Psychological Contract in High Performance Companies: The Pain and the Pleasure of being a Contemporary Worker

Abstract

Broader changes in capitalist production structure outlined a scenario marked by fierce competition between companies, which is demanding a workforce increasingly committed and willing to devote much of his time to organizations (GREEN, 2001). This intense dedication of the worker involves aspects ranging from the increase in working hours, through the way of thinking in the organization, seen as an extension of their lives, until the option for work at the expense of personal life. It is in this context that organizations of traditional work have given way to organizations using the systems characterized by high work performance. These systems provide workers greater autonomy and control over their work processes, which give them greater responsibilities to solve technical and operational problems (APPELBAUM, 2002). Although there are many recent studies that address this new dynamic work (HUGHES, 2008; WOOD and MENEZES, 2011) they mostly tend to focus on explaining the characteristics of high performance work systems. However, few studies are devoted to better understand the motivations that lead individuals to work intensified pace and long hours, apparently voluntarily. Evidence of the growing adoption of high performance work systems, in the current context of labor relations, as well as the attractiveness that organizations adopting the exercise over a significant group of workers, motivated this research aimed to know the terms psychological contracts established between professional and high performance organizations.

Keywords

• Psychological Contract
• High Performance
• Working Relationships