Research-Thesis: The Role of Managers in Promoting Relatedness and Psychological Well-Being Among Early-Career Employees.

Abstract

Early-career employees enter the labor market with various needs and expectations that should be met in order to facilitate their integration within the organization and the development of their professional identity. While the literature recognizes managers’ support as an important resource that promotes relatedness, as well as relatedness’ importance during the early career, the literature has not investigated how exactly managers can fulfill early-career employees’ relatedness, nor how such relatedness impacts their psychological well-being. Therefore, this master’s thesis analyzed how five managerial practices (i.e. autonomy, feedback, learning opportunities, recognition, work-life balance) could influence early-career employees’ relatedness, and the indirect impact on their psychological well-being (i.e. engagement and exhaustion). A total of 2,231 individuals responded to an online quantitative questionnaire, but 276 respondents were included in the final sample after data cleaning. Mediation analyses were performed on the final sample, comprising individual mediations for each practice, and global mediations studying all practices at once—with and without control variables. Results showed that relatedness represents a powerful mechanism to promote early-career employees’ psychological well-being. While all managerial practices were relevant in individual mediation tests, their impact became statistically non-significant when studied in global models. Post-hoc tests finally showed that combining all practices into an overall measure of managerial support had a positive effect on relatedness and psychological well-being. In conclusion, this master’s thesis highlighted the relevancy of studying managers as a potential antecedent to relatedness, and of considering relatedness as a resource for early-career employees’ psychological well-being. However, this masters’ thesis also underlined the complexity of adequately measuring managerial practices. Further research is necessary to investigate how managers’ implication should be conceptualized and measured in the context of early career. Future research should also consider potential mediators that could influence how managerial support can promote early-career employees’ relatedness.