1. Kerstin Isaksson Comparisons of the Impact of Employment Contract and Gender on Psychological Contracts Kerstin Isaksson, National Institute for Working Life, Sweden & Moshe Krausz, Bar Ilan University, Israel

2. Kerstin Isaksson Theoretical background Employment contract related to transactional or relational PC (Rousseau) Dimensions of the PC (e.g. range, duration, volition) more relevant Gender differences in PCs are poorly investigated

3. Kerstin Isaksson Research questions How does degree of job permanency (permanent, fixed term, or hourly employment) affect the content of the PC, the degree of contract fulfilment and the state? The role of volition ? Gender differences in PCs ?

4. Kerstin Isaksson Hypotheses A higher degree of job permanency will be related to a wider PC in terms of content No difference in relation to fulfilment and state (org. climate more important) Women in fixed term/hourly contracts will have a more narrow PC (interaction effects). Volition is assumed to have a moderating role (interaction effects

5. Kerstin Isaksson Sample Selection of from 7 countries, three sectors aiming to find a variation in degree of contract permanency to test questionnaire Not random and non-representative, This study: the three most common contract forms (n=1517), 66% female –74% permanent, 22% fixed term, 4% day/hour –37% health care sector, 20% retail sector, 18% temp. help, 25% other

6. Kerstin Isaksson Measures (employee perspective) Content of PC Has your organization promised or committed itself…. (yes/no) (7 dimensions of employer promises, 5 for employees) Range - number of promises perceived by employees Contract fulfilment. - For each item “To what extent has this promise or commitment been kept? (Scale 1-7) State of the PC (8 items) Volition ( 3 items) + controls: age, gender, education, job tenure, weekly work hours)

7. Kerstin Isaksson Results Employees on permanent contracts are generally older, with longer tenure and weekly work hours Permanent employment positively related to range of the contract but not to delivery of the deal Gender differences on the employee side

8. Kerstin Isaksson

12. Factors explaining variation in range (=number of promises) Employer promisesEmployer promises –Permanent/hourly contract –Voluntary choice –Weekly work hours –Organizational climate Employee promises Employee promises –Permanent/fixed term contract –Gender (women - wider) –Education (low education - wider)

13. Kerstin Isaksson Factors explaining variation in fulfilment and state of the PC

14. Kerstin Isaksson Conclusions Degree of contract permanency has an effect on both range, contract fulfilment and state of the PC (permanent employment positive for range but negative for evaluation) Organizational climate significant for evaluation of state+fulfilment by employers Volition, significant direct effect Women report a wider range of employee promises

15. Kerstin Isaksson Discussion Degree of job permanency has a positive effect on the PC in terms of range, content differences in dimensions of the PC need more investigation Volition critical for employer side of PC but not employee? Gender differences not in range but in profile? Proportion of variance explained was very low (3- 10%), missing factors? Sample limitations ?