The Content of the Psychological Work Contract for Frontline Police Officers

Adding to the field of knowledge on the content of the psychological work contract, structured interviews with 35 frontline police officers generated 662 responses relating to the content of the psychological work contract for this employment sector. Analysis of these responses resulted in the development of an initial two-component measure of the contract. One component (17 items) reflected the obligations arising from the promises officers believed the organisation had made to them. The other component (19 items) reflected the obligations arising from the promises officers believed they had made to the organisation. The measure was included in a survey completed by 84 frontline police officers. Factor analysis revealed two factors in each component. For the organisation's obligations component, one factor reflected obligations related more to the organisational environment, whereas the other factor reflected obligations related more to the job environment. For the employee's obligations component, one factor reflected obligations related more to behaviours on the job, whereas the other factor reflected obligations related more to the pursuit of development opportunities. The nature of the relationships that emerged between the psychological contract and the nomological network variables included in the study provide strong support for the validity of this measure of the psychological contract

The relationship of professional support and commitment to the teaching profession

Although the study of professional support and professional commitment are prevalent in the education literature, not many studies examined both these issues issue among technical school educators. Acknowledging this limitation, this study was undertaken to examine the extent to which professional commitment can be influenced by professional support among this group of teachers. Data for this exploratory study were collected using self administered questionnaires, from 120 randomly selected technical school teachers. Correlational analysis revealed that there was a significant relationship between professional support and professional commitment among the teachers understudied. Multiple regression analysis showed that the variance in explaining professional commitment was contributed by professional support, comprising, both principal support and collegial support. Based on the statistical results, implications of the findings were discussed in the context of understanding the relationship between professional support and professional commitment. Suggestions on how to increase professional commitment and professional support as well avenues for future research were also provided