Common Contracts
1 similar Psychological Contract contracts
This article is an entry in the following encyclopedia: Wilkinson, A. and Johnstone, S. (2015) Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management, Edward Elgar. Cheltenham.Psychological Contract • December 10th, 2020
The psychological contract is commonly defined as “individual beliefs, shaped by the organization, regarding terms of an exchange agreement between the individual and their organization” (Rousseau, 1995, p.9). Since Rousseau’s (1989) seminal reconceptualising of the psychological contract, its key defining features include beliefs that refer to explicit and implicit promises. Explicit promises are employee perceptions of verbal and written agreements, whereas implicit promises are where employees perceive consistent patterns of exchange behaviour between themselves and the organization. Since Rousseau, psychological contract research has largely focused on the employee’s perspective, rather than the employer’s perspectives, and psychological contracts are highly subjective held in ‘the eye of the beholder’. The exchange underpinning psychological contracts refers to the perceived links between employee contributions (e.g., effort, skills, flexibility) in return for organizational offer
