Conceptualising the Term. In her book, The Psychological Contract in Organisations, Xxxxxxxx (1995) identifies four types of contracts based on the “eye of the beholder” or the respective reality of individuals and groups, within and outside the organisation. Normative contracts represent the shared beliefs amongst groups of people within the same organisation about the working environment. Implied contracts represent how the employment relation is interpreted by outsiders, such as witnesses or potential employees. Social contracts represent beliefs about the rights and conditions of employment as defined within society and are normally influenced by laws and regulations. The PC is conceptualised as representing how the employment relation is experienced from the viewpoint of the employee in particular. Xxxxxxxx (1995, p.9) defines the PC as “individual beliefs, shaped by the organisation, regarding terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and their organisation”. She also adds that “a contract is a mental model that people use to frame events, such as promises, acceptance and reliance” (Xxxxxxxx, 1995, p.27). This is inevitable, since the relationship between employees and employers is subject to an infinite number of changing variables to the extent that no legal contract can capture all possible exchanging scenarios within the relation. Xxxxxxxx (1995) asserts that PCs are characterised by the following features:
