The psychological contract in retrospect
Picture the scene. Dixon, the main character in Kingsley Amis' book `Lucky Jim ' (1953) has a temporary position as lecturer at a provincial English university. His full professor and the senate of the university have yet to take the crucially important decision on extending his contract for a further period. Although in the ®rst instance Dixon tries to do his utmost to meet the myriad of expectations over job tasks and job performance ( for example, be greatly appreciated by his colleagues and students, publish proli®cally in respected journals, and so forth) all his valiant attempts to achieve this lead to a succession of woeful failures. After this succession of disappointing under-achievements, motivation wanes. This culminates in the dramatic ®nale to Amis' tale when Dixon is apparently drunk when giving a lecture to local and university dignitaries. His content and presentation style at ®rst makes the attenders astonished, later indignated. Dixon's appointment is, as could be expected, not extended. Amis' tale of the unfortunate Dixon all too vividly illustrates that organizations set demands on the job performance of employees, based on multiple and varied notions of what an employee is obligated to do and not to do whilst at work. On the other hand, employees also have multiple and varied notions about what the organization should be providing them with. This may include, for example, job content, job security, training and development, rewards and bene®ts, and future career prospects ( for a compelling account of such expectations, see .
Most employees (in contrast perhaps with Dixon) develop a positive and enduring psychological bond with their organization, based on a pattern of expectations about what the organization should oer them, and what it is obligated to provide them with (e.g. . If, whatever the reason may be, the organization is not able or willing to ful®l these expectations and obligations, this may lead to strong emotional reactions (e.g. . In the relationship between employer and employee, mutual obligations are the central issue. These mutual obligations are partly put on record in the written formal contract of employment, but are for the most part implicit, covertly held and only infrequently discussed.