Psychological Contract and Workplace

Literature Review: Psychological Contract and the Workplace

Meet Tim.

Tim recently started a position in the marketing department of a large, corporate bank. He was with a marketing firm for a little over two years, but the company went out of business due to lack of sustainable clientele. Prior to that position, he worked in the marketing department for a manufacturing company for a year and a half before the company closed its doors. His father has complained that he is always ‘job-hopping’ and not able to keep a ‘stable’ job. His father graduated from high school and got a job at the local automobile assembly plant. He quickly worked his way up from the assembly line to foreman, in which he was able to support his family of four. He remained with the company for over 20 years until his retirement at age 65.

When hiring an individual, employers expect the employee to perform prescribed tasks adequately, and the employee expects to be compensated for those tasks. This expectation is explicit and made clear through employee contracts or agreements prior to the employee reporting for her first day of work.

In work relationships, however, there are additional expectations. When an employee joins an organization, they have beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes that shape expectations for their coworkers, immediate supervisor or manager, and CEO. These unwritten expectations form the basis for an informal agreement regarding the relationship the employee has with the organization and is referred to as a psychological contract. A psychological contract encompasses implicit, unwritten expectations, and perceived obligations, between an employee and their employer.

Consider the following question in relation to the scenario above:

How has the psychological contract between an employer and an employee changed since the days Tim’s father worked in the automobile plant? What is different between Tim’s employment situation and his father’s?

Locate three scholarly, peer-reviewed articles in the Purdue Global Library regarding psychological contract. Identify some of the key points, strengths, and weaknesses of the articles. Respond to the questions posed above in a 4- to 6-page literature review.

Be sure to complete the following tasks:

· Include an introduction, a body of paragraphs, and a conclusion.

· Define and provide a brief background regarding the concept of psychological contract.

· Identify and briefly summarize the main ideas of the articles.

· Analyze the strengths and weaknesses found in the main argument of each article.

· Synthesize any themes that you identified in the articles.

· Describe the importance of the psychological contract for organizations and the employee, and discuss how psychological contract has changed for employees like Tim and his father.

· Finally, discuss implications for the future of work, as it relates to psychological contract