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An introduction to contemporary workpsychology
Work well-being and performance
Part A Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 What we talk about when we talk about work psychology
Work can be defined as a set of coordinated and goal-directed activities that are
conducted in exchange for something else, usually some form of monetary
reward. Three key elements of this definition are:
- Goal directed activities: Action at work are intended to bring about a
particular previously specified result. After all, the goal of work is to
produce a good or to deliver a particular service.
- Coordinated activities: Successful task accomplishment often requires
that workers execute a series of interrelated activities following particular
work routines, procedures and guidelines, and often using tools and
machinery especially devised to bring about the intended goal.
- Exchange for something else: Earning a living.
Psychology refers to people’s behaviour, motivations, thoughts and emotions
related to a particular topic.
Work psychology relates to these concepts in the context of work. Work
psychology is about the tasks that are carried out at work. Work psychologists are
interested in maximizing workers health and well-being. In this view, maximizing
well-being is the same as maximizing work performance. So contemporary work
psychology aims to promote what might be called sustainable performance,
maximizing work performance as well as worker health and well-being.
Important: Work psychology is not about the context in which these activities are
conducted and not about the characteristics of the person conducting a particular
work task. These are the domains of other subfields of what is known as work
and organizational psychology.
1.2 Who do we mean when we talk about workers?
The world’s workforce consists of all people who supply labour for the
production of goods and services during a specified period. It includes both the
employed and the unemployed.
The number of people working in the service sector is growing fast. Worldwide,
the agricultural sector is still the second largest source of employment after
services.
There is an inclination in work psychology to focus predominantly on high-status
workers and ethnic majorities in well-developed parts of the world. This is the
selection bias in contemporary work psychology.
1.3 The meaning of work
1
,Research on what working means to people has found that people do not just
work for money, but that work serves many other functions as well. Apparently,
having a job contributes positively to people’s health and well-being. Research
into unemployment has generated several theoretical perspectives on the
reasons why being unemployed yields negative consequences.
According to the Relative Deprivation Model of Jahoda the main drivers for
positive consequences of having employment are the fact that working provides
people with time structure, opportunities for social contact, sharing of a common
purpose, social identity or status and regular activity. Without work, people are
deprived of all five benefits, accounting for many of the adverse consequences of
unemployment for health and well-being.
1.4 The roots of work psychology
Systematic thinking about the organization of work
Scholars had already considered how particular tasks should be conducted.
Examples are the Hippocratic collection and the organization of the Roman army.
The birth of occupational medicine
The scientific study of work, worker health and well-being, and work performance
can be traced back to the 1500s, when Georg Bauer published De Re Metallica,
an influential book on the art and science of mining. Not only the technical
details were discussed, but there was also paid attention to workers and their
diseases.
Work psychology 1850-1930
The industrial revolution marked a transition towards new manufacturing
processes, in that production processes were increasingly mechanized and
industrialized. This implied that many young people struggled to find a career
that suited their interests, talents and accomplishments. Moreover, the tasks in
the factories were characterized by a high level of division of labour and were
usually simple, repetitive and boring, requiring few skills. The young science
promised to provide answers to these issues. Both Münsterberg and Stern worked
in the field of vocational psychology – the branch of personnel psychology that
focuses on the link between workers’ characteristics and job requirements,
assuming that worker well-being and productivity are optimal when there is a
good match between the job and the worker.
Scientific management (Taylor): Productivity could also be optimized by
not focusing on the match between the worker and the task, but rather by
concentrating on the task itself, especially by simplifying it to such a
degree that any worker would be able to do it. (According to Taylor workers
are stupid and lazy.)
Simplifying tasks
Examining the best way to conduct these tasks
Training workers in the one best way to conduct their simplified
tasks
Separating the planning of tasks from their execution
Selection workers
Work psychology, 1930-present
2
,The introduction of Tayloristic principles at work often resulted in repetitive,
boring and physically demanding jobs.
Human relations movement (Mayo): Rather than fitting the worker to
the job, the adage of the human relation movement was to fit the job to
the worker, paying special attention to the human side of working.
Contemporary work psychology: Merges ideas from all these and other
disciplines in an attempt to promote sustainable performance: high
productivity combined with much attention for worker health and well-
being.
1.5 The times, they are a-changin’
The changing nature of work: From manufacturing to service and
knowledge work.
The changing workforce: The workforce has become more diverse in
terms of gender, age, ethnicity, organizational tenure and educational
background.
The changing flexibility of working: Flexibility in the timing of work, the
place of work and the facilitation of information technologies.
The changing organization: There is an increase in ICT organizations.
The changing psychological contract: What employees and employers
want and expect from each other. It has been changed from an emphasis
on stability and permanent employment to a desire for flexibility and
employability.
1.6 The crucial role of task analysis in contemporary work psychology
Task analysis can be defined as the study of what an employee is required to
do, in terms of actions and/or processes, to achieve a system goal (blueprint of
human involvement).
Within the context of work psychology, task analysis can be considered a
methodology in which data will be collected, ranked and evaluated to say
something about the nature of task, that is, its psychologically relevant
characteristics.
The aim of work-psychology task analysis is to lead to a more efficient and
effective integration of the human factor into system design and operations via
task design in order to optimize human performance and safety .
There are four different task-analysis methods:
1. Behaviour description approach: Focus on the actual behaviours
employees display in executing the task.
2. Behaviour requirements approach: Focus on the actual behaviour
employees should display to perform the task in a successful way.
3. Ability requirements approach: Tasks are analysed in terms of
employees’ abilities, knowledge, skills and personal characteristics.
4. Task characteristics approach: Focus on analyzing the objective
characteristics of a task, independent from the behaviour that is actually
displayed or that should be displayed or the abilities needed (behaviour
description + behaviour requirements + ability requirements).
3
, Task analysis techniques can be divided into three broad categories:
1. Data collection techniques: Interviews, questionnaires, observations
etc.
2. Task-representation techniques: Flow charts and hierarchical networks.
3. Task-simulation techniques: Computer modeling and computer-aided
design programmes.
1.7 The organization of the book
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Part B Theoretical perspectives on work
Chapter 3 The models that made the job
3.1 Background of job design
Job design Is concerned with the activities of workers, and relates to the duties
and tasks required to perform their work, and how those tasks and duties are
structured and scheduled.
Smith argued that tasks should be divided into their smallest possible
components and that workers should perform one task only.
The division of labour became the basis of scientific management. Scientific
management was based on a simple view of human motivation: workers were
rewarded on the basis of how many times they completed simplified tasks.
Marx argued the division of labour was a process through which owners could
extract the maximum amount of surplus value from workers. Marx argue, entails
paying workers less for their labour than the value of their labour in the
production process. Only the possession of rare skills can attract a premium in
the labour market.
The Hawthorne studies indicated the importance of motivational and social
factors in the workplace, and suggested that workers needed cognitively and
socially enriched work environment to be productive.
3.2 The job characteristics model
Hackman’s and Oldham’s JCM is a model of work motivation. This model
concentrates on the five key features that influence how motivating a job is for
people. The JCM suggests that jobs that are high on all of these job
characteristics have a greater motivating potential and provide workers with
greater job satisfaction (workers will be less absent, less inclined to look for other
jobs and will work better):
- Skill variety: Require workers to use a range of skills.
- Task identity : Allow the worker to produce or deliver an identifiable,
complete outcome.
- Task significance: Have an impact on other people, both inside and
outside the organization.
4
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