THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: ITS BENEFITS FOR INVESTIGATING ACADEMICS’ EXPERIENCES

Arguments have occurred in the literature for over twenty years about changes in the job market forcing the move from old style relational psychological contracts based on trust to new more transactional contracts (e.g. Spindler, 1994, Waxler and Higginson 1993, Kanter and Mirvis 1989). However higher education has been characterized throughout that period as having stability, predictability and growth, the factors Sims (1994) describes as essential to fulfilled psychological contracts. It is only in the last few years that employees in higher education, including academics have had real cause to believe their relationships had changed too. There are greater pressures in the wider labour market for employees to show more commitment, initiative and flexibility (e.g. Schor, 1992) and the same is true of academics in rapidly changing environments, yet these are the characteristics of those in secure relational psychological contracts of the type which are being undermined. This article explores the benefits of using the psychological contract model to understand the impact of changes on academics and what the implications of these changes may be.