Middle Managers and the Employee Psychological Contract: Agency, Protection and Advancement

Abstract

This paper investigates the construction and enactment of the employee psychological contract by a sample of middle-level line and personnel managers responsible for introducing job change in the air traffic control sector. We show how middle managers' concerns with fulfilling their own contractual commitments to senior management are perceived to conflict with meeting obligations to subordinates under the employment agreement. Thus, we illustrate our main argument that middle managers who are exposed to more exacting performance demands and controls do not simply subordinate employee concerns to their own interests. They seek to disguise the presence and outcomes of employee disaffection and to manipulate the impressions of senior management. We conclude that far from increasing individual accountability at middle levels such stringent controls may yield interpersonal rivalry, lower standards of employee treatment and the subversion of corporate aims

An Examination of the Factors that Influence Whether Newcomers Protect or Share Secrets of their Former Employers*

“…These feelings of obligation are part of individuals' psychological contracts, i.e. their conceptions about the mutual obligations that exist between employees and employers (Hallier and James, 1997; Herriot et al., 1997; Rousseau, 1989).…”

IT-enabled credit risk modernisation: a revolution under the cloak of normality

“…Loan managers found themselves in a declining job market, experiencing an organizational 'climate of attrition' (Hallier and James 1997). Realizing their new personal and professional risk position, many individuals have been forced to redefine their 'psychological contract' with their employer (Hallier and James 1997).…”

“…Realizing their new personal and professional risk position, many individuals have been forced to redefine their 'psychological contract' with their employer (Hallier and James 1997). This can be both liberating and immensely stressful, demanding creative thinking and risktaking with an uncertain outcome.…”

Cross-level effects of ethical climate on the relationship between psychological contract breach and ethical decision-making intention

“…In the employment setting, psychological contract is considers the exchange of interests and reciprocation between the individual and the organization (Hallier and James, 1997). According to the exchange theory, if employees perceive that the organization fails to fulfill its obligations, they will take corresponding actions or carry out unethical behaviors, such as poor performance and bribery, to enforce fairness between the two parties.…”