Learning objectives

At the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• understand and apply the concept of psychological contracts to work situations;

• recognize good practice in managing psychological contracts in organizations, and take steps to influence these unwritten contracts;

• understand the problems of managing talent, careers, individual organizational linkages and work life balance;

• use the ideas of organizational commitment, identity and psychological ownership to analyse the strength of employee orientations to your organization;

• diagnose your strengths and weaknesses as a leader and those of other colleagues;

• construct a learning agenda to build your leadership competencies.

Introduction

In the previous chapter, we focused on the need for managers to understand themselves and to reflect on how they can be more effective by managing at different levels and in different contexts. Our model of the well-rounded manager has also highlighted the need for managers to develop their emotional intelligence, competencies and decision-making skills by developing an attitude of wisdom. In this chapter I shall develop some of these ideas, but this time focus on how managers can better understand the individual organizational relationship and how they can provide more effective leadership that is sensitive to people's attachments to work and their needs.

This topic is potentially vast, and is usually covered by conventional texts and courses on organizational behaviour, which concentrate on understanding individual differences, motivation and job satisfaction, learning, group dynamics, leadership and the like. I shall not attempt to repeat what is already well treated in such books. Instead, I want...