Psychological Contracts and Employees Commitment in an Organization - Article Example

Article review - McInnis, K., Meyer, J., Feldman, S. (2009) Psychological contracts and their implications for commitment:A feature-based approach Context and value of the study The study of McInnis et al. (2009) focuses on the description of the relationship between psychological contracts and employees’ commitment in their organization. The perceptions of employees on psychological contracts are identified and evaluated in regard to the effects of these perceptions on employees’ commitment in the organization. In other words, a correlation is developed between psychological contracts and employees’ commitment. The specific issue has been already examined in the literature but not adequately, a fact that contributes to the value of the study. Moreover, the study engages a series of unique approaches: a) an alternated measure of contract features is used (McInnis et al., 2009, p.166) – referring to the empirical research part of the study, b) additional parts of employee commitment are explored, like the relationship between the affective commitment and the normative commitment, c) different aspects of psychological contracts, including the transactional, relational and the ‘balanced’ contracts are examined and evaluated (McInnis et al., 2009, p.166). Under these terms, the value of the study in the context of the business research is considered as high – highlighting issues that have been partially explored in the existing literature and introducing methods that have not been engaged by researchers studying the specific subject. 2. Evaluation of the literature review – contribution in the research In order to evaluate the literature review of the study, two different factors should be examined: the level of research conducted and the relevance of the material with the issues under discussion. The literature published on the specific issue is included in the introduction of the article. The literature review engaged in this study is integrative: conclusions are developed on the issues under discussion by referring to a series of studies published on the particular field. The literature review approach used by McInnis et al. (2009) can be characterized as effective serving the following research needs: a) the potential gaps of the literature are identified; the issues on which the study should focus are made clearer, b) failures which appeared in previous studies are avoided, c) important criteria already employed in similar studies are used in this study also – at the level that they can help towards the increase of the study’s credibility and the achievement of the study’s aims and objectives – for instance’ the Meyer and Allen’s (1991, 1997) three-component model’ (McInnis et al., 2009, p.166). On the other hand, the number of studies reviewed by McInnis et al. (2009) is high, indicating an extensive research on the issue under discussion. Moreover, all aspects of the study’s key issues are explored – at the level that existing literature provides relevant information. Any gap in the literature – as identified through the literature review conducted for this study – is appropriately addressed using the empirical research developed for this study. 3. Appraisal of the methodology – potential alternatives The empirical research on which the study is based has been developed in two separate phases – named as ‘study 1’ and ‘study 2’. The two studies focus on the same target: the exploration of the relationship between the employee commitment and the psychological contract. Moreover, the survey has been used in both studies as the chosen research method. In the first study, the number of participants is higher, about 301 – compared to the second, where the number of participants has been estimated to 147. It has to be noted that the second study is used in order to extend the findings of the first study; in this way, a more precisely view on the issues under discussion is achieved (McInnis et al., 2009, p.168). The research method used by McInnis et al. (2009) can be evaluated by referring to the existing literature related to business research and psychology research – taking into consideration the study’s subject. As noted in the study of Giles (2002, p.282) one of the most important issues in psychological research is the effects of the research on the participants – referring to the empirical methods employed in psychology. McInnis et al. (2009) have used the StudyResponse, in order for identifying potential participants. In this way, it is ensured that the number of participants can be high – an issue important for the validity of the study; however, no particular reference is made in regard to the ethical part of the empirical research, especially to the methods through which the effects of the research on the participants will be limited. At this point, a weakness is identified in the research methodology used by McInnis et al. (2009). It should be noted that the variables used for the development of the empirical research are effective (Sekaran et al., 2009, p.79)– being identified through the review of relevant empirical studies (McInnis et al., 2009, p.167). On the other hand, the chosen research method, i.e. the empirical research through the analysis of survey data, provides an overview of the issues under discussion but it does not provide analytical information of the employees’ perceptions on both employee commitment and psychological contract. Through a different design of the study’s research methodology, emphasis could given on the views of participants as autonomous units and not as groups (Schwab, 2006, p.5). The above target could be achieved by using interviews instead of survey for identifying the market’s trends on the issues under discussion. The above solution would be in accordance with the view of Marschan-Piekkari et al. (2004) who also emphasize on the importance of interview in international business research. It would be possible for the two methods to be combined, i.e. to use the survey as a quantitative research method and the interviews as a qualitative research method – in the context of the same study (Bryman et al., 2007, p.641). In this way, it would be possible for McInnis et al. (2009) to provide additional information related to the issues under discussion – for instance differences in regard to the cultural characteristics of the participants could be identified and evaluated (Matsumoto et al., 2010, p.101) - as of their influence on the employees’ perceptions on employee commitment and psychological contract. 4. Contribution to knowledge of the article and its conclusions The study under evaluation highlights important elements of the relationship between employee commitment and psychological contract – which as already noted, is not adequately explored in existing literature. Moreover, through the study of McInnis et al. (2009) it has been revealed that a wide range of factors can influence employee commitment in the context of modern organizations. The use of different criteria for evaluating the relationship between employee commitment and psychological contract can lead to different findings – even if the differentiation is not high. Using the information provided through the study of McInnis et al. (2009) practitioners in various organizations can use more effectively the psychological contract – a fact that will result to the increase of employee commitment. References Breakwell, G. (2006) Research methods in psychology. SAGE Bryman, A., Bell, E. (2007) Business research methods. Oxford University Press Dunbar, G. (2005) Evaluating research methods in psychology: a case study approach. Wiley-Blackwell Giles, D. (2002) Advanced research methods in psychology. Routledge Herbst, F., Coldwell, D. (2004) Business Research. Juta and Company Howitt, D., Cramer, D. (2008) Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology. Pearson Education Marschan-Piekkari, R., Welch, C. (2004) Handbook of qualitative research methods for international business. Edward Elgar Publishing Matsumoto, D., Van de Vijver, F. (2010) Cross-Cultural Research Methods in Psychology. Cambridge University Press McInnis, K., Meyer, J., Feldman, S. (2009) Psychological contracts and their implications for commitment:A feature-based approach. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74: 165–180 Schwab, D. (2005) Research methods for organizational studies. Routledge Sekaran, U., Bougie, R. (2009) Research Methods for Business: A Skill Building Approach. John Wiley and Sons Read More