Manager-employee psychological contracts: enter the smartphone

Published date12 February 2018
Pages193-207
Date12 February 2018
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/ER-02-2017-0040
AuthorElena Obushenkova,Barbara Plester,Nigel Haworth
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law
Manager-employee psychological
contracts: enter the smartphone
Elena Obushenkova, Barbara Plester and Nigel Haworth
Department of Management and International Business,
University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how company-provided smartphones and user-device
attachment influence the psychological contract between employees and managers in terms of connectivity
expectations and outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using qualitative semi-structured interviews with
28 participants from four organizations.
Findings The study showed that when organizations provide smartphones to their employees, the
smartphones become a part of the manager-employee relationship through user-device attachment and this
can change connectivity expectations for both employees and managers.
Research limitations/implications Due to participant numbers, these findings may not be generalizable
to all employees and managers who receive company smartphones. However, the authors have important
implications for theory. The smartphone influence on the psychological climate and its role as a signal for
workplace expectations suggest that mobile information and communication technology devices must be
considered in psychological contract formation, development, change and breach.
Practical implications The perceived expectations can lead to hyper-connectivity which can have a
number of negative performance and health outcomes such as technostress, burnout, absenteeism and
work-life conflict.
Social implications Smartphone usage and user-device attachment have the potential to redefine human
relations by encouraging and normalizing hyper-connected relationships.
Originality/value This study makes an original contribution to psychological contract theory by showing
that smartphones and attachment to these devices create perceived expectations to stay connected to work
and create negative outcomes, especially for managers.
Keywords Employment relations, Psychological contract, Connectivity,
Information and communication technologies, Interpersonal behaviour, User-device relationships
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Technological devices have the ability to facilitate and even alter human relationships.
However, despite the exponential growth of mobile information and communication
technology (ICT) usage in the workplace (Peters and Allouch, 2005) research on how such
technologies can impact the employment relationship between employees and their
managers is still in its nascent stage. The psychological contract (a central concept in
employment relations) refers to the idea that individuals within organizations have
perceptions and expectations about their obligations to each other (Rousseau, 1989).
Psychological contracts are subjective and can include a wide range of expectations about
factors such as work hours and productivity (Conway and Briner, 2009). Psychological
contract expectations usually form at the start of the recruitment process, however,
expectations can change at any point during employment, especially if perceived promises
are broken, interrupted or altered by noticeable events (Rousseau, 1995).
When an organization adoptsICTs or they provideICT devices to employees,it can change
expectations regarding communication, flexibility and connectivity (Bittman et al., 2009;
Cavazotte et al., 2014; Duxbury and Smart, 2011; Jaakson and Kallaste, 2010). Due to rapid
advancements in ICTs, one ofthe key expectations in contemporary workplaces is about how
Employee Relations
Vol. 40 No. 2, 2018
pp. 193-207
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-02-2017-0040
Received 21 February 2017
Revised 20 September 2017
31 October 2017
Accepted 2 November 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
Early versions of this paper were presented at two conferences: ANZAM 2014 and ANZAM 2015.
193
Manager-
employee
psychological
contracts

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