Veranderingen in het psychologisch contract tijdens de socialisatieperiode: aanpassing aan de realiteit en de invloed van wederkerigheid

Abstract

In this article the authors discuss the results of a longitudinal study among 333 new employees, on the development of their psychological contract during their first year of employment in a new organization. The authors discuss changes in new employees' perceptions with respect to promises they exchanged with their new organization (organizational and employee promises), in function of their experiences within the organization. The results show that employees change both their own promises and their perception of organizational promises in function of their ex-periences. These changes occur 'unilateral' (adapting the perception of employee promises in function of the contributions one makes to the organization and adapting the perception of organizational promises in function of organiza-tional contributions) as well as according to the principle of reciprocity (adapting employee promises in function of what one receives from the organization and adapting organizational promises in function of what one contributes to the organization).