The social contract of work: Moving beyond the psychological contract

Korczynski, Marek

Abstract

This paper develops the critique of psychologisation by going narrow and deep into the analysis of the concept of the psychological contract. In its early incarnation, the psychological contract literature explored key elements at the heart of the employment relationship. However, in the current mainstream psychological contract literature, there are four key problems. The paper shows that these problems match on to the wider problems associated with pyschologisation. The concept of the social contract of work is put forward as a way to return productively to the original focus of the field. The social contract of work is defined as workers' implicit, collective, and socially embedded understanding of the effort bargain at work.

Citation

Korczynski, M. (2023). The social contract of work: Moving beyond the psychological contract. Human Resource Management Journal, 33(1), 115-128. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12450

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 25, 2022
• Online Publication Date: May 23, 2022
• Publication Date: 2023-01
• Deposit Date: Apr 26, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: May 24, 2024
• Journal: Human Resource Management Journal
• Print ISSN: 0954-5395
• Electronic ISSN: 1748-8583
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 115-128
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12450
• Keywords: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7832178
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1748-8583.12450