Carol Atkinson

Career management and the changing psychological contract

This study was carried out in a major UK retail bank over a seven‐year period. The initial survey in 1993 revealed the lack of a strategic approach to career management and a negative psychological contract. The follow‐up survey was carried out in March 2000. The research findings reveal a failure by management both to provide the tools necessary for career management and successfully to change the nature of the psychological contract. The “new” contract transferred responsibility to employees for managing their own career and was considered by employees as a violation of the “old”, paternalistic psychological contract. The “new” contract in this organisation was seen to be a regressive move from a relational contract to a transactional contract. Little progress had been made by management to gain acceptance of the new contract during the period of the research.

Trust and the psychological contract

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute empirical data to the under‐researched relationship between trust and the psychological contract.Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach is used carrying out 41 interviews in three case study firms, adopting a critical incident technique (CIT).Findings – Trust is present in all psychological contracts and its different bases, cognitive and affective, underpin transactional and relational obligations respectively.Research limitations/implications – A small‐scale study using CIT which identifies especially salient issues but is not necessarily exhaustive. Provides a base for more detailed study of the relationship.Practical implications – Demonstrates the impact of the differing bases of trust on the employment relationship. This information could contribute to better managing the employment relationship.Originality/value – There are few extant empirical data on this relationship and a contribution is made to debates on the role of trust within the psychol...

Flexible working and happiness in the NHS

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the influence of flexible working on employee happiness and attitude, and the role of this within a high performance work system (HPWS).Design/methodology/approach – A case study of flexible working within an NHS Acute Trust is presented. A qualitative study is undertaken based on 43 employee interviews across a range of directorates within the Trust.Findings – Employees perceive that flexible working makes them “happy” and that there are attitudinal/behavioural links between this happiness, discretionary behaviour and a number of performance outcomes.Research limitations/implications – This paper presents a single case study with a relatively small sample which uses an inductive approach based on emergent data; it explores one element of a HPWS rather than an entire employment system. Respondents were volunteers, which raises the possibility of sample bias.Practical implications – There may be a need for organisations to focus more on employee happiness to encourage p...

Improving working lives: flexible working and the role of employee control

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate employee perceptions of the flexibility they utilize or have available to them in an NHS Trust and relate these perceptions to the concept of control.Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a constructivist approach and uses semi‐structured interviews, allowing employees, in their own way, to explain what flexibility policies, and practice mean to them. The paper conducted 43 interviews and one focus group across five directorates, to include a range of staff levels and job types.Findings – The findings in this paper show that informal rather than formal flexibility was more widely used and valued; and that, although staff needed to be proactive to access formal flexibility, some staff did not see formal flexibility as relevant to themselves; and informal flexibility generated an increased sense of employee responsibility. Uses the perspective of employee control over their working lives, in order to interpret the impact of flexible working.Rese...

The impact of employment regulation on the employment relationship in SMEs

Reports findings from an empirical investigation into the nature of the employment relationship in small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and how this is affected by the Employment Relations Act (1999). A two‐stage methodology was used, with a postal questionnaire of 69 companies and telephone interviews with a further 33 SMEs. The informal, paternalistic approach to employee relations in many small companies was found to be largely still intact. The governments intention of developing partnerships in the employment relationship in order to promote greater fairness in the workplace has, to a significant extent, failed. Small companies may not be granting their employees all their statutory rights. Whether this is ignorance or a deliberate strategy is unclear, but the incidence of employment tribunal cases may continue to increase for small and medium‐sized companies if they ignore the current employment legislation.

Does one size fit all? A study of the psychological contract in the UK working population.

Purpose – This paper sets out to investigate the effect of position in the organisational hierarchy on an employees psychological contract.Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a statistical analysis of secondary data taken from the Working in Britain 2000 (WIB) dataset, an ESRC/CIPD funded study, to investigate the perspectives on the content of the psychological contract of different employee groups, namely managers, supervisors and “shop floor” employees.Findings – The results show that differences do emerge between different groups of employee, managers having a generally more relational contract. These differences are not, however, as large as may be expected and, for some aspects of the psychological contract, there are also considerable similarities between all the groups.Research limitations/implications – Analysis is limited by the data present in the dataset, meaning that certain aspects of the psychological contract, for example, trust, are not as fully explored as is desirable.Pra...

Building high performance employment relationships in small firms

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to present research into the employment relationship in small firms and to examine its link to high performance. A psychological contract framework is adopted, it being argued that this supports a more nuanced analysis than existing perspectives on the small firm employment relationship which are limited and do not give sufficient insight into performance issues.Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a case study approach, carrying out 41 interviews involving both owner managers and employees in three firms. A critical incident technique (CIT) is adopted in the interviews.Findings – The paper finds that high performance derives from a relational psychological contract and that transactional contracts impact negatively on performance. It is also demonstrated that, contrary to what is implied in much of the existing small firm literature, small firms are capable of building relational contracts.Research limitations – The research in this paper is drawn from a s...

Sense-giving in health care: the relationship between the HR roles of line managers and employee commitment

In this article, we examine line manager prioritisation of HR roles and the consequences for employee commitment in a health-care setting. Our analysis is based on a quantitative, multi-actor study (509 employees and 67 line managers) in four Dutch hospitals. Using sense-giving as a theoretical lens, we demonstrate that, in addition to the effects of high commitment HRM, prioritising the Employee Champion role alone and the Employee Champion and Strategic Partner roles in combination is associated with higher employee commitment. We argue that through performing roles that are evocative of deep-seated values, such as excellent patient care and concern for others, line managers can have a positive effect on staff attitudes. In a sector often beleaguered by staff turnover, exhaustion and burnout, we offer an important, empirically based framework that has the potential to improve employee commitment and, from there, enhance performance.

'You try to be a fair employer': Regulation and employment relationships in medium-sized firms

In this article, we explore the dynamic, indirect effects of employment regulation through a qualitative study of three medium-sized enterprises and their ongoing, everyday employment relationships. Whereas owner–manager prerogative is generally associated with informality in small and medium-sized enterprises, we identify instances of formal policies and procedures implemented in response to regulation being instrumental in exerting this prerogative. Furthermore, employees reinforced this process by making judgements regarding the employment relationship in terms of their perceived informal psychological contract rather than external regulatory obligations. This article extends understanding of dynamic, indirect regulatory effects in relation to the interplay of informality and formality within psychological contracts in medium-sized enterprises.

An exploration of older worker flexible working arrangements in smaller firms

This article explores flexible working arrangements (FWAs) for older workers in smaller UK firms. We address three questions: how far older workers need and value FWAs, the type of FWAs they need, and whether smaller firms can offer these FWAs. We draw on 46 semi-structured interviews from six smaller case study firms to present a qualitative exploration of both owner-manager and (under-researched) worker perspectives. We evidence the offer and importance of temporal and work-role FWAs, together with the use of i-deals and ad hoc FWAs in meeting the needs of this diverse group. We make three contributions: first, theoretically, in arguing for an extended definition of FWAs and understanding formality of offer; second, to practice, in highlighting FWA mechanisms appropriate to older workers; third, to policy, in questioning the effectiveness of both the business case approach to older worker FWAs in smaller firms and policy’s positioning of older workers as a homogeneous group.