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Academics and the Psychological Contract: the Formation and Manifestation of the Psychological Contract Within the Academic Role

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Academics and the Psychological Contract: the Formation and Manifestation of the Psychological Contract Within the Academic Role University of Huddersfield Repository Johnston, Alan Academics and the Psychological Contract: The formation and manifestation of the Psychological Contract within the academic role. Original Citation Johnston, Alan (2021) Academics and the Psychological Contract: The formation and manifestation of the Psychological Contract within the academic role. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/35485/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ Academics and the Psychological Contract: The formation and manifestation of the Psychological Contract within the academic role. ALAN JOHNSTON A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Business Administration 8th February 2021 1 Declaration I, Alan Johnston, declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. I have personally carried out all the work of which this is a record. Signed: Date: 8th February 2021 Copyright i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/ or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trademarks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions. 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Eleanor Davies and Dr Annie Yeadon-Lee for their guidance, support, and patience throughout the duration of this study. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the York Business School and School Administration Unit in York St John University for bearing with me through turbulent times. In particular I would like to thank my wife, Lyn and two children, Daniel and Rebecca, without whose patience and unswerving support none of this would have been possible. Their confidence in me has been constant and has kept me going during the difficult times. Without them I would never have reached this stage. I would also like to acknowledge colleagues across the sector for helping me by either contributing as participants or helping me to find participants and facilitating my research. 3 Abstract The psychological contract is a feature of everyday relationships in the workplace and is understood to be the manifestation of the employment relationship and is built on the assumed promises, expectations, and obligations of the employee. Not so much as what has been agreed but the perception of what has been agreed. While much research has been undertaken to analyse the psychological contract in the context of the workplace, and in particular of professionals in the workplace, very little has been undertaken with a focus on academics and specifically academics within the UK Higher Education Sector. This research set out to explore the psychological contract of academics within Business Schools (or equivalent) within the UK University Sector and identify the impact it has on them including its manifestation into discretionary effort. Discretionary effort plays a major role in performance within academic roles, as expectations on academics have increased (administrative load, teaching load and pressures surrounding research) while resources have become more restrictive. The research took a qualitative approach as the basis for investigating the lived experiences of academics across the ‘three’ predominant sub-sectors of the UK Higher Education Sector. Eighteen interviews were conducted across nine institutions (two interviewees per institution) with a supporting questionnaire to collect elements of data to support each individual response and to gain an overall picture. The analysis of the data used a thematic approach in which key themes were identified and explored. In particular, the research findings suggested that academics undertook a large amount of additional work that impinged on life outside of what may be considered working hours. This discretionary effort was deemed, in most cases, to be more acceptable when related to academic work (teaching and research) but was less so when related to administration. Further analysis suggests that rather than the place of employment, role perception, was more influenced by background and doctoral studies. The research concludes by setting out key contributions to theory and practice and provides a set of recommendations based on the key findings which are targeted at institutions (or part of) and individuals to ensure the psychological contract can be appropriately formed to allow academics to better understand the expectations of them in their role. 4 Contents Page Declaration 2 Copyright Statement 2 Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction 8 1.2 Background and Positioning Statement 8 1.3 Rationale 10 1.4 Research Focus 13 1.5 Research Questions 14 1.6 Research Objectives 15 1.7 Contribution to Knowledge and Practice 15 1.8 Structure of the Thesis 16 Chapter 2: The Higher Education Sector context 2.1 Introduction 18 2.2 Higher Education Sector 19 2.3 Managerialism 21 2.3.1Marketisation and Competition 23 2.4 University Identity 25 2.4.1 Mission Groups 27 2.5 Business Schools 29 2.6 Conclusion 31 Chapter 3: Literature Review 3.1 Introduction 32 3.2 Basis of the Psychological Contract 33 3.2.1 Breach and Violation of the Psychological Contract 37 3.3 Nature and Content of the Psychological Contract 38 3.3.1 Psychological Contract Nature 38 3.3.2 Psychological Contract Content 41 3.4 Critiques of the Psychological Contract 42 3.4.1 Psychological Contract as a Contract 42 3.4.2 Psychological Construct and Free Will 43 3.4.3 Psychological Contract as a Construct 43 3.4.4 Multiplicity within the Psychological Contract 44 3.5 Psychological Contract in Academia 45 3.6 Contributing Factors to an Individuals Psychological Contract 48 3.6.1 Work Ethic, Motivation and Discretionary Effort 48 3.6.2 Work Design 51 3.6.3 Careers and Expectations 52 3.6.4 Employee Engagement 54 5 3.6.5 Management and Managerialism within the context 55 of Higher Education 3.6.6 Academics and their professional Identity 58 3.6.7 Person-Organisation Fit 60 3.6.8 Citizenship 62 3.6.9 Organisational Justice and Trust 65 3.6.10 Conclusion 66 Chapter 4: Research Methodology 4.1 Research Methodology 67 4.1.1 Conceptual Framework 67 4.2 Philosophical Stance and Research Approach 69 4.3 Alternative Data Collection Methods 73 4.4 Research Design 74 4.4.1 Respondent Categorisation 75 4.4.2 Respondents 77 4.4.3 University and Respondent Profiles 79 4.4.4 Interview Schedule Design 88 4.4.5 Questionnaire Design 89 4.5 Pilot Study 90 4.6 Data Analysis and Process 90 4.7 Ethics 92 4.8 Research Quality Issues 94 4.9 Bias 95 4.9.1 Insider Research 95 4.10 Limitations 96 4.11 Conclusion 97 Chapter 5: Findings 5.1 Findings 98 5.2 Questionnaire Output 98 5.3 Themes from the Qualitative Study 100 5.4 Personal Baggage, Perceptions and Expectations 100 5.4.1 Respondent background and identity 103 5.5 Aspects of the Role 104 5.6 Identification with the Organisation 110 5.7 Types and Contract and the Individual 114 5.7.1 Expectations 114 5.8 Autonomy 117 5.9 Challenges 119 5.10 Achievement 125 5.11 Discretionary Effort 128 5.12 Conclusion 132 Chapter 6: Discussion 6.1 Discussion 136 6.2 Aspects of the Role 137 6.3 Identification with the Organisation 142 6 6.4 The rise of managerialism 148 6.5 Discretionary Effort 151 Chapter 7: Conclusion 7.1 Conclusion 154 7.2 Contribution to Theory 160 7.3 Contribution to Practice 162 7.4 Recommendations 164 References 167 Appendices Appendix One: Types of Psychological Contract 186 Appendix Two: Content of the Psychological Contract 187 Appendix Three: Interview Schedule 188 Appendix Four: Questionnaires 192 Appendix Five: Data Analysis Process Diagram 201 Appendix Six: Raw Data 203 7 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction Change and upheaval have been recurring themes of the UK Higher Education sector for several years. Many of these changes have been a result of internal structural changes while many others have been externally imposed.
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