Posts Tagged ‘Psychological Contract’

Custom essays on The effects of violation of psychological contract

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Taking into consideration the importance of psychological contract and difficulties of its establishment, the violation of psychological contract may be extremely dangerous for the stable functioning of an organization. Basically, it should be said that one of the major goals of psychological contract is the improvement of employment relationship through the introduction of additional stimuli, obligations and promotion of positive expectations among employees. In such a situation, if psychological contract is violated the effects may be quite the opposite to the major goal of the introduction of psychological contract.
First of all, it is necessary to remember that psychological contract is an unwritten agreement between parties, an employee and an employer. Moreover, this agreement is based on the mutual trust because it cannot be control by any legal means. Instead, only ethical principles and moral norms could control the fulfillment of psychological contract by both an employee and an employer, which actually represents the entire organization in view of an employee. In such a situation, the violation of psychological contract by either party will inevitably undermine normal employment relationship between employees and employer. (more…)

Buy essay on Identification of psychological contract breaches

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Basically, perceived breach may lead to perceived violation, though it depends on four factors (Rousseau, 310). The first is outcome assessment. The greater the perceived imbalance between the two parties’ contributions, the stronger the relationship between perceived breach and violation. The greater the valued attached to the outcomes, the more likely it is that violation will occur. The second factor is attribution. If an employee believes that the organization purposefully reneged on their promises, employees will experience more intense negative emotions. The third factor is process. If an employee feels that they were fairly treated, dealt with honestly and respectfully and received adequate justification, they will be less likely to experience negative reactions. The forth factor is the context in which the perceived breach occurs. The social contract in the employment relationship entails beliefs about exchange, reciprocity, fair dealing and good faith. If for example, lay-offs were unheard of in a particular organization and an employee was laid off, the breach of contract will lead to greater feelings of violation because it was unexpected and contrary to previous organizational actions. (more…)

Buy essay on Identification of psychological contract breaches

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Specialists (Schein, 224) argue that incongruence occurs when an employee has perceptions of a given promise that differ from the organization. This may be a consequence of three factors: different schemata, complexity and ambiguity of obligations, and communication. In addition, some researchers (Rousseau, 341) reveal the problem of different schemata. Schemata are cognitive frameworks that help people process data in order to make sense of events and situations. One schema relates to the employment relationship, which helps individuals define what a typical employment relationship entails. How an individual interprets job security will depend on how job security fits into an individual’s schema for employment relationships in general. These schemata are heavily influenced by prior experiences, for instance a Japanese manager may have a different schema from the one held by an American manager.
Also, it is necessary to remember that the more complex and ambiguous the obligations, the more likely that different perceptions between the two parties will occur (Rousseau, 327). The greater the accuracy and truthfulness of communications, the more likely there will be congruence between the two parties. (more…)

Buy term paper on Identification of psychological contract breaches

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Taking into consideration the great significance of the establishment of psychological contract and numerous difficulties organizations may face in the process of its establishment, as well as management of psychological contract, it is necessary to pay a particular attention to the identification of breaches that may appear in relationships between employer and employees that may threaten to psychological contract. In this respect, it is possible to refer to Robinson and Morrison (2000), who present a theoretical model of how contract violation develops. Breach or perceived breach have been operationalised as the perception that one’s organization has failed to fulfill one or more obligations comprising the psychological contract. A perceived breach has occurred when one cognitively calculates what one has received relative to what one was promised. The important issue is that an individual perceives a contract breach; in some cases this may arise from a real breach and in others, it may be less clear whether a real breach has occurred. For example, a recruiter may make a clear promise to an employee that he or she will be promoted in three years and, when this does not happen, the employee perceives a breach of contract. In another situation, the recruiter may make a vague statement that people in this organization tend to get promoted rapidly. When the promotion does not happen, the employee may perceive a breach of contract. (more…)

Buy college essay on Measurement of psychological contract

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It is possible to name evaluation driven approaches, which are also considered to be quite effective (Rousseau, 142). Basically, they may be used for the measurement of psychological contract as an alternative to approaches discussed above, though it would be more effective to combine different approaches to the measurement of psychological contract. In fact, evaluation driven approaches measure the extent to which the employer has fulfilled its obligations to employees using a similar method to that outlined above (Tsui et al, 1117). The difference is that this approach captures how well the employer has fulfilled its obligations rather than capturing obligations alone.
Also, it is worth mentioning features based approach, which grows more and more popular in recent years. This approach implies that a researcher use it as an alternative to asking employees what they think his or her employer is obligated to provide is to capture particular dimensions of the psychological contract. O’Leary-Kelly and Schenk (1999) adopt this approach and ask employees the extent to which their relationship with their employer is based on an economic focus, is time limited, is inclusive and is stable. (more…)

Custom term paper on Measurement of psychological contract

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In general, psychological contract can be measured in different ways and different researchers offer their own methods of the measurement of psychological contract. In this respect, it is possible to define three different measurement approaches that are particularly popular and effective and they are widely applied in the contemporary world. It should be pointed out that these measurements mainly focus on content, evaluation and features (Schein, 287). Hence, each measurement has its own approaches that are considered to be the most effective for each type of measurement (Schein, 289).
First of all, it is possible to dwell upon content approaches. This type of research can be either qualitative or quantitative. Herriot et al. (1997) adopted a qualitative research method using critical incidents. Using a representative sample, employees were asked to think of an incident or situation where an employee or the organization went beyond or fell short of what might be reasonably be expected of them in their treatment of the other party (Kotter, 98). In other words, researchers (Herriot et al. 188) asked respondents to report on specific instances where: the organization offered more than it was obligated to; the employee(s) offered more than they were obligated to; the organization offered less than it was obligated to; employee(s) offered less than they were obligated to.
Basically, researchers (Herriot et al, 237) asked employees to respond as employees of the organization and managers to respond as representatives of the organization. The following are the types of obligations that respondents reported (Herriot et al, 242-245). (more…)

