Psychological Experience of Survivor-Managers during Downsizing

This study explores the concept of psychological contract and how survivor- employees experience and make judgement on breaches of implicit reciprocal obligation. Psychological contract is a mental schema and its subjective nature makes it open to different interpretations depending on one’s cultural orientation. Research on impact of breaches of implicit contract on victims and survivor-employees is dominated by Anglo-American literature and often ignored its culture- bounded nature. The author intends to explore the cultural dimension of this concept and the possible ` blindly uncultural` nature of most current explications of the psychological contract process. In countries with collectivist cultural orientation the beliefs perceptions values of individuals may contradict with those of individualist orientation common in Anglo-American culture. Understanding how individuals’ experience and make judgement about psychological impacts during downsizing should be best rooted in differences in pan-cultural dimensions `` e.g. individualism vs collectivism`` Therefore application of management principles should take cognisance of cross-cultural variations.