Changing Employment Relationships

The employment relationship is changing due to various factors. With the continuing decline of worldwide economy, employees found themselves in a predicament where they must fight for their places in the organizations. There are several means that the employment relationship has been evolving throughout the years. Nowadays, the employment relationship has shifted from humaneness and respect towards focus on cost efficiency. Due to the financial crisis, the first transaction in organizational change is structural, many multinational firms have been downsizing and restructuring. With less manpower, the remaining staffs have to double, sometimes even triple their workload. The work intensification alters the employment relationship. It negatively …show more content…
According to Anjali Chaudhry’s research, “In response to globalization and increased competition, organizations are implementing change programs such as downsizing, corporate mergers, restructuring, and sometimes outsourcing to stay competitive. With the recent economic downturn, it seems likely that the new workplace reality will significantly redefine employment relationships and have an impact on individuals’ psychological contracts.” (Anjali Chaudhry, 2011). Therefore, these external factors have a significant impact on reshaping the employment relationships as well as the psychological contracts between employees and employers. Without globalization and increased competition, when most people entered the labour force, their psychological contracts with the organizations are rather relational. They are looking for jobs that guarantee them with long term positions and various social benefits. After the financial crisis that sunk the world economy, the risk of job insecurity shifts toward employees. For example, employees now pay more of the premium and absorb more of the risk than do employers; and the decline in defined benefit plans (Arne L. Kalleberg, 2008). Also, because of the recent recession, many companies have been seeking cost reductions by decreasing payment (Hassard_et_al-2012). Thus, structural change becomes inevitable for most multinational firms. With thousands of employees …show more content…
It results in largely increase the precarious nature of working. Also, the employment relationship has tilted towards the employees. Due to the economic hardship, workers now need to make themselves employable through self-managing. By self-managing, employees can achieve greater success through impressing their superiors in order to earn themselves promotions and better compensation both socially and economically. It becomes a psychological cycle for employees and their supervisors. By working harder, the employees will be able to showcase themselves. Then, the employers will begin to consider to fulfil their end of the psychological contracts. In other words, only by self-managing, the employees will be able to make a switch from transactional psychological contract towards the relational psychological