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The Psychological Contract Violation?

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The psychological contract is an important topic of discussion in the field of HRM, and a large body of literature has been devoted to understand the nature of the psychological contract in more depth. It can be defined as ones unwritten expectations, values, and promises made between the employee and the organisation (Sturges et al. 2005). This literature review will critique and analyse a number of articles focusing on psychological contract violation. Violation arises when promised agreements and obligations are unmet leaving a taste of dissatisfaction and a sense of breach in trust and loyalty. Robinson & Rousseau (1994) postulated, “employees initially hold unrealistic expectations and when these expectations go unmet, employees may become less satisfied, perform less well, and become more likely to leave their employer” (Rousseau 1994, pp. 247). Therefore, it is crucial to gain a better understanding of how of how it develops and solutions to contract violation as it can have a detrimental impact on ones emotions and wellbeing. In a research article by Morrison & Robinson (1997) the importance of how psychological contract violation develops is discussed in detail. The purpose of their paper was to emphasise how the betrayal of ones promises occurs and to identify what factors contribute to this occurrence using a model, which they developed called the sense-making process. Two interesting ideas were presented in their model, incongruence with ones perception of a

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