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Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2016 Psychological contracts and theoretical cousins: promises and fulfillment, work orientations and commitment in the swiss armed forces Hofstetter, Patrick Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-128877 Dissertation Originally published at: Hofstetter, Patrick. Psychological contracts and theoretical cousins: promises and fulfillment, work orientations and commitment in the swiss armed forces. 2016, University of Zurich, Faculty of Economics. Psychological Contracts and Theoretical Cousins: Promises and Fulfillment, Work Orientations and Commitment in the Swiss Armed Forces Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics of the University of Zurich to obtain the degree of Doktor der Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Dr. oec. (corresponds to Doctor of Philosophy, PhD) presented by Patrick Hofstetter from Langnau i. E., Bern approved in October 2016 at the request of Prof. Dr. Bruno Staffelbach Prof. Dr. Egon Franck The Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics of the University of Zurich hereby authorizes the printing of this dissertation, without indicating an opinion of the views expressed in the work. Zurich, 26.10.2016 The Chairman of the Doctoral Board: Prof. Dr. Steven Ongena The Swiss Armed Forces, represented by the Military Academy, hereby authorizes the printing of this dissertation, without indicating an opinion of the views expressed in the work. Birmensdorf, 09.12.2016 The Director of the Military Academy: BG Daniel Moccand T O M Y W IFE S ERAINA Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Bruno Staffelbach for offering me the exceptional opportunity of being his external PhD student. I am deeply grateful for the open and helpful atmosphere he provided, and for the balance of freedom and support indispensable to pursuing such a project. I profited both from his academic advice and experience as former brigade commander, which helped me a lot in bridging the gap between military and university. I also wish to thank Prof. Dr. Egon Franck for co-advising on my dissertation, and for his willingness to deal with a study of the Swiss Armed Forces. The same amount of gratitude goes to LTG André Blattmann, Chief of the Armed Forces, for offering me the exceptional opportunity to work on a PhD thesis as a career officer. I further thank my supervisors and colleagues at the Armed Forces Staff and at the Infantry Training Unit for making this possible, and for providing me the amount of freedom and support I needed: Mr. Daniel Gafner, Head HR; COL GS Benny Schneider, COL GS Walter Bähler, COL GS Jean-Michel Charmillot, CWO Urs Schreier, MWO Meinrad Bühler. I would also like to thank the team of the chair, for receiving and incorporating me into their team, and for their persistence in encouraging me. Further, it was a unique opportunity to experience the gender imbalance for once from the other side: Nadja Brylka, Dr. Anja Feierabend, Dr. Alexandra Arnold, Dr. Anna Sender, Dr. Manuela Morf, Dr. Jamie Gloor, Heidi Bodenmann, Lea Rutishauser, Susanne Mehr, and Andreas Schmid (SGT). In addition, I had the chance to be a frequent visitor at the chair of Prof. Dr. Uschi Backes-Gellner. She and her team under Dr. Simone Balestra supported me with additional, invaluable comments on earlier versions of this dissertation, for which I would like to thank them as well. The integration of the senior active reservists into the sample was made possible by the special agree- ment of the commanders of the involved Grand Units. Therefore, my thanks go to MG Marco Cantieni, BG Mathias Tüscher, BG Hans Schatzmann, BG Maurizio Dattrino, and BG Franz Nager. Moreover, I would like to thank the more than 3 000 military professionals, civilian employees, and senior active reservists who willingly participated in this survey. Where others rely on translation services, I was particularly thankful to consult my military fellows. The translation and back-translation was made possible by MAJ GS Jan Savary, MAJ André Comps, 1LT Raphael Bolliger, 1LT Xavier de Weck, 1LT Francisco Rapp, and SWO Marc Bapst, and the grants for checking the grammar of items in four languages goes to my brother, David Hofstetter. I further thank Robert McCormack for proofreading and improving my English, and Andreas Mathys for his professional advice on the layout. Both contributed a lot to the readability of this dissertation. My special thanks go to my parents, for giving me their love from the first moment, and for teaching me ever since then the meaning of knowledge as a value in and of itself. