The Psychological Contract: A Review Model

The objective of this paper is to review and synthesize the literature of psychological contract in order to provide a comprehensive framework of psychological contract through individual and multi-level analysis. The article provides an inclusive review of antecedents (individual and organizational) and outcomes of psychological contract. The last meta analysis was done in 2007 (Zhao et al., 2007) and research has grown significantly from thereon. The current paper extends the range of variables (antecedents and outcomes) considered in comparison to earlier studies. The study extensively reviews the literature from the period of 1972 to 2013 (July). The findings highlight how individual and organizational level variables influence the psychological contract of employees. It also reveals that psychological contract is associated with favorable organizational outcomes. While doing so the paper brings out the challenges in the field of psychological contract, gaps in the research, and makes propositions for future research. The exhaustive synthesis of review of literature promises to provide a holistic picture of psychological contract to the scholars interested in the field of psychological contract and employee relations. It highlights the gap which contributes in taking this concept forward. Practitioners can use this research for managing psychological contract in the light of its critical factors. The paper concludes that individual level antecedents of psychological contract require detail examination and summarize the relationship between macro level variables and psychological contract.