Workplace Loyalty

Introduction
There are 2 groups at the different parts of the spectrum on workplace loyalty
"...on one side of the bosses and tenured employees, the boomers and gen Xs. 'Kids these days', they gripe. 'they have no loyalty?' On the other side are the younger rank-and-file employees, the millennials and Gen Zers, who feel equally aggrieved. 'Why should I be loyal to my company when my company is not loyal to me?'..."
Aki Ito, 2024
Currently many people are juggling multi-full-time jobs; this appears to be violating societies implicit norms of loyalty to one employer, ie
"...Don't switch companies, grow into one company, be loyal to one company, and they be loyal to you..."
Aki Ito, 2024
Psychological contract
It is defined as
"...A set of things that employees and employers believe they owe each other and are owed in return. Many of these beliefs are societal in scope. Others emerge from personal experiences on the job..."
Aki Ito, 2024
There are 2 parts to the psychological contract:
i) mutuality (both parties have a shared understanding of expectations)
ii) reciprocity (both parties believe they are getting a fair deal)
NB if you do these 2 parts correctly you generate trust and loyalty that leads to higher productivity and lower staff turnover; however, if you don't handle them correctly, you have staff problems.
Some background
In the decades following World War II, a booming economy resulted in successful organisations offering
- significant and regular wage and salary increases
- expansion of benefits like health insurance, profit-sharing programs, pensions, extensive training, etc. For example,
"...Kodak, which had an 18-hole golf course and at 300,000 square foot recreation centre for employees, sponsored everything from picnics and baseball games to bridge and badminton..."
Wartzman as quoted by Aki Ito, 2024
- job security (most organisations offered good job security, ie very few layoffs, etc)
NB
"...it is not hard to see why so many workers and itmanagers felt a genuine commitment to their companies during the decades of.......prosperity. Their employers were good to them, so it makes sense for them to be good to their employers..."
Aki Ito, 2024
Globalisation change all this, ie threat of overseas competition, resulted in exporting jobs and downsizing domestic workforce. People were started to be treated transactionally, not relationally. Gradually established incentives disappeared
"...companies replaced pensions with 401(k)s, forced employees to shoulder a greater share of health-care premiums, scrap supplementary health insurance for retirees, and started relying on external hires rather than training and promoting from within..."
Aki Ito, 2024
Many new hires were offered higher salaries than their contemporaries in the organisation, ie
"...veteran employees receive salaries that were 7% lower, on average, at new hires..."
Aki Ito, 2024
Many workers now understand the new norm, ie loyalty to self rather than to the organisation.
"... I'm always expecting that every job I have, I could be fired tomorrow..."
Aki Ito, 2024