by Amrit Sandhar (CEO/ Founder, &Evolve)
Since Chris Argyris’s work in the 1960s into the psychological work contract, the assumption’s remained that it’s based on mutual exchange of beliefs and expectations of what employee and employer can expect from each other, given a contract only works with two parties agreeing to it.
But have we seen a shift in the balance of this contract, where the expectations of employees have really changed? Since the industrial revolution, organisations dictated employees’ working arrangements which focused on driving greater productivity and performance. This reflected the imbalance of power, with employees reliant on their organisations to structure working arrangements to drive the best results.
Employees signed up to this psychological contract, despite it representing an imbalance in favour of the employer. However, the pandemic stressed this equilibrium, which has led to many, reevaluating their relationship with their work.
While the pandemic has had a long-term impact on most, affecting everything from education to mental health, it could also be the cause of an evolution that’s changing people’s relationship with work. While organisations were supported through furlough schemes and government grants, employees took responsibility for keeping businesses going, by changing the way they worked. Employees took an unprecedented situation and found ways of dealing with it and since the first time in many years, employees had and took direct ownership of the success of the organisations they worked for – which changed everything.
We’ve seen a seismic shift in how we think about work since the that time, which goes far beyond submitting requests for flexible working. It shows that we’re at the threshold of realising a more balanced psychological work contract, driven by employees, who have different mutually agreed beliefs and expectations in how employees and employers work together.
Gone are the days when employees are only satisfied with financial reward and a nice manager. Gen Z will soon become the largest generation making up our workforce and while money is important to them (as they’re likely to be poorer than previous generations), many want work to be something that complements their life, and not something that only provides financial reward.
Some have said the generation gap is a myth, and before the pandemic this may have been true. But when a generation has experienced such a paradigm shift it brings a different mindset of beliefs and expectations about how work can and should be carried out.
It’s hard to see how anyone could go back to the previous way of working, which should have always focussed on outputs and outcomes rather than hours worked. Other than manufacturing, where it was easy to measure productivity, organisations have become complacent in measuring output and outcomes, with employees paying the price for this ambiguity.
Organisations utilising employee engagement surveys, listening forums, and employee representative initiatives often launch them with the best of intentions, however, the historical underlying imbalance of power towards employers, has prevented a more equitable relationship from forming, despite these initiatives. The strain some organisations are experiencing with mounting pressure to challenge how work is carried out, whether from expecting remote working to questioning if a four-day week would drive greater productivity, shows the shift taking place to the long-standing equilibrium of the psychological work contract.
Future successful organisations will be those that can attract and retain the best talent, and it’s unlikely that the next generation of employees will be willing to relinquish their courage to challenge how work is done.
Employees will seek a greater understanding of exactly what’s required of their role and expect organisations to clearly define measures, to understand how their value and success will be measured, regardless of when, where, and how they choose to work.
Rather than resisting change organisations should consider how they can shape it, by questioning and finding solutions to measuring outputs and productivity, by looking at how they help employees feel respected and valued, and how they help bring the psychological contract, based on a new set of mutually agreed expectations and beliefs to life.
