Types of Psychological Contract

There are four types of psychological contract which including transactional, relational, balanced and transitional (Rousseau 1989).

Transactional psychological contract refers to short-term exchanges of employment agreements about specific performance terms, which means the agreements of the parties are narrow and have a limited period of time and it does not have training and other developments (Rousseau, 2000). Moreover, Blau (1964) supports that the transactional psychological focuses on the economic terms and condition in exchange of agreements.

Relational psychological contract refers to long-term exchange in employment agreements and non-specific performance terms, which “employer committed to offer stable wage and long-term employment and support well-being and interest of employee as well as their family” (Rousseau, 2000). Furthermore, relational psychological contract focuses on social exchange and economic terms in condition of exchange agreement of the parties (Blau, 1964).

Balanced psychological contract is about the agreements of the parties with long-term and specific performance terms which employer provides “continuous training and enhancing worker’s long-term outside and within the company” (Rousseau, 2000). Balanced psychological contract focuses on socio-emotional and economic terms, conditions in exchange of agreements and relationship of the parties (Hui, Lee and Rousseau, 2004).

Transitional psychological contract is about the agreement of the parties with short-term exchange without specific performance terms (Rousseau, 2000). “The transitional psychological contract presents no commitment from either party, so they do not constitute a true psychological contract” (Hui et al. 2004).

References.

• Blau, P. (1964), Exchange and Power in Social Life, New York: Wiley.

• Hui, C., Lee, C., and Rousseau, D.M. (2004), ‘Psychological Contract and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in China: Investigating Generalizability and Instrumentality,’ Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 311– 321.

• Rousseau, D.M., & Tijoriwala, S.A. 1998. Assessing psychological contracts: Issues, alternatives and measures. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19: 731-744.

• Rousseau, D.M. (2000), ‘Psychological Contract Inventory Technical Report,’ Technical Report, Heinz School of Public Policy and Graduate School of Industrial Administration.