What do employees want and why? An exploration of employees’ preferred psychological contract elements across career stages

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

7-2016

Abstract

Employees’ psychological contracts comprise their beliefs about what they have to contribute to their organizations and what inducements they will receive in return. One recommended approach to attract and retain employees is to design psychological contracts that allow them to contribute in desirable ways and receive attractive inducements. However, we know little about the factors that affect psychological contract preferences. We present a qualitative study on the preferred psychological contracts of employees who are in different career stages. Our findings reveal that the roles and self-concepts that employees take on at a particular career stage may shape preferences for stage-relevant contributions and inducements. These findings advance psychological contract theory by highlighting the plausible link between employees’ career stages and their psychological contract preferences.

Keywords

psychological contract, career stages, contributions, inducements, employee preferences, organizational behavior

Discipline

Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Human Relations

Volume

69

Issue

7

First Page

1457

Last Page

1481

ISSN

0018-7267

Identifier

10.1177/0018726715616468

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726715616468

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