REVIEW PAPER
Psychological contract in the light of flexible employment: The review of studies
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Centralny Instytut Ochrony Pracy – Państwowy Instytut Badawczy / Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute, Warszawa, Poland (Zakład Ergonomii, Pracownia Psychologii Społecznej / Ergonomics Department, Laboratory of Social Psychology)
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Dorota Żołnierczyk-Zreda
Centralny Instytut Ochrony Pracy – Państwowy Instytut Badawczy, Zakład Ergonomii, Pracownia Psychologii Społecznej, ul. Czerniakowska 16, 00-701 Warszawa
Med Pr Work Health Saf. 2016;67(4):529-36
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ABSTRACT
Changing employment relations between employees and employers due to the increasing employment flexibility have contributed
to the development of a new paradigm to analyze these relations based on the concept of psychological contract. This paradigm
might be particularly relevant in Poland where the employment flexibility understood as the number of workers with temporary
contracts is the highest in Europe. In this paper the concept of psychological contract is presented along with the existing findings
related to its range, balance and contract fulfilment vs. contract breach. The results of studies showing the differences in
psychological contract of temporary and permanent workers are also presented. The majority of them indicate that psychological
contracts of temporary workers are limited in their extent, less balanced and asymmetric (to workers’ disadvantage), as well as
more transactional in their nature than those of permanent workers. The temporary workers’ well-being and attitudes towards
work and their reaction to psychological contract breach largely depends on their preferences for this type of employment, on their
qualifications and on a labor market situation. Med Pr 2016;67(4):529–536