Leading and managing people

The report discusses the importance of flexible working and psychological contract in improving workplace environment and increasing employee efficiency. It includes a literature review, implementation of the concepts in Ooredoo Oman Telecommunication Company, and recommendations to improve employee engagement.

Running head: Leading and managing people
Leading and managing people
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Introduction
The report intends to give an analytical study on organizational practices inclusive of
flexible working and psychological contract. Hence, the study focuses on the organizational
practices o the company called Ooredoo Oman Telecommunication Company. The whole idea of
the discussion is to shed light on the importance of the two factors flexible working and
psychological contract as to how these two aspects can improve workplace environment while
increasing employee efficiency (Hickman 2014). Thus the paper begins with literature review
highlighting different perceptions of the two above mentioned aspects. An extensive reading of
different sources has been undertaken in order to show how the interpretations of flexible
working and psychological contract differ from one perspective to another. The next part of the
discussion throws light on the implementation of the two concepts in the chosen company since
employee retention is a big challenge for this organization. The final part of the discussion gives
recommendations in order to improve employee engagement within the organization followed by
a summarization of the whole discussion.
Literature review
Flexible working
As per Bentley (2009), the term flexible working refers to the arrangement of working
that provides employees a wide range of flexibilities in terms of timing, place and type. The
provision of flexible working is given with a view of high efficiency from the employees and a
higher level of engagement from them. Wolff (2010) suggests that the concept of flexible
working is subjective. For instance, one might consider part time facility as flexible, other might

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consider working from different places as per convenience as flexible working (ter Hoeven and
van Zoonen 2015). The major advantage generated from flexible working is that it makes
employees valued at work which in turn increases their retention as they become more engaged
with organization. In accordance with Wyatt (2010) there is a wide range of flexible working
practices that includes part time working, term time working, job sharing, flexibility, compressed
hours, annual hours, working from home, teleworking or mobile working, career breaks and zero
hours contracts. There are other practices as well like self-rostering, self-swapping or taking
breaks for the purpose of training (Sweeney 2015). However most of the organizations adopt
work from home, part time working, and flex time in terms of flexible working. As per Hickman
(2014), organizations that provide the benefit of flexible working generally have more employee
retention than the companies who do not provide the benefit of flexible working to its
employees.
Psychological contract
As per Mcdermott, Conway and Rousseau (2013), the psychological contract alludes to
the notion of perception of the relation between employer and employees in terms of their mutual
obligations to each other. The mutual obligations can be sometimes informal. Rayton and
Yalabik (2014) generally the moral obligations are inferred from the previous actions of the
employer and employee or the statements made by the employer as well as employees. Instances
can be given with the example of recruitment process where employer makes statement
regarding benefits to be given to the employees. Guest and Conway (2002) states that there are
two categories of obligations while some of them are considered as expectations, others are
considered as promises. As per Mcdermott, Conway and Rousseau (2013), the psychological

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contract is completely different from the obligations in terms of law. While legal obligations
provide limited benefits to the employees representing reality of employee relationship,
psychological contract gives more than that impacting positively on the employee behavior from
day to day work life.
Rayton and Yalabik (2014) further suggests that the psychological contract refers to
mutual agreement as to what the employees need to do on their side and what they can expect
from their employer or from the job. Hence, a mutual trust and confidence between the
employees and the employer is the strong base of psychological contract. In needs to be
discussed that when psychological contracts are broken or breached the areas that are adversely
impacted are job satisfaction of the employees, employee retention, employee commitment to the
organization and most importantly employee well being. The notion of psychological contract
gives immense importance on the efforts of managerial departments since the employee
relationship is extremely vulnerable in spite of their best efforts. Guest and Conway (2002)
suggests that the entire liability of strengthening employee relationship and retaining that are
must be held by them solely. In order to maintain employee retention, it is highly required that
mangers take precautionary measures so that breach of psychological contract can be avoided.
The psychological contract is evolved over time and according to employee needs. Therefore,
psychological contract and flexible working are correlated with each other opposing the
traditional organizational culture which provides less flexibility to the employees.
In accordance with Mcdermott, Conway and Rousseau (2013), the psychological contract
has been becoming more important with the change of employer-employee relationship. As per
the present notion of psychological contract, employer or managers need to understand the
expectations of employees on a priority basis. As per recent research that drastic change imposed

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on employees by management have a negative influence on employees. On the other hands
companies that give special attention on employee engagement by conducting fair practices
achieve higher rate of employee retention and employee engagement.
Discussion
Employee retention has been emerged as a biggest challenge for Ooredoo Oman
Telecommunication Company. Often, soon after joining, employees in the company leave their
job due to several reasons like dissatisfaction, work load, less flexibility and so on
(Arabianbusiness.com 2018). Hence it can be suggested that the two major aspects psychological
contract and flexible working can be introduce in the organization in order to address the above
mentioned issues. The company Ooredoo Oman is one of largest companies of Oman in the
industry of telecommunication with 1000 employees turn over approximately. Hence, it is easily
understood that the mangers of the company need to be more agile so that employees remain
effective in their work. However, it has been observed that the mangers failed to make the
employees engaged with the organization. While the organization needed to implement a flexible
working hours so that employees can be able to manage the extreme work load, the management
imposed more strict rules and regulation like proper dress code, timely reporting to office, no
provision of work from home or any other place and so on. As a result, an outrage among the
employees was seen since they felt less valued in the organization (Arabianbusiness.com 2018).
The outcome was not limited to simply outrage of the employees, many of the efficient
employees preferred leaving their job which impacted adversely on the major resource of the
company, that is employee which called for an immediate attention of thee managers in order to
address the issue (Businesswire.com 2018).

