Política de austeridad y contrato psicológico en la Administración PúblicaPolítica de austeridade e contrato psicológico na Administração Pública

Resumen

There is a need to understand the functioning of Public Administration, in which an Economy confronts a State (of law), without political, social or economic-financial instruments which reflect the distress of those who lose their acquired property, assess the repercussions in the formal and informal relationship networks and evaluate the effort of those who want to believe that there is still hope... The formal labour contract is not an instrument closely linked to the labour relationship. The daily relationship is driven by the psychosocial contract defined as a set of reciprocal expectations, regarding mutual obligations between each individual and the organization, based mainly on three elements: promise, retribution and voluntary acceptance. Changes in the emerging paradigm suggest that, in theory, psychological contracts may be in successive rupture, however, massive organizational abandonment by employees has not be observed. Bearing this context in mind, the main objective defined for this research was the study of the Portuguese Public Administration employees' attitudes and behaviours in view of the austerity measures applied to the management of human resources, resulting from the (re)assessment that each individual makes of their psychological contract. The information was gathered mainly through exploratory interviews and using a survey based on a questionnaire, whose results were interpreted through content analysis using the Nvivo 9.2 application. The results show a state of resilience regarding the subject's ability to adapt to the environment and adverse circumstances. The increasing complexity of the cases will require more proactive attitudes from those in charge of the organizations, who will not accept mere compliance with economics-oriented rules. Without any loss of contributions and exchanges with the exterior, it is from within each organization that the ability to assume an attitude of strategic social responsibility between the personal needs, institutional objectives and available resources must emerge.