THE IDEOLOGICAL DIMENSION OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS FROM THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SECTOR

Questa tesi è stata fatta grazie alla borsa per studenti internazionali offerta per l'Università degli Studi di Verona e all'aiuto del Dipartimento di Risorse Umane dell'Universidad EAFIT. Inoltre, la tesi è stata realizzata nel marco di una cotutella con l'Université Paul Valéry (Francia). La ricerca si è concentrata su alcuni aspetti psicosociali che secondo la letteratura internazionale caratterizzerebbero le imprese sociali. Finora, pochi studi hanno fornito risultati che portino a delle generalizzazioni rispetto alle risorse umane delle imprese sociali. Di conseguenza, la tesi presenta delle evidenze empiriche sulla relazione impresa sociale - impiegato. L'autore si è concentrato sulla dimensione ideologica di questo rapporto. Tre analisi statistiche di seconda generazione sono state utilizzate nei tre articoli che compongono la tesi. Il primo articolo presenta una validazione di una scala che misura gli obblighi che le organizzazioni e i lavoratori avrebbero rispetto alla mission sociale dell'organizzazione. Delle cooperative sociali italiane e delle cooperative colombiane hanno partecipato nello studio. I risultati della validazione hanno permesso anche il confronto tra il contratto psicologico ideologico dei lavoratori italiani e quello degli impiegati colombiani. Il secondo articolo approfondisce lo studio sul contratto psicologico ideologico delle persone che lavorano nelle imprese sociali. Questa parte della tesi presenta la validazione di un modello di mediazione in cui si propone che il contratto psicologico ideologico ha delle conseguenze positive sul rispetto organizzativo e la soddisfazione al lavoro. La validazione del modello è stata fatta usando una parte del campione italiano. Il terzo articolo si concentra su altre conseguenze del contratto psicologico. I comportamenti di cittadinanza e le intenzioni di lasciare l'organizzazione sono aggiunte al modello precedente. Tuttavia, si tratta in questo caso di analisi diverse a quelle effettuate nel capitolo precedente. Inoltre, il campione rispetto a cui si è testato il modello é composto per lavoratori colombiani. Tutte le relazioni che componevano il modello teorico sono state confermate.

This dissertation was funded by the program of international PhD scholarships of ‘Università degli Studi di Verona’ and the human resources development program of ‘Universidad EAFIT’. In addition, this thesis was achieved thanks to the co-tutorship program that ‘Università degli Studi di Verona’ subscribed with ‘Université Paul Valéry . We conducted a study on some of the psychosocial aspects that, according to prior theoretical statements, would characterize the social enterprise. Although psychological concepts have been used to study the social enterprise, in such studies these notions are often framed by economic and managerial theories. A dissertation providing empirical generalizable findings was favored over a theoretical thesis. Noteworthy, to our knowledge no quantitative research using advanced statistical analyses and involving social oriented organizations has been done in Colombia. Although this dissertation presents a series of quantitative analyses, special attention was paid to the theoretical basis of the research. This dissertation begins with a chapter (Chapter I) that offers a theoretical framework that encompasses several social enterprise definitions and includes several concepts pertainig to the work and organizational psychology field. In particular, the second section of Chapter II introduces the concept of the Ideological Psychological Construct. This construct describes the ideological dimension of the employer-employee relationship. We deemed this concept especially useful for conducting a relevant psychological research in the social enterprise sector. Precisely, the ideological orientation is considered a main feature of people working on the social enterprise sector. Furthermore, social enterprise practitioners are often advised to consider this aspect as an antecedent of organizational performance and survival. Accordingly, we also briefly reviewed the literature related to the main outcomes of the Ideological Psychological Contract. The research questions, hypothesis, methodologies and results of this dissertation are presented in three different papers. Each paper displays particular hypothetical models and methodological approaches. However, all of them tackle the question of the ideological orientation of people working in social enterprises. As explained in the discussion sections of each manuscript, the three papers are interrelated. All of them present an overview of the same cross-sectional survey, conducted in two different countries (i.e. Italy and Colombia; more details will be provided below). Noteworthy, The three manuscripts are to be submitted in the same order as they appear in this dissertation. The first manuscript (Chapter III) presents an exploratory study. Different form the following section of