Exploring the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees through organisational socialisation and the psychological contract

<p>This study explores the relationship between professional contractors and the permanent employees they work with at organisations in New Zealand. This thesis uses two concepts, organisational socialisation and the psychological contract, as lenses through which the working relationship is explored. The 20th century notion of standard employment has largely been eroded, giving way to different forms of non-standard work. Professional contractors are now found performing a variety of roles in many organisations across this country. Many are doing the work of permanent employees, but they are neither employees nor permanent. Professional contractors are a type of non-standard, transient worker. As part of a blended workforce, professional contractors work alongside permanent employees, but little is known about how they work together. This qualitative study involves 49 face-to-face interviews with professional contractors, permanent employees and managers working in the Information Technology (IT) divisions of 10 organisations in three major cities in New Zealand. This research design results in a rich data set. The data collected was subject to analysis using the software NVIVO. This data was analysed in relation to the literature on organisational socialisation and the psychological contract to further explain the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees. The findings reveal professional contractors’ experience of Van Maanen’s (1979) socialisation tactics were: collective, informal, variable, random and serial. It was found that an organisation’s policy sets the tone for the treatment (induction, inclusion and management) of professional contractors. According to the professional contractors interviewed, the Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, and Gardner (1994) socialisation content dimensions that are important are structure, culture and values and language but history was not considered important. According to the managers interviewed, contractors need to know about the processes and procedures of the client organisation, have strong technical skills and industry, sector or domain knowledge. It was found that the indicator of adjustment ‘acceptance by insiders’ (Bauer & Erdogan, 2012) may be a sign that the contractor is adjusting to their new role but it is not essential. A new indicator of adjustment for professional contractors – output – clearly emerged from the data. The notion of ‘time to productivity’ is highly relevant to professional contractors and three factors affecting it are identified (contractor capability, role complexity and organisation readiness). Another important finding is that permanent employees play a key role as socialisation agents (Feldman, 1994; Jones, 1983; Van Maanen, 1978) in the socialisation of professional contractors. Surprisingly, it was found that other professional contractors also act as socialisation agents assisting the newcomer to adjust. It was found that proactive socialisation is particularly important for professional contractors. Together these findings establish the need to reconceptualise organisational socialisation for professional contractors specifically. The second part of this thesis explores the psychological contract by asking interviewees about their mutual expectations. The expectations of each of the three parties (managers, professional contractors, and permanent employees) are subtly different, potentially influencing the psychological contract they develop. Permanent employees expect great things, professionalism and independence from professional contractors. Managers expect speed, professionalism and value for money from contractors. On the other hand, professional contractors simply expect to be treated with respect by their colleagues. Professional contractors expect to be given autonomy by their managers and support or guidance, should they require it. This study was not able to ascertain what type of psychological contract a professional contractor may develop. It is possible that a professional contractor develops a hybrid psychological contract. Alternatively, it is possible that a professional contractor’s psychological contract moves between the types developed by Rousseau (1995) over the course of their term with the client organisation. The insights gained by exploring the expectations of professional contractors, permanent employees and their managers are two-fold. Firstly, these expectations provide a valuable insight into the working relationship. Secondly, the exploration of a breach or violation of the psychological contract indicates that a malleable psychological contract (one that will shift or adjust) is less likely to manifest a breach or violation. Therefore, it is better for a professional contractor to develop and maintain a malleable rather than rigid psychological contract. This study’s findings highlight the interrelationship between organisational socialisation and the psychological contract. This thesis asserts that the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees is specifically influenced by the socialisation of contractors as newcomers and in the mutual expectations, which form the psychological contract. As a result, it contributes to theorising and understanding of the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees. It identifies several tensions in the co-dependent working relationship, which are: time, team, treatment and training. This study has implications for Human Resource practitioners and managers because there is a need for corporate or HR policy relating to the treatment professional contractors. The use of organisational socialisation and the psychological contract as lenses with which the working relationship is explored is both original and meaningful.</p>

Exploring the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees through organisational socialisation and the psychological contract

