performed. In the second phase of the study, the quantitative part, questionnaires were distributed to employees (N = 251) across all levels of the organisation. The measuring instruments used were the Psychological Contract Inventory, Job Satisfaction Scale and Turnover Intention Scale. The results of Article 1 (Chapter 2) showed that a total of 60% of participants made reference to the importance of money. Emphasis was also placed on other aspects, where 53% of participants made mention of leadership being an important driver of job satisfaction. Other themes also regarded as important toward curbing skills loss were the importance of personal excellence and the need for effective communication as drivers of job satisfaction. Article 2 (Chapter 3) found that a fulfilled balanced psychological contract displayed a strong, positive relationship with job satisfaction and that job satisfaction had a negative impact on turnover intention. These findings support the negative impact of psychological contract breach on job satisfaction and, in relation to this, job dissatisfaction positively impacted turnover intention. It was further found that psychological contract breach of the balanced contract had an indirect positive impact on turnover intent via job satisfaction. Recommendations for future studies were made. / MCom (Labour Relations Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

No description available.

Globally competitive industries need to keep up with the rigorous technical innovations to ensure that they reach their targets in terms of customer satisfaction. In order to do this, businesses need to ensure that they have the correct skills and capabilities in order to meet their demands. Organisations encounter difficulties as they constantly need to replace lost skills, and once these skills have been replaced, they need to spend additional money to train and equip new employees adequately to perform the jobs that they are employed to do. These days, many companies find themselves in financial turmoil which emerges from large turnover rates. There has been a severe exodus of skilled employees in the utility industry. During the past twelve months, this industry has lost 1 479 critical skills. Scarce skills are expensive to retain and it is important that employee well-being take top priority to keep up with changing labour demographics. This upkeep relates to huge emphasis being placed on customer satisfaction. In order to keep customers happy, companies first need to keep their employees happy. Efforts made by the organisation to improve situational circumstances for its employees, will promote positive individual and organisational outcomes. Two dimensions contribute greatly to a positive employment relationship which is conducive towards promoting positive individual and organisational outcomes, namely a fulfilled psychological contract and fairness in allocating monetary rewards. Money should not be used as a Band-Aid; not everything can be remedied with money. However, money is important, although it is not the most important factor. Fulfilment of the different dimensions of the psychological contract, including, but not limited to opportunities for personal growth and career advancement, and a management-supportive work environment are vital towards establishing and maintaining a positive employment relationship. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of psychological contract breach, job satisfaction and turnover intention in the utility industry and to determine the outcomes thereof. A mixed method approach was used to gather data. In the qualitative study, managers and staff (N = 15) were interviewed and a thematic content analysis was performed. In the second phase of the study, the quantitative part, questionnaires were distributed to employees (N = 251) across all levels of the organisation. The measuring instruments used were the Psychological Contract Inventory, Job Satisfaction Scale and Turnover Intention Scale. The results of Article 1 (Chapter 2) showed that a total of 60% of participants made reference to the importance of money. Emphasis was also placed on other aspects, where 53% of participants made mention of leadership being an important driver of job satisfaction. Other themes also regarded as important toward curbing skills loss were the importance of personal excellence and the need for effective communication as drivers of job satisfaction. Article 2 (Chapter 3) found that a fulfilled balanced psychological contract displayed a strong, positive relationship with job satisfaction and that job satisfaction had a negative impact on turnover intention. These findings support the negative impact of psychological contract breach on job satisfaction and, in relation to this, job dissatisfaction positively impacted turnover intention. It was further found that psychological contract breach of the balanced contract had an indirect positive impact on turnover intent via job satisfaction. Recommendations for future studies were made. / MCom (Labour Relations Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

