Knowledge Sharing and the Psychological Contract: Managing Knowledge Workers across Different Stages of Employment

Purpose – An employee’s willingness to share knowledge may be contingent on whether the organization equitably fulfills its reward obligations. This paper seeks to examine how managers and organizations can be vehicles for managing psychological contract perceptions favoring knowledge sharing among current employees, newcomers, and applicants. Design/methodology/approach – The authors propose an integrative model to discuss psychological contract issues within each stage of employment and HRM initiatives that can encourage knowledge-sharing behaviors. Findings – The implicit psychological contracts that often influence knowledge worker attitudes for sharing knowledge are easy to overlook and challenging to manage. Managers must properly assess the nature of psychological contracts maintained by such workers so that knowledge-sharing messages address employees’ key motivators. Different psychological contracts exist at various stages of employment. Several prescriptions for effectively managing each type of psychological contract and reducing perceptions of PC breach were offered. Research limitations/implications – Empirical studies should seek to investigate whether different psychological contracts actually exist within a field setting. In addition, how workers move between transitional, transactional, balanced and relational psychological contracts should be empirically examined. Originality/value – The authors sought to better understand the different psychological contract perceptions of knowledge workers at various stages of employment, which has not been done to date. Such workers are keenly aware of the impact of their knowledge and effective management for sharing rather than hoarding becomes a critical success factor for knowledge-intensive organizations

The psychological contract of knowledge workers

Purpose: This paper explores whether the concept of psychological contracts underpinned by relational/transactional exchanges provides an adequate description of knowledge workers’ contracts. Methodology: The research approach uses interviews with 10 scientists from within a pre-eminent Australian scientific research and development organisation, the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Findings: The research strong evidence of an ideological currency within the psychological contract for this set of knowledge workers. Implications: The research raises questions over the role of normative occupation-specific beliefs about work, and the sharing of common currency elements by individuals in the same organization within the same occupation. The analysis lends support to calls in the literature for a reconsideration of the transactional/relational interpretative framework that underpins the psychological contract

A hidden dimension? Work ideology and psychological contracts.

This paper explores whether the concept of psychological contracts underpinned by relational/transactional exchanges provides an adequate description of knowledge workers’ contracts. Interviews were conducted with scientists from the CSIRO. The analysis identified content of the psychological contract for the knowledge worker best understood by reference to an ideological currency. It raises questions over the role of normative occupation-specific beliefs about work, and the sharing of common currency elements by individuals in the same organization within the same occupation. The analysis lends support to calls in the literature for a reconsideration of the transactional/relational interpretative framework that underpins the psychological contract

Tacit knowledge in blue-collar work : how workers use it to fulfil their side of the psychological contract

Purpose: This study aims to analyse the role of tacit knowledge in fulfilling employees’ side of the psychological contract in blue-collar work. Design/methodology/approach: The research questions are as follows: How is tacit knowledge acquired in blue-collar work and how do blue-collar workers use tacit knowledge to fulfil their obligations within the psychological contract? This qualitative study comprising 30 interviews uses theory-led content analysis. Findings: Blue-collar workers need time and experience to acquire tacit knowledge. An important aspect of tacit knowledge is knowing the ways in which the work is best done in practice and seeking better ways of doing the job. Workers use their tacit knowledge to perform their work well and efficiently, even in problematic situations, and to improve their work to fulfil their side of the psychological contract. Practical implications: Organisations should see the value of the tacit knowledge blue-collar workers possess and develop actions that involve the workers in sharing their tacit knowledge and also in planning the actions related to this knowledge sharing. Originality/value: This study adds to the limited body of studies on the relationship between tacit knowledge and the psychological contract.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

The role of the psychological contract amongst knowledge workers in the reinsurance industry

