This chapter introduces the individual Psychological Contract (iPC) network model as an alternative approach to study psychological contracts. This model departs from the basic idea that a psychological contract forms a mental schema containing obligated inducements and contributions, which are exchanged for each other. This mental schema is captured by a dynamic network, in which the nodes represent the inducements and contributions and the ties represent the exchanges. Building on dynamic systems theory, I propose that these networks evolve over time towards attractor states, both at the level of the network structure and at the level of the nodes (i.e., breach and fulfilment attractor states). I highlight how the iPC-network model integrates recent theoretical developments in the psychological contract literature and explain how it may advance scholars understanding of exchange relationships. In particular, I illustrate how iPC-network models allow researchers to study the actual exchanges in the psychological contract over time, while acknowledging its idiosyncratic nature. This would allow for more precise predictions of psychological contract breach and fulfilment consequences and explains how content and process of the psychological contract continuously influence each other.
Time-aware Gradient Attack on Dynamic Network Link Prediction
