How useful is the psychological contract in managing staff in the police service - Essay Example

Even though the psychological contract was initially identified by Schein, Levinson, and Argyris to delineate the subjective character of employment relationships, the current formulation puts emphasis on the individuals’ ideas in and understanding of a promissory contract. Dissimilar to implicit or formal contracts, the psychological contract is innately affective or perceptual, and hence the interpretation of one individual of the agreement may not be shared by the other (Herriot 2001). Recent progresses in the concept of psychological contract are mostly led by Rousseau.

Rousseau claims that the psychological contract is based on promises and, in due course, assumes the form of a psychological paradigm which is reasonably stable and resilient. Rousseau clearly differentiated between perceptions at the individual level and at the relationship level, putting emphasis on her assumption of the personal ideas of individual employees about employment relationship. Significantly, the employee and employer may not have the same perception regarding the premises of the contract, which can encourage thoughts that assurances have been breached, or, as it is more commonly known, the violation of the psychological contract (Rousseau 1996).

Psychological contracts, involving assumed responsibilities, should be differentiated from expectations, which are common ideas believed by employees regarding what they will encounter in their employment relationship and the organisation (Calo 2006). For instance, a newly promoted manager could expect to be highly compensated, to be respected, to be fond of his new position, or to see his new office painted with an impartial shade. These expectations originate from a broad array of sources, encompassing personal experience, social standards, observations by significant others, and so on.

On the contrary, psychological contracts involve