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Employee well being and the psychological contractPublishedbyadmin

on July 4, 2007

in2007 Articles and Articles. 0 CommentsSource: CIPDDate: 4 July 2007

Something seems to be happening to the state of the psychological contract. The CIPDresearch report, Employee Well-Being and the Psychological Contract, highlights areasthat many HR professionals, as strategic business partners, will want to be thinkingabout. So the wealth of material contained in this survey is invaluable to HRprofessionals.

At the CIPD, weve been undertaking annual surveys into employee attitudes since1996. This report is based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,000people in employment in Great Britain.

The psychological contract is built on the three pillars of:

y fairnessy trusty delivery of the deal betweenorganisations and employees.

And research has shown that a positive psychological contract is the best guarantee ofgood performance outcomes.

Analysis of the causes and consequences of the psychological contract

This research report outlines the state of the psychological contract on the maindimensions of trust, satisfaction and commitment. Findings suggest that organisationsare now more successful in delivering on their promises than they were in earlieryears. But there are real issues in relation to employees feelings of fairness and

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trust, levels of which have been decreasing over the last two years or more.

The survey concentrated on four distinctive themes the concept of the goodemployer, effective supervisory leadership, the high-quality workplace and the link to

work-related stress, and contemporary career preferences.

The concept of the good employer

A cluster of practices are associated with the concept of the good employer. Theseinclude the presence of a range of progressive HR practices, the adoptionofflexiblefamily-friendly practices, effective supervisory leadership and the delivery ofpromises leading to perceptions of fair treatment and high levels of trust.

The composite measure of the good employer is strongly associated with higher levelsof worker satisfaction, commitment and excitement at work, as well as higher levelsofmotivation, positive behaviour at work and a lower intention to leave the job. Thefindings therefore confirm that engaging in good employment practices bringsbenefits not only to workers but to the organisation as well.

Effective supervisory leadership

One of the biggest challenges for HR is to support line managers in their role ofmanaging and developing people. Line managers have emerged from earlier surveys ofemployee attitudes as the good guys. Employees have reported feeling significantlymore trust in them than in senior managers or in the organisation as a whole. Thepicture that emerges this year is less positive. A majority of line managers seem to befailing in many or most of the basic elements of good management includingproviding regular feedback or offering to help improve individuals employment.

The high quality workplace and stress

Stress has beenmoving steadily up the workplace agenda in recent years and thesurvey asked a number of questions about possible sources of stress. These questionswere designed jointly with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The survey showsthat on a number of dimensions respondents are reporting stress levels that exceedthose incorporated in the HSE standards on stress management.

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The survey provided a preliminary measure of six criteria identified by the HSE aslikely to be associated with lower levels of stress at work.

Contemporary career preferences

There has been much debate about whats happening to careers. The surveyidentified three distinct groups of employees in terms of their attitude towards theircareer:

Traditional working longer hours than most, displaying high commitment andmotivation. These people wanted long-term tenure inone organisation and upwardmobility, and tended to be younger workers.

Disengaged work is not a central life interest, and they want no emotional ties tothe organisation. These employees tend to be older, long-tenure, low-incomeworkers, displaying low levels ofmotivation and a reluctance to do anything extra.

Independent low commitment and satisfaction. They want career success, but ontheir own terms and without being tied to any one organisation. They tend to begraduates on high incomes and with a short tenure. They report lower organisationcommitment, lower satisfaction, a poorer psychological contract and a higherintention to quit.