Abstract: Het psychologisch contract van vaste en tijdelijke werknemers.

(The psychological contract of permanent and temporary workers).

In this article the project ‘Psychological contracts across employment situations (‘Psycones’)’ is briefly introduced, and the heuristic model of this project is partially tested. Our central hypothesis is that the psychological contract mediates the relationship between the formal labor contract (permanent versus temporary) and various outcome variables, such as job satisfaction and job involvement. Furthermore, we analyze potential differences between permanent and temporary workers with respect to content (perceptions of mutual promises between employer and employee) and state (perception of the extent to which the promises are kept) of their psychological contract. Data from 5 organizations in Flanders (Belgium) are used (N=596). The results do show significant differences in the psychological contract of both groups, but compared to permanent workers the psychological contract of temporary workers is not solely less favourable. The various aspects of the psychological contract appear to contribute to explaining variance in different outcome variables. Little support is found for the proposed mediating role of the psychologic.