PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT: what is it, characteristics and types WITH EXAMPLES!

What is the psychological contract and how can it motivate workers? The psychological contract in the company are these rules and pacts about what the employee and employer offer and receive respectively. In this Psychology-Online article we will explain what it is, the characteristics and types of the psychological contract. We will see the definition of psychological contract in human resources, we will define the types of transactional psychological contract and relational, we will expose the importance of the psychological contract and list the consequences of breaking the contract psychological.

Index

1. What is the psychological contract
2. Characteristics of the psychological contract
3. Types of psychological contract
4. The importance of the psychological contract
5. The consequences of breaking the psychological contract
6. Work absenteeism

People at the time of work have a series of individual perceptions in terms of reciprocal exchange with the employer

Such perceptions are established based on implicit or explicit promises and information that both parties exchange at the beginning of the relationship. These ideas lead to a mental model develops and adjusts, as specified to individuals what is expected of their assignment and what will they receive in return of their contribution, within that initially established commitment, also variable depending on whether one is the employee or the employer.

Initially, it had a markedly subjective character, that of the hired. Later, the intervention of the employer was also considered. Even so, it varies according to the demands of the task, the situation the company is going through and the relationships that people establish with each other, as we will try to see below.

Rousseau (2004), an author who would rank among the scholars of the effects on the employee, rather than on the employer, indicates that there are several characteristics that act in the psychological contract.

• The first, of a motivational type, given that psychological contracts motivate people to keep their commitments because they are based on the exchange of promises in which the individual has participated and freely chosen.
• A second characteristic of the psychological contract is that individuals believe in the mutual agreement, acting the subjective as if it were reciprocal, regardless of whether that is the case or not.
• Third, it lies in their limitation, since they tend to be incomplete and are elaborated as the work relationship develops.
• In fourth place, different sources intervene information: company management, those responsible for human resources, workers and their colleagues, the most immediate bosses; multiple elements that influence and condition the initial terms and their perception.

Roughly speaking, two types of contract would be distinguished from the point of view of the employed individual (Rousseau et als., 1998).

Relational contract

First, enter a relational contract that can generate feelings of involvement and closeness on the employee and, indirectly, committing the employer to provide economic remuneration, investments in training, career development and employee job security (with open relationships and time structure, considerable investment from employees - skills, career development - and the organization - training -, high degree of mutual interdependence and barriers to leaving work, emotional involvement as well such as economic exchange, personal relationships, dynamic contract and subject to change, invasive conditions (affect life personal).

Transactional contract

In front of this, there would be the transactional contract, in which money is prioritized, involving and raising in employees a greater concern for remuneration and personal benefit than for their personal contribution to the organization; so it includes employees who follow organizational rules to achieve personal ends. It would be characterized more by short-term economic exchanges, specific economic conditions - such as incentive primary, limited personal involvement in work, defined time structure, limited commitments to well-defined conditions, limited flexibility, use of existing skills and clear terms.

If you delve into relationships in the workplace, in addition to the initial relationship between employer and employee, at a more micro level, for example between employee and supervisors or supervisors with tutors; It is appreciated that these relationships occur in an environment of interactions between the parties, which generate new psychological contracts, because the daily task requires that the groups increase the autonomy and interdependence, with the organization, with each other, and with the specific individuals that constitute these more operational units, also interfering with the organization, as indicated Cruz et al. (2011).

"Efficiency and the new relationships between employees and employers are some of the characteristics that shape new forms of work activity, work systems and labor markets... All these changes can be clear implications and consequences for the health and well-being of workers and have important effects on health and effectiveness of organizations.

Companies are increasingly aware that part of their corporate social responsibility is to promote health and better workplaces. Furthermore, there is evidence that this healthy and positive environment benefits companies and improves their results. However, a large number of indicators (absenteeism due to illness, work accidents, poor performance, conflicts, etc.) show that the situation Regarding the development of healthy organizations and the promotion of health in the workplace, it is not as positive as it should be "(Peiró et als., 2008).

In an environment as changing as the one that prevails at the present time, organizations frequently experience changes that entail certain breaches of the psychological contract or at least that perception by the employees. They consider that such non-observances or omissions (sometimes involuntary, imposed by the economic scenario) are a violation of the obligations towards them. Consequently, they experience negative emotions that lead to a desire for revenge, withdrawal in the performance of their obligations and even counterproductive behaviors (Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2019; Zhao et al., 2007).

