Employability and Enterprise Skills - Report on Psychological Breach

This report examines a case study involving Mr. King, a supervisory employee at a construction company, and a breach of his psychological contract. The report details the discrepancies between the initial employment contract and the actual working conditions, including excessive work hours, lack of employee support, and poor management responses to employee concerns. The analysis explores the negative impacts of the breach, such as reduced productivity and employee turnover, and discusses the manager's perspective on why such breaches occur. Additionally, the report includes Mr. King's response to 360-degree performance feedback, highlighting his leadership strengths, weaknesses in team working and listening, and plans for improvement in problem-solving skills. Finally, the report provides a performance improvement analysis, reflecting on the individual's reflective and theoretical approach to decision-making and its implications for their professional development, along with a discussion of the individual's leadership skills and how they were developed.

Running head: EMPLOYABILITY AND ENTREPRISE SKILLS 1
Employability and Enterprise Skills
Student Number
Tutor’s Name

EMPLOYABILITY AND ENTREPRISE SKILLS 2
Breach of Psychological Contract
Working with the construction company was the worst job experience that Mr. King
might have had his entire lifetime. Mr. King had held a couple of positions before he got this
particular job as the supervisory in charge. From the contract he signed, the job was a lucrative
one and enticing to any other person that was looking for a position that would build up their
career at that specific time. To his advantage, the job suited his description as the employers
were looking for someone with a bachelor’s degree in engineering and with at least five years of
experience. He was glad to begin his career as the supervisory in charge, and he was given two
days to prepare to join the rest of the workforce. Mr. King had a registered mentality that made
him believe there was a mutual obligation that exists between an employer and his employee. To
this, even in his previous jobs, he found it annoying when most of their bosses treat him as
beggars and more precisely this is the reason he left his previous career. He, therefore, signed the
contract knowing that even though he is not a shareholder in the company he is a partner in
helping to realize the vision of the organization.
One of the elements that had been listed in the job requirements was that Mr. King would
work only 8 hours a day with a possible extension of two hours that would pay in a different
package as overtime. To his surprise on his first day he left work after twelve hours of hard labor
and unlike in the contract where he was to work for five days a week, he was given new
information that he would work one extra day making a total of six days. When he enquired
from his employer, it was communicated to him that any extra work that he performs outside the
contract he signed would be catered for differently. Since Mr. King was not interested in money,
this did not impress him that much. He preferred having some time for his family, and the reason
why he signed the contract was that the job suited the kind of lifestyle that he wanted.

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He decided to give it a try and develop a positive attitude towards the job. However, the
changing terms and condition in the workplace did not stop at that. After he had worked for a
few days, absenteeism was a common phenomenon among the subordinate staff. This was
expected as the job was overwhelming and too demanding on them. When he inquired of the
other employees, he realized that in so many ways his colleagues were also feeling betrayed by
the company. As a result, absenteeism was the culture of the organization and the reasons as to
why the company was not doing well were due to the same effect. This was a deviant behavior
that the employees had formed, and the management could not question them because it had not
fulfilled its obligation towards them. More so he realized that most of his employees worked for
money and they were not interested in the well-being of the company.
Mr. King was not in any way surprised by this, even though it affected his functionality
regarding productivity. They still had to meet the daily target with the limited number of
personnel. The breach of the psychological contract has numerous negative effects on the
workforce, and one among the many is the reduced productivity. When employees are
psychologically affected, they often tend to decline in performance which changes the output of
the organization. It is apparent that it was not only Mr. King that was influenced by the breach
but all the other employees of the organization. As a result, most of the people opted out of the
workforce, and the remaining could not handle the pressure, this significantly affected the
productivity of the construction company.
When the burden could not be bearded any no longer Mr. King filed a complaint to his
seniors and demanded that the lost workforce is replaced. However the management was
reluctant on dealing with the issue, and as a result, he was forced to join his seniors in
performing the manual work beside his job descriptions. To begin with, the work was physically

