Sense of deservingness: What are the entitlement beliefs of students in their anticipatory psychological contract?

Werner Gresse,Bennie Linde,René Schalk

doi:10.5771/0935-9915-2013-4-269

Abstract

The management revue is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary European journal publishing both qualitative and quantitative work as well as purely theoretical papers that advance the study of management, organisation and industrial relations.

Highlights

Rousseau (2001) claims that the beliefs included in the psychological contract are formed in the recruiting process, as well as during the socialisation process when first starting employment
- http://www.nomos-elibrary.de/agb pants stated that they expected a salary of between R19 000 and R22 000 per month, which is approximately between the 85th to 90th percentiles of monthly salaries of South Africans with a tertiary education (Statistics South Africa, 2010); and 16% of the participants stated that they expected a salary higher than R25 000 per month, which is higher than the 90th percentiles of monthly salaries of South Africans with a tertiary education (Statistics South Africa, 2010)
Of the participants 45% identified employee well-being as an entitlement belief that they should receive in the formal work environment when they commenced employment

Summary

Introduction

Rousseau (2001) claims that the beliefs included in the psychological contract are formed in the recruiting process, as well as during the socialisation process when first starting employment. Fisk (2010) and Twenga and Campbell (2009) have suggested that we were currently living in the “Age of Entitlement” It is the abovementioned authors’ perception that there is a tendency that individuals are increasingly subscribing to the belief that they should get what they want, when they want it, even if that means they will have to affect the well-being of others negatively. This occurrence in which individuals consistently believe that they deserve preferential rewards and treatment, often with little consideration of actual qualities or performance levels, is regarded as perceived or psychological entitlement (Fisk, 2010; Harvey & Harris, 2010; Harvey & Martinko, 2009; Snyders, 2002). According to Snyders (2002) entitlement can be seen as a “sense of deservingness” (p. 21)

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