Reviewing Paradoxical Tensions and Contradicting Discourses in Psychological Contract Research: Implications and Future Research

The psychological contract refers to the subjective interpretations of employment relationships in terms of reciprocal work obligations at an individual level. It has been a widely applied concept in many management fields, especially organisational behaviour and human resource management. This paper reviews the existing literature in order to bring to the fore the paradoxical tensions and contradicting discourses in its almost six decades of psychological contract research. It articulates the different theoretical views on the psychological contracts and highlights its unfulfilled potential for a diverse areas of management studies. In reviewing the tensions between theories and research, this paper argues that qualitative data has been downplayed in the exiting empirical research and has much to offer for the field of psychological contract research on several fronts. Basing on this fronts, it proposes an agenda for future research. It concludes by calling for more qualitative research in psychological contract research in order to reconcile the reviewed tensions and contradicting discourses in the literature.