Employee Expectations, Actuals, and Workplace Harmony: A Deep Empirical and Theoretical Investigation into the Emergency Management Sector in Nigeria
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Employee expectations constitute a foundational determinant of organisational behaviour, workforce morale, and workplace harmony. In the emergency management sector—where operational effectiveness is contingent upon teamwork, psychological safety, and coordinated crisis response—the alignment or misalignment between employee expectations and organisational realities carries profound implications for institutional performance and disaster response outcomes. This study presents a deep empirical and theoretical investigation into the relationship between employee expectations, organisational actuals, and workplace harmony within Nigeria’s emergency management sector. Anchored in psychological contract theory (Rousseau, 1989, 1995), equity theory (Adams, 1963, 1965), expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964), and organisational justice theory (Greenberg, 1987; Colquitt, 2001), the study employs a mixed-methods explanatory research design integrating a structured survey instrument administered to 320 employees across the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and selected State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs). Quantitative data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis, Pearson’s correlation analysis, multiple regression modelling, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Qualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews with 28 purposively sampled senior staff were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal that expectation gaps relating to welfare provisions, hazard allowances, career progression, professional development, and leadership transparency exert statistically significant negative effects on workplace harmony (R² = 0.68, p < 0.01). Leadership transparency emerged as the most influential mediating variable. Institutional analysis of NEMA’s HR governance framework identifies systemic policy-implementation gaps as structural antecedents of expectation-actuality discrepancies. The study contributes original theoretical synthesis through a proposed Expectation-Actuality-Harmony (EAH) integrative model and advances targeted policy recommendations for HR governance reform within Nigeria’s emergency management architecture.
Downloads
References
Adams, J. S. (1963). Towards an understanding of inequity. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(5), 422–436. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040968
Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2, 267–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60108-2
Adegoroye, G. (2006). Public service reform for sustainable development: The Nigerian experience. Commonwealth Secretariat.
Adeleke, A., & Aminu, S. (2012). The determinants of employee commitment in Nigerian public organisations. International Journal of Business and Management, 7(8), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n8p1
Argyris, C. (1960). Understanding organizational behavior. Dorsey Press.
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2020). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice (15th ed.). Kogan Page.
Beal, D. J., Cohen, R. R., Burke, M. J., & McLendon, C. L. (2003). Cohesion and performance in groups: A meta-analytic clarification of construct relations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(6), 989–1004. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.6.989
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Cochran, W. G. (1977). Sampling techniques (3rd ed.). Wiley.
Colquitt, J. A. (2001). On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 386–400. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.386
Comfort, L. K., Kapucu, N., Ko, K., Menoni, S., & Siciliano, M. (2012). Crisis decision making on a global scale: Transition from cognition to collective action under threat. Public Administration Review, 72(S1), S112–S122. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02570.x
Coyle-Shapiro, J., & Kessler, I. (2000). Consequences of the psychological contract for the employment relationship: A large scale survey. Journal of Management Studies, 37(7), 903–930. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00210
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2017). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
Greenberg, J. (1987). A taxonomy of organizational justice theories. Academy of Management Review, 12(1), 9–22. https://doi.org/10.2307/258090
Greenberg, J. (1990). Organizational justice: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Journal of Management, 16(2), 399–432. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639001600208
Guest, D. E. (1998). Is the psychological contract worth taking seriously? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19(S1), 649–664. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(1998)19:1+<649::AID-JOB970>3.0.CO;2-T
Guest, D. E. (2017). Human resource management and employee well-being: Towards a new analytic framework. Human Resource Management Journal, 27(1), 22–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12139
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(2), 159–170. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076546
Halpern, J., & Tramontin, M. (2007). Disaster mental health: Theory and practice. Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Herriot, P., & Pemberton, C. (1997). Facilitating new deals. Human Resource Management Journal, 7(1), 45–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.1997.tb00273.x
Hope, K. R. (2014). Toward good governance and sustainable development: The African peer review mechanism. Governance, 18(2), 283–311. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2005.00272.x
Kapucu, N., & Garayev, V. (2011). Collaborative decision-making in emergency and disaster management. International Journal of Public Administration, 34(6), 366–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2010.550229
Kickul, J. (2001). Promises made, promises broken: An exploration of employee attraction and retention practices in small business. Journal of Small Business Management, 39(4), 320–335. https://doi.org/10.1111/0447-2778.00029
Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. Jossey-Bass.
