Sunday, September 11, 2005
Packet Chapter 1 Notes
The Psychological Contract
I have always felt there are some sort of psychological contract at my last two employers, but it was never apparent until I read this chapter. The interesting thing is I have had some difficulties that have been pinches, but like my current employer, they started down a path of Sharing information and "planned" to negotiate, but then let the issue fall to the wayside and the manager hoped the contract fell back into the stability zone. What appears missing to me is that there is no point where pinches eventually become crunch points. As in the employee feels that multiple issues have not been resolved to the point they tip over into a choke point may turn into a resentful termination.
At a previous employer, benefits and satisfaction were being eroded away, year by year. There were many pinches, but I don't think all were adequately negotiated and clarified. When another pinch point happened, downsizing dictated by finance, but not communicated between organizations, it caused a crunch and eventually a resentful termination. It almost seems like there needs to be some sort of scale of satisfaction coming out of negotiation and clarity commitment. The scale would represent the emotional balance of the employee and employer. This sort of indicator could be used as an alert if the next pinch could cause a disruption of shared expectations more easily than if the balance was zero.
I have always felt there are some sort of psychological contract at my last two employers, but it was never apparent until I read this chapter. The interesting thing is I have had some difficulties that have been pinches, but like my current employer, they started down a path of Sharing information and "planned" to negotiate, but then let the issue fall to the wayside and the manager hoped the contract fell back into the stability zone. What appears missing to me is that there is no point where pinches eventually become crunch points. As in the employee feels that multiple issues have not been resolved to the point they tip over into a choke point may turn into a resentful termination.
At a previous employer, benefits and satisfaction were being eroded away, year by year. There were many pinches, but I don't think all were adequately negotiated and clarified. When another pinch point happened, downsizing dictated by finance, but not communicated between organizations, it caused a crunch and eventually a resentful termination. It almost seems like there needs to be some sort of scale of satisfaction coming out of negotiation and clarity commitment. The scale would represent the emotional balance of the employee and employer. This sort of indicator could be used as an alert if the next pinch could cause a disruption of shared expectations more easily than if the balance was zero.
