Title: Examining psychological contract contents in India: the employee perspective

Authors: Upasana Aggarwal, Shivganesh Bhargava

Addresses: S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai 400058, India. ' Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay, Mumbai 400072, India

Abstract: There have been numerous empirical attempts to examine the outcomes of the psychological contract. However, efforts to investigate its contents, i.e. what constitutes a PC and what are its underlying dimensions have been meagre. This paper examines the contents of the PC in India. The study was conducted in two stages. In study 1, exploratory factorial analysis (EFA) on a sample of 228 managerial employees revealed a four-factor structure (growth and development opportunities, work culture, salary and benefits and resource availability) of the PC. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) employed on a sample of 340 employees from different management levels, in study 2, confirmed the four-factor structure. The findings of this paper revealed that employees expect their organisations to provide them with relational PC contents such as growth and development opportunities and supportive work culture, followed by salary and benefits and resource availability, with a classification transactional. As a practical implication, the study suggests that in India, recruiters need to go beyond the discussions on compensation and focus on relational aspects as well.

Keywords: psychological contract; employment relationship; India; employees; work culture; salary; benefits; resource availability; employee expectations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2011.042910

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2011 Vol.4 No.6, pp.609 - 625

Published online: 31 Jan 2015 *

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