Psychological contract what is, characteristics and types with examples

¿What is the psychological contract and how they can motivate workers? The psychological contract in the company are these standards and pacts about what employee and employer offer and receive respectively. In this Psychology-online article we will explain What 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 and relational psychological contract, we will present the importance of the psychological contract and list the consequences of the rupture of the psychological contract.

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 the rupture of the psychological contract
6. Labor absenteeism

What is the psychological contract

People when working have a series of individual perceptions in terms of reciprocal exchange with the employer. This would be the definition of "Psychological contract" (Rousseau, 2001).

Such perceptions are established based on implicit or explicit promises and information that both parties exchange at first of the relationship. These ideas give rise to a mental model It is developing and adjusting, as specified to people What is expected of their task and what they will receive in return of your contribution, within that initially established commitment, also variable depending on the employee or employer.

Initially, it had a markedly subjective character, that of the hired. Subsequently, the employer's intervention was also contemplated. Even so, it varies according to the demands of the task, the situation through which the company passes and the relationships that establish each other, as we will try to see below.

Characteristics of the psychological contract

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

• The first, motivational, given that psychological contracts motivate people to fulfill their commitments because they are based on the exchange of promises in which the individual has participated and freely chosen.
• A second characteristics 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 its limitation, since they tend to be incomplete and The work relationship is developed as developing.
• In fourth place, different sources intervene Information: the company's management, those responsible for human resources, workers and their classmates, the most immediate bosses; multiple elements that affect and condition the initial terms and their perception.

Types of psychological contract

In a rough way it would be distinguished from the point of view of the individual used (Rousseau et als., 1998) Two types of contract.

Relational contract

First, between a relational contract that can generate feelings of involvement and closeness In employee and, indirectly compromise the employer to provide economic remuneration, investments in training, Development of the Professional Career and Employee Occupational Security (With open temporal relationships and structure, considerable investment of employees - skills, career development - and organization - training -, high degree of mutual interdependence and barriers to leave work, emotional involvement as well as economic exchange, personal relationships, personal relationships, Dynamic and subject contract in return, invasive conditions (affect personal life).

Transactional contract

In front of this, there would be the transactional contract, in which money is prioritized, implying and raising in employees a greater concern for remuneration and personal benefit than because of their personal contribution to the organization; so that employees that follow the organizational rules to achieve personal purposes are included. It would be more characterized by short -term economic exchanges, Specific economic conditions - such as incentive primary, limited personal involvement at work, defined temporal structure, limited commitments to well -pointed conditions, limited flexibility, use of existing skills and clear terms.

The importance of the psychological contract

If you deepen the relationships in the workplace, in addition to the initial 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 autonomy and interdependence, with the organization, with each other, and with the specific individuals that constitute Those most operational units, also interfering with the organization, as Cruz et al points out. (2011).

"The efficiency and the new relationships between employees and employers are some of the characteristics that shape the 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 efficiency of organizations.

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

The consequences of the rupture of the psychological contract

In an environment as changing as the one that imposes at the present time, organizations frequently experience changes that lead to certain breaches of the psychological contract or at least that perception by employees. They estimate that such non -observance 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 fulfillment of their obligations and even counterproductive behaviors (Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2019; Zhao et al., 2007).

Frequently, an organization that must face multiple challenges, for different reasons do not provide adequate support for teamwork (for economic, organizational reasons, or another nature). These situations can cause ambiguity both in the roles to be performed, and in the responsibilities to be assumed, generating a potential perception in the conflict teams, without real basis (bad environment, anger, discomfort of some individuals). The perception of intra-equipo, intragroup conflict, provides a CONTRACT BREACH OPTICS by these groups to the subjects (Sverdrup et als., 2015) who believe that the team does not care about their well -being or values ​​their contribution. We will focus, then, on one of the indicators and some of its repercussions.

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

Labor absenteeism

Sánchez Gallo (2013) collects several classifications of what is understood by absenteeism, which is especially interested in the most eclectic, which is an optic mix of legal, psycho-social and organizational factors in the company. Thus, it distinguishes between:

• He justified, legal and involuntary absenteeism, The one who contemplates periods of time in which an employee is absent from his position within the work schedule for legally recognized justified causes (temporary disability, permits related to union activity ...) or unjustified (delays, go out to smoke, errands, care of care the children or elderly, etc.).
• Unjustified, illegal or voluntary absenteeism, which contemplates as "a sociological phenomenon directly linked to the attitude of the individual and society before work. They are the working conditions in which the worker develops one of the direct causes of job absenteeism ". Directly related to the conditions of work and the deterioration or improvement of them, 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 of the position that deals (see: consult web pages, use email for purposes for purposes Personal are some of the most common, at present; but, in more remote times it contemplated: in reading the newspaper in working hours or making calls to friends and family, with charge to the company: it is considered a part of what the company owes us).

In the newspaper El Economista.It is indicated on February 2, 2020 that it was intended to reform the elimination of dismissal for job absenteeism, collected in the Workers' Statute since 1980, in Art. 52.d., being one of the main promises of the current government. Indicated that:

Oscar Carrascal, Services Manager of the Mutual Collaborator with Egarsat Social Security, has pointed at the Breakfast & Law organized by the Legal Novit and held at the PONS Foundation, that the 2018 data that show that absenteeism is one of the greatest obstacles to the that companies face in Spain due to the direct and indirect cost that assumes the 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 Social Security Budget of the Kingdom of Spain, consolidated for 2019, was more than 164.000 million euros. But, after what has fallen during this last 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 have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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