StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Psychological Contracts - Organizational Performance and Elicit Employee Commitment - Coursework Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper 'Psychological Contracts - Organizational Performance and Elicit Employee Commitment" is an outstanding example of business coursework. According to Armstrong (2009), psychological contracts are referred to as an unwritten set of expectations which exist between employers and their employees. This is beliefs that include the obligations individual employees believe are expected of them and what they expect in return from the employer…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER92.9% of users find it useful

Extract of sample "Psychological Contracts - Organizational Performance and Elicit Employee Commitment"

Psychological Contract Name: Professor: Institution: Course: Date: According to Armstrong (2009) psychological contracts are referred to as unwritten set of expectations which exist between employers and their employees. This are beliefs that include the obligations individual employees believe are expected of them and what they expect in return from the employer. This also encompasses the obligations employers feel are expected of them and what they expect from their employees reciprocally. Basically, the psychological contract is about whether obligations and promises are fair, whether they have been met and their implication on trust and the employment relationship (Guest 2004). According to Katz and Kahn (1966), every role within organizations is generally a set of behavioural expectations which are often not defined in the employment contract (implicit). Models of motivation like the operant conditioning (Skinner 1974) and the expectancy theory (Vroom 1964) insist that individual employees act in ways they believe will produce outcomes that are positive but they are not particularly sure of what they expect. This essay will particularly focus on how Psychological contracts are at the heart of gaining both organizational performance and elicit employee commitment to the objectives of the organization. The main function of a psychological contract is to reduce cases of job insecurity. Since all aspects of the employment relationship cannot be addressed in the written employment contract, the gap in this relationship is filled by the psychological contract. This contact also shapes behaviour; individual employees weigh their expectations towards the organization against the expectations of the organization towards them and adjust in accordance to the outcome. Also, the contract gives the employees that they are fully involved in determining what happens to them in the organization which increases their motivation, commitment and hence increases their performance (McFarlane &Tetrick 1994 and Schalk et al 1998). Employees expect to be treated fairly, provided with task that utilize their abilities and skills, to be in a position to display their competence, to be rewarded in accordance to their contributions, to know what is expected of them by their employers, to have security of employment, to provide them with opportunities for growth and to get feedback most preferably positive on their progress at their place of work. On the other hand, employers expect their employees to do their very best for the organization through full commitment to the company’s value, to be loyal and compliant, and to improve the image of the organization to the suppliers and the customers. These assumptions are sometimes justified and other times they are not. Some mutual misunderstandings between the two parties can cause stress which will lead to poor performance, termination of employment relationship and recrimination. Even though employees want what they always wanted,-a career, security, interesting work and fair awards, employers feel they are no longer obliged to provide them and instead they are demanding a lot more from their employees in regard to greater input, flexibility to change, tolerance to uncertainty, while they provide less for in return and in particular limited career prospects and less job security (Guest et al 1996). The Psychological Contract model formulated by Guest et al (1996) indicates that the importance of a contract can be measured in relation to trust, the extent to which the deal is perceived to have been delivered and fairness of treatment. The model is as illustrated below: Cause Content Consequences Source: Guest et al (1996) Individual employees’ beliefs generally originate from their expectations from the perception of the organizational culture and their interactions with organizational representatives. During socialization, organizational human resources managers and recruits make clearly defined promises to the employees on what they may expect from the organization (Feldman, 1976; Van Maanen, 1976). Secondly, standards operating procedures and the employees’ perception of their organizational culture also shape the employees’ belief in regard to their psychological contract, from expectations created along the recruiting process and early experiences within the organization, then, this contract develops. Within the four to six month after joining the organization firs principal of the psychological contract will be brought into reality (Anderson & Thomas 1998). Rousseau (1995), states that new employees have a positive prospects of the labour relationship where their initial point of view are characterized by lower expectations of themselves and high expectations towards the employer (Louis 1980). As they gain more experience in the organization, the newcomers adopt their expectations to reality. Other causes of having a psychological contract include having other alternatives and the organizations HRM policies. In organizational theory and management, employees’ attitudes like trust, commitment, faith, satisfaction and enthusiasm heavily depend on a balanced and fair psychological contract. Where employees regard the contract to be unfair or broken, this intangible yet very important constituents of good organizational performance can quickly evaporate and where employees regard the contract as fair and right, the positive attitudes thrive. The traditionally, the advantageous and dominant position of an employer compared to the employees means that the organizational leadership determines the quality of the Psychological contract and not the followers. An individual employee or a work group may decide to abuse or break the psychological contact but under normal circumstances employees are always dependent on the leadership for quality of the psychological contract. It’s important to note that the worker’s attitudes and feelings are greatly influenced by the way they are treated at the work place and at the same time, the workers attitude and feelings greatly influence the way they see themselves as well as their behaviour and relationship towards their employer. The employers should therefore focus on helping workers feel happy and good because this creates a healthier view of the contract as well as positive outcomes. Employers who ignore the importance of employee happiness and the contract itself find that workers view the psychological contract more negatively and consequently employees are reluctant to corporate and support the leadership. Another major significance of the psychological contract is speed at which businesses and organizations are changing. This rapid change in organizations and its consequences gets many managers unaware and they do not know how to handle it. Managing change has been a challenge to many organizations today and is very important to psychological contract as organizational change puts a lot of pressure on this contract. The ability of the management to understand and manage these changes greatly depends on their ability to understand as well as manage the vital drivers with the psychological contract. Leaders in organization generally see change from their point of view but to effectively manage change, must view changes in terms of the effect it has on the workers and must understand how workers feel about it. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(Psychological Contracts - Organizational Performance and Elicit Coursework, n.d.)
Psychological Contracts - Organizational Performance and Elicit Coursework. https://studentshare.org/business/2077799-psychological-contract-organisational-behaviour
(Psychological Contracts - Organizational Performance and Elicit Coursework)
Psychological Contracts - Organizational Performance and Elicit Coursework. https://studentshare.org/business/2077799-psychological-contract-organisational-behaviour.
“Psychological Contracts - Organizational Performance and Elicit Coursework”. https://studentshare.org/business/2077799-psychological-contract-organisational-behaviour.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Psychological Contracts - Organizational Performance and Elicit Employee Commitment

