I’m thinking of leaving my job. In my interview I was told that there would be plenty of training opportunities; that I would learn about the different sides of the business; that I would probably get a promotion in two years or so. None of this has really happened. Now I’m hearing that after the restructuring process, we’re going to have more options on how we work – yeah, right, two options more likely. We either do the work or we don’t. I’m thinking about going down the DON’T option… but not by leaving my job, I can’t really quit at the moment, there’s not much else out there… Oh, five o’clock. Time to go. Haven’t finished the report yet… It will have to wait till tomorrow.”
Jane can’t help feeling this way. She’s lost trust in the organisation. She’s lost trust in her line manager – to be honest, she’s lost trust in the three line managers she’s had since she got this job. She feels like all the promises that were made to her have been broken.
In fact, none of these promises were ever made.
Jane read (or listened) between the lines. And anyway, what she was hoping to get from Here We Go Again Ltd, was what everyone expects to get from their employer, right? And as no-one has ever bothered to make sure the world of work in she had in her head, was what HWGA Ltd offered, she thinks that all the promises that had been made to her have been broken.
Jane is experiencing breach of her psychological contract.
The psychological contract is the PERCEPTION – and this is the key word – a person has of the mutual obligations they have with their organisation. What she/he will get in return for what she is expected to give.
Over the next two posts, I will be using Jane’s situation to talk about the psychological contract: the factors that form it, how it affects us at work and what can managers do to prevent a breach from happening.
But first, let me leave you with some questions:
- What are the promises that Jane thinks have been broken?
- Assuming that these promises formed part of her psychological contract but were never actually articulated as promises by anyone in the organisation, what actions might have led Jane to think they were being promised?
- What effect is this breach of the psychological contract having on Jane?
- What other factors are affecting her perception of this breach?
Finally, one reflective question:
- Think about your own job in your organisation. What forms your psychological contract with your organisation?
- What unstated obligations have you got and what do you expect to get from your organisation in return?
- If you are in a leadership position, you might be the person representing the organisation in the psychological contract of those reporting to you. Are you aware of what their expectations are about what the organisation will do for them?
[...] Last week I introduced Jane to you, an employee who had being to lose their motivation at work, as she perceived that none of the promises the organisation had made to her were being kept. (If you haven’t done so already, click here to meet Jane.) [...]