Psychological contracts of university students: A case of students of Accra Technical University

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.