A literature review on the psychological contract-the pre-rousseau account and post-rousseau account of psychological contract

The psychological contract emerged as a concept in the psychological literature almost fifty years ago, as a footnote in Understanding Organizational Behavior (Argyris, 1960). The psychological contract refers to implicit ideas about the employee-organisation relationship. Menninger's (1958) concept of the ‘psychotherapy contract’, that ascribes the intangible aspects of the contractual relationship that exist between psychoanalysts and patients, was thus translated to the work setting. The Psychological contract is an increasingly relevant aspect of workplace relationships and wider human behavior. The concept of the psychological contract gained increasing popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Over the past 20 years this notion of psychological contract has emerged as a key analytical device in conceptualising, exploring and understanding the employment relationship and more generally work place behavior(Guest & Conway, 2005, 2002; Tekleab, Takeuchi and Taylor 2005; Rousseau, 1995). This paper intended to discuss the conceptual boundaries about psychological contract begins with a review of the initial phase in the development of psychological contract highlighting the Pre-Rousseau period and Post-Rousseau period among the contributors.