The concept of the psychological contract is commonly traced back to the
early work of Argyris (1960) and to social exchange theory (Blau, 1964).
However, the key developments leading to its current use as an analytic
framework were provided mainly by Rousseau (1995). Rousseau has
defined the psychological contract as: “An individual’s belief in mutual
obligations between that person and another party such as an employer”
(Rousseau & Tijoriwala, 1998, p. 679).