The Psychological Contract

Organisational Behaviour: Theory and Practice. | | | Question; It can be argued that the state of the relationship between the actors within an organisation influences its ability to achieve its goals. The employment relationship is arguably one of the more significant relationships that occur in an organisation particularly the psycho-social component. Critically evaluate the so called theory of the the psychological contract, does it provide a valid, reliable and predictable explanation that may contribute to an understanding of the organisational success and failure? | | Date | 4/24/2013 | |

University of Hertfordshire,
Business school.
Department of Human Resource Management.

According to Cullinane and Dundon (2006) there has been a lot of interest in the concept of the psychological contract by researchers. This interest has grown progressively over the last 10 years. Although this concept first originated outside HRM, it has become a device for analysing and explaining HRM. Furthermore, the concept of the psychological contract has been helpful in understanding organisational behaviour and employment relationship that exist between the employer and employees in an organisation (Cullinane and Dundon, 2006).

In spite of the wide interest and wealth of literature concerning the psychological contract, there still is no one accepted definition (Anderson and Schalk, 1998). The definitions are in various perspectives as to what the psychological contract is meant to do and what it is, also the importance of implicit responsibilities of the employer and employee and other emphasise on the importance of understanding what the employee expectations are from the organisation. (Rousseau and Tijoriwala, 1998; Atkinson et al, 2003).

This research will be looking at

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