Does Work Mean Something Different to Men and Women? An Empirical Examination of the Psychological Contract in the Workplace across Two Countries

Authors

  • Ronald Boddy

    Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK
  • Dorota Bourne

    Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6UR, UK
  • Mustafa Ozbilgin

    Brunel Business School, Brunel University, London, UB8 3PH, UK
  • Devi Jankowicz

    Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/jpr.v6i1.6250

Abstract

A substantial literature has emerged in recent years advocating the view that women and men have different definitions, approaches and emanating perspectives of work. However, many of these assumptions regarding gender differences in construal of work are not empirically supported. Within the framework of the psychological contract, this study contributes to the literature by analysing the constructs of work obtained from both sexes, proportionately distributed across comparable cohorts of workers in the Czech Republic and the UK. The findings show a high degree of congruence in the construct distributions for both sexes, supporting the argument that gender inequality is socio-cultural in origin and not a product of gender-based differences in the construal processes. Suggestions are made concerning implications for practice.

Keywords:

Gender equality, Work, Psychological contract, Leadership development

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How to Cite

Boddy, R., Bourne, D., Ozbilgin, M., & Jankowicz, D. (2024). Does Work Mean Something Different to Men and Women? An Empirical Examination of the Psychological Contract in the Workplace across Two Countries. Journal of Psychological Research, 6(1), 20–36. https://doi.org/10.30564/jpr.v6i1.6250

Issue

Vol. 6 , Iss. 1 (January 2024)

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Article

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Copyright © 2024 Ronald Boddy, Dorota Bourne, Mustafa Ozbilgin, Devi Jankowicz

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.

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