The psychological contract and the transition from office-based to home-based work

This article explores how the transition from office-based to home-based work impacts upon the psychological contracts of employees involved. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, utilising a short-term longitudinal design, the setting is a local authority which implemented a 3-month home-working pilot scheme. Using the psychological contract as an analytical framework it is shown how the implementation of the changes impacts upon the psychological contracts not only in the workplace but also in the home. In both the arenas of work and the home, obligations are surfaced (and sometimes renegotiated) and boundaries are redrawn. The relationship with the employer becomes increasingly transactional, enabling participants to redefine the status of work in relation to their other priorities. Whilst homeworkers exhibit an increased commitment to the mode of work and become more productive for their employer, they also exhibit a more transactional orientation to work, threatening to leave if homeworking is withdrawn. We explore the methodological and theoretical implications of our findings drawing attention to the analytical potential of the psychological contract for generating more critical insights.