Often times, an organization faced with multiple challenges, for different reasons, will not provide adequate support for teamwork (for financial, organizational, or other reasons nature). Such situations can cause ambiguity both in the roles to be played and in the responsibilities to be assumed, generating a potential perception in teams of conflict, with no real basis (bad environment, anger, discomfort of some individuals). The perception of intra-team, intra-group conflict, provides a optics of breach of contract by these groups towards the subjects (Sverdrup et als., 2015) who believe that the team does not care about their well-being or value their contribution. We will now focus on one of the indicators and some of its repercussions.

One of the examples of the consequences of breaking the psychological contract is absenteeism, which we will see in depth below.

Sánchez Gallo (2013) collects various classifications of what is understood by absenteeism, of which we are interested especially the most eclectic, which is an optical mixture of legal, psychosocial and organizational factors in the business. Thus, he distinguishes between:

• The justified, legal and involuntary absenteeism, one that contemplates periods of time in which an employee is absent from his position within working hours for justified legally recognized causes (temporary disability, leaves related to union activity ...) or unjustified (delays, going out to smoke, errands, taking care of children or people older, etc.).
• Unexcused, illegal or voluntary absenteeism, which he considers as "a sociological phenomenon directly linked to the attitude of the individual and of society towards work. One of the direct causes of absenteeism is the working conditions in which the worker operates. " Directly related to working conditions and their deterioration or improvement, affecting the entire environment that surrounds the work centers.
• Face-to-face absenteeism, in which the staff goes to work, but dedicates a part of the day (generally quite significant) to activities that are not related to the tasks specific to the position they occupy (see: consulting web pages, using email for personal purposes are some of the most common, in the present; but, in more remote times he contemplated: reading the newspaper during working hours or making calls to friends and family, at the expense of the company: it is considered a part of what the company should).

In the newspaper el economista.es it was indicated on February 2, 2020 that it was intended to reform the elimination of dismissal for absenteeism, included in the Workers' Statute since 1980, in art. 52.d., being one of the main promises of the current government. He indicated that:

Oscar Carrascal, services manager of the EGARSAT Mutual Collaborator with Social Security, has pointed out at the Breakfast & Law organized by Novit Legal and held in the Pons Foundation, that the 2018 data showing that absenteeism is one of the biggest obstacles that companies face in Spain due to the direct and indirect cost to organizations: a total of 14,400 million euros (1.19% of GDP) and 70,000 million euros (5.8% of GDP), respectively.

When we are talking about a cost of about 84,000 million euros, when the budget of the Social Security of the Kingdom of Spain, consolidated for the year 2019, was just over 164,000 million of euros. But, after what has fallen during this past semester, these data are purely anecdotal. More, next to the humanitarian catastrophe suffered and not yet eradicated.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Psychological contract: what it is, characteristics and types with examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Human Resources.

• Coyle-Shapiro, J. TO. et als. (2019): Psychological contracts: Past, present, and future. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6, 145-169..
• Cruz, K. S., et als. (2011): Team design and stress: A multilevel analysis. Human Relations, 64, 1265-1289. .
• eleconomista.com (2020): The laborists estimate the cost of absenteeism at 84,000 million..
• Grace, FG, et als. (2006): The state of the psychological contract and its relationship with the psychological health of employees. Psychothema, 2006. Vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 256-262.
• Peiró, J.M. et als. (2008): Work stress, leadership and organizational health. Roles of the Psychologist, 2008. Vol. 29 (1), pp. 68-82.
• Rousseau, D. et als., (1998): Assessing psychological contracts: issues, alternatives and measures. Journal of Organitational Behavior, 1998, vol. 19, pp. 637-782.
• Rousseau, D. (2001). Schema, promise and mutuality: The building blocks of the psychological contract. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, No. 74, pp. 511-541.
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• Sánchez Gallo, D. (2013): Doctoral thesis: Absenteeism in Spain: from the legal system to the business reality. Rey Juan Carlos University. Faculty of CC. Legal and Social. Dept. of CC. Historical Juridical and Humanistic. Madrid.