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hard and dirty. Not that he had a problem with handling such kind of work, but this is not exactly
what he wanted and what he signed for in the contract. There was no enough machinery at the
construction site and at the time he was required to move large pieces of rocks with his bare
hands. Being an aged man, her health was affected after a few days of doing such activities.
After a month Mr. King felt like he could not take it any longer. After he received his pay which
to his surprise did not cater for the extra hours that he had worked, he decided to quit the job. Mr.
King’s employers had the opportunity to take various steps to solve the situation at hand which
they didn’t. One of the ways was to show concern to Mr. King and all the other employees of the
organization. The workforce would have behaved differently but all the same, the management
was not bothered. The secondly Mr. King longed for one to offer him explanations for the
different changes and decisions that were made in the organization. No one explained to Mr.
King why he has to work extra hours and extra days. And no one explained why the workforce is
not being replaced as it ought to. He quit his job because the management took no action towards
solving the issue at hand. Instead of giving a lot of pressure to the employees the administration
would have opted to reduce the daily target to reasonable standards or otherwise recruit as
needed by the workload of the organization.
Questions
Why does a breach of psychological contract happen from a manager’s perspective?
Does every employ some extent experience mental breach of contract

EMPLOYABILITY AND ENTREPRISE SKILLS 5
RESPONSE TO 360-DEGREE PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK
Question one
I have learned a lot regards to my performance, and the evaluations help me realize a lot
regarding my strength and weaknesses. I have discovered the different capabilities that I would
have without the help of the assessment forms. The discoveries have led me to appreciate who I
am and where I need to improve as an individual.
Overall in all the aspects that were covered in my assessment, I am an excellent
performer, and my skill is on the high end. First I have skills that depict good leadership. I was
able to score highly in the leadership element only losing 3 points. I have held several leadership
positions in my life before and the skills I gained I work on improving them daily. When it
comes to the team working the score revealed that I am an average performer. I need to learn
how to handle people and more learn to appreciate the input of others. I have always discovered
to do things on my owner, and hence I rarely depend on others for information. Through the
evaluation, I realized that I need to improve on this as team working can enhance the outcomes
of a particular activity. The central gap that I noted was that I am still not a good listener. I
always have overtime worked to improve my listening skills, and this reminder that I have not
yet achieved came at the right time. I hope to develop more techniques to improve on the same.
My two evaluations emphasized on my excellent leadership skills, and I am working to ensure
that I grow even more.
Question two
There are several reasons as to why I am not a good listener. One is because I tend to
have a low concentration span. This is a problem that I have had since my childhood, and it
seems to be more of a genetic orientation. It is due to this that I tend to capture less from a

EMPLOYABILITY AND ENTREPRISE SKILLS 6
conversation. I am still coming up with ways of improving on the same, and one of them is
through paying attention to the listener at all costs. The second reason is that I have poor
judgment skills. I tend always to try and predict what the speaker might want to say rather than
wait and listen to them. As a result, this affects the way I perceive and interpret the message
which leads to the tendency to isolate the most critical aspects of the conversation. This is a
psychological process that I developed due to the pressure I received while young, and it led me
always to try and predict what people would expect from me before I mess up. Trying to predict
the speaker messages most of the times still deters me from making a critical assessment of what
the speaker is saying. I am working on this by learning patience and being calm while listening.
The last reason as to why I am not a good listener is because most of the time I tend to focus on
the style that the speaker is using instead of the content of the message. To some extent, I am a
perfectionist, and this has affected by listening skills to a considerable extent.
Question three
One of the areas that I want to develop is in problem-solving. On a daily basis people
face challenges and having the appropriate skills that can address these situations is very crucial.
Learning on various ways of problem-solving will equip me with the necessary skills on critical
thinking and creative thinking. This is among the many skills that I have longed for since critical
thinking most of the time often result in innovations and progress in the society. Problem-solving
will also enhance my self-confidence as an individual who is also a skill that I am trying to work
on. Self-confidence will afford me many opportunities that I have would not have explored.
More so problem-solving skills make one open-minded regarding the way that one perceives
issues. As a result, being an open-minded person will influence the way I look at things and how
I manage affairs in life (Schmidt & Mamede, 2015). Being open-minded will, in turn, make me

EMPLOYABILITY AND ENTREPRISE SKILLS 7
flexible and able to maneuver the different field that I am associated with. I am an entrepreneur
in nature, and for me to efficiently progress in my career, then problem-solving is one in the
areas that I need to improve many skills in. I, therefore, look forward to taking more avenues
that will help me develop these skills. Successful entrepreneurs are problem solvers, and they
always seek avenues to enhance them which then open more opportunities (Vukušic, 2018). The
goal of entrepreneurship is to solve problems.

