Psychological contracts and flexible working are key aspects of organizational performance in workforce management. This study is geared towards bringing into perspective the key issues in regards to the two aspects. From the psychological study, contract has been defined as the unwritten expectations between two parties, in this case, the employee and the employer. It brings into perspective a framework for understanding psychological contracts which includes four issues namely the conceptualization of psychological contracts, explicitness and implicitness of psychological contracts, origins of psychological contracts perceptions, and the dimensions of psychological contracts. The study further goes ahead to define flexible working as a working approach that takes into consideration the needs of an individual employee. It also brings into perspective the various dimensions of flexible working. The importance of psychological and flexible working to both an individual and the organization have also been brought into perspective. In making recommendations on implementing change in regards to psychological contracts and flexible wt
Psychological contracts can be defined as expectations that are unwritten between two parties that is the employer and employee (Statt, 2010, p. 5). Psychological contracts are a foundation for organizational success, and therefore organizations should take them seriously. Effective and efficient integration of the organizational and individual expectations determines the success of organizational teamwork. People are not often aware when they make psychological contracts. It can be defined as a basis for every relationship between individuals and organizations. Psychological contracts are often different depending on the individual, regardless of the fact that they may be operating in the same organizations. This is due to the fact that individual personalities and perceptions are different. As the life of individual changes, aspects of psychological contracts also change. Taking for instance when one is promoted, his roles and responsibilities change, and the company expectations on that particular individual also change. Psychological contracts are often unwritten, but they set the basis of trust, which is an essential ingredient of every relationship.
In the past psychological contracts was used as a definition of mutual respect between foremen and workers which manifested through interview transcripts. The foremen depicted some form of support of the workers’ cultures and beliefs which they had come through before they eventually became foremen. The term psychological contract has also been used to define relationships that are depicted by employers and employees. This is through the manifestation of the beliefs employees had on employer expectations. The psychological contract can be viewed as a group-level occurrence (Jepsen, 2015, p. 13). In addition, it has also been viewed as a set of separate beliefs depicted by individuals and organizations. The psychological contract can be considered to be a subjective perception and promissory in nature.
The implicit and explicit communication of psychological contracts is the key distinguishing feature between psychological contracts and legal contracts. Explicit psychological contracts are communicated through conversations between individuals either verbally, through emails, or formal contracts. The implicit psychological contract is the exact opposite of explicit psychological contracts. They are obtained through observations of key indicators which might include terms of employment, information obtained from company websites, and company objectives. In the recent past psychological contracts were thought to be just implicit (Wellin, 2012). However, the aspect of implicitness and explicitness has been adopted. Implicitness has been known to measure employer s perceptions and not employee perceptions over time. Employers implicitly make promises to the employees using metrics such as promises made, suggested promises though nothing actually has been communicated, a concrete promise made though not written down, and written down and verbal promises made to employees. To employees, interesting work and good working conditions are considered implicit terms of psychological contracts. Empirical differentiation of legal and psychological contracts is difficult because the explicitness and implicitness of psychological contracts have been ignored in the literature.
Most researches conducted in psychological contracts are geared towards identifying the basis of employees believing that a particular concept is part of the psychological contracts. Psychological contract beliefs depicted by an employee are based on the behaviour of the employee in the current organization. Other issues arising from external factors are not considered to be a part of psychological contracts. However, employees are often to make their own choice and more often than not they consult external sources (Christeen, 2009, p. 56). The internal organizational sources may include management statements, policies and practices made by the human resource, and colleague observations. External forces may include predispositions by an employee, social aspects and culture.
|
Name of Scale |
Obligation of Employee |
Obligation of Employer |
|
Relational · Stability · Royalty |
Doing what is required of the job and maintaining the organization. Supporting the organization regardless of the situation. |
Offering stable wages and job security. Supporting employee wellbeing. |
|
Balanced · Employability. · Advancement from within. |
Developing marketable skills. Developing skills the employer values. |
Developing employee employability outside the organization. Employee career development. |
|
Transactional · Narrow · Short-term |
Performing a fixed known set of duties. Working for a limited known time frame. |
Offering limited worker involvement in duties. Offering employment for a particularly limited time frame. |
|
Transitional · Mistrust · uncertainty |
Employee expects and believes that the firm will send inconsistent mixed signals. The employee is not certain in regards to the nature of obligations. |
The employer withholds important information. Employer assesses the level of uncertainty of the employee. |
Flexible working refers to a working approach that suits the employee’s schedule and needs (Gov.UK, 2018). Flexible working is a form of business philosophy rather than a technological issue as is considered by many. Flexible working may adopt various dimensions which may include reduced working hours, changing the working pattern in terms of hours, the management of several jobs, temporary or agency work, self-employment, volunteering, working from home, and time out on a career break. Flexible working is ideal for individuals with expertise in more than one single field. It offers them the opportunity to balance the jobs. It is also ideal for individuals with families and would love to take time off to be with their families. It is very appealing to individuals who are great champions of autonomy, organized, self-motivated and well organized (Lake, 2013). However, striking a balance during flexible working is quite cumbersome. It is characterized by financial uncertainty and isolation from friends.
The purpose of this paper was to bring into perspective the concepts of Psychological contracts and flexible working. It gives an overview of psychological contracts taking into consideration four metrics. It also at a glance brings into perspective what flexible working is and the various dimensions of flexible working.
