Psychological contract, employee vitality and organasational citizentionship behaviour among employees at a selected local municipality in the Sekhukhune District Municipality, South Africa

Abstract

The research adopts a quantitative approach to investigate the relationship between psychological contract, employee vitality, and organisational citizenship behaviour within the selected local municipality in the Sekhukhune district. The study encompasses 377 employees as its target population, all employed by the municipality. Sample size determination utilised an online Rao soft sample calculator. The exact sample size to be targeted after using an online Rao soft sample calculator was 95, attempts to get more participants were made. At the end, a sample size of 97 participated in this study. Data collection relied on self-administered questionnaires (Cross-sectional survey) known for their validity and reliability. Both convenience and quota sampling methods were employed to generate data for hypothesis testing. Analysis involved IBM - SPSS version 29.0 for statistical analysis. The relationship between the variables were tested using Pearson correlations (both primary and secondary hypotheses). Regression analysis was also carried out to test and measure the relationship between variables (primary hypotheses) and independent t-test was conducted to compare the gender differences. Findings suggest positive correlations between psychological contract and organisational citizenship behaviour, negative associations between employee vitality and psychological contract, and between employee vitality and organisational citizenship behaviour. Gender exhibited no significant differences in perceptions of psychological contract, employee vitality, and organisational citizenship behaviour. Additionally, positive relationships were found between psychological contract and various organisational citizenship behaviour dimensions, as well as between employee vitality and sportsmanship. Conversely, a negative relationship was found between employee vitality and several organisational citizenship behaviour dimensions. The study concludes by recommending that public sector entities should ensure that they understand and meet their employees’ expectations in order to positively influence their behaviour and enhance their organisational citizenship behaviour, particularly in uncertain contexts resembling the COVID-19 pandemic or technological changes