Leadership

Management and Leadership for HRM Professionals

Paper

During my last internship in one of our subsidiaries in Great Britain I took a certain project over. In order to gain the necessary information as well as assistance a mentor was selected. Since I was highly motivated conducting the project successfully I had specific expectations of my contact person. Naturally, expectations are reciprocal – a psychological contract (pc) was concluded.

Unfortunately, it refrained that he was a very busy person at that time. This means he had one expectation only: do it yourself! The project, however, was not that simple-minded. A solely implementation was impossible since I did not bring the necessary background with me. It was bound to happen.

When I got to a certain point where it was indispensible to go on without any assistance I tried to claim my right of getting it. Whenever I tried to catch him he got another excuse for not having any time for me. He sometimes even pretended not to be there when I asked for. I realized that this is not fair. Furthermore, it had a negative impact of my mood, effort as well as motivation. I even noticed that the direct environment was influenced either. In other words: our unwritten contract was broken.

I have never thought that only one persons’ prevailing mood would have that power affecting the whole working atmosphere. Due to the fact that this is directly linked to the motivation of the other employees productivity tended to decrease. Why should I work hard for something when others do not care about the outcome? This was a typical question in my mind. In the meantime, some coworkers adapted the same attitude.

Nevertheless, I was reasonable enough to realize that we are not on the right track any longer. For that reason as well as since I am a very stubbornly person who wanted to prove himself I started a last try. I caught him in his office and took him to task. I asked him why he is acting like that and if he is...