The psychological contract and its application
After the first descriptions and definitions of psychological contract 1960s, a great number of experts show their opinions on this topic and discuss with each other. The widely acknowledged definition of psychological contract may be in Michaei Armstrong’s book, the human resource management practice(10th Ed.,2006,cited in business ball):`…the employment relationship consist of a unique combination of beliefs held by an individual and his employer about what they expect of one another…’ In other words, it briefly means the relationship between employers and employees in terms of mutual expectations and beliefs. This essay aims to begin with giving different ideas on psychological contract from different dimensions, and then analyze the situation of such contract at present, at last, prospect the application of this contract in the 21st century.
As a whole, there experts: Edgar Schein, DM Rousseau and KA Wade-Benzoni, PR Sparrow give their opinion respectively. As Schein (Schein, 1965, cited in business ball) states that the psychological contract is a relationship between all members in one organization by using an unwritten contract. This statement highlights the earlier ideas on the concept. Then, Rousseau&Wade-Benzoni got other different opinions in the relationship between employers and employees .he (Rousseau&Wade-Benzoni, 1994, cited in business ball) claims that psychological contracts means how different people in the same organization understand the promises and commitments. Later, Sparrow (PR Sparrow, 1999, cited in business ball) who notice the dynamic quality, social and emotional factors of the psychological contract notes that the psychological contract should be considered with social and emotional aspects of exchange. Although these three experts show different dimension of the psychological contract, they all suggest that firstly,