<p>This study explores the relationship between professional contractors and the permanent employees they work with at organisations in New Zealand. This thesis uses two concepts, organisational socialisation and the psychological contract, as lenses through which the working relationship is explored. The 20th century notion of standard employment has largely been eroded, giving way to different forms of non-standard work. Professional contractors are now found performing a variety of roles in many organisations across this country. Many are doing the work of permanent employees, but they are neither employees nor permanent. Professional contractors are a type of non-standard, transient worker. As part of a blended workforce, professional contractors work alongside permanent employees, but little is known about how they work together. This qualitative study involves 49 face-to-face interviews with professional contractors, permanent employees and managers working in the Information Technology (IT) divisions of 10 organisations in three major cities in New Zealand. This research design results in a rich data set. The data collected was subject to analysis using the software NVIVO. This data was analysed in relation to the literature on organisational socialisation and the psychological contract to further explain the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees. The findings reveal professional contractors’ experience of Van Maanen’s (1979) socialisation tactics were: collective, informal, variable, random and serial. It was found that an organisation’s policy sets the tone for the treatment (induction, inclusion and management) of professional contractors. According to the professional contractors interviewed, the Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, and Gardner (1994) socialisation content dimensions that are important are structure, culture and values and language but history was not considered important. According to the managers interviewed, contractors need to know about the processes and procedures of the client organisation, have strong technical skills and industry, sector or domain knowledge. It was found that the indicator of adjustment ‘acceptance by insiders’ (Bauer & Erdogan, 2012) may be a sign that the contractor is adjusting to their new role but it is not essential. A new indicator of adjustment for professional contractors – output – clearly emerged from the data. The notion of ‘time to productivity’ is highly relevant to professional contractors and three factors affecting it are identified (contractor capability, role complexity and organisation readiness). Another important finding is that permanent employees play a key role as socialisation agents (Feldman, 1994; Jones, 1983; Van Maanen, 1978) in the socialisation of professional contractors. Surprisingly, it was found that other professional contractors also act as socialisation agents assisting the newcomer to adjust. It was found that proactive socialisation is particularly important for professional contractors. Together these findings establish the need to reconceptualise organisational socialisation for professional contractors specifically. The second part of this thesis explores the psychological contract by asking interviewees about their mutual expectations. The expectations of each of the three parties (managers, professional contractors, and permanent employees) are subtly different, potentially influencing the psychological contract they develop. Permanent employees expect great things, professionalism and independence from professional contractors. Managers expect speed, professionalism and value for money from contractors. On the other hand, professional contractors simply expect to be treated with respect by their colleagues. Professional contractors expect to be given autonomy by their managers and support or guidance, should they require it. This study was not able to ascertain what type of psychological contract a professional contractor may develop. It is possible that a professional contractor develops a hybrid psychological contract. Alternatively, it is possible that a professional contractor’s psychological contract moves between the types developed by Rousseau (1995) over the course of their term with the client organisation. The insights gained by exploring the expectations of professional contractors, permanent employees and their managers are two-fold. Firstly, these expectations provide a valuable insight into the working relationship. Secondly, the exploration of a breach or violation of the psychological contract indicates that a malleable psychological contract (one that will shift or adjust) is less likely to manifest a breach or violation. Therefore, it is better for a professional contractor to develop and maintain a malleable rather than rigid psychological contract. This study’s findings highlight the interrelationship between organisational socialisation and the psychological contract. This thesis asserts that the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees is specifically influenced by the socialisation of contractors as newcomers and in the mutual expectations, which form the psychological contract. As a result, it contributes to theorising and understanding of the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees. It identifies several tensions in the co-dependent working relationship, which are: time, team, treatment and training. This study has implications for Human Resource practitioners and managers because there is a need for corporate or HR policy relating to the treatment professional contractors. The use of organisational socialisation and the psychological contract as lenses with which the working relationship is explored is both original and meaningful.</p>

Promotional Strategy for Magic Group Media

Magic Group Media is a post-production company based in Amsterdam. Magic Group Media constantly keeps growing and being ambitious in a way to expand the business and target a wider market. Magic has already done some promotion strategies before, but to reach a bigger market, Magic evaluates it is essential to invest more in effective promotional strategy. Through this promotional strategy, Magic wants to build a working relationship with new potential clients. This study is aimed at analyzing and knowing what promotional strategy can be used by Magic Group Media to build a working relationship with potential clients.

