Termination
Termination ends the membership of a person in an organisation. Although this sounds self-evident, it has, nevertheless, a number of implications which are important for the understanding of organisations and people. From the viewpoint of the organisation a termination is coupled with the statement that the person no longer fulfils the conditions which are linked to the membership (i.e. work performance, behaviour), or that the organisation itself can no longer fulfil the conditions of the membership (the position is no longer needed, the profit is no longer enough to pay the salary etc.). With this, the organisation creates scope for an improvement in performance and escapes the economic constraints that it would have, if it had to continue employing someone under any circumstances. From the point of view of the person, the termination is linked to a statement that in other places the career chances are better (higher position), more beneficial (chances of promotion) or the task/environment is more attractive (work place, team, travel time, elimination of conflict etc.). Therefore, the person utilises the construct of membership to use flexibility in favour of improved motivation. To tolerate this uncertainty is, on the other hand, an ability which is available to people to varying degrees. From these familiar phenomena it becomes clear how powerful ‘membership’ is as a coupling form for organisations and people. This form always becomes a danger when one of the two sides find themselves confronted by a lack of alternatives, i.e. it has few risk possibilities. Those who cannot find new employees or a new position, can only hope for a time which offers new opportunities or which improves their attractiveness to applicants or employment procedures.