The influence of the psychological contract to the organizational commitment

Aselage(2016) described the psychological contract as the trust of both parties on the mutual agreement in which some contracts must be accomplished, some contributions are needed, and some liability must be attained. Even though this concept further facilitates the intangible aspects, which were first applied in the form of formal relationship between the organization and employees, it merely related to intangible aspects such as salaries (Kiazad, Seibert & Kraimer, 2014a) Psychological contract is often defined as the employees’ perception of the implicit agreement between themselves and the organization that contains a shared responsibility between the two parties (Festing & Schafer, 2014).

The difference between the psychological and formal contract is that the psychological contract trends to be implicit (Guest, 2016; Karagonlar et al., 2016). Low et al. (2016) revealed that the psychological contract focusing on employee career development influences the effective commitment of employees. The fulfillment of the aspects contained in the job contract is more likely to give the employees a sense of emotional attachment to the organization (Guest, 2005 and Low et al, 2016).

Morrison and Robinson (1997) stated that the psychological contract is basically built to create stability in the working environment and improve the relationship between the organization and the employee. Psychological contract identifies two types of contracts, transactional and relational contracts. The transactional contract is associated with the short-term oriented financial liabilities and does not require a deep involvement in the relationship between the employee and the organization (Guchait, Cho & Meurs, 2015; Thomas et al., 2016).

Beardwell, Holden & Claydon, (2004) Stated that the relational contracts have concern with maintaining emotional and interpersonal relationships between employees and co –workers. The psychological contract is a relational contract, when employees consider that the organization is able to facilitate their expectations and focuses on a long-term oriented relationship, they will show extra-role behaviour (Berdwell, 2004).

Aube, Rousseau and Morin (2007) study conducted on 249 employees in Canada by using cross- sectional research design exposed that the organizational support significantly effects on organizational commitment of employees. Furthermore, Kim et al. (2016), showed the positive effect of the organizational support towards effective commitment of employees. Mowday, Porter and Steers (1982) explained that the job features and work experience affect the emotional aspects of the employees. When employees perceive that the company takes care and rewards their contributions, the employees will feel emotionally attached to the company (Allen & Shanock, 2013). Therefore, psychological contract significantly influence the organizational commitment.

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References

Allen, D. G., & Shanock, L. R. (2013). Perceived organizational support and embeddedness as key mechanisms connecting socialization tactics to commitment and turnover among new employees. Journal of Organizational Behaviour.

Beardwell, I,. Holden, L., & Claydon, T. (20014). Human resource management, a contemporary approach. (4^th edn).

Festing, M., & Schäfer, L. (2014). Generational challenges to talent management: A framework for talent retention based on the psychological-contract perspective. Journal of World Business.

Guest, D.E. (2016). Trust and the role of the psychological contract in contemporary employment relations. In P. Elgoibar, L. Munduate, & M. Euwema (Eds). Building trust and constructive conflict management in organisations.

Guchait, P., Cho, S., & Meurs, J.A. (2015). Psychological contracts, perceived organizational and supervisor support: Investigating the impact on intent to leave among hospitality employees in India. Journal of human resources in hospitality & Tourism.

Kiazad, K., Kraimer, M., & Seibert, S. (2014a). A job embeddedness perspective on responses to psychological contract fulfillment. In Academy of management proceedings (Vol. I, p. 12362). Briarcliff Manor, NY: Academy of Management.

Karagonlar, G., Eisenberger, R., &Aselage, J. (2016). Reciprocation wary employees discount psychological contract fulfillment. Journal of Organisational Behaviour.