What is Implied Contract ?

Technical Notes on Rousseau (1989)

Abstract

This article reviews Rousseau (1989) which enabled following researchers to perform quantitative analyses on psychological contract by redefining the idea. However, there is another important academic contribution by Rousseau (1989) showing the concept of implied contract in comparison with that of psychological contract. Psychological contract and implied contract differ in terms that a) objects of the analysis are individuals or employees as a whole and organizations, b) observability are subjective or objective and c) the reactions to contract violation are individual or overall. Rousseau (1989) argued about implied contract as a complementary concept to psychological contract because redefined psychological contract is not sufficient to explain all phenomena since its object of analysis is exclusive to individuals. However, following researches use only psychological contract and for some reason implied contract disappeared. These two concepts are notably different in reactions of actors to contract violation. This difference is quite important in organizational research and indicates implied contract is a valuable concept.