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The changing psychological contract at work

Article  in  Occupational and Environmental Medicine · July 2002

DOI: 10.1136/oem.59.6.355 · Source: PubMed

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 EDITORIAL 355

Work psychology This movement will actually give em-

................................................................................... ployees more control of their working
life, but with substantially less security.

The changing psychological contract Sparrow and Cooper7 identified four

areas that are affected by changing

at work employment relationships at work: (1)

what we want out of work and how we
maintain individuality in a world where
C L Cooper we face a choice between more intense
...................................................................................
employment or no employment at all; (2)
our relationships with other individuals
Revisiting the job demands-control model in a work process that can be altered in
terms of social interactions, time pat-
terns, and geographical locations; (3) the

T
he old adage that “change is here to culture. Just as organisations were re- cooperative and competitive links be-
stay” epitomises the workplace over engineering themselves to be more flex- tween different internal and external
the past three decades. And yet ible and adaptive by outsourcing many of constituents of the organisation in their
research in the field of occupational their functions and creating “the flexible new more flexible form; and (4) the
stress has been rooted in simple two or workforce”, employees were expected to relationships between key stakeholders
three dimensional models such as the be open to continual change, adaptable, and institutions such as governments,
job demands-control model. The article and aware that jobs were no longer for unions, and managers.
by de Croon and colleagues1 in this issue life. The psychological contract between The job demands-control model,
is important, even with some of its employer and employee in terms of “rea- which is based on organisational envi-
methodological shortcomings (self re- sonably permanent employment for ronments and structures of the past, is
port, cross sectional design) and the work well done” was truly being under- already beginning to break down as we
increasing movement towards more mined, as more and more employees no enter the era of flexible and contingency
complex stress-strain models,2 by gener- longer regarded their employment as working. Job security may be going but
ating and highlighting more occupation secure and began to realise that their control by the individual over their own
specific stressors in the process. This was careers and futures were in their own destiny is increasing. This will have pro-
started by Sparks and Cooper,3 in a range hands and not in the human resource found effects on society, but also in the
of occupational groups where it was departments of the large corporates. research that should be carried out in the
shown that job demand and job control Indeed, in an ISR[4]3 survey of 400 future in the field of occupational and
were only two among a range of factors companies in 17 countries employing organisational stress and health.
that predicted job related strain out- over 8 million workers throughout Eu-
rope, the employment security of work- Occup Environ Med 2002;59:355
comes. This is a significant development,
because if we are to intervene effectively ers significantly declined between 1985
.....................
to minimise or eliminate “organisational and 1995: UK, from 70% in 1985 to 48%
in 1995; Germany, from 83% to 55%; Authors’ affiliations
sources” of stress, we must have a C L Cooper, BUPA Professor of Organizational
France, from 64% to 50%; the Nether- Psychology and Health and Deputy Vice
comprehensive and accurate assessment
lands, from 73% to 61%; Belgium, from Chancellor of the University of Manchester
of the range of stressors that predict ill
60% to 54%; and Italy from 62% to 57%. Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST),
health. Manchester, UK
Worklife in the developed world has
moved on dramatically since the 1970s, “Most organisations will Correspondence to: Prof. C L Cooper,
Manchester School of Management, UMIST,
when the job demands-control model have only a small core of PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, UK
was first posited. The 1970s was a period
of industrial strife, conflict, and re-
full time, permanent
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ing classes, and between liberal and con- term contract” culture has also meant a Occup Environ Med 2002;59:356–61.
servative thinking. This was an era about “longer hours” culture in many 2 Cooper CL. Theories of organizational stress.
power and control in many developed Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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countries. Out of the turmoil of the employers, and more portfolio careers. differences in the work-strain relationship:
1970s came the “enterprise culture” of Indeed, in predicting the nature of future towards the use of situation-specific models.
the 1980s, a decade of privatisations, leg- corporate life, many experts argue that Journal of Occupational and Organizational
Psychology 1999;72:219–29.
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and globalisation, transforming econo- working from a conventional office.6 London: ISR, 1995.
5 Worrall L, Cooper CL. The long working
mies into hot-house, free market envi- They will buy most of the skills they need hours culture. European Business Forum
ronments. By the end of the 1980s and on a contract basis, either from individu- 2001;6:48–53.
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sion, the privatising mentality of the organizations: a handbook for future research
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public sector, and new technology, laid by hiring people on short term contracts Wiley & Sons, 1997.
the groundwork for one of the most pro- to do specific jobs or to carry out specific 7 Sparrow P, Cooper CL. New organizational
found changes in the workplaces of the projects. In this way, companies will be forms: the strategic relevance of future
psychological contract scenarios. Canadian
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