Denise Rousseau
Denise Rousseau is a University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, holds H.J. Heinz II Chair in Organizational Behavior and Public Policy, Heinz College and jointly Tepper School of Business.[1]
Previously she worked on the faculties of the University of Michigan in Psychology and Institute for Social Research, Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Rousseau held visiting appointments at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Leeds University, UK, and Dublin City University, Ireland.
She is a Fellow in American Psychological Association, Society of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Academy of Management, and British Academy of Management.
Psychological Contract Theory
Rousseau developed the concept of a psychological contract in order to better specify how employers and employees understand the employment relationship. PCT also provides a basis for developing shared understandings in employment. It also addresses how to more effectively change the nature and terms of psychological contracts.
PCT recognized the existence of cognitive schema or mental models that employees and employers use in interacting with each other. The psychological contract is a system of beliefs an individual holds regarding an exchange arrangement with another (e.g., employment, customer/supplier relationship, family tie or marriage). A fundamental feature of the psychological contract is that like cognitive schemata generally, the contract, once established, is relatively resistant to change.
Psychological contracts when first formed tend to be incomplete since fully understanding or anticipating the demands in an on-going employment arrangement may be unrealistic. Thus psychological contracts develop over time and often in ways that diverge between one party and another, or between multiple parties to the same arrangements.
Rousseau’s 1995 book Psychological Contract in Organizations: Understanding Written and Unwritten Agreements won the George Terry Book Award for best book in management from the Academy of Management.
Idiosyncratic deals
Rousseau’s research identified the often hidden but widespread phenomenon of idiosyncratic deals, whereby individual employees bargain for employment arrangements different from their peers. Early research on the psychological contract identified an anomaly, the repeated observation that people working for the same firm and same boss can have distinctly different psychological contracts. After considering alternative explanations, this observation lead to recognition that individual workers influence the terms of their own employment arrangements. These influences take the form of bargaining and self-initiated changes. Her 2005 book I-deals: Idiosyncratic Deals Employees Bargain for Themselves also won the George Terry Book Award for best book in management from the Academy of Management.
Evidence-Based Management—founder of EBMgt Collaborative (LINK); Chair, Academic Advisory Board, Center for EBMgt (link). The evidence-based managemet movement supports the uptake and use of organizational practices and decision processes informed by evidence from management and organizational research. LINK TO EBMGT wikipedia
Undergraduate degrees with honors in Psychology and Anthropology from University of California at Berkeley. Ph.D. Psychology University of California at Berkeley.
Rousseau's influences include Herb Simon and Stephen Laner.
Students Karl Aquino, Sandra Robinson, Ranga Ranganujam, Laurie Levesque, Violet Ho, Lai Lei, Guillermo Dabos
Works
- Psychological Contract in Organizations: Understanding Written and Unwritten Agreements (1995). Newbury Park, CA: Sage
- I-deals: Idiosyncratic Deals Employees Bargain for Themselves. (2005) Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe