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The article "Psychological Contracts and Employees Commitment in an Organization" critically analyzes the study of McInnis et al. (2009), focusing on the description of the relationship between psychological contracts and employees’ commitment to their organization…
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Article review - McInnis, K., Meyer, J., Feldman, S. (2009) Psychological contracts and their implications for commitment:A feature-based approach Context and value of the study
The study of McInnis et al. (2009) focuses on the description of the relationship between psychological contracts and employees’ commitment in their organization. The perceptions of employees on psychological contracts are identified and evaluated in regard to the effects of these perceptions on employees’ commitment in the organization. In other words, a correlation is developed between psychological contracts and employees’ commitment. The specific issue has been already examined in the literature but not adequately, a fact that contributes to the value of the study. Moreover, the study engages a series of unique approaches: a) an alternated measure of contract features is used (McInnis et al., 2009, p.166) – referring to the empirical research part of the study, b) additional parts of employee commitment are explored, like the relationship between the affective commitment and the normative commitment, c) different aspects of psychological contracts, including the transactional, relational and the ‘balanced’ contracts are examined and evaluated (McInnis et al., 2009, p.166). Under these terms, the value of the study in the context of the business research is considered as high – highlighting issues that have been partially explored in the existing literature and introducing methods that have not been engaged by researchers studying the specific subject.
2. Evaluation of the literature review – contribution in the research
In order to evaluate the literature review of the study, two different factors should be examined: the level of research conducted and the relevance of the material with the issues under discussion. The literature published on the specific issue is included in the introduction of the article. The literature review engaged in this study is integrative: conclusions are developed on the issues under discussion by referring to a series of studies published on the particular field. The literature review approach used by McInnis et al. (2009) can be characterized as effective serving the following research needs: a) the potential gaps of the literature are identified; the issues on which the study should focus are made clearer, b) failures which appeared in previous studies are avoided, c) important criteria already employed in similar studies are used in this study also – at the level that they can help towards the increase of the study’s credibility and the achievement of the study’s aims and objectives – for instance’ the Meyer and Allen’s (1991, 1997) three-component model’ (McInnis et al., 2009, p.166). On the other hand, the number of studies reviewed by McInnis et al. (2009) is high, indicating an extensive research on the issue under discussion. Moreover, all aspects of the study’s key issues are explored – at the level that existing literature provides relevant information. Any gap in the literature – as identified through the literature review conducted for this study – is appropriately addressed using the empirical research developed for this study.
3. Appraisal of the methodology – potential alternatives
The empirical research on which the study is based has been developed in two separate phases – named as ‘study 1’ and ‘study 2’. The two studies focus on the same target: the exploration of the relationship between the employee commitment and the psychological contract. Moreover, the survey has been used in both studies as the chosen research method. In the first study, the number of participants is higher, about 301 – compared to the second, where the number of participants has been estimated to 147. It has to be noted that the second study is used in order to extend the findings of the first study; in this way, a more precisely view on the issues under discussion is achieved (McInnis et al., 2009, p.168). The research method used by McInnis et al. (2009) can be evaluated by referring to the existing literature related to business research and psychology research – taking into consideration the study’s subject.
As noted in the study of Giles (2002, p.282) one of the most important issues in psychological research is the effects of the research on the participants – referring to the empirical methods employed in psychology. McInnis et al. (2009) have used the StudyResponse, in order for identifying potential participants. In this way, it is ensured that the number of participants can be high – an issue important for the validity of the study; however, no particular reference is made in regard to the ethical part of the empirical research, especially to the methods through which the effects of the research on the participants will be limited. At this point, a weakness is identified in the research methodology used by McInnis et al. (2009).
It should be noted that the variables used for the development of the empirical research are effective (Sekaran et al., 2009, p.79)– being identified through the review of relevant empirical studies (McInnis et al., 2009, p.167).
On the other hand, the chosen research method, i.e. the empirical research through the analysis of survey data, provides an overview of the issues under discussion but it does not provide analytical information of the employees’ perceptions on both employee commitment and psychological contract. Through a different design of the study’s research methodology, emphasis could given on the views of participants as autonomous units and not as groups (Schwab, 2006, p.5). The above target could be achieved by using interviews instead of survey for identifying the market’s trends on the issues under discussion. The above solution would be in accordance with the view of Marschan-Piekkari et al. (2004) who also emphasize on the importance of interview in international business research. It would be possible for the two methods to be combined, i.e. to use the survey as a quantitative research method and the interviews as a qualitative research method – in the context of the same study (Bryman et al., 2007, p.641). In this way, it would be possible for McInnis et al. (2009) to provide additional information related to the issues under discussion – for instance differences in regard to the cultural characteristics of the participants could be identified and evaluated (Matsumoto et al., 2010, p.101) - as of their influence on the employees’ perceptions on employee commitment and psychological contract.
