Psychological contract and the financial crisis

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Economics - Job market economics, , language: English, abstract: A key example of drastic change in today's global working environment with important consequences for employees since the diversification of all aspects of work is the transformation of the 'psychological contract' among employees and their organizations. As such 'psychological contract' is defined by Rousseau (1995) as 'the belief that a person for the terms and conditions of a mutual agreement transaction between him/her and another participant, in this case between the employee and the organization'. More specifically, the term 'psychological contract' refers to mutual obligations, values, expectations and desires of employees from their employers, beyond any formal employment contract. In other words, it is a transaction relationship, where employees and employers have certain expectations about their mutual obligations, which are, of course, different for each employee and significantly affect what each side believes is its obligation. The psychological contract has been characterized in a various ways, for example, as 'unstable, subjective, unconscious, indirect, alive, something that employees know it exists, only when it is changed' (Appelbaum et al.).

Born in Athens, Greece, I studied economics, agricultural policy analysis, marketing and communication with new technologies and human resources management (BSc, MSc, DProf). I am an author of more than 40 books specialized in economics, accountancy and management. I have been an MBA lecturer for 19 years and I have taught more than 800 students and seminar attendants. I have worked as a Manager at Microsoft and other IT and Telcom companies. I am a registered consultant on entrepreneurship and innovation of European Union for small and medium enterprises and certified by Chartered Institute of Marketing. An active blogger, I write about economics at mastroyanni.blogspot.com. My articles have been published at numerous magazines, newspapers and blogs. About me and my books you may read at my blog: http://mastroyanni.blogspot.gr/