Organisational work conditions Flashcards
Physical and psychological work conditions
I
Physical: The Hawthorne Studies
-Wikstrom & Bendix
-phenomenon in which behaviour is changing simply because it is being investigated
-Wikstrom & Bendix challenge the conclusions that were drawn in the original studies
Khan and greenwood:
The original study
1924, Illinois
managers working with MIT and Harvard
examined the effects on productivity of lighting changes and work structure changes such as working hours and break times
- first study (light) shows that lighting doesn’t affect productivity as long as it is sufficient to get the job done
-a lot of disadvantages in these studies
Psychological: Bullying at work
-Einarsen
-bullying is defined as hostile and violent behaviour, either physical or non-physical directed at one or more colleagues or subordinates
-humiliation, offence, distress
-key factor: power
-difference between superior or co-worker bullying
Zapf 5 types of bullying
-social isolation
-physical violence or threats of physical violence
-verbal threats including criticism and humiliation
-work-related bullying such as changing tasks or making them harder to perform
-personal attacks or attacks on private life by ridicule, gossip or insulting remarks
4 stages of bullying
- aggressive behaviour
- bullying
- stigmatisation
- severe trauma
2 broad areas of bullying causes
individual or personality factors of the victim and of the bully
psycho-social or situational factors
situational factors which may promote bullying
deficiencies in work design
deficiencies in leadership behaviour
socially exposed position of the victim
low morale in the department
Open plan offices
Oldham & Brass
-field study, longitudinal: 8 weeks before, 9 weeks after, 18 weeks after
-control group: 5 staff members
-76 full participants
-the questionnaire measured: work satisfaction, interpersonal satisfaction, internal work motivation
Results conclusions
-internal motivation and satisfaction with work colleagues decreased
-control group showed no change
-workers revealed that they felt like in a ‘fishbowl’
-difficult to form friendships
-a supervisor commented that it was difficult to provide feedback to a worker without going to private rooms
Temporal conditions of work environment
II
Shiftwork: Rapid rotation shifts
frequent shift changes
Metropolitan rota: 2 day, 2 afternoon, 2 night, 2 days off
Continental rota: 2 day, 2 twilight, 3 night, 2days off, 2 day, 3 twilight, 2 night, 3 days off
Shiftwork: Slow rotation shifts
infrequent changes
e.g working day shifts for several weeks then night shifts several weeks
The effects of shiftwork on health
Knutsson
-no relationship between shiftwork and longevity
Specific disorders and conditions
Gastrointestinal disease
Cardiovascular disease
Cancer (no conclusive evidence)
Diabetes and other metabolic disturbances
Pregnancy problems
Exacerbation of existing disorders
Shiftwork and accidents
Gold et al
878 registered nurses
mean age 33.9
June-september 1986
Questionnaire: quality of sleep, use of alcohol, use of prescription or non-prescription medication, sleeping aids, times when they have nodded off at work and from and to work; accidents, errors, near-misses, injuries due to concentration problems
Results
rotators and night shifts experienced less sleep (used anchor sleep concept)
92% of day shift exp. anchor sleep but only 6.3% of night shifts and rotators
… overall worse for night and rotators
Health and safety
III
Accidents at work: errors and accidents in operator-machine systems
-Three mile island power plant 1979
development of human factors experts who ensure that designs of machines also reflect the limitations of human cognition
Resulting accidents at work
Fox et al
token economy rewards workers for not having accidents or injuries for a specific amount of time
costs of accidents dropped 90%
Safety promotion campaigns
Cowpe
The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of an
advertising campaign warning people about chip-pan
fires
This can be understood as a quasi-experiment
effectiveness: 12% reduction
