Psychological contract as a tool for human resource management

Abstract

This research concentrates in a study about one of the specific instruments used by organizations to manage relationships with its employees - the psychological contracts. Through an exploratory and descriptive research, the study addresses the question if and how psychological violation influences the level of voluntary turnover in a consultant firm in operation in Brazil. By means of a qualitative and quantitative method, the research was carried out in one multinational consulting firm in the referred country. The sample, represented by five senior consultants who left the organization voluntarily, tells that the psychological violation occurs in this firm, and the voluntary turnover is associated to it. Besides these results, it has been identified new categories of psychological contract violation's reactions that have not been mentioned by literature yet.