History and Definitions of the Concept: The notion of the "psychological contract" was first coined by Argyris (1960) to refer to employer and employee expectations of the employment relationship, i.e. mutual obligations, values, expectations and aspirations that operate over and above the formal contract of employment. Since then there have been many attempts to develop and refine this concept. Historically, the concept can be viewed as an extension of philosophical concepts of social contract theory (Schein, 1980; Roehling, 1997). The social contract, which deals with the origins of the state, supposes that individuals voluntarily consent to belonging to an organised society, with attendant constraints and rights. Argyris (1960) used the concept to describe an implicit agreement between a group of employees and their supervisor. Other influential early writers such as Levinson, Price, Munden, and Solley (1962), used the concept to describe the set of expectations and obligations that individual employees spoke of when talking about their work experience. They identified a number of different types of employee expectations, held both consciously (for example expectations about job performance, security, and financial rewards) and unconsciously (for example being looked after by the employer). Roehling (1997) credits Levinson et al (1962) with explicitly recognising the dynamic relationship of the psychological contract: contracts evolve or change over time as a result of changing needs and relationships on both the employee's and the employer's side. Schein (1965) emphasised the importance of the psychological contract concept in understanding and managing behaviour in organisations. He argued that expectations may not be written into any formal agreement but operate powerfully as determinants of behaviour. For example, an employer may expect a worker not to harm the company's public image, and an employee may expect not to be made redundant after many years' service. Like Levinson et al (1962), Schein emphasised that the psychological contract will change over time.
Recent developments in psychological contract theory are largely dominated by Rousseau (e.g. 1989; 1995; 2001). Rousseau argues the psychological contract is promise-based and, over time, takes the form of a mental model or schema which is relatively stable and durable. Rousseau (1989) explicitly distinguished between conceptualisations at the level of the individual and at the level of the relationship, focusing in her theory on individual employees' subjective beliefs about their employment relationship. Crucially, the employer and employee may not agree about what the contract actually involves, which can lead to feelings that promises have been broken, or, as it is generally termed, the psychological contract has been violated.
Rousseau's conceptualisation of the psychological contract focuses on the employee's side of the contract, so can be termed a "one-way contract". Much recent work has focused on the employee's understanding of the explicit and implicit promises regarding the exchange of employee contributions (e.g. effort, loyalty, ability) for organisational inducements (e.g. pay, promotion, security) (Rousseau, 1995, Conway & Briner, 2002). The employer's perspective has received less attention.
References
Ang, S., Tan, M. L. & Ng, K.Y. (2000). Psychological contracts in Singapore. In D. Rousseau and R. Schalk (Eds.), Psychological contracts in employment: Cross-national perspectives. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Argyris, C. (1960). Understanding organisational behaviour. Homewood, Illinois: Dorsey Press.
Brannen, J., Lewis, S., Nilsen, A., & Smithson, J. (Eds.) (2002). Young Europeans, work and family: Futures in transition. London: Routledge.
Conway, N., & Briner, R. B. (2002). Full-time versus part-time employees: Understanding the links between work status, the psychological contract, and attitudes. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 61, 279-301.
Coussey, M. (2000). Getting the right work-life balance. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel Directors.
Guest, D. E. (1998). Is the psychological contract worth taking seriously? Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 19 (special issue), 649-664.
Guest, D., & Conaway, N. (1998). Fairness at work and the psychological contract. London: Institute of Personnel and Development.
Harwood, R. (2003). The psychological contract and remote working. An interview with Denise Rousseau. Ahoy Magazine, January 2003. www.odysseyzone.com/news/hot/rousseau.htm.
Herriot, P. (1992). The career management challenge. London: Sage Publications.
Herriot, P., Manning, W. E. G., & Kidd, J. M. (1997). The content of the psychological contract. British Journal of Management, 8, 151-162.
Hudson, M., Reed, H., & Wilkinson, F. (1998). Defining job insecurity: Towards an inter-disciplinary approach. Paper presented at 12th Annual Employment Research Unit Conference, Cardiff.
Kickul, J. (2001). When organizations break their promises: Employee reactions to unfair processes and treatment. Journal of Business Ethics, 29(4), 289-307.
Kickul, J. R., Neuman, G., Parker, C., & Finkl, J. (2001). Settling the score: The role of organizational justice in the relationship between psychological contract breach and anticitizenship behavior. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 13(2), 77-93.