Buy essay on The influence of psychological contract on employment relationship

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As for employees, they could not develop normally their professional skills and make a successful career, being limited by formal constraints of the employment contract and other formal norms and regulations. For instance, an employee could invent and introduce a new product or a new technology, but, in accordance with the established formal norms, he/she could not fully benefit it, though he/she could be rewarded and be financially stimulated. But, on the other hand, this reward could not fully meet his/her expectations of the career growth, for instance. As a result, an employee would be simply discouraged to wok better and more effectively as well as introduce innovations if an organization failed to meet his/her expectations which were not defined in the employment contract. Naturally, in such a situation, it is simply impossible to speak about the perspective of the progress of employees and an organization at large. Moreover, the dominance of formal contracts, such as the employment contract, could simply undermine the stability within an organization if the dissatisfaction of employees grew too much.
In such a context, the necessity of the establishment of the psychological contract became obvious because the psychological contract could eliminate or minimize problems discussed above, which were provoked by the dominance of the employment contract and other regulations concerning employment relationships. In this regard, it should be said that the psychological contract could be viewed as an alternative to the formal norms and regulations established in an organization. In fact, its major role is focused on the provision of a more flexible employment relationship through the creation of stronger interpersonal links within an organization. In actuality, it is possible to speak about the establishment of psychological contacts between employees and employers which help them better understand each other as well as themselves, because psychological contract implies the clear definition of major expectations and moral obligations and future intentions from the part of both an employee and an employer (Tsui et al, 1097). (more…)

Buy research paper on The influence of psychological contract on employment relationship

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Naturally, balanced exchanges are more preferable in terms of psychological contract because they contribute to more stable relationships since such exchanges are just and fair, while unbalanced exchanges may lead to the deterioration of the relationship of employer and employee and violation of psychological contract because such exchanges put parties in the unequal position that naturally evokes the opposition of the party that turns to be in a disadvantageous position. At any rate, it is consistently more difficult to manage psychological contract in case of the domination of unbalanced exchanges.
Basically, the definition of psychological contracts gives insight concerning the role of this contract in employment relationships. However, it is necessary to precise the significance and the function of psychological contract in employment relationships. In order to understand the role of psychological contract, it is necessary to briefly dwell upon employment relationships that will give an opportunity to understand the place of psychological contract in employment relationship.
First of all, it should be said that traditionally employment relationships were highly formalized. In practice this means that within any organization there existed strict rules and regulations that defined the behavior and functions of each employee. As a result, employees clearly knew their obligations and duties and they could perform them adequately to their abilities. (more…)

Buy term paper on The influence of psychological contract on employment relationship

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Speaking about exchanges that exist between employer and employee in terms of psychological contract it is possible to single out balanced exchanges. Basically, balanced exchanges may involve different types of exchanges, such as economic exchange, for instance. In fact, economic exchange implies that there is balance between the contributions of the employer and employee but these contributions are exclusively economic. The employer offers short-term economic inducements in exchange for specified contributions, for instance a stockbroker and brokerage firm (Schein, 221). The employee is not expected to help colleagues or be concerned about the overall performance of the firm and the employer’s obligation to employees is confined to rewards. Neither party has an obligation to maintain a long-term relationship. This type of relationship is known as a quasi-spot contract.
Another type of exchange that may be viewed as balanced exchange is mutual investment. This type of relationship is based on social exchange and involves long-term investment and is similar to a high-commitment approach advocated by Walton (1985). Basically, this type of exchange is very important since it contributes to the establishment of the long-term stable relationship between employer and employee on the basis of the psychological contract. (more…)

Custom term paper The influence of psychological contract on employment relationship

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Nowadays, it proves beyond a doubt that the establishment of psychological contract produces a profound impact on employment relationships. However, specialists (Tsui et al, 1097) point out that in the past the necessity of the establishment of psychological contract as well as any kind of such employment relationships were absolutely unessential. In stark contrast, traditionally, organizations were oriented on the establishment of highly formal employment relationship, which minimized the possibilities for independent decisions being taken by employees. Instead, the strict subordination to the organizational hierarchy was welcomed (Rousseau, 154). But, in the course of time, it became obvious that such an approach is absolutely ineffective, because the role of human resources has increased considerably, while employment relationship became much more complicated.
In fact, nowadays, employees cannot be viewed as a part of machines since the fulfillment of the primitive mechanical work is not really needed in the contemporary business environment. At any rate, the share and the contribution of such labor in the general market performance of an organization is minimal and absolutely insignificant. Instead, the initiative and innovativeness of employees become the most valuable characteristic of contemporary employees, because their ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment can determine the success of the entire organization.
At the same time, it is important to promote the loyalty of employees in relation to the organization they are working at. Otherwise, the organization will face a risk of losing its most valuable and perspective employees. (more…)

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