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In order to address the issue of employee engagement, the management team of the
company adopted the two above mentioned concepts, psychological contract and flexible
working (Ooredoo.om 2018). Addressing the requirement of the employees for flexibility of
work the company introduced flexible working under which benefits were given to the
employees so that they can be more efficient and committed to the work. The practices of
flexibility of working included mainly the provision of work from home so that they will be able
to work from any places as per their convenience. On the other hand, along with work from
home benefits, the employees were given two other benefits that are compressed hours and
annual hours.
Recommendation
 The organization must implement the Bridge’s change model in order to improve
the organizational culture of the company. According to the Bridge’s change
model, the managers need to organize meetings and interaction sessions before
implementing any drastic change within the organization in order to avoid
negative influence on employees.
 In order to maintain employee retention, it is highly required that mangers take
precautionary measures so that breach of psychological contract can be avoided.
 The managers need to provide n effective communication system so that
employees will be able to escalate their concern to the higher authority easily.
 The company needs to give special attention on the technological and other
infrastructures in relation with work from home or teleworking facility.

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Conclusion
Thus, it is apt to assert that the whole idea of the discussion was to throw light on the
importance of the two factors namely flexible working and psychological contract as to how
these two aspects can improve workplace environment at the same time can increase employee
efficiency. Hence, the paper opened with literature review highlighting different perceptions of
the two above mentioned aspects. An extensive reading of different sources has been undertaken
in order to show how the interpretations of flexible working and psychological contract differ
from one perspective to another. The following section of the discussion elaborated on the
implementation of the two concepts in the chosen company since employee retention is a big
challenge for this organization. The final part of the discussion provided suggestive measures in
order to improve employee engagement within the organization.

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References
Arabianbusiness.com. 2018. Employee Dissatisfaction reported in Ooredoo Oman. [online]
ArabianBusiness.com. Available at: https://www.arabianbusiness.com/employee-dissatisfaction-
reported-in-ooredoo-oman-628542.html [Accessed 4 Oct. 2018].
Bentley, R. 2009 Go with the flow. Employers’ Law. May. pp14-15.
Extension of the right to work flexibly. 2009 IDS Employment Law Brief. No 874, April. pp17-
20.
Guest, D.E. and Conway, N., 2002. Pressure at work and the psychological contract. London:
CIPD.
Businesswire.com. 2018. Why Does Ooredoo Fail In Retaining Its Employees. [online]
Businesswire.com. Available at:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227005306/en/Why-Does-Ooredoo-Fail-In-
Retaining-Its-Employees [Accessed 4 Oct. 2018].
Hickman, A. 2014 Finding the right balance. Human Resources.pp26-33..
Mcdermott, A., Conway, E. and Rousseau, D.M. 2013 Promoting effective psychological
contracts through leadership: the missing link between HR strategy and performance. Human
Resource Management. 52(2), pp289-310.
Ooredoo.om. 2018. Annual-Report-2016-english. [online] Ooredoo.om. Available at:
https://ooredoo.om/Portals/0/pdf/IR/Annual-Report-2016-english.pdf [Accessed 4 Oct. 2018].

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Rayton, B.A. and Yalabik, Z.Y., 2014. Work engagement, psychological contract breach and job
satisfaction. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(17), pp.2382-2400.
Sweeney, C. 2015 The future of work is flexible. Journal of Management. 39(12).pp.89-91.
ter Hoeven, C.L. and van Zoonen, W., 2015. Flexible work designs and employee well‐being:
examining the effects of resources and demands. New Technology, Work and Employment, 30(3),
pp.237-255.
Wolff, C. 2010 Right to request time off to train leaves employers unperturbed. IRS Employment
Review. 3 March. 3pp.
Wyatt. K. 2010 Flexible working stretched to the limit. Employers’ Law. October. pp18-19.

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Bibliography
Looking after your carers. 2007. Employee Benefits. February. pp32-33,35-37.
Wolff, C. 2009 IRS flexible working survey 2009: availability, take-up and impact. IRS
Employment Review. No 921, 26 May. 27pp.
Right to request flexible working: the new rules. 2014 IDS Employment Law Brief. No 998, June.
pp14-19.
What makes a good flexible working policy in new era.(2014). Workplace Report. No 126, July.
pp15-17.

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Appendix
The company Ooredoo Oman is one of largest companies of Oman in the industry of
telecommunication with 1000 employees turn over approximately. The company is considered as
the first privately owned company in the sector of telecommunication in Sutanate of Oman.
Established in the year of 2004, Ooreedoo sells internet and landline voice services. Over the 13
years service, the company has been a real choice of the people of Sultanate since it provides a
service that is value for money. The company is exclusively focused on delivery quality services
with an aim of enhancing the daily life of the people of Oman. Ooreedoo gives special attention
on understanding the customer requirement in order to retain customer satisfaction.