Investigating young professionals’ psychological contracts to advance human-centred human resources management strategies: A multi-method qualitative research

A shrinking labour market, political and economic uncertainty, technological digitalisation, the recent COVID-19 pandemic and, above all, demographic challenges are changing the future world of work. Notably, the youngest group of employees, referred to as Gen Z (born 1995–2010), bring a fresh set of attitudes, behaviours and values into the organisations. Thus, employers must invest in new avenues to attract, develop and maintain their young professionals and to create sustainable and resilient workplaces for their workforce.
Here, contractual obligations move into the background, and implicit expectations with respect to working relations become more important. In turn, human resources management (HRM) departments have recognised that managing these unwritten reciprocal expectations, which can be studied through the concept of the psychological contract (PC), represents a critical challenge to organisational success. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to provide in-depth insights into the formation of young professionals’ PCs as a means to advance human-centred HRM strategies.
Applying a social constructionism research philosophy, the subjective expectations and conversations of the research participants were explored to understand their initial experiences of the employee–employer relationship. A sequential multi-method research strategy was chosen. First, data were collected from 13 participants via video statements – an evolved qualitative video method – to identify guiding themes. Second, five focus groups, featuring 19 participants, provided a variety of different views that emerged during the discussion. Using reflexive thematic analysis, six themes were identified around the formation of the PC.
The thesis shows that young professionals’ PCs differ from major types of PCs (relational, transactional and balanced) in terms of time, inclusion and external influence due to the training aspect. Furthermore, social and historical events impact the dynamics of the PC considerably, and general job expectations increase upon entry. To pursue a practical human-centred HRM strategy, this research recommends offering a target-orientated knowledge transfer and creating an appreciative work environment by implementing a human-centred integration process. This new approach entails a holistic and long-term perspective and complements existing preboarding and onboarding HR activities with a career-boarding process for young professionals.
Overall, research on young professionals who are currently entering the labour market is at a nascent stage. This study provides evidence of the shortcomings of previous studies by presenting the contextual environmental influences on the formation of relationships between young professionals and organisations. As such, this contemporary thesis is one of the first studies to help both HR departments and managers understand the PC expectations of today’s newcomers. Notwithstanding the theoretical and practical contributions of this work, a new improved video method is introduced.