The Employment Contract
What will determine that someone will do a good job? What does ‘doing a good job’ means? Can managers develop an employment contract to answer to these questions? No!
The employment contract is different from every other contract because it is not possible to establish a direct relationship between what each party is to give. It is not like selling a product for an X amount of money. How much will the employee will give to the organization is subjective, it depends on personal discretions. The employment contract is a social relationship; each aspect of this relationship will never be able to be stipulated in a written contract.
Therefore, managing human resources is rather a balancing act than just writing contract. Reward, authority and control from the employer should be balanced with allowing the employee autonomy for creativity and personal interests. Managing human resources involves recognizing that there are potential zone of conflict of interests, and the process of managing people is a continuous act of barging and negotiations.
In this ‘balancing act’, employees interests have to be balanced with the organization’s goals. This relationship must be proactively managed and the basis to gain employees commitment; the key is to build trust. There will never be a direct relationship between the employment contract and employees behavior, this is why trust is needed to build in order to successfully meet both the organization’s and the employees interests. Employee management is about good communication and building trust.
Tags: balance, balancing act, communication, employee management, employment contract, trust