Lester, S. W., Turnley, W. H., Bloodgood, J. M., & Bolino, M. C. (2002). Not seeing eye to eye: Differences in supervisor and subordinate perceptions of and attributions for psychological contract breach. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(1), 39–56. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.126
Levinson, H., Price, C. R., Munden, K. J., Mandl, H. J., & Solley, C. M. (1962). Men, management, and mental health. Harvard University Press.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. SAGE Publications.
Luthans, F. (2011). Organizational behavior: An evidence-based approach (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Morgan, D. L. (2007). Paradigms lost and pragmatism regained: Methodological implications of combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1(1), 48–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/2345678906292462
Morrison, E. W., & Robinson, S. L. (1997). When employees feel betrayed: A model of how psychological contract violation develops. Academy of Management Review, 22(1), 226–256. https://doi.org/10.2307/259230
Nwosu, H. N., & Ugwu, R. C. (2020). Human resource management challenges in Nigeria’s emergency management institutions: Evidence from NEMA and selected SEMAs. Journal of Public Administration and Governance, 10(3), 88–109. https://doi.org/10.5296/jpag.v10i3.17432
Oginni, B., Dunmade, E., & Ogunwole, A. (2018). Employees’ work expectations and job satisfaction in Nigeria’s service industry. World Journal of Business and Management, 4(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5296/wjbm.v4i1.12698
Olowu, D., & Adamolekun, L. (2005). Human resources management. In L. Adamolekun (Ed.), Public administration in Africa: Main issues and selected country studies (2nd ed., pp. 90–117). Spectrum Books.
Osei-Bonsu, N. (2014). Factors affecting employee commitment in Ghanaian public sector organisations. International Journal of Management and Sustainability, 3(3), 141–153.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2019). Organizational behavior (18th ed.). Pearson.
Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2(2), 121–139. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01384942
Rousseau, D. M. (1990). New hire perceptions of their own and their employer’s obligations: A study of psychological contracts. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 11(5), 389–400. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030110506
Rousseau, D. M. (1995). Psychological contracts in organizations: Understanding written and unwritten agreements. SAGE Publications.
Schein, E. H. (1965). Organizational psychology. Prentice-Hall.
Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M. G., & Macey, W. H. (2013). Organizational climate and culture. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 361–388. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143809
Van Wart, M., & Kapucu, N. (2011). Crisis management competencies: The case of emergency managers in the USA. Public Management Review, 13(4), 489–511. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2010.525034
Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and motivation. Wiley.
Waugh, W. L., & Streib, G. (2006). Collaboration and leadership for effective emergency management. Public Administration Review, 66(S1), 131–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00673.x
West, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research (3rd ed.). BPS Blackwell.
Worku, Z. (2017). Factors that affect employee motivation in the public sector in selected African countries. Corporate Governance, 17(2), 301–317. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-09-2016-0191
Zhenjing, G., Chupradit, S., Ku, K. Y., Nassani, A. A., & Haffar, M. (2022). Impact of employees’ workplace environment on employees’ performance: A multi-mediation analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 890400. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.890400 End of Manuscript — Total References: 47 (APA 7th Edition)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All articles published in our journal are licensed under CC-BY 4.0, which permits authors to retain copyright of their work. This license allows for unrestricted use, sharing, and reproduction of the articles, provided that proper credit is given to the original authors and the source.