SMO 500 Reflection Post #5 The Psychological Contract, Microsoft and Mutual Investment

Companies get the most of their employees and employees thrive when their is a mutual investment by both parties. There must be an equal trade-off between what the company is asking from the employee and what the employer is willing to give in exchange for the best the employee has to offer.

The surprising conclusion that one can draw from the cases is that an employer does not need to demand the employee give everything that they can. All the employer must do is ensure that an employee feels challenged by a lofty enough goal and that they are paid well enough (not exorbitantly well) and the employees internal drive and motivation will be whatever it is the employer needs it to be.

Allow Employees to Change the World

At Microsoft this meant that employees were given the freedom to create what they needed in order to help the company achieve it's lofty vision, and the employees quickly realized that to achieve this they would have to work long hours, expect a great deal from themselves, and that this would mean working at a fast pace with a heavy workload. It wasn't until employees began to see themselves as not essential to achieving the Microsoft vision, or once they stopped believing in the Microsoft vision that they began to look elsewhere for work or suffer from burnout. The Microsoft case teaches us that if one hires the right people, people that are up for the challenge, intelligent and creative, and gives them an immense goal that matches their immense ambition, then one can expect them to give greatness.

There are much more intricate details at play in the Microsoft case, especially as one considers the HR sub-functions of selection, training, socializing and retention, but the real take-away from this case is that if an employer wants greatness from it's people then it must always behave as if greatness is immense and achievable.

This conclusion is echoed, although it is a little more toned down, in the Tsui and Wu article which critiques any employment relationship that doesn't operate as a mutual investment between employee and employer. Mutual loyalty, as cited in the article, produces the best and most productive employees. By connecting the conclusions of the Tsui and Wu article with the cases previously studied in this course it is easy to conclude that when an employee believes they are working towards something important within a company that is allowing them to contribute meaningfully to the success of the company then, and only then, is the psychological contract complete.

They need a goal that speaks to them that they
can be essential to helping achieve. 

Not all industries and all sectors will be able to tap into the ambition and drive that fuel every individual to strive towards greatness, but every company should try. Westjet was able to spark a believe that they were changing air travel, Microsoft was able to push employees to want to change the world and bring a PC to every home, and as a school leader I am going to work every day to show my colleagues the virtue of their ambition and the loftiness of their goals shaping the future of individual students.