oa Goed werkgeverschap en goed werknemerschap: een bijzondere arbeidsrelatie

Good employership and good employeeship: towards a conceptual model

TNO carries out a four year research programme on ‘Good Employership and Good Employeeship”. One of the aims of this programme is to bridge the gap between these two in essence normative concepts and a more scientific approach. As a starting point, the literature of the disciplines of economics, psychology and sociology provides several useful theories and concepts, such as agency theory, psychological contract, trust, organisational citizenship behaviour and social loafing. Most of the theories and concepts reflect a normative tension between calculative and altruistic behaviour, but it would be naïve to project good employership and good employeeship only on the latter. Altruistic behaviour in a market economy does not provide the basis for an enduring employment relation. In a next step a conceptual model is developed. The core of this model are the implicit and explicit expectations and behaviour of employers and employees in the employment relationship. The model allows us to distinguish between independent, moderating and dependent variables and also provides us with a definition of good employership and good employeeship.