The Use of Financial Incentives as Rewards to Improve Employee Performance in the Workplace

In order to improve the performance of the whole organization, Huselid (2006) says that employee performance management should precede organizational performance management.... This paper discusses how to effectively manage employee financial reward system in order to attain the commitment described by the McGregor's XY Theory that will eventually lead to improved organizational performance.... Therefore, ‘reward systems that focus on pay and other monetary rewards exclusively at the expense of non-financial rewards are basically bribing their employees and eventually will pay a high price in a lack of employee loyalty and commitment' (Aguinis 2009, p....
12 Pages (3000 words) Assignment

Use of Psychological Contract in Solving the Management Challenge in Chris Motor Services Limited

Chris, due to his honesty, commitment, and exceptionally high-quality servicing (durable and genuine spare parts), has in the recent past moved most customers to his new business.... In December 2011, Chris made a decision to rest and chose Paul (A senior-most employee with reference to his age, experience and working hours with the firm) to lead the group.... In addition, Paul, as an experienced employee holds allegiance, durable relationships, know-how and reliance as a way of keeping the employees and avoiding turn over whereas Steve, a young entrepreneur, insists that pooling of young talents is essential and situations would dictate whether an employee should be fired or maintained and visitor/ new employees hired to enable cost management and employ new and innovative ideas that ensure development/ growth of the organisation/ or company....
12 Pages (3000 words) Case Study

Role of the HRM as a Strategic Partner in an Organization

O strategies develop long term, a commitment based psychological contracts with employees and this is what this paper will focus on in the development of strategic HRM plans and policies that facilitate a potential change in the HR profile of an organization.... O strategy further develops the capabilities of an organization, encourages participation from the bottom to the top, builds a rich corporate culture based on employee attitudes and behaviors, motivates through commitment, and finally consults management in supporting their own solutions (Beer & Nohria, 2000)....
13 Pages (3250 words) Coursework

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors Affecting Middle Managers in the Saudi Public Sector

Rewards under the human relations viewpoint also included the relationship's employee's form with their fellow workers.... The changing view of organizational rewards and employee motivation has led to a multitude of theories of exactly how the job rewards influence the motivation and performance of employees.... Organizations motivate their workforce to perform well by rewarding them for satisfactory performance.... Organizations motivate their workforce to perform well by rewarding them for satisfactory performance....
13 Pages (3250 words) Literature review

Trust and the Psychological Contract

For instance, in an organization, employees may expect certain treatment from the organizational management in exchange for their job commitment (Shields, 2007).... Trust plays a big role in the psychological contract because the presence of trust between employee and the employer results in an honorable psychological contract.... Trust plays a big role in the psychological contract because the presence of trust between employee and the employer results in an honorable psychological contract....
7 Pages (1750 words) Literature review

Trust and the Psychological Contract

Unlike the employment contract which is a formal and legal document, it aggregates the individual beliefs that are shaped by the organizational culture in relation to the terms of arrangement and exchange between the employee and employer (Behery et al.... There are therefore naturally many social groupings which even though not guided by rules, regulations, authority or co-ordination, they form a significant component of human relationships that determine job performance....
9 Pages (2250 words) Coursework

Psychological Contract Theory

Therefore, Psychological contract works closely with other organization change theory to emphasize the employee-employer commitment, Importance of psychological theory in managing organizations Psychological contract theory is one of the fundamental schools of thought that is used in comprehending the relationship that exists between the employees and the employers as well as the subsequent effects such as work performance and attitudes.... Furthermore, one of the distinctive features of psychological contracts from other forms of contracts is that psychological contracts can in most cases be implicit....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Psychological Contracts and Generation Y

… The paper "psychological contracts and Generation Y" is a great example of management coursework.... nbsp;psychological contracts differ from employment contracts because each type of contract elicits different types of emotions from employees.... Whereas employment contracts are more formal than psychological contracts, the former does not evoke the same type of emotional commitment.... The paper "psychological contracts and Generation Y" is a great example of management coursework....
8 Pages (2000 words) Coursework
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us