The Employment Relationships of Junior Accountants: Importance of Perceived Organizational Support

Abstract

Organizational support theory (OST) and psychological contract theory (PCT) both assume employees form emotional attachments to the organization on the basis of global beliefs concerning the extent to which the organization is perceived to be able to reciprocate with desired material (e.g., salary, training and skill development) and socioemotional resources (e.g., help with problems, trust and respect, job security). This study utilizes OST and PCT to examine the employment relationships and work attitudes of junior accountants in Australian accounting firms – a cohort in which there is considerable industry churn each year. On the basis of social exchange theory, we expected junior accountants to report higher levels of perceived organizational support (POS), higher levels of affective commitment, and lower turnover intentions when they believed the organization had fulfilled its obligations to them under the psychological contract. As hypothesized, fulfillment of psychological contract obligations exerted significant positive effects on POS, and POS mediated the psychological contract fulfillment-work attitudes relationship. Findings indicate training and development contributes significantly to the degree of organizational support young accountants perceive at work. Implications of study findings are discussed with reference to related theory and characteristics of the target group.