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Seraina, and our children, Jules and Jeanne, for their infinite love and ample patience. v vi normative com mit me nt the job orie ntat ion n e relational o th co i nt t rac a t t n e t i h r e o i g d n e i l a l t a i o c t n e c a h a l t r c t o n n t r o a c c t l c a a l n t c o u n i t l e a c t a i m s v t n e i a c r t t o m h m e m e h m t o c i t c a m r e e n e v t e i t r c o e f r f i e a n t a t i o n SCOOIA OTAT N HOEIA COUSINS THEORETICAL AND CONTRACTS PSYCHOLOGICAL Abstract This dissertation is an attempt to describe the Swiss military workforce from the perspective of the individual. By applying established constructs from Organizational Behavior research to a large sample of the Swiss Armed Forces, I am contributing both to the literature of Armed Forces and Society and of Organizational Behavior. On the one hand, Armed Forces and Society is profiting from an alternative view of its classic issues and assumptions, by addressing these with more developed tools. On the other hand, studying a large military sample is beneficial to the field of Organizational Behavior, due to the homogeneity and clear boundary conditions such a sample provides. The professional identity of military persons has been a common subject of Armed Forces and Society since the founding of the field. Yet questions have often been addressed only by idiosyncratic measures rather than validated scales. Furthermore, both reservists and civilian employees often remain understudied. The application of the psychological contract, organizational commitment, vocational commitment, and work orientations adds to the understanding of the diverse workforce in today’s armed forces. The dissertation contributes to Organizational Behavior literature, following the notion of theoretical cousins between different constructs. First, and as a core of the dissertation, I provide evidence for the psychological contract in three dimensions, namely transactional, relational, and ideational layers, across three balanced subsamples of the Swiss Armed Forces with a total of n = 2 928 contributors. This is a substantial corroboration of the recent expansion of the psychological contract construct. Second, I relate psychological contracts to organizational commitment, referring to Kelman’s in- fluence types, and argue that the transactional, relational, and ideational layers of the psychological contract are related to continuance, affective, and normative commitment, respectively. This proposition is buttressed by covariance structure models for n = 2 820 individuals. Third, I link the psychological contract layers with work orientations. Following the notion of theoretical cousins, I propose that the transactional, relational, and ideational layers are related to the Job, Career, and Calling orientations respectively. Multiple linear regressions for n = 2 742 individuals suggest that relations are significant, but weak, presumably due to the underlying mechanism. Further, I expand the work orientation construct by a fourth orientation, the Profession, following suggestions from the sociology of professions and Armed Forces and Society. The dissertation adds to the Armed Forces and Society literature, testing classical assumptions by means of Organizational Behavior constructs. First, psychological contracts reveal that the relationship of military professionals, civilian employees, and senior active reservists differ in a significant way. Yet all three layers remain decisive for outcome variables such as work satisfaction and work effort. Second, comparison of vocational commitment and organizational commitment adds to the sug- gestion that the military profession is indeed a profession sui generis, in economic, socio-emotional, and ideological terms. Yet a comparison suggests that civilian employees may perceive their work similarly in the armed forces. Third, an expansion of the triad of work orientations by the Profession orientation, following Moskos’ (1977a) model, suggests this fourth orientation absolutely dominates the subsample of military professionals, and still has relative majorities in the other samples. Integration of the Profession orienta- tion further reveals that in comparison, Calling has a minor importance. Finally, the evidence suggests that job titles affect work orientations. The study includes practical implications for the Swiss Armed Forces, the public, and the private sector. Limitations are addressed, and future research directions are suggested. vii PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACTS AND THEORETICAL COUSINS Abstract (deutsch) Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht die Beziehung Schweizer Militärangehöriger zur Armee aus der Perspektive des Individuums. Die Anwendung arbeits- und organisationspsychologischer Konstrukte in einer grossen Stichprobe der Schweizer Armee trägt sowohl zur Militärsoziologie als auch zur Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie bei. Einerseits profitiert die Militärsoziologie von der alternativen Sicht auf ihre klassischen Fragestellungen und Annahmen, indem diese mit standardisierten Methoden überprüft werden. Andererseits bietet die militärische Stichprobe aufgrund von Umfang, Homogenität und klaren Randbedingungen Vorteile für eine arbeits- und organisationspsychologische Untersuchung.

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