title: Psychological contracts: a new strategy for retaining reduced-hour physicians.
abstract: As a retention strategy, healthcare organizations offer reduced-hour schedules to physicians seeking better work-family balance. However, this quantitative study of 94 full-time and reduced-hour female physicians in the Boston area found that working fewer hours helps physicians achieve better balance but does not improve their burnout or career satisfaction, or impact their intention to quit or leave the field of medicine. Instead, the findings demonstrate that psychological contract fulfillment, which reflects the subjective nature of the employment relationship, is more important than work hours, an objective job condition, in predicting intention to quit and these other outcomes. A fine-grained analysis is initiated uncovering the multidimensionality of the psychological contract construct. To integrate successful reduced-hour arrangements for physicians, medical managers are directed to the importance of understanding the composition of reduced-hour physicians' psychological contracts, specifically, their need to do challenging work, receive high levels of supervisor support, and promotion opportunities.
authors.affiliation: School of Business, United States International University, Nairobi, Kenya. hartwell@aya.yale.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hartwell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001900:Boston; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000517:prevention & control; D032982:Contracts; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008875:Middle Aged; D010558:Personnel Loyalty; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014931:Women, Working / Q000523:psychology; D016526:Workload