Denise M. Rousseau

Psychological and implied contracts in organizations.

Two forms of unwritten contracts derive from relations between organizations and their members. Psychological contracts are individual beliefs in a reciprocal obligation between the individual and the organization. Implied contracts are mutual obligations characterizing interactions existing at the level of the relationship (e.g., dyadic, interunit). Employee/employer relations and changing conditions of employment give rise to issues not addressed in conventional transaction-oriented models of motivation and individual responses. The development, maintenance, and violation of psychological and implied contracts are described along with their organizational implications.

Trust in organizations : frontiers of theory and research

Whither Trust? - Tom R Tyler and Roderick M Kramer Trust in Organizations - W E Douglas Creed and Raymond E Miles A Conceptual Framework Linking Organizational Forms, Managerial Philosophies and the Opportunity Costs of Controls Trust and Technology - David Kipnis Trust-Based Forms of Governance - Walter W Powell Trust and Third-Party Gossip - Ronald S Burt and Marc Knez Collaboration Structure and Information Dilemmas in Biotechnology - Lynne G Zucker et al Interpersonal and Organizational Boundaries as Trust Production Developing and Maintaining Trust in Work Relationships - Roy J Lewicki and Barbara B Bunker Micro OB and the Network Organization - Blair H Sheppard and Marla Tuchinsky Swift Trust in Temporary Groups - Debra Meyerson, Roderick M Kramer and Karl Weick The Road to Hell - Sim B Sitkin and Darryl Stickel The Dynamics of Distrust in an Era of Quality Divergent Realities and Convergent Disappointments in the Hierarchical Relation - Roderick M Kramer Trust and the Intuitive Auditor at Work Beyond Distrust - Robert J Bies and Tom Tripp Getting Even and the Need for Revenge Organizational Responses to Crisis - Aneil K Mishra The Centrality of Trust Trust and Crisis - Eugene J Webb The Organizational Trust Inventory (OTI) - L L Cummings and Philip Bromiley Development and Validation Trust in Organizational Authorities - Tom R Tyler and Peter Degoey The Influence of Motive Attributions on Willingness to Accept Decisions Collective Trust and Collective Action - Roderick M Kramer, Marilynn B Brewer and Benjamin J Hanna The Decision to Trust as a Social Decision Understanding the Interaction between Procedural and Distributive Justice - Joel Brockner and Phyllis Siegel The Role of Trust

Schema, promise and mutuality: The building blocks of the psychological contract

Understanding the dynamics of the psychological contract in employment is difficult without research into its formation. Unfortunately, far less research exists on the antecedents and formation of the psychological contract than on the consequences associated with it. Three concepts frequently studied in psychology are particularly important to advancing research on psychological contract formation: schemas, promises, and mutuality (i.e. objective and perceptual agreement). This article develops the implications these three concepts have for future research on psychological contract formation.

THE PERFORMANCE OF INTENSIVE CARE UNITS : DOES GOOD MANAGEMENT MAKE A DIFFERENCE ?

A significant portion of health care resources are spent in intensive care units with, historically, up to two-fold variation in risk-adjusted mortality. Technological, demographic, and social forces are likely to lead to an increased volume of intensive care in the future. Thus, it is important to identify ways of more efficiently managing intensive care units and reducing the variation in patient outcomes. Based on data collected from 17,440 patients across 42 ICUs, the present study examines the factors associated with risk-adjusted mortality, risk-adjusted average length of stay, nurse turnover, evaluated technical quality of care, and evaluated ability to meet family member needs. Using the Apache III methodology for risk-adjustment, findings reveal that: 1) technological availability is significantly associated with lower risk-adjusted mortality (beta = -.42); 2) diagnostic diversity is significantly associated with greater risk-adjusted mortality (beta = .46); and 3) caregiver interaction comprising the culture, leadership, coordination, communication, and conflict management abilities of the unit is significantly associated with lower risk-adjusted length of stay (beta = .34), lower nurse turnover (beta = -.36), higher evaluated technical quality of care (beta = .81), and greater evaluated ability to meet family member needs (beta = .74). Furthermore, units with greater technological availability are significantly more likely to be associated with hospitals that are more profitable, involved in teaching activities, and have unit leaders actively participating in hospital-wide quality improvement activities. The findings hold a number of important managerial and policy implications regarding technological adoption, specialization, and the quality of interaction among ICU team members. They suggest intervention “leverage points” for care givers, managers, and external policy makers in efforts to continuously improve the outcomes of intensive care.

