PERCEPTIONS OF THE PSYHOLOGICAL CONTRACT IN WORKING LIFE AND AN APPLICATION IN THE SERVICE SECTOR

Abstract

Unlike employment agreement, psychological contract comprises not only both sides of the covenant in an employment relation but also involves the promises and obligations being dependent on all types of perceived spoken messages, attitudes, and behaviours between the parties. As the individuals in various ways can form this perception, the results during the process and the reflections to the working life may display differences. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of the psychological contract on the relationship between employee and employers. It is also within the scope of this study to evaluate the effects of the demographic characteristics such as gender, age, marital status, academic background, job tenure on psychological contract. In this study, firstly, the term “psychological contract” is examined, then employees’ ideas related to psychological contract are tried to be identified in health facilities and retailing sector in which flexible working is intensely implemented. The analyses of data collected from the questionnaires have revealed the employees’ opinions about the issues within the context of psychological contract. When the results of this study are assessed, it is concluded that demographic characteristics stated by the participants did not show any significant variation in the perception of both organizational and employees’ commitments.