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Psychological Contract Assignment

Adam Moore

Arizona State University

OGL 343: Social Processes in Organizations

Dr. Shari Gustafson

29 October 2021
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Psychological Contract Assignment

A. After reviewing Chapter 3, in Osland, Kolb, and Rubin’s Organizational Behavior: An

Experiential Approach, What was your Learning Style Type (e.g. active, concrete, reflective,

abstract)? Were you generally balanced or was there a general dominant style? (10 points)

Given that this course focuses on the nature of teams in the contemporary workplace, comment

on your strengths and weaknesses with respect to working effectively in an organizational team

environment (see Exhibit 3.4, etc., in chapter 3). (6 points) Tell a story or two from your life that

illustrates some connections between your learning style type and some of your past or current

behaviors when working with others in an organizational or social context (6 points).

My scores were: concrete experience 9, reflective observation 10, abstract

conceptualization 4, and active experimentation 7. This shows that, by these standards, I have a

relatively balanced approach with a slight bias for the first two styles.

However, I disagree with a large part of how the description of concrete experience style

would have me classified. For example, Osland et al. (2001) claim that those that favor concrete

experience tend to have intuitive, artistic approaches to problem solving, rather than systematic. I

feel that this assumption is completely at odds with me. Give me a complicated issue and I can

work through it step by step. Give me a grey area problem with no clear answer and I’ll spend all

day on it, only to go nowhere. This also extends to the assertion that those with this style can

easily relate to people (Osland et al., 2001). My lack of ability to relate to people is one of my

greatest weaknesses when working with others. Perhaps these are blind spots of mine and I am

intuitive people person, but I would tend to disagree given my own experiences.
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On the other hand, I generally agree with the assumptions presented by reflective

observation. I spend a lot of time listening to others and little time speaking. I also like to avoid

responding to discussions or questions immediately, preferring to consider my response for a

while before giving it. For a real-world example, this preference means that I am much better at

communicating through text than I am in person. When writing a response, I can think and re-

think what I want to say and how I want to say it for as long as I need. I do not have that luxury

in person and tend to stumble over my thoughts and lose track of my own train of thought. The

result is often a garbled mess of an idea that may have had a point in there somewhere, but it got

lost in my confused rambling.

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B. Think about what you just learned from the reading and reflect back on a significant social

learning experience from your past (an experience that involved working with others in some

sort of organizational, group, or team manner). Think about what you can apply to set yourself

up for success in this class as you reply to these items:

1. What are your personal goals for the course? To increase self-awareness? To learn

theories and concepts? To fulfill a requirement? To get a grade? To apply learning in

your job or life? Some or all of these or something else? (6 points)

My reasons for taking this course are twofold. Firstly, and if I am being completely

honest, most importantly, it is a required course for my degree. Secondly, I do genuinely enjoy

learning about leadership concepts that I can immediately apply work the next day. The

theoretical knowledge can be interesting at times too, but often gets forgotten over time.

As stated, this class being required is the main driving factor for me taking the course. It

is a steppingstone towards the larger goal of completing my degree in Applied Leadership. The

reason I am going for a degree at all is because I am hoping to commission as an officer in the

Air Force, for which a bachelor’s degree is a hard requirement. This has been a goal of mine for

years, because if accomplished, it could mean that I could fully retire at the ripe age of 39 thanks

to the military retirement system. The idea of that is extremely appealing and is an ideal option

for myself and my family.

Even though it is my primary concern, this course being required is not the only reason I

am taking it. The concept of leadership has always been a fascination of mine. Specifically, I

spend a lot of time considering how I can personally affect the lives of people around me in a
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positive way. My previous courses in this major have already given me a lot of tools I have been

able to get concrete use out of while at work, and I am hoping that this one is no different. In

addition, I feel like the social aspect of working together is one of my personal weaknesses.

Judging by the name of this course, my initial thought is that I will learn how to work with others

more effectively and shore up that flaw. I like to see what makes people work and what

motivates them.
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2. What norms of behavior or ground rules do you set for yourself (and hope to hold your

team members accountable for) to ensure a successful experience in this course? What

level of commitment do you carry as you enter into this experience? What is your

psychological contract going into the team projects for this course? (6 points)

I hold myself to exacting standards. In the past, I tended to be a perfectionist, but

thankfully have simmered down a bit in recent years. For example, I believe that nothing should

ever be submitted late. By taking this class, I (and my teammates) made the conscious decision

to put in the required time to get the work done. Failing to do that is not a time problem, it is a

personal discipline problem. I know this to be true because I used to be the person that would

submit late or not at all. I vowed to be better.

Similar to that point, I despise procrastination on group projects. This is especially

pertinent with me being significantly geographically separated from the rest of my team. My late

night is their early afternoon. I cannot afford to procrastinate on team assignments because I

cannot even be physically present at the last minute. That is why I start and finish my parts of

group work early. Regardless, I have had generally good experiences with teams like this in the

past and know that they are often trustworthy.

My commitment to this course is to be the best possible team member, and to hopefully

walk away with an A. The former is important to me because I refuse to be any sort of weak link

in the group. The latter is because my GPA can be a strong consideration of my previously

mentioned aspiration of becoming an officer. Further, my psychological contract for the team

projects is to put forth an honest effort for not just my own work but helping my team when they
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need it too. If one of us fails, then that failure reflects on all of us. That is not a good look for a

group of people all pursuing leadership-oriented degrees.

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You’ve already made a series of life decisions that led you to join this class. Now, based on your

thought processes associated with these prompts (and the nature of this course), craft a personal

contract statement that includes your decision to participate in the course. Just a sentence or

two capturing your intention of committing to full participation (hopefully!) and/or anything

you’d like to state succinctly that serves as your personal intention as you embark on this new

adventure in OGL 343. (6 points)

My personal commitment to this course is to be a productive and supportive member of my team

in line with the highest personal standards I expect of myself. May we all leave it having learned

something that can improve the lives of those around us.

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Reference

Osland, J. S., Rubin, I. M., & Kolb, D. A. (2001). Organizational Behavior: An Experiential

Approach. Prentice Hall.