Employer's flexibility and commitment

Employer's flexibility and commitment

Employer's flexibility and commitment

Based on the earlier analysis, employment flexibility presents a tendency to cause feelings of uncertainty and insecurity to employees. Naturally there are differences among countries and social contexts (e.g. EU and the U.S.A) but the voice that there are no more `jobs for life` is increasing. Undoubtedly, this is bound to have adverse effects on employees and trigger negative reactions. The latter is further accentuated as trade union power declines and other forms of collective representation become marginalized. (Beardwell I, Holden, L. & Claydon T. 2004, 54-67)

One of the most prominent feature employees bring into the ER is the sense of commitment to the organization which is not possible to remain unaffected in the general environment of instability. The first question that needs to be asked is how employee commitment is borne inside the employment relationship. The most frequent tool to describe the ER and eventually leads to commitment is the psychological contract. We can describe it as ``individuals beliefs, shaped by the organization, regarding the terms of an exchange relationship between the individual employee and the organization. In simple words, employees offer to the organization their labor, skills, loyalty etc and in return they perceive the organization must comply to a set of obligations such as financial rewards, employment benefits, job security etc. Similarly, the organization anticipates that employees will perform at high levels, will be loyal to the company and will work to achieve the organizations goals. The psychological contract in not in a written format as standard employment contracts (Beardwell I, Holden, L. & Claydon T. 2004, 54-67)

Nevertheless, it encompasses a much wider view of the employment relationship as ``it looks at the reality of the situation as perceived by the parties and may be more influential than the formal contract in affecting how employees behave from day-to-day`` 1 .One important observation about the PC is that, since it is based on the perceived opinions of employees and considering the large amount of individuals in the labor force it can be highly subjective Guest and (Claydon, T. 2004, 122-54) provide a useful model of the psychological contract which begins from its antecedents.

Functional flexibility: It allows employees to combine skills and competencies in order to increase their mobility across the various channels of production. Functional flexibility relies on extensive training and thus it is likely to be pursued when ...