The paper in detail brings into perspective various aspects of psychological contracts. Understanding and conceptualizing this aspect is key for any organization that values psychological contracts which is key to any organization that is focused on performance and achievement of goals and objectives. The issues discussed in the literature review as far as psychological contracts are concerned to include psychological contract conceptualization which is all about how individuals and organizations view psychological contracts. The implicitness and explicitness of psychological contract, and the origins of psychological contracts perceptions. It goes further to bring into perspective the dimensions of psychological contracts taking into consideration the employee and employer viewpoints. The dimensions are divided into four categories which include the relational, balanced, transactional, and transitional. Psychological contracts exist in each and every organization with or without the knowledge of the parties involved.
Framework for understanding employee work behaviour.
The psychological contracts present a framework to the organization for understanding and evaluating employee work behaviour. Here each individual is evaluated individually due to a difference in psychological contracts.
Psychological contracts present an opportunity to individualize employee in order to be able to understand them better. This is brought into perspective by different psychological contracts brought about by different employee perception, nature, and role in the organization.
Psychological contracts present a new wave of managing employment relationship. The wave is more efficient and effective as it takes employees as an individual factor and not as a group.
Efficient, effective and productive organization
By adopting flexible working, organizational productivity has been improved. This is due to the fact that as a result, individual employees are able to offer their best in the duties allocated to them at that particular allocated time. The level of productivity is increased because individuals are able to work in what they know best and at a convenient time when they can offer their best.
Flexibility is a key ingredient of motivation. Motivated employees translate to improved organizational performance (Lake, 2013, p. 24). by adopting flexible working an allowing employees do what they do best at a time that best suits them, it makes them feel appreciated and hence this empowers them to work harder and do more towards the realization of organizational goals and objectives.
By adopting flexibility, individual employees are able to work without an aspect of force. As a result, they are able to serve the customers better than when working on a standard work schedule that does not incorporate their views.
By adopting flexible working a firm is able to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors who have not yet adopted flexible working (Morgan, 2014, p. 64). And by so doing performance is boosted as the firm is achieving its objectives by outdoing competition and being the best in the market.
When a firm adopts the flexible working strategy, it is creating attractiveness in the labour market. It attracts the best in the market and by so doing it helps boost performance. Also, the rate of employee turnover is reduced a great deal.
Better work-life balance
Employees put value in flexible working hours; this is due to the fact that they are able to balance between work and personal life (Klöpping, 2012, p. 24).
When considering change, the organization must take into consideration that real change begins with an individual. In making efforts for change as far as flexible working and psychological change are concerned I would recommend that the organization takes into consideration the ADKAR model for change.
The ADKAR model brings into perspective the principles of change most effective on an individual basis. However, the principles are also applicable to large groups of people and organizations. The ADKAR acronym brings into perspective Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement (Cameron & Green, 2012, p. 96).
When trying to implement change in regards to flexible working in the organization. Consideration should be given on creating awareness to individual employees as to what is supposed to change and the reason as to why. It should also bring into perspective why such aspects need to change and the benefits that they stand to gain from the proposed change. Creating awareness brings about an aspect of trust which is vital in change implementation.
After conceptualization of what needs to change has been achieved, it is essential for the organization to help the individual employee develop a desire to be part of the proposed change. Without a desire to be part of the change the organization is bound to face resistance from individual employees as far as change implementation is concerned.
Knowledge refers to information in regards to the proposed change. The organization should ensure that each individual employee is equipped with necessary and relevant information relating to the proposed change.
At this stage knowledge is given to the employee is turned into ability. Organizational management should take the initiative in helping the employees actualize knowledge obtained in regard to the proposed change.
The organization should ensure that when an individual employee achieves the expected outcome, he or she has information that it has been achieved. This brings into perspective the use of accountability systems.
Conclusion
In conclusion, flexible working and psychological contracts are key to improving organizational performance. Psychological contracts refer to the unwritten expectations that are communicated between two parties that is the employer and the employee. Flexible working as per to h=this paper refers to approaches to work that suit the needs and schedules of an individual employee. From the study, organizations need to understand the various dimensions to psychological contracts which are divided into four namely the relational, balanced, transactional and transitional. The dimensions bring into perspective both the views of the employee and those of the employer. The study also brings into perspective the dimensions of flexible working which include reduced working hours, changing the working pattern in terms of hours, the management of several jobs, temporary or agency work, self-employment, volunteering, working from home, and time out on a career break. In trying to implement change in regards to flexible working hours and psychological change, the study recommends the ADKAR model of change implementation which brings into perspective the four individual-centred principles of change which can also be applicable to an entire organization.
References
Cameron, E. & Green, M., 2012. Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change. 3rd edition ed. s.l.:Kogan Page Publishers.
Christeen, G., 2009. The Psychological Contract: Managing And Developing Professional Groups: Managing and developing professional groups. s.l.:McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Gov.UK, 2018. Home: Flexible working. [Online]
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working
[Accessed 26 October 2018].
Jepsen , D., 2015. Employee Perceptions of The Psychological Contract are Not Symmetrical: Cautions Derived from Analyses of The Dimensionality of the Psychological Contract Inventory. s.l.:Macquarie University.
Klöpping, L., 2012. Work-Life-Balance. s.l.:GRIN Verlag.
Lake, A., 2013. Smart Flexibility: Moving Smart and Flexible Working from Theory to Practice. s.l.:Gower Publishing, Ltd.
Lake, A., 2013. Smart Flexibility: Moving Smart and Flexible Working from Theory to Practice. s.l.:Gower Publishing.
Morgan, J., 2014. The Future of Work: Attract New Talent, Build Better Leaders, and Create a Competitive Organization. s.l.:John Wiley & Sons.
Statt, D., 2010. Psychology and the World of Work. 2nd Edition ed. s.l.:Palgrave.
Wellin, M., 2012. Managing the Psychological Contract: Using the Personal Deal to Increase Business Performance. s.l.:Gower Publishing.
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