4. Contribution to knowledge of the article and its conclusions
The study under evaluation highlights important elements of the relationship between employee commitment and psychological contract – which as already noted, is not adequately explored in existing literature. Moreover, through the study of McInnis et al. (2009) it has been revealed that a wide range of factors can influence employee commitment in the context of modern organizations. The use of different criteria for evaluating the relationship between employee commitment and psychological contract can lead to different findings – even if the differentiation is not high. Using the information provided through the study of McInnis et al. (2009) practitioners in various organizations can use more effectively the psychological contract – a fact that will result to the increase of employee commitment.
References
Breakwell, G. (2006) Research methods in psychology. SAGE
Bryman, A., Bell, E. (2007) Business research methods. Oxford University Press
Dunbar, G. (2005) Evaluating research methods in psychology: a case study approach. Wiley-Blackwell
Giles, D. (2002) Advanced research methods in psychology. Routledge
Herbst, F., Coldwell, D. (2004) Business Research. Juta and Company
Howitt, D., Cramer, D. (2008) Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology. Pearson Education
Marschan-Piekkari, R., Welch, C. (2004) Handbook of qualitative research methods for international business. Edward Elgar Publishing
Matsumoto, D., Van de Vijver, F. (2010) Cross-Cultural Research Methods in Psychology. Cambridge University Press
McInnis, K., Meyer, J., Feldman, S. (2009) Psychological contracts and their implications for commitment:A feature-based approach. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74: 165–180
Schwab, D. (2005) Research methods for organizational studies. Routledge
Sekaran, U., Bougie, R. (2009) Research Methods for Business: A Skill Building Approach. John Wiley and Sons
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CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Psychological Contracts and Employees Commitment in an Organization
This concept has been widely discussed by the scholars lately and showed to have certain impact on the overall performance of an organization.... However, in order to determine why a healthy psychological contract among the employees is important to an organization's effectiveness, it is necessary to build a clear definition of what a psychological contract is first of all.... Therefore, in short it can be said that a psychological contract might be described as an unwritten agreement between upper management and employees, that outlines how both parties see and understand their cooperation....
For the employer, psychological contract constitute the best way in which an organization can advertise for the job vacancies.... psychological contracts are those perceptions that employees have on employer related to the training, promotion, or any other promise not explicitly recognized in formal contract.... Chen, Tsui & Zhong (2008) describes the psychological contracts as mental templates that sum up the perceived promises that employees believe that the organization has made to them in exchange for their efforts on behalf of the organization....
psychological contracts Author's Name: Due Date: There are very many concepts that seek to explore and expound on the relationship between employees and their employers, psychological contract being one of them.... psychological contracts are the belief systems which employees hold or have in respect for terms and conditions of their exchange agreement with the employers organization.... psychological contracts due to them being subject to emotional and social factors they are usually changeable in nature unlike the physical employment contracts (Makin, Cooper & Cox1996 pp 3-6)....
Business strategies (implementation and resources) HRM (interpretation) psychological contracts Fig 1: Link between business strategies of an organisation, its HR practices and psychological contract (Rousseau and Wade-Benzoni, 1994: 464).... From an operational perspective, psychological contracts perform two functions: they give the organisations an idea of results to be expected from their employees; They predict the gains that employees will receive in return for their time and effort invested in a firm....
An extremely efficient means of improving quality and efficiency in an organization is provided by such contracts.... Furthermore, a psychological contract would be breached if the managers of an organization failed to reward their employees as promised or if the management failed to bestow the promised training on the employees.... In practice, workers and managers of an organization enter into contractual agreements.... Its importance in business relationships between employers and employees cannot be understated....
ughes L W and Palmer, D K (2007) An Investigation of the Effects of Psychological Contract and Organization-Based Self-Esteem on Organizational commitment in a Sample of Permanent and Contingent Workers, Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies.... This study was based on the observations and interviews of foremen and employees.... Argyris developed his understanding of psychological work contract and norms of the relationship between foreman and employees....
By keeping the sanctity of psychological contracts in an organization, employers will rest assured of retaining employees at strategically vital positions and thus achieve a higher level of productivity.... By keeping the sanctity of psychological contracts in an organization, employers will rest assured of retaining employees at strategically vital positions and thus achieve a higher level of productivity.... Shahnawaz and Goswami (2011) basically outline the negative outcomes of psychological contract breaches on employers and employees in an organization.
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On the face value, it is accepted and is quite understandable that managers and employees in an organization form a contract with one another.... The non-standard forms of employment have made the notion of development of a contract in an organization complicated, particularly in the case of multi-site employers or the agency workers.... When employees are not satisfied with the performance of the managers in an organization and think that managers are breaching the conditions of the psychological contract, it might be the employees who are at mistake rather than the managers because the employees had made false and unrealistic expectations from the managers in the first place while the managers might believe that they have adhered to the commitments they have made in the psychological contract....
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