Labour regulation in the public sector: Employment relationship, employment relations satisfaction and psychological contract

Abstract

This paper aims to report on the outcome of the study that investigated the cause of the ongoing antagonistic employment relationship (ER) in the South African public sector workplace, which has negatively affected employment relations satisfaction (ERS) and psychological contract (PC) fulfilment. This antagonism between management and employees has lowered the levels of employer-employee trust (Sudiarta, 2021), as well as job satisfaction (Silitonga et al., 2020) in the workplace. This study, therefore, explored the type of ER, levels of ERS, and state of PC that is prevalent in the workplace to recommend solutions for the situation. A quantitative research approach was adopted for the study because of its appropriateness for the study’s objectives. Data collection was done by means of a structured questionnaire. The results revealed a prevalence of positive ER in the workplace, a higher level of ERS among employees, a negative state of PC, and a positive inter-relationship among the three variables. This led to the conclusion that although the three variables are positively interrelated, the PC influences both ER and ERS negatively in the workplace. This study contributes to knowledge and literature on ER, ERS and PC pertaining to their nature, interrelationship and collective effect in the workplace.