Exploring human nature as reflected in the meanings given by employees to the incidences of violation of psychological contract

Abstract

Background: The debate as to what man is quotreally likequot and what his potential is, is highly intricate. The scholars from diversified fields are engaged in the research to contribute in the dynamic area to understand what, why and how of Human Nature. The Psychological Contract emerged as a concept in the psychological literature almost fifty years ago in organizational behavior domain. The Psychological Contract refers to implicit ideas about the employee-organization relationship. The perceived violation of Psychological Contract of the employees reflects unfulfilled promises from the employer side. Existing Literature indicates that psychological contract is a relatively neglected area in the Indian context. newline newlineAim: The research addresses these gaps by exploring reflection of human nature dimensions in the meanings given by employees to the incidences of violation of the psychological contract. It also attempts to provide insights into the emerging human nature dimensions. newline newlineMethodology: The research follows phenomenological research tradition in qualitative research approach. As the objective is to explore the experiences, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is followed as a method. Primary data is collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews of lecturers/ assistant professors teaching in engineering and management courses and who have experienced the phenomena. The samples are homogeneous as suggested by phenomenological tradition.