The Psychological Contract: Who's Contracting with Whom? Towards a Conceptual Model

This paper provides a review of literature regarding the concept of the psychological contract, a complex concept within organisation behaviour. Having explored the key dimensions of the psychological contract within the extant literature, we identify a gap in knowledge associated with the parties involved. That is, little research explores exactly who is contracting with whom. The paper highlights key issues such as the anthropomorphising of organisations and individual characteristics, such as profession and personality. Most research analyses the contract at either organisational (macro) or individual (micro) levels. This paper makes a small contribution to advancing our understanding of this complex concept by providing a middle, integrated or meso-level conceptual model of the various potential contract-makers and how they might interact. This identifies the various parties involved: organisation principals and agents (such as managers and human resource practitioners), individuals and co-workers, and how these might vary over the life-cycle of employment, from both organisation and individual perspectives. It also notes the role of human resource practices.