Larwood, L., Wright, T. A., Desrochers, S., & Dahir, V. (1998). Extending latent role and psychological contract theories to predict intent to turnover and politics in business organizations. Group and Organization Management, 23(2), 100-123.
Levinson, H., Price, C. R., Munden, K. J., & Solley, C. M. (1962). Men, management and mental health. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lewis, S., & Smithson, J. (2001). Sense of entitlement to support for the reconciliation of employment and family life. Human Relations, 54(11), 1455-1481.
Lewis, S., Smithson, J. & Das Dores Guerreiro, M. (2002). Into work: Job insecurity and psychological contracts. In J. Brannen, S. Lewis, A. Nilesen, & J. Smithson (Eds.), Young European work and family. London: Sage.
MacNeil, I. R. (1985). Relational contract: What we do and do not know. Wisconsin Law Review, 483-525.
Management Today (September, 2003, forthcoming).
Martin, G., Staines, H., & Pate, J. (1998). Linking job security and career development in a new psychological contract. Human Resource Management Journal, 8(3), 20-40.
McFarlane Shore, L., & Tetrick, L. P. (1994). The psychological contract as an explanatory framework in the employment relationship. Trends in Organizational Behaviour, 1, 91-109.
McLean Parks, J., & Kidder, D. A. (1994). Till death us do part ...: Changing work relationships in the 1990s. Trends in Organizational Behaviour, 1, 111-136.
Morrison E. W., & Robinson, S. L. (1997). When employees feel betrayed: A model of how psychological contract violation develops. Academy of Management Review, 22, 26-256.
Noer, D. (2000). Leading organizations through survivor sickness: A framework for the new millennium. In R. Burke & C.L. Cooper (Eds.), The organisation in crisis. Oxford: Blackwell.
Nicholson, N., & Johns, G. (1985). The absence culture and the psychological contract. Academy of Management Review, 10, 397-407.
Porter, L. W., Pearce, J. L., Tripoli, A. M., & Lewis, K. M. (1998). Differential perceptions of employers' inducements: Implications for psychological contracts. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19, 769-782.
Robinson, S., & Rousseau, D. (1994). Violating the psychological contract: Not the exception but the norm. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 16, 289-298
Robinson, S., & Wolfe-Morrison, E. (1995). Psychological contracts and organizational citizenship behaviour: The effect of unfulfilled obligations on civic virtue behaviour. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 16, 289-298.
Roehling, M. V. (1997). The origins and early development of the psychological contract construct. Journal of Management History, 3(2), 204-217.
Roehling, P. V., Roehling, M. V., & Moen, P. (2001). The relationship between work-life policies and practices and employee loyalty: A life course perspective. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 21(22), 141-171.
Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implicit contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2, 121-139.
Rousseau, D. M. (1995). Promises in action: Psychological contracts in organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Rousseau, D. M. (2001a). Schema, promise and mutuality: The building blocks of the psychological contract. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 74(4), 511-542.
Rousseau, D. M. (2001b). The idiosyncratic deal: Flexibility versus fairness. Organizational Dynamics, 29(4), 260-273.
Rousseau, D. M., & Aquino, K. (1993). Fairness and implied contract obligations in job termination: The role of remedies, social accounts and procedural justice. Human Performance, 6, 135-149.
Rousseau, D. M., & Wade-Benzoni, K. A. (1995). Changing individual-organizational attachments: A two-way street. In A. Howard (Ed.), The changing nature of work. Jossey Bass.
Smithson, J., & Lewis, S. (2000). Is job insecurity changing the psychological contract? Young people's expectations of work. Personnel Review, 29(6), 680-702.
Schein, E. H. (1965, Reprinted 1980). Organizational psychology. New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs.
Sparrow, P. (2000). The new employment contract: Psychological implications of future work. In R. Burke & C. L. Cooper (Eds.). The organisation in crisis. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sparrow, P., & Marchington, M. (1998). Human resource management: The new agenda. London: Pitman.
Tulgan, B. (2000). Managing generation X: How to bring out the best in young talent. New York: WW Norton and Company.
Turnley, W. H., & Feldman, D. C. (1999a). A discrepancy model of psychological contract violations. Human Resource Management Review, 9(3), 367-386.
Turnley, W. H., & Feldman, D. C. (1999b). The impact of psychological contract violations on exit, voice, loyalty and neglect. Human Relations, 52(7), 895-922.
Westwood, R., Sparrow, P., & Leung, A. (2001). Challenges to the psychological contract in Hong Kong. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12(4), 621-651.
No comments:
Post a Comment