Managing the Psychological Contract: Using the Personal Deal to Increase Performance

261 Pages·2007·1.05 MB·English

by  Michael Wellin

Managing the Psychological Contract
To Ruth and Zack
Managing the
Psychological
Contract
Using the Personal Deal to
Increase Business Performance
MICHAEL WELLIN
© Michael Wellin 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Published by
Gower Publishing Limited
Gower House
Croft Road
Aldershot
Hampshire GU11 3HR
England
Ashgate Publishing Company
Suite 420
101 Cherry Street
Burlington, VT 05401-4405
USA
Michael Wellin has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be
identified as the author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Wellin, Michael
Managing the psychological contract : using the personal
deal to increase performance
1. Performance management 2. Organizational commitment
3. Communication in personnel management
I. Title
658.3’14
ISBN-13: 9780566087264
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wellin, Michael.
Managing the psychological contract : using the personal deal to increase
performance / by Michael Wellin.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-566-08726-4 1. Personnel management. 2. Performance
technology. 3. Organizational behaviour. 4. psychology, Industrial. I. Title.
HF5549.W43194 2006
658.3’14--dc22
2006025036
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall.
Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xi
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction and Why the Psychological Contract MaĴers 1
Purpose of this book 2
Why the psychological contract and personal deals maĴer 5
Chapter summary 15
2 Current Use of the Psychological Contract 17
Background to the psychological contract 17
How some business organisations describe their psychological
contracts 19
A different psychological contract 25
Redefined view of the psychological contract 27
Change and the psychological contract 28
Shis in the prevailing psychological contract over time 30
Chapter summary 33
3 Viewing the Psychological Contract as a Personal Deal 35
Business deals and personal deals 35
All our relationships involve a personal deal 38
Expectations lie at the heart of the personal deal 39
A closer look at a personal deal 41
Visualising the personal deal 44
Personal deals at work 48
Difference between the personal deal at work and the psychological
contract 53
Chapter summary 54
4 Making and Breaking Personal Deals 57
Pre-employment steps in creating personal deals 57
Recruitment steps in creating personal deals 58
Creation of personal deals during new job socialisation 60
Value of the personal deal in induction and socialisation 64
Frequency of broken personal deals aer initial socialisation 68
vi MANAGING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT
Impact of personal deal breach on employee aĴitudes 69
Impact of personal deal breach on employee behaviour 71
Chapter summary 73
5 The Personal Deal Process 75
The dynamic nature of personal deals 75
Personal deals occur between each leader and their people 76
How the deal operates in practice 79
Using the personal deal to understand and manage ourselves
and our people 83
Using the model to understand Anna’s personal deal 86
Predictions about the personal deal process 88
Chapter summary 91
6 Types of Personal Deal 93
Relationship personal deals 93
Emergence of transactional personal deals 95
Business pressures for increased transactional personal deals 98
Persistence of relationship personal deals 100
Requirements for a personal deals framework 101
Four types of personal deal 102
Chapter summary 109
7 How Three Companies Use the Psychological Contract 113
Arup 13
CMS Cameron McKenna 117
Richer Sounds 121
Parallels between the three companies’ psychological contracts 125
Chapter summary 127
8 Using the Personal Deal to Improve Leadership Effectiveness 131
Nature of leadership 131
Determining direction through objective seĴing 133
How to use the personal deal to improve performance 136
A leader’s one-to-one use of the personal deal to enhance
performance 140
Organisation-wide use of the personal deal to improve
performance 141
How the deal complements fundamental leadership 144
CONTENTS vii
A radical alternative approach to leadership based on the
personal deal 146
Value of the personal deal for leadership 148
Chapter summary 149
9 Using the Personal Deal to Change Organisation Culture 153
What is organisation culture? 153
Effective approaches to culture change 157
Business context of culture change in Royal Mail Sales 160
Viewing culture as the prevailing personal deal 169
Chapter summary 171
10 How Human Resource Practitioners Manage Personal Deals 173
How HR shape personal deals 173
Reshaping personal deals in an organisation 175
Evolution of the human resource function from the welfare
function 176
Professional personnel management 177
The human resource process 177
Strategic human resource management 186
Chapter summary 192
11 How to Shape Your Personal Deals 195
Preconditions for discussing our personal deals 197
Steps involved in having a personal deal discussion 200
Personal deal training 210
Chapter summary 212
12 Behavioural View of the Personal Deal 215
Introducing transactional analysis as a framework for
understanding personal deal behaviour 215
Transactions 219
Behaviour underpins all our personal deals 221
Methods for changing personal deals 230
Chapter summary 233
Index 237
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List of Figures
1.1 Aligning personal deal conversations up and down the
organisation 14
3.1 Components of our personal deal with a restaurant 44
3.2 Components of the personal deal at work 52
5.1 Different perspectives of the personal deal and the psychological
contract 78
5.2 How the deal works (A) 84
5.3 How the deal works (B) 85
6.1 Relationship and transactional personal deal continuum 97
6.2 Types of personal deal 107
6.3 Measuring the personal deal 109
8.1 The four key questions when discussing personal deals 138
9.1 Touchstone behaviours 163
9.2 Sample team deal 165
9.3 Personal deal perspective of organisation culture 170
10.1 Broken personal deal experience 185
10.2 How SHRM creates business value 189
10.3 Matching HR priorities to different personal deals 191
11.1 Concept of expectations 201
12.1 Parent, adult and child ego states at work 219
12.2 Transactions 220
12.3 Ulterior transactions 221
12.4 Master–servant personal deal 223
12.5 Rational problem solver personal deal 224
12.6 Benevolent instructor personal deal 226
12.7 Creative geniuses personal deal 228
12.8 Smooth controller personal deal 229