Nature of psychological contract in toy stores

Abstract

Psychological contract has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, the turbulent market situation has more or less contributed to the increased attention especially as the weight of research points to the attendant negative impact psychological contract can have on organisations that mishandles or neglects the psychological contract. This has made it imperative that psychological contract is studied in its totality in order to avoid or minimise the instances of breach. This includes exploring the nature of psychological contract guiding the employee-employer relation at any point in time failing which organisations may pay dearly for failure to consider the full implications of psychological contracts in today‟s working environment. This study investigates the nature of psychological contract in toy stores Ireland by means of a qualitative research process. Two major and most common compartmentalization of psychological contract was rigorously studied by means of review of appropriate literatures on general psychological contract owing to the fact that there is limited research carried out particularly on nature of psychological contract, most research has been on breach and violation of psychological contract. Using Rousseau‟s PCI (psychological contract inventory) on employee and employer obligations, research questions were modified and framed and around the PCI. The results and findings are by means of a qualitative research process based on the inductive grounded theory which saw to the emergent themes being analysed within the context of the research objective. The results depicts that the nature of psychological contract in toy stores Ireland is a transactional one. It highlights the current trend of employees being responsible for managing 10 their own careers and seeking employability security as against seeking to hold on to their jobs for a lengthy period of time (job security). This study equally resulted in the findings that employees and employers are in tune with obligations expected of each other within the workings of the present psychological contract in place. Suggestions on how to manage psychological to towards achieving a committed workforce in realisation of organisations goal was also offered. Author keywords.