Organisational commitment in the era of the new psychological contract

• Main Authors: Anthonie Theron, Nicole Marguerite Dodd
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AOSIS 2011-08-01
• Series: South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences
• Online Access: https://sajems.org/index.php/sajems/article/view/100

The aim of this study was to investigate organisational commitment in an organisation that had recently experienced organisational restructuring (a merger). The psychological contract that exists between employees and organisations is brittle due to many organisational changes that stem from organisational restructuring.  When psychological contracts are breached, employees may experience reduced commitment to the organisation.  The target population for this study consisted of all employees working at three recently-merged higher education institutions in the Nelson Mandela Metropolis (n=100) and a self-administered questionnaire was distributed amongst staff.  The results indicated that an increase in the number of positive human resource management (HRM) practices reported by respondents correlated with a decrease in violation and breach of the psychological contract, despite organisational restructuring.  It was further revealed that effective management of the psychological contract is crucial during organisational restructuring, in order to maintain the commitment and loyalty of employees.