The Psychological Contract of Higher Education Teachers in Portugal - Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Abstract

The diverse conditioning factors of the external environment have made it necessary to restructure the re-lations between employee and employer. In this sense, the need to understand the psychological contract (PC) arises, since it assumes itself as an alternative to the formal contract and fills the gaps not predicted in the formal contract.The study presents a confirmatory factor analysis to validate whether the dimensions of the PC follow the structure defined in Rousseau's scale (2008) for higher education teachers in Portugal. For this purpose, the maximum likelihood method was used, and the results allowed validation of the hypothesis under study. Except for PC fulfillment, all dimensions were statistically significant, and the model has a reasonable fit (RSMEA=0,0508). The dimensions of loyalty and PC fulfillment have an acceptable consistency, whereas the dimensions of short term, limitations, development, employability, and stability obtained a good internal consistency and, with excellent consistency, only the dimension of performance support.