ENFORCEMENT OF A CREDIT AGREEMENT WHERE THE CONSUMER HAS APPLIED FOR DEBT REVIEW IN TERMS OF THE NATIONAL CREDIT ACT 34 OF 2005 First Rand Bank v Smith (unreported case number 24208/08 (WLD))

Section 86 of the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 (NCA) provides for the debt relief mechanism envisaged in section 3(g) of the Act by affording the overindebted consumer the opportunity to apply to a debt counsellor for a review of the credit agreements to which he or she is a party and eventually to be declared over-indebted by the court. The effectiveness of the debt review process obviously depends on a positive working relationship between all role players, namely the over-indebted consumer, credit providers and debt counsellor, but also on the extent in which the legislator has succeeded to regulate all aspects of the said process properly. According to a recent newspaper report more than 58 000 consumers have applied for debt review in terms of section 86. However, hardly any of these cases have managed to proceed through our courts. Apart from the lack of co-operation between the said role players, it iscommonly accepted that legislative gaps contribute to the ineffectiveness of the debt counselling process. In First Rand Bank v Smith (unreported case no 24208/08 (WLD)) the court, however, indicated a lacuna in the Act which, it is submitted, was not in actual factpresent in the Act.

Two Solitudes: Wilder Penfield, Ewen Cameron, and the Search for a Better Lobotomy

In the 1940s, Wilder Penfield carried out a series of experimental psychosurgeries with the psychiatrist D. Ewen Cameron. This article explores Penfield’s brief foray into psychosurgery and uses this episode to re-examine the emergence of his surgical enterprise. Penfield’s greatest achievement – the surgical treatment of epilepsy – grew from the same roots as psychosurgery, and the histories of these treatments overlap in surprising ways. Within the contexts of Rockefeller-funded neuropsychiatry and Adolf Meyer’s psychobiology, Penfield’s frontal lobe operations (including a key operation on his sister) played a crucial role in the development of lobotomy in the 1930s. The combination of ambiguous data and the desire to collaborate with a psychiatrist encouraged Penfield to try to develop a superior operation. However, unlike his collaboration with psychiatrists, Penfield’s productive working relationship with psychologists encouraged him to abandon the experimental “gyrectomy” procedure. The story of Penfield’s attempt to find a better lobotomy can help us to examine different forms of interdisciplinarity within biomedicine.

Therapists' Perceptions of Contextually Based Service Delivery in School-Based Practice

Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations. This phenomenological study explored perceptions of school-based OT practitioners through the use of semistructured interviews, to gain insight regarding their views and experiences in providing contextually based services. Four themes emerged: a strong working relationship with other stakeholders is essential; contextually based service delivery is intentional; contextually based services need to be individualized; and there are systemic barriers to the provision of contextually based service delivery. Primary Author and Speaker: Francine M. Seruya Additional Authors and Speakers: Mindy Garfinkel, Wesley Sanon, Christina Medwid, Victoria Fullerton, and Cassandra Velez

What Happens When Managers Are Informed? Effects of Critical Audit Matter Awareness and Auditor Relationship on Managers' Accounting Estimates

We examine how managers' accounting estimates are affected by whether they are informed about an impending critical audit matter (CAM) disclosure from a close or distant auditor. A close (distant) auditor is one who has a smaller (greater) social distance from the client in terms of their working relationship. We predict and find that being informed about an impending CAM by a close (distant) auditor leads to more (less) aggressive estimates than if managers are not informed. With a close auditor-client relationship, managers perceive a CAM disclosure as forewarning investors about estimate subjectivity, thus providing a moral license to report more aggressively. With a distant relationship, a CAM disclosure does not provide a moral license but signals greater auditor scrutiny, which leads to less aggressive reporting. Our results inform regulators and standard setters about the effects of CAM on managers' reporting decisions in the presence of a close auditor-client relationship.

Encounters with Tadeusz Różewicz 1990–2014

This essay contains recollections of the working relationship between Tadeusz Różewicz and two of his British translators between 1990 and his death in 2014. It includes quotations from their correspondence. The essay is particularly focused on the fi rst London production of Kartoteka, over forty years after its Warsaw premiere, and on the British reception of Różewicz’s late works recycling and Mother Departs.