The Psychology of the Employment Relationship Free Essay Example, 1750 words

As per the meaning of the term, psychological contract, it is the implicit contract of understandings between the organization and the workers as they relate to both the expectations of the employees and the obligations of the employer (Emott, 2006). When employees are being selected for the leadership programme the psychological contract is bound to be affected in some way. Guest (2004) takes an even wider view of the contract in such situations where new bonds are being formed and firmly recommends that the full understanding of the psychological contract should incorporate fairness to both parties and mutual trust. This was difficult to achieve in this case because the takeover was still fresh and managers and employees from both the companies had little time to create implicit bonds. As Hendry and Jenkins (1997) suggest since the contract is implicit, it is difficult to judge how it will be impacted with changes in the company, but at the same time, it is important to consider t he psychological contract before any change is announced to the workers. Impact on the Psychological ContractThe first case of employees who wanted to and have been selected is easy to explain in terms of the psychological contract. We will write a custom essay sample on The Psychology of the Employment Relationship or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page The company displayed its trust in the employee; the employee expected the trust to be shown and that employees can be further expected to act at a higher performance level than before. The employee can be expected to show a greater amount of commitment to the company, be more satisfied with the new position and have a stronger intention of staying on with the company despite all the changes which were coming. However, there is one case in which the psychological contract might be affected negatively i. e. if the employee considers inclusion in the program to be only a reward for their previous performance.