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Organizational Socialization and Psychological Contract: the Vulnerability of Temporary Newcomers. A Case Study from an Italian Call Center

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Abstract

This study aims to analyze the link between the construction of an effective psychological contract with the organization and the success of the socialization process. To this purpose 241 employees of a Call Center organization have been contacted. A questionnaire composed by measures of Organizational Socialization (Haueter et al. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63, 20–39, 2003), Psychological Contract (Rousseau 1995), Job Satisfaction (Wanous et al. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 247–252, 1997) and Organizational Committment (Allen and Meyer 1990) was administered. Results have underlined that organizational socialization may influence the development of the psychological contract thus determining job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This research has been developed in an interdisciplinary perspective, taking into account the peculiarity of the Italian legal framework. In this regard, the analysis has been focused on how the E.U. flexicurity strategy has been implemented in Italy, according to the recent reform of labour market regulation (2012–13) and on the specific regulations introduced for call centres.

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Notes

  1. The legal debate outlined in this paper to discuss the implications of temporary work in call centers relates to the regulatory framework that was in force in Italy at the time of the empirical research (2012–2013).

  2. A new reform of the labour market enacted by the Renzi’s Government, the so-called Jobs Act (Law No. 183/2014 and LL.DD. No. 22,23,80,81, 148–151), has led to the amendment of many of the norms analysed in the present study.

  3. The outcome of the political debate on the Single Employment Contract in Italy has been the enactment of the contratto a tutele crescenti (contract with growing protection), introduced by L.D. No 23/15. It is not really a new contract, but simply an open-ended contract of employment, which has applied since March 2015, that provides for specific rules for individual (and collective) dismissal lowering significantly the employment protection for these workers. According to the perspective of restoring a central role to stable employment in the labour market, one would have expected a reduction in the wide range of non-standard employment contracts the law provides for. On the contrary, all of them are still available and now regulated by L D.No. 81/15. As a result of the new regulations, the employer’s choice between open-ended contract and fixed term contract is based mainly on the assessment of costs, both contracts being highly flexible either throughout the performance of the employment contract or in the phase of terminating the employment contract (Carinci 2015).

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  1. University of Bari – Italy, Bari, Italy

    Amelia Manuti, Carla Spinelli & Maria Luisa Giancaspro

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  1. Amelia Manuti
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  2. Carla Spinelli
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Correspondence to Amelia Manuti.

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The authors declare that they have not received research grants fro the present study.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Carla Spinelli is author of the paragraphs titled “Flexicurity and precarious work: Legal aspects”, “Temporary work within the Italian legal framework: the context of call centres” and “New scenarios for entry-flexibility in Italy”. Amelia Manuti and Maria Luisa Giancaspro are co-authors of the other sections of the paper.

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Manuti, A., Spinelli, C. & Giancaspro, M.L. Organizational Socialization and Psychological Contract: the Vulnerability of Temporary Newcomers. A Case Study from an Italian Call Center . Employ Respons Rights J 28, 225–245 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-016-9285-x

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