Abstract:
The literature on psychological contracts in organisational contexts is quite large
and keeps growing. However, when it comes to higher educational settings,
there seems to be very little work done. A psychological contract is a set of
unwritten mutual expectations, perceptions, and informal obligations between
two parties. The study investigated the psychological contract between lecturers
and students of the Department of Management and Public Administration of
Accra Technical University, Ghana. Lecturers and Two groups of students,
comprising first-year students, who had freshly been admitted into the
university, and second-year students, who represented continuing students and
five lecturers were used for the study. An exploratory study was used to provide
qualitative empirical evidence on the ways in which these groups of students
perceived their psychological contract. The results showed that students’
learning enthusiasm was promoted by lecturers performing their desired
behaviour, while students’ learning initiative and efficiency is damaged when
lecturers’ desired behaviour is unfavourable. Also, the findings show that
students’ psychological contracts are quite different from that of employees in
an organisation and a breach in their psychological contract may not necessarily
affect performance negatively but may affect their propensity to make referrals
for new admissions into the university and again, they may refuse to do
voluntary work or lose interest in giving back to the school. The study concluded
that most students tend to manage breaches in their psychological contract
quite well due to their aspirations in securing good jobs after their time in the
university. However, steps must be taken to meet them from time to time for
discussions about some these pertinent issues.
