Abstract

This chapter discusses the role of psychological contracts along the lifespan and careers of workers. It explains the meaning of the psychological contract, and discusses lifespan theories in relation to how psychological contracts may change with age. In particular, there are three ways through which psychological contracts evolve over time. First, the content of mutual obligations between employees and organizations may change over time, where older workers may perceive different obligations from themselves and their employer compared to younger workers. Second, the type and features of psychological contracts may change over time, with older workers generally experiencing more stable, yet potentially also transactional psychological contracts with their employer. Finally, experiences of and responses to breach of the psychological contract may vary with age. The chapter concludes by discussing how lifespan theories relate to novel theories that treat the psychological contract as a temporally dynamic construct and how psychological contracts operate in the contemporary workplace.