the dissertation, Chapter III presents the results of a complete exploratory method. Through a Multi Group Exploratory Factor Analysis, two subsamples extracted from the data sampled in Italy and Colombia, were simultaneously explored. Data obtained from 13 out of 19 Italian Social Cooperatives and one out of three Colombian cooperatives was used for this first paper. The information of the two other Colombian cooperatives was not used, as it was incomplete and contained many outliers. Data provided by workers of health service social cooperatives composed the Italian sub-sample. Differently, the employees of the Colombian subsample work in a socially oriented cooperative that operates in the textile sector. The lack of a legal Colombian framework regulating social enterprises and almost 30 years of work directed to resolve unmet social and economic communitarian needs, justified the treatment of the Colombian enterprises as actual cooperative social enterprises. The theoretical statements justifying this decision are discussed along the corresponding paper. The selection of data coming from organizations operating in two different sectors and in two different countries responded to both the objective of the paper and the goal of the PhD thesis (mentioned before). In particular, the aim of the paper was to validate, independently from the industrial sector and country of origin, an instrument that would allow to measure the ideological psychological relationship between workers and social enterprises. Worth mentioning, to our knowledge, up to now no quantitative cross-national research has been conducted in the social enterprise sector. Chapter VI presents the second paper of this dissertation. Similarly to the first paper, the structural equation modeling technique was used for the data analysis. However, in Chapter VI an Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling approach incorporating an exploratory and a confirmatory portion was chosen. Likewise, this methodological approach had not been used in social enterprise research. Whereas the exploratory section of the Exploratory Structural Equation Model referred to the ideological psychological contract of employees of social enterprises, the confirmatory portion examined some of the outcomes of their ideological orientation. Adding this confirmatory portion to the model provided more explanatory results regarding the ideological psychological contract of people working in social enterprises. Due to the sample size requirements of the methodological approach used in Chapter IV, the analyses were conducted on all usable questionnaires of the Italian sample (i.e. 19 Italian Social Cooperatives). Reaching an independent Italian sample for this study was restricted by time constrictions and geographical delocalization, both related to both the co-tutorship and the cross-country nature of the PhD thesis. We wrote two different manuscripts on the ideological psychological contract (Chapters III and IV) with the same Italian data for the following reasons: Primary, the first paper of the dissertation (Chapter III) only included a random subsample of the Italian data and encompassed an additional independent Colombian subsample. In addition, the methodological approaches presented in the two manuscripts are different (i.e. Multigroup exploratory factor analysis versus exploratory regression structural equation model); different from Chapter IV, in Chapter III no conclusions on the consequences of the ideological psychological contract were drawn for this population. At least, in both papers (Chapters III and IV) an exploratory approach was used in order to study ideological psychological contract. Hence, none of these two papers propose confirmative conclusions regarding the ideological psychological contract dimensions. If this were the case, we would have been constrained to find an additional independent sample to confirm the hypothesis on the outcomes of the ideological psychological contract. The final paper (Chapter V) further examines the consequences of the Ideological Psychological Contract within cooperative social oriented enterprises. In this part of the dissertation, the same relationships analysed in Capter IV in the Italian sample are analysed for an independent Colombian sub-sample. Adittionally, two organizational outcomes were added to the hypothetical model: turnover intentions and organizational citizenship behaviors directed to the organization. The data were analysed using Partial least Squares Structural Equation Modeling, a second-generation statistical analysis. This approach allowed the inclusion of additional latent variables. Thus, it enabled us to optimize our sample size. The results in terms of significance of the relationships between the ideological obligations and job satisfaction were similar to those founded for the Italian sample (preceeding chapter). With regard to the additional outcome variables, the findings presented in Chapter V enlarge the understanding of the positive effects of ideological obligations within cooperative social oriented enterprises.