The employment, social and psychological contract and work outcomes in a private security organisation

MA (Labour Relations Management) ,North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013Employment relations literature is concerned with what is exchanged between the employer and the employee via an employment contract, a social contract or a psychological contract, with perceived mutual obligations (Rousseau, 1995; Capelli, 1999; Kalleberg, 2001). The psychological contract finds its foundation in the perceptions of the employee, that is, what the employee believe the employer has offered the employee in terms of their work relationship and the social contract refers to the expectations and obligations employers and employees have for their work and the employment relationship (Grahl, & Teague, 2009). The new employment contract differs from the old employment contract in that it is largely informal and even unwritten (Gilbert, 1996). This is in line with the new trend of business management as used by people-driven world-class organisations with a globalised focus (Gilbert, 1996). A research need exists to examine the potentially different or redundant effects of promises and expectations on the development of the obligations that are perceived to constitute the employment, the social and the psychological contracts (Martocchio, 2004; Shore, Tetrick, Taylor, Coyle-Shapiro, Liden, McLean-Parks, et al. 2004). The primary objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between the social- and the psychological contracts of private security employees (N=217) in the Vaal Triangle in terms of employability, job insecurity, job satisfaction, life satisfaction and intention to quit. This study is submitted in article form. The research method for each of the two articles consists of a brief literature review and an empirical study. Factor analyses, as well as Cronbach alpha coefficients were computed to assess the reliability of the research. Validity, Pearson product moment correlation coefficients as well as regression analysis were utilised to examine the relationship between the constructs employed in this research. The Employment Contract Scale (ECS) was also utilised as a research instrument, as the questionnaire-method proves to be largely reliable. Reliability analysis confirmed sufficient internal consistency of the subscales. The observed correlations were found to be comparable with the values reported in previous research by Edward and Karau (2007). By using multiple regression analysis, it was established that by investigating the relationship between the social- and the psychological contracts of private security employees (N=217) in the Vaal Triangle in terms of employability, job insecurity, job satisfaction, life satisfaction and intention to quit (the primary objective of this research) that job satisfaction and intention to quit predicted the social contract and that job satisfaction and life satisfaction predicted the psychological contract. No relationship however exists between employability, intention to quit and the psychological contract. Recommendations are advanced for future research.Master