This paper studies managerial behavior in inter-firm supply chain relationships. I first answer two questions: When a firm outsources to a 3PL, a firm that provide multiple logistics services for use by customers, what is the impact on the managerial functions that the outsourcing firm carries out on an ongoing basis? How do the managerial functions impact the relationship of managerial competence on supply chain performance? These questions are answered via the examination of a sample of companies operating in the US and international markets who purchase services from 3PL providers. I find that the ongoing management of outsourcing partially mediates the relationship of managerial competence on supply chain performance. The higher the managerial competence, the less time spent managing established outsourcing relationships. This negative association holds, whether the firm does or does not employ the services of a 4PL, a firm that organizes 3rd party logistics providers. This study also finds that of the managerial functions of planning, coordinating, leading, educating, and monitoring, that only monitoring is significant with respect to managerial competence levels. Managerial units with moderate or high competence levels are about two times as likely to monitor their relationships with their 3PL providers, as managerial units with lower competence levels. Supply chain managers concentrate their monitoring efforts on client/provider relationships, based upon their view of these relationships. The managerial units with moderate or high competence levels are two times as likely to monitor when they have a least favorable view, as opposed to when they have a moderate or more favorable view. The supply chain managers who measure lower in competence make no such adjustment in time spent monitoring their client's performance, regardless of their view of the client/provider relationships. The findings just discussed spurred two additional studies in which I explore and test the importance of trust in collaborative supply chain relationships (CSCRs). The first is done via 19 semi-structured interviews with supply chain managers, while the second utilizes 50 surveys. Particular attention was paid to assessing only those managers in collaborative, as opposed to arms-length relationships. From the results of the interviews I provide a taxonomy for understanding trust signals in new CSCRs. I also obtain a number of thick descriptions for understanding what constitutes psychological contract breach (PCB), the operational and relational expectations of the customer in the collaboration, and a contemporary view of the goals of supply chain collaboration. These results were incorporated into the scales utilized in the survey research and have been validated. In each of the two studies, I carry out hypothesis testing, which reveals that initial trust is important to decrease feelings of psychological contract breach, whether the respondent is the customer or the supplier to the relationship. However, in one case PCB is felt more strongly when the respondent speaks of his collaborative supplier for all levels of initial trust. In the other, it is felt more strongly in reference to the customer, given higher levels of initial trust. Once PCB has occurred, meeting operational expectations alone is not sufficient to instill feelings of goal achievement; meeting relational expectations is also required. Continuing on with PCB, I find that its magnitude and established trust are important factors in the extension of continued trust and future collaborative intentions. For all magnitudes of PCB, the higher the established trust, the higher the subsequent trust up to a tipping point, at which point trust diminishes. Intentions to remain in the collaborative relationship, additionally, are subject to a tipping point. Last but not least, I establish an association between the importance of trust and the just distribution of rewards. By examining the payoff structures of actual supply chain collaborations, however, I find that rewards are not always shared equally. My research makes a unique internally-focused contribution to the literature. It looks at a firm's supply chain managerial unit as a driver of firm performance in outsourcing relationships. Additionally, it looks at the process the managerial units goes through in extending initial trust to a collaborative partner, how it moves beyond any psychological contract breaches that might occur, and the rewards the collaborative partner receives as an outcome of the collaborative effort. / Business Administration/Marketing

Especially during times of intense change, managers may negatively impact the quality of employee-manager relationships by breaching or violating psychological contract terms and exhibiting unfair treatment (i.e., interactional injustice) in the workplace. A psychological contract is conceptualized as an exmployee's perception or individualistic belief about the reciprocal and promissory nature of the employment relationship (Argyris, 1960; Levinson, Price, Munden, Mandl, & Solley, 1966; Rousseau, 1989, 1990, 1995; Schein, 1965, 1994). Misperceptions surrounding contractual changes and perceived misalignments between managers' words and deeds have contributed to employee perceptions of contract breach and violation, which are linked to negative employee attitudes and behaviors (Andersson, 1996; Morrison & Robinson, 1997; Pate, Martin, & Staines, 2000; Rousseau, 1995). Employees may simultaneously experience interactional injustice when managers act in disparaging ways and fail to provide adequate explanations (Bies, 1989; Bies & Moag, 1986). Leadership literature has provided evidence that high-quality leadership can positively influence employees' behaviors and attitudes and increase perceptions of workplace fairness (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002; Kickul, Gundry, & Posig, 2005; Kouzes & Posner, 2003). However, the relational role of leadership credibility, within the context of psychological contract breach and violation and interactional justice, has not been examined in leadership, psychological contract, and organizational justice literatures. This study was designed to explore the relationships between leadership credibility, interactional justice, and psychological contract breach and violation. The results of the study confirmed that employees' perceptions about leaders' credibility does strongly relate to managerial violation, interpersonal justice, and informational justice. / Ph. D.

As organisations operate in a globalised, competitive and ever-changing environment, the process of making strategic decisions, the introduction and implementation of organisational changes, and employees’ responses towards these changes are typical challenges in organisational life. In this content, the recent financial crisis of 2007-2008 had a profound impact on the Greek economy, as the Greek banking sector had undergone a series of profound organisational changes that were met with a mixed response from employees. The aim of this study is to investigate and propose an integrated theoretical model on the relationship among strategic decision-making process (SDMP), organisational change and employees’ responses to change in Greek banks. To achieve this aim, the SDMP by which organisational changes were introduced in Greek banks, and employees’ EVLN behavioural responses towards these changes are examined. Two questionnaire surveys were conducted and data were collected from 11 CEOs and 78 members of top management teams, and 1,259 Greek bank employees. The study adopted the positivistic approach and data were quantitatively analysed by using the statistical software of SPSS version 2.1 and AMOS version 22.0. The findings suggest that top management teams used their Rationality, Intuition and Political behaviour during SDMP, and different contextual factors had a different impact on this process. Moreover, employees’ EVLN behavioural responses varied depending on the type of organisational change and the level of impact of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and psychological contract breach on their responses. Also, significant differences were found on employees’ responses in terms of their age, gender, educational level, length of service at the bank, position at the bank, and the bank they worked for before the changes. The key contribution to knowledge is that this is the first study that develops an integrated theoretical model that examines the relationship among SDMP, organisational change and employees’ EVLN behavioural responses. It also enhances our knowledge and extends the literature on a number of relationships such as the impact of the antecedents of SDMP on SDMP dimensions, the effect of SDMP dimensions on organisational change, and the impact of different types of organisational change on employees’ EVLN responses. Such contribution has significant implications on making strategic decisions and managing change in times of crises.