Search results
Apr 15, 2021 · The main finding in this study is that the psychological contract of students in the initial stage of their blended learning course combines educational and relational elements associated with expectations of peers and teachers. The expectations are positive in nature, notwithstanding the split between inexperienced and experienced students.
- Roberta Fenech
- 2021
Jul 22, 2021 · In faculty–student relationships, psychological contract violations can take many forms for each party to the contract. Faculty react differently when they feel that the psychological contract is violated by their unfulfilled expectations or reactions regarding student behaviour, such as disinterest or lack of respect.
- Yariv Itzkovich
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.685468
- 2021
- Front Psychol. 2021; 12: 685468.
- Contribution to and Directions For Education Research
- Contributions to and Directions For Management and Social Exchange Research
- Limitations
- Practical Implications
Multiple Psychological Contract Foci
As noted in our initial literature review, previous education-related research has acknowledged that the psychological contract theoretical lens can be applied to a variety of student relationships (e.g., with thesis advisors: Bordia et al. 2010; business school: Bordia et al. 2015; learning institutions and instructors: Koskina 2013; and research collaborators: Wade-Benzoni et al. 2006) to examine student outcomes such as satisfaction and performance. However, this body of work has typically...
Consistencies and Systematic Variations
While our finding that students have many different psychological contracts is interesting and important, this conclusion is also potentially problematic because a theory too broad in scope can become large and difficult to apply (Bacharach 1989). This problem is particularly salient to education researchers because universities provide students with a vast supply of potential exchange partners and a corresponding number of psychological contracts. Fortunately, our results across all three ph...
Even though pioneering management researcher Denise Rousseau (1989, 1995) initially theorized that individuals have multiple simultaneous psychological contracts, this dynamic has received similarly low levels of attention within both management and educational empirical research (Marks 2001; Taylor and Tekleab 2004). Hence, our findings that psych...
Alternate Populations
Our examination of multiple psychological contract foci is robust because we made every effort to capture students’ perspectives among both freshman and more experienced students in two studies that were each comprised of three sequential phases. However, it is noteworthy that both of these studies focused primarily on traditional full-time students. Also, our research was performed in a large, public, research-oriented university, and we recognize smaller or private universities may provide...
Longitudinal Studies
One of our findings is that the psychological contracts of more experienced students tended to be more pragmatic and less social when compared to their freshman student counterparts. However, we cannot be sure whether these differences represent a natural progression or represent an underlying group characteristic. Future research should explore this issue further by utilizing longitudinal designs and by attempting to identify the kinds of experiences that spur changes in psychological contra...
Link to Outcomes
Among management researchers, psychological contracts are frequently linked to outcomes such as turnover, satisfaction, and performance (e.g., Zhao et al. 2007), and similar linkages have been found among education researchers (e.g., Bordia et al. 2010). Indeed, a central premise of our study is that a students’ various psychological contracts guide attitudes and behavior. However, because the purpose of our study was to clarify how students perceive psychological contracts, we did not direct...
Managing Students’ Perceived Promises
It is not unusual for educators and administrators to manage general student expectations in an effort to improve student attitudes, retention, and performance (e.g., Crisp et al. 2009; Longden 2006). Our work suggests that these efforts would be more effective if management efforts are focused on those expectations that are exchange-oriented and perceived to be promissory in nature: psychological contracts. To the extent that university representatives can identify potential mismatches betwe...
Managing Multiple Relationships
Resources are limited and it would be impossible for educators and administrators to manage every relationship that each student felt was relevant. Thus, another practical implication of our work is that it draws attention to commonly perceived important exchange relationships that need to be managed. Some exchange partners exist within the boundaries and under the authority of the institution (e.g., instructors and advisors). Hopefully, these kinds of partners are already the focus of admini...
Strategic Priorities and Improving Service Quality
A final advantage of understanding contract content is it can guide strategic priorities and evidence-based approaches to improving service quality. We recommend that members of institutional constituencies clearly understand what students perceive to have been promised and make a strong effort to fulfill as many of these expectations that are reasonable. For example, by identifying the content of students’ expectations of instructors (in this context: fair and accurate grading, clear communi...
- Joshua R. Knapp, Suzanne S. Masterson
- 2018
May 26, 2020 · The psychological contract is widely used to study employer-employee relationships, but few studies have applied it to a higher education context. This research examines the usefulness of psychological contract theory to explore the student-personal tutor relationship from the student perspective.
Apr 9, 2019 · In the current business environment, the new psychological contract is viewed as a more “adult” contract rather than the paternalist traditional psychological contract (Eisenberger et al., 2001; Lessner & Akdere, 2008). In the new psychological contract, both employee and organization move into an “adult” contract where mutual beneficial work is a priority.
- Romona Sewpersad, Shaun Ruggunan, Jamila K. Adam, Suresh Babu Naidu Krishna
- 2019
Aug 1, 2018 · The relationship between students and their academic institution is based on exchange. However, we have limited knowledge regarding how many exchanges students perceive, who (or what) the ...
People also ask
What is a student psychological contract?
Are students' learning expectations based on a psychological contract?
What is a psychological contract?
What is a psychological contract in blended learning?
Are higher education institutions responsible for student psychological contracts?
Does the psychological contract of students influence teaching technology and style?
Jul 22, 2014 · In this paper, using the construct of the psychological contract, we show that social exchanges can also occur. In a study sponsored by the leaders of a university's science faculty, 10 student-researchers recorded their experience of being a science undergraduate student using an innovative video data collection method called VideoVoices. We ...