The core assets of reinsurance organisations lie in the knowledge, skills and experience of knowledge workers. The source of competitive advantage within the reinsurance industry lies in managers’ ability to harness and foster discipline, willingness and innovation amongst knowledge workers. Innovation is a key challenge in knowledge intensive firms and it is therefore critical that executives find ways of encouraging an environment that is conducive to sharing ideas, building trust and motivating superior performance. The loyalty and retention of knowledge workers have become key managerial challenges.This research is intended to provide an insight into the development and implications of the psychological contract amongst knowledge workers within the reinsurance industry in South Africa. In understanding the nature of the psychological contract, it is intended that employers will be able to identify how and when psychological violations take place, the extent to which they impact productivity and the implications for knowledge workers’ propensity for departure. The research will provide an insight into the alignment of knowledge worker values and perceived organisational and industry values. Furthermore, this research will provide the basis for establishing a model for remedial and restorative contracting with a view to redefining new psychological contracts in order to achieve optimal performance from knowledge workers within our industry.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)unrestricte

Same words, different worlds: Exploring differences in researcher and participant understandings of promise and obligation in the psychological contract

This paper addresses long-standing questions about promise and obligation, two of the key conceptual building blocks for psychological contract research, are conceptualized and operationalized: How do employees understand these concepts? Would their understandings be congruent with the researchers’ and how would this knowledge inform future psychological contract research? Drawing on interviews with Chinese workers from diverse backgrounds, our results suggest the concepts have distinct meanings for participants in terms of three criteria (defining characteristics, key features and manifestations in employment). We argue that promise and obligation are likely to serve different functions in employment relationship and have different meanings for researchers versus participants, and accordingly we highlight the challenges of using them to conceptualize and operationalize psychological contracts in China and beyond

Motivating the knowledge worker to perform

Competitive advantage for any organisation relies on the output of knowledge workers. The more motivated the knowledge worker the more likely they are to perform. This research explores the links between motivation and performance and creates a better understanding of which motivational factors would fall within the ambit of the psychological contract. The secondary portion of the research was to clarify if different types of knowledge workers performed in response to motivation in the same way. The research was done through in-depth interviews of knowledge workers in the 4 defined clusters. A total of 26 interviews were conducted. A questionnaire using open ended questions was used to guide the interview. The interviews were recorded, and the key themes in the results were captured, transformed and analysed, after which a ranking process was done on the results. The findings were analysed from various perspectives. The research found that there are differences in the groups studied from a number of perspectives, such as; motivation and performance scores, the motivation factors, the factors that act against performance, the organisational and individual duties as would be ‘held’ in the psychological contract. The research found that most of the factors that motivate are in the psychological contract. The findings strongly recommend that management needs to fully understand and manage the unique motivators of each individual knowledge worker in order to obtain maximum performance and hence competitive advantage.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)unrestricte

Short measures of organisational commitment, citizenship behaviour and other employee attitudes and behaviours

Background: There is considerable literature on Psychological Contract Fulfilment and other employee attitudes and behaviours. Similarly, there is increasing literature on well-being at work, the well-being process and short measures of psychosocial concepts. Aims and objectives The first aim of the present study was to develop short measures of employee attitudes and behaviours and validate these by examining associations with longer established measures. The second aim was to examine associations of these short measures with Psychological Contract Fulfilment and aspects of well-being. Methods The study involved an online survey of 166 workers from the USA recruited using Mechanical Turk and delivered using Qualtrics software. The survey included established measures and the newly developed short items. Results There were high correlations between short items and established measures. The short items were associated with Psychological Contract Fulfilment and the well-being variables in the predicted direction. Conclusion The new short items can be used in future multi-variate analyses of the well-being of workers. This will lead to an increase in our knowledge and the development of new models that can be of theoretical and practical significance

A methodological approach to developing a measure of the psychological contract for managers

With a focus on a specific employment group this research attempted to add to the knowledge on the content of the psychological contract. Structured interviews with 35 managers generated 651 responses relating to the content of their psychological contracts. Analysis of those responses resulted in the development of an initial two-component measure of the contract. One component (23 items) included the managers' expectations relating to the organisation's obligations. The other component (16 items) included the managers' obligations relating to the perceived organisation's expectations. Validation of the measure was based on a questionnaire completed by 124 managers. Participants considered all items to be important aspects of the contract. Participants also rated as high the obligation of each party to meet the expectations of the other. Factor analysis of the measure revealed two factors in each component which, in line with previous research, were termed relational obligations and transactional obligations. A robust methodology is proposed for continuing research into the content of the psychological work contract