Abstract:
This study investigates the employment contract (temporary vs. permanent) in
relation to psychological contract content and fulfilment. The psychological
contract includes employees’ perceptions of their obligations and their
entitlements. We hypothesize that transactional elements constitute a common
core that is shared both by temporary and permanent workers. Relational
elements are added to this core to show employees’ and employers’ loyalty, and
their intentions to do more than necessary. These elements are more likely to be
perceived by permanent workers as compared to temporary workers.
Additionally, we suggest that relational elements are difficult to fulfil.
Accordingly, we expect lower levels of perceived fulfilment for permanent
workers as compared to temporary workers. Based on exchange theory, we
furthermore hypothesize that these perceptions follow a similar pattern in how
employees report entitlements (i.e., what they receive from the company) and
reports of their own obligations (i.e., what they give in return). Results based on a seven-country sample (Npermanent ¼ 3354; Ntemporary¼ 1980) show that
permanent workers as compared to temporary workers perceive more
relational entitlements and obligations but a similar level of transactional
entitlements and obligations. Thus, these results supported the idea of a layered
model. The relationship between contract type and fulfilment of the
psychological contract was only partly in line with expectations. Temporary
workers reported higher fulfilment of entitlements and transactional obligations, but no difference was found for fulfilment of relational obligation
