Effects of early employment experiences on anticipated psychological contracts
| Published date | 27 May 2014 |
| Pages | 553-572 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-12-2012-0213 |
| Date | 27 May 2014 |
| Author | Galit Eilam-Shamir,Erez Yaakobi |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Effects of early employment
experiences on anticipated
psychological contracts
Galit Eilam-Shamir and Erez Yaakobi
School of Management, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how initial employment experiences of new
entrants to the labor market, which results from changes in organizations employment practices affect
individuals’ expectations from their future employers (their anticipatory psychological contracts and
anticipated job insecurity) and to explore the implications of these effects for theory and practice.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper focussed on four common experiences and tested the
hypotheses about their effects using data collected by a relatively large survey among mature college
students with work experience (n¼1,164).
Findings – Individuals who had been exposed to the experiences of being laid off, witnessing layoffs
and having to accept reductions in pay or status held higher transactional and lower relational
expectations from their future employers, in comp arison with individuals who had not been exp osed to
such experiences. They also anticipated a higher level of job insecurity in their future employment.
Practical implications – In order to mitigatethe potential negative consequencesof the phenomenon
discovered on employee retention and organizational performance, organizations have to develop
and implement specificHR practices to deal with cohorts of new members, who have been exposed to
the employment experiences investigated. Of particular importance are orientation and socialization
practices that address new recruits’ concerns and expectations,and exposing new members to training
and learning experiences that increase their employability outside the organization.
Originality/value – This is one of a few studies that documents empirically the (anecdotally based)
claims about the effects of changes in the economic environment on individuals’ employment
expectations and perhaps the first study to focus specifically on the effects of initial experiences of
entrants to the labor market. It extends psychological contract research by focussing on the
antecedants and formation of the psychological contract rather than on its consequences and on the
anticipatory contract rather than on employees’ current psychological contracts.
Keywords Quantitative, Anticipated job insecurity, Anticipatory psychological contracts,
Initial employment experiences, Relational and transactional expectations,
Changes in employment practices
Paper type Research p aper
In their struggle for survival against the backg round of globalization, increased
competition, economic crises and uncer tainty, many organizations are faced with two
challenges: First, the necessity of making their operations more effective with fewer
resources and second, the necessity of making their operations more flexible so that
they can respond to frequent changes in the environment. The responses of many
organizations to these challenges have resulted in the adoption of mo re flexible
employment practices and consequently the proliferation of limited and less stable
employment relationships between organizations and many of their employees
(e.g. De Cuyper et al., 2009; Kuvaas and Dysvik, 2009; Shore et al., 2012; Sverke and
Hellgren, 2002).
Such employment practices have affected the well-being of employees and are likely
to have potential effects on the performance of organizations. There is accumulating
evidence that they have increased feelings of insecu rity among workers, not only
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
Received 21 December 2012
Revised 8 August 2013
Accepted 11 February 2014
Personnel Review
Vol.43 No. 4, 2014
pp. 553-572
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-12-2012-0213
553
Early
employment
experiences
pertaining to their jobs but also about the future in gene ral (e.g. Gowing et al., 1998;
Sverke et al., 2002). Uncertainty and insecurity are major stressors from the individual
employee’s point of view. They are also likely to affect individual performance and
hence organizational performance due to their effects on employees’ job satisfaction
and commitment to the organization (Davy et al., 1997; De Cuyper and De Witte, 2006;
King, 2000).
In addition, since the newer and more flexible employment practices are often
characterized by more temporary and less stable employment relationships they have
affected employees’ perceptions and beliefs about the world of work. These effects are
often discussed in the literature in terms of psychological contract theory (Rousseau
and Wade-Benzoni, 1995). Many authors (e.g. Anderson and Schalk, 1998; Shore et al.,
2004) have argued that large numbers of employees and prospective employees can no
longer expect a traditional long-term employment relationship that includ ed elements
such as mutual commitment, loyalty, security and growth opportunities for the
employee. There is a growing body of evidence that such changes in psychological
contract perceptions and expectations have important individual and organizational
consequences. Studies have shown that they affect key organizational outcomes
such as job satisfaction (e.g. Turnley and Feldman, 1999), in-role performance
(e.g. Dabos and Rousseau, 2004), organizational citizenship behaviors (e.g. Hui et al.,
2004), organizational commitment and turnover intentions (Coyle-Shapiro and Kessler,
2000; Zhao et al., 2007).
However, most of the research on psychological contracts has focussed on
organizational changes and psychological contract violations by the employees’
current employer, and on the effects of such changes on organization members’
attitudes toward their current workplace and their behavior in that workplace.
The focus of the research reported in this paper is different. We focus here not on
employees’ evaluations of their psychological contracts with their current employer but
on their psychological contract expectations from a future employer.
Following other authors, we believe that individuals have more generalized
psychological contract expectations which unfold gradually from the pre-employment
stage onwards and throughout the different stages of employment (De Vos et al., 2009).
In view of the abovementioned changes in employment practices and hence in the
work experiences of entrants to the labor market, we believe it is not only important
to get insight into the psychological contract evaluations and expectations of the
current employees of an organization but also to gain insight into the effects of initial
employment experiences on the psychological contract expectations from future
employers. These expectations have recently been termed the “anticipatory
psychological contract” (APC), namely, the cognitive schema that individuals hold
about future employment relationships (Blancero and Kreiner, 2000; De Hauw and
De Vos, 2010; De Vos et al., 2009; Rousseau, 2001).
The study reported in this paper focussed on young people who already have
some experience in the labor market. In their first steps in the labor market, many of
them had experienced employment practices that reflect the environmental changes
discussed at the outset of this paper, such as being laid off, witnessing layoffs in their
workplace and having to accept a second or third job with a reduced salary and/or
worse working conditions. The purpose of this study was to examine how suc h initial
employment experiences affect the APCs of individuals, primarily their expectations
from future employers. We propose that initial experiences in the current labor market
affect expectations from future employers and we believe that these effects are likely to
554
PR
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