Summary Behaviour & Environment: Behaviour in Organisations (SOW-PSB2BE10EA)
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Course
B&E 2: Behaviour in Organisations (SOWPSB2BE10EA)
Institution
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
Summary of both the lectures and all the literature of Behaviour and Environment: Behaviour in Organisations. I used this document to study for the exam and my grade was a 7.5.
Samenvatting Behaviour and Environment 2
Theme 1: Work & work behaviour
Part 1: Why should we bother about work?
Everything around you is the result of work
Work in three sectors
1. Agriculture – including forestry, hunting and fishing
2. Industry – including manufacturing, mining and constructing
3. Services – including transportation, communication, healthcare, finance and administration
Work is an essential part of our lives
> 3.5 billion people are employed
Work is super invasive
- People in a full-time job spend half of their lives on work
- Private time is partly spent on work (overtime, thinking about work)
- Work life will be prolonged (> 67)
So, work has a huge impact on health, happiness and personality
Technology paradox = instead of work becoming less because of advanced technology, work
keeps growing because all the technology needs to be operated on.
Benefits from work
Income (independence, availability of new resources)
Relative deprivation model = apart from income there are different social benefits that
people get from work:
- Structure (regular activity)
- Opportunities for social contact (no work = more lonely feeling)
- Social identity (source of status and self-esteem)
- Sharing of a common purpose (feeling meaningful)
- Opportunities for learning and development
So, work leads to higher levels of general health and satisfaction
Drawbacks of work
In 2020 in the EU:
10% of workers reported work related health problems during the previous year
6% of workers suffered from bone or muscle problems, caused or made worse by their job
45% reported facing risk factors for their mental well-being at work
Bothering about work is important
Work is an omnipresent context for studying behaviour
Work has great meaning for health, family life and happiness
To understand human behaviour, we need to understand the interaction between the work
environment and psychological outcomes
Work knowledge is essential for all psychologists
Part 2: The dynamic scope of work and organisational psychology
Work = a set of coordinated and goal-directed activities that are conducted in exchange to
something else
The scope is dynamic
Many changes in society have an impact on organisations
Intensification (workload, time load)
Flexibilization (time, place, contracts)
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, Mentalisation (mental load, service work has become more important)
Digitalisation (loss of employment, new jobs appearing, new organisations)
Prolonged working in life (we live longer, we work longer)
Healthy life expectancy
Living longer does not mean living healthier and a healthy life is strongly related to educational level
People working in lower educational level jobs usually work in poorer circumstances
People with lower education usually have worse life style (smoking, drinking, fast food)
Organisational change
The Model of Cameron and Quinn (2011) – Diagnosing and Changing Organisational Culture
The four different quadrants of Quinn’s competing values model should be seen as four different
philosophies/perspectives about what makes an (effective) organisation, and in a certain period of
time such a perspective was dominant.
Part 3: What does work and organisational psychology involve
How can work and organisational psychology help people to work in a motivated, productive and
healthy way during their entire working life?
Sustainable performance
The ability to meet the needs and expectations of customers and other stakeholders
Three overlapping subdisciplines:
1. Work (and health) psychology
2. Personnel psychology / HRM
3. Organisational psychology
Work (and health) psychology
Focus: How should work, work conditions and resting times be structured in order to guarantee work
quality, good health and optimal performance?
Job design
Fatigue
Stress
2
, Motivation
Sickness absence
Example: people working at the emergency call centre often have night shifts. This might get
more difficult for people to keep up with as they get older. How do we maintain quality?
Personnel psychology / HRM
Focus: How can we ensure optimal person-job fit and flow of people through an organisation, in
which individual capacity and desires match work demands and opportunities with an organisation?
Recruitment and selection
Development of competences
Performance appraisal
(financial) reward systems
Example: helpdesks organisation. It is difficult to find people to work in call centres because it
is not interesting for people to work there. How do we make sure that people want to work
and want to keep working there in the future?
Organisational psychology
Focus: How should organisations and business processes be structured to make people collaborate as
efficiently and effective as possible?
Organisational structure and culture
Leadership
Organisational change
Dealing with resistance
Example: healthcare workers. How do teams work efficiently together? How do we make
sure these teams can make their own decisions too?
Part 4: History of work and Organisational Psychology
In the beginning
The Art of War (by Sun Tzu)
- How to use creativity and intelligence
- How to engage and mobilise the army
- How to be flexible
Hippocratic Collection
- Detailed routines and guidelines for doctors
De Re Militari (by Vergetius)
- Organisatoin and drill of the army
- Strategy and leadership
First scientific studies on work
1879 – Wundt: the first psychological lab
1881 – Taylor: time & motion studies in the scientific management approach
1911 – Frank and Lillian Gilbreth: time & motion studies in efficiency
1913 – Münsterberg: psychology & industrial efficiency
Scientific management assumptions
There is one best way to establish how to conduct a task
Workers are stupid and lazy by nature
Money is the only motivator
Managerial control is necessary to gain more profit
Principles of scientific management (according to F.W. Taylor)
1. scientific approach: time & motion studies
3
, 2. selection of right worker for the job
3. training and development of worker
4. separation of head and handwork: managers think, workers do!
Due to scientific management…
Rise of productivity and profit
Workers felt exploited -> protest from labour unions
US Congress Investigations lead to a ban on stopwatch in the work environment
But Taylorism is still alive an successful (e.g. Ford Motor Company)!
First assembly line
Man is extension of machine
Standard products
No right to labour unions
Ford ‘gestapo’ and culture of fear
Battle of the overpass – representatives of the union were beaten by Ford security officers
Between the world wars
WW I – Yerkes: Army intelligence tests
- The tests were culturally biased: immigrants from southern Europe scored lower
than immigrants from northern Europe.
- The Yerkes-Dodson law: performance increases with physiological or mental arousal.
1920 – Large companies look to psychology for selection. Collaboration between engineers
and psychologists: psychological test development and ergonomics.
1930 – Human Relations Movement: social aspects, two-way communication, leadership
WW II – Army Aviation Psychology Programme: recruitment testing and training. It appeared
to be effective in recruiting competent pilots and other aircrew members.
After world War II
= Growth of selection psychology
Post-war period - Also broadening: Organisational psychology
- Learning and training
- Leadership
- Fatigue
- Stress
- Safety, ergonomics
1960 – Wave of democratisation
- criticism of selection psychology
- servants of power
- opposition of labour unions
From 1970 – differentiation
- Broadening and scientific deepening of work and organisational psychology
Current challenges for work and organisational psychology
The self-determination theory
= people are motivated to grow and change by three universal psychological needs:
Autonomy: “How about responsibility when algorithms are making decisions?”
Competence: “How about competence and de-skilling of workers?”
Relatedness: “How about relatedness in a platform business?”
Theme 2: Organisations, Groups & Leadership
Part 1: What is an organisation
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