Behavioral Norms and Expectations: A Quantitative Approach To the Assessment of Organizational Culture

Organizational culture—the shared beliefs and values guiding the thinking and behavioral styles of members—traditionally has been assessed by qualitative methods. However, quantitative approaches such as culture surveys offer important advantages for both cross-sectional organizational research and data-based cultural change programs. The Organizational Culture Inventory, an instrument designed for such uses, profiles the culture of organizations and their subunits in terms of behavioral norms and expectations. Following a review of concepts relevant to culture (e.g., dominant cultures, subcultures, cultural direction, and intensity), this article presents the theoretical framework underlying the culture inventory. Data provided by members of diverse organizations are used to show that there is agreement within organizations, and significant differences across organizations, with respect to the norms and expectations measured by the inventory. At the same time, subcultural differences within organizations are shown to occur across hierarchical levels. Supplementary data on preferred norms indicate that members of different organizations agree that the ideal cultures for their firms would promote achievement-oriented, affiliative, humanistic, and self-actualizing thinking and behavioral styles. The implications of these findings are discussed for the use of the Organizational Culture Inventory in the context of research and change programs.

Assessing psychological contracts: issues, alternatives and measures

This article addresses the state-of-the-art of assessment methodologies in the study of psychological contracts. Three types of assessment have been employed in research using a psychological contracts framework. Content measures focus upon the terms of the psychological contract individuals are party to. Feature measures assess the attributes of the psychological contract itself including explicit/implicit and static/dynamic, and at present are a relatively undeveloped form of assessment contract. Evaluation measures are the comparative judgements individuals make in the context of their psychological contract, including the degree to which it has been fulfilled or violated. Implications for future research are described, along with the advantages of both quantitative and qualitative assessments. Copyright

Mutuality and Reciprocity in the Psychological Contracts of Employees and Employers.

The authors assessed the joint perceptions of the employee and his or her employer to examine mutuality and reciprocity in the employment relationship. Paired psychological contract reports were obtained from 80 employee-employer dyads in 16 university-based research centers. On the basis of in-depth study of the research setting, research directors were identified as primary agents for the university (employer) in shaping the terms of employment of staff scientists (employees). By assessing the extent of consistency between employee and employer beliefs regarding their exchange agreement, the present study mapped the variation and consequences of mutuality and reciprocity in psychological contracts. Results indicate that both mutuality and reciprocity are positively related to archival indicators of research productivity and career advancement, in addition to self-reported measures of Met Expectations and intention to continue working with the employer. Implications for psychological contract theory are presented.

Organizational assessment in intensive care units (ICUs): construct development, reliability, and validity of the ICU nurse-physician questionnaire.

Health Services Research has a growing need for reliable and valid measures of managerial practices and organizational processes. A national study of 42 intensive care units involving over 1,700 respondents provides evidence for the reliability and validity of a comprehensive set of measures related to leadership, organizational culture, communication, coordination, problem solving-conflict management and team cohesiveness. The data also support the appropriateness of aggregating individual respondent data to the unit level. Implications for further research are discussed.

On the Receiving End: Sensemaking, Emotion, and Assessments of an Organizational Change Initiated by Others

This study focuses on the interpretations and experiences of change recipients, those who carry out organizational interventions initiated by others. Based on the ways nurses experienced a shared governance initiative implemented in their hospital, the authors investigated change recipients’ sensemaking about organizational change through their ascribed meanings, emotional responses, and perceptions of its impacts on them. Survey data demonstrated how nurses subjectively assessed their gains and losses from the change initiative. Participation in the initiative increased the experience of gains, as did membership in a unit where change was implemented more fully. Textual analysis of open-ended responses to the survey indicated that gains were linked with interpretations of the change initiative and pleasant feelings and that there was considerable emotional contagion within work units. Such effects are particularly likely in employee empowerment initiatives as experiences are linked to interpretation and mood among change recipients.

Psychological Contract and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in China: Investigating Generalizability and Instrumentality

This study examined the generalizability of psychological contract forms observed in the West (D. M. Rousseau, 2000) to China. Using 2 independent samples, results confirmed the generalizability of 3 psychological contract forms: transactional, relational, and balanced. This study also examined the nature of relationships of psychological contracts with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). In particular, this study explored the role of instrumentality as a mediating psychological process. The authors found evidence that instrumentality mediates the relationship of relational and balanced forms with OCB; however, the transactional contract form is directly related to OCB. The authors discuss the implications of these results for the meaning of psychological contracts and OCB in China and raise issues for future research.