Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-Bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to their Changing Contracts

This article describes the emerging changes in psychological contracts being experienced by British middle managers in relation to their employing organizations, the middle managers' negative reactions to these changes and organizational responses to such negativity. By analysing case studies o...

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Main Authors: Dopson, S, Neumann, J
Format: Journal article
Published: 1998
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author Dopson, S
Neumann, J
author_facet Dopson, S
Neumann, J
author_sort Dopson, S
collection OXFORD
description This article describes the emerging changes in psychological contracts being experienced by British middle managers in relation to their employing organizations, the middle managers' negative reactions to these changes and organizational responses to such negativity. By analysing case studies of 16 organizations, a classification of changes to five elements of the psychological contract are identified: knowledge, motivation, goals and means, role behaviour and ethics. By analysing the semi-structured interviews of 37 middle managers, selected from a much larger database for their obvious negative reactions, a continuum of such reactions is considered: uncertainty, contrariness and double-bind. This consideration leads, then, to suggestions for further research.
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spelling oxford-uuid:64a50c99-27c7-4501-8c0e-c75ab20ce3032022-03-26T18:20:10ZUncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-Bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to their Changing ContractsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:64a50c99-27c7-4501-8c0e-c75ab20ce303Saïd Business School - Eureka1998Dopson, SNeumann, JThis article describes the emerging changes in psychological contracts being experienced by British middle managers in relation to their employing organizations, the middle managers' negative reactions to these changes and organizational responses to such negativity. By analysing case studies of 16 organizations, a classification of changes to five elements of the psychological contract are identified: knowledge, motivation, goals and means, role behaviour and ethics. By analysing the semi-structured interviews of 37 middle managers, selected from a much larger database for their obvious negative reactions, a continuum of such reactions is considered: uncertainty, contrariness and double-bind. This consideration leads, then, to suggestions for further research.
spellingShingle Dopson, S
Neumann, J
Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-Bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to their Changing Contracts
title Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-Bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to their Changing Contracts
title_full Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-Bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to their Changing Contracts
title_fullStr Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-Bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to their Changing Contracts
title_full_unstemmed Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-Bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to their Changing Contracts
title_short Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-Bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to their Changing Contracts
title_sort uncertainty contrariness and the double bind middle managers reactions to their changing contracts
work_keys_str_mv AT dopsons uncertaintycontrarinessandthedoublebindmiddlemanagersreactionstotheirchangingcontracts
AT neumannj uncertaintycontrarinessandthedoublebindmiddlemanagersreactionstotheirchangingcontracts