EMPLOYABILITY AND ENTREPRISE SKILLS 8
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT ANALYSIS
Question one
I have learned several aspects in regards to how they are related to my performance as an
individual. One of the main elements that I have discovered is that I am a reflector and I take so
much time to reflect on opinions before making decisions that pertain a particular aspect. In most
of the cases, I tend to think a lot before embarking on a particular situation. This, in turn, has
resulted in me being a theorist. In most cases, I often consider the theoretical aspect ideas before
embarking on them. This in so many ways relates to the way I was brought up and my cultural
orientations. From a tender age, I always had to bear the consequences of every decision that I
made. As a result, I cultured myself to think critically and often evaluate the different options
that I had before embarking on a particular task. In school, I have held several leadership
positions since I was a teenager and this has propelled me to even think more critically before
making any decisions. More so the evaluation revealed that I am a task implementer rather than a
feeling partner. I always take it upon myself to perform certain tasks rather than delegate them to
my subordinates (Knight, 2017). Most of the times while I was a student leader I could decide to
undertake the duties that were to be done by the other students just with the aim of reducing
conflict among the students.
Question two
Performance improvement goals
My first goal is that by the end of three months I will be able to listen keenly and take
note of the critical points. As I said in section three that I am not a good listener and this is one of
the skills that I look forward to improving. With these, there are several techniques that I hope to

EMPLOYABILITY AND ENTREPRISE SKILLS 9
employ to achieve the same. One is to listen in a more relaxed mode and not to try and predict
what the speaker is saying. I will learn this skill through appreciating that people are different
and that the message may not always want I already know. Secondly is to always seek
clarifications on issues that I haven’t understood and also always to try to keep my, mind open
when someone is speaking. Lastly, I will develop the habit of keeping eye contact with the
speaker to ensure that I am not distracted by the different aspects of the environment.
My second goal is that by the end of this I need to have learned how to solve problems in a team
and so far be able to manage several teams cohesively. One of the ways to do this is through
being able to identify the real situation that needs to be dealt with and come up with several ideas
that surround the problem. Secondly, I will have learned how to evaluate and more to execute the
solutions to a particular problem. Lastly, I will learn the different techniques of how to solve a
problem to see if it was the best solution that was made.
Question three
There are several ways that I will employ to improve first of all my listening skills. One
of them is through a back to back interview with my colleagues. This will help me to improve
how I listen and follow instructions without relying on the movement of the lips of the speaker.
This technique was recommended to me by one of my friends at school who through it has
become an excellent listener. Secondly, I will embark on doing movie clip quizzes. The quizzes
require you to answer questions as you listen and in this, in turn, help one to improve how they
listen and perceive things. More I will resolve to pay more attention in class when the teacher is
speaking and focussing more on the content of what they are talking about rather than how they
deliver the content. On problem-solving, I will focus on being a group leader for several teams

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(Osborne, 2014). With this, I will device more ways on how to solve problems and more so learn
how problems are created. More importantly, I will keep an idea journal that will be a consistent
reminder of the different ways in which I have solved problems before and hence offer me an
opportunity to improve on the same (Brown & Warren, 2014). The last activity would be to
consistently solve a logic puzzle on a weekly basis to help me in thinking more.

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Knight, R. (2017). How to Improve Your Finance Skills (Even If You Hate Numbers). Harvard
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Osborne, A. J., Hawkins, S. C., Pournaras, D. J., Chandratilake, M., & Welbourn, R. (2014). An
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