Psychological Contract, Symbolic Interactionism, Social Exchange, and Expectation Violation Theories: A Literature Review

Abstract

This article presents a literature review on Symbolic Interactionism, Social Exchange, and Expectation Violation Theories and their relevance to the Psychological Contract. The review is part of a doctoral thesis on the socialization process and can be helpful to Human Resource Managers (HRM), scholars, and practitioners. The review's findings show that while there are many studies on the newcomer's adaptation in the international literature, there are very few academic studies on this topic in the Brazilian context where the cost of losing a job can induce a golden cage behavior as we see in the public sector companies. Therefore, the review provides a new perspective on the socialization process of a firm's newcomer by combining the theories above, which have not been studied together before.