Flexible Employement Contracts, the Psychological Contract and Employee Outcomes: an Analysis and Review of the Evidence.

Flexible Employement Contracts, the Psychological Contract and Employee Outcomes: an Analysis and Review of the Evidence.

  • Submitted By: stevew
  • Date Submitted: 02/25/2010 5:34 PM
  • Category: Business
  • Words: 2363
  • Page: 10
  • Views: 733

BUSADMIN 761

Management

FLEXIBLE EMPLOYEMENT CONTRACTS, THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT AND EMPLOYEE OUTCOMES: AN ANALYSIS AND REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE. David Guest.

EMPIRICAL ARTICLE BRIEFING
ASSIGNMENT 1

STEPHEN WRIGHT - 4985871

BACKGROUND
David Guest is a professor of Organizational Psychology and Human resource Management at Kings College, London and currently 14th on the Human Resource (UK) magazines list of top 100 Influential people in HR. The article reviewed is from the international journal of management reviews volume 5/6. The article analyses and reviews; flexible employment contracts, the psychological contract and the outcomes on employees. It was under taken to dispel the assumption that flexible contract workers were significantly disadvantaged compared with permanent workers. This assumption led to European-wide legislation to ensure that such workers are treated similarly to permanent employees.
The paper first charts the nature and extent of contract flexibility and more specifically, forms of temporary contract. It goes on to review evidence between temporary contracts and contracts of choice, the psychological contract, employment security, organizational commitment, work performance and organizational citizenship behavior and lastly, health, well being and job satisfaction.

REVIEW
In determining the nature and extent of employees on flexible contracts the article tries to define who a “flexible employment contract” relates to. It cites Marler et al. (1998) who describes four main types of temporary worker based on their preference for temporary work and their skill/knowledge level.
• Boundaryless worker – High skill/knowledge level and a high preference for temporary work.
• Transitional worker – High skills/knowledge and a low preference for temporary work therefore likely to view temporary work as a transitional arrangement.
• Traditional worker – Low skills/knowledge and low...

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