Physical And Psychological Work Conditions

Question 1

Physical work conditions 1

Answer 1

Physical: The Hawthorne Studies (Wickstrom and Bender, 2000)

1. The Hawthorne effect refers to the phenomena of behaviour changing simply because it is being investigated, rather than as a result of any of the variables that were being manipulated.
   > Although this is a familiar concept in psychology, less is known about the original research that demonstrated this effect.
2. An article by Windstrom and Bendix describes the original Hawthorne studies and challenges the conclusions that were drawn.
3. Original Hawthorne studies
   > The managers, working with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, examined the effects on productivity of lighting changes and work structure changes such as working hours and break times.
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   Part 1: the effect of lighting on productivity was examined
   > An experimental group was exposed to decreasing levels of light while a control group received a constant level of light.
   > Both groups steadily increased their performance on their tasks.
   > It was not until the light was only as bright as moonlight that the experimental group showed any decrease in productivity.
   > The researchers concluded that lighting level did not significantly affect productivity so long as it was sufficient for the job to be done.
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   Part 2: relay assembly test room study
   > Two small groups of six female telephone relay assembers were selected.
   > Each group was kept in separate rooms.
   > From time to time, changes were made in working hours, rest periods, lunch breaks, etc.
   > They were allowed to choose their own rest periods and to give suggestions.
   > Output increased in both the control rooms.
   > It was concluded that social relationships among workers, participation in decision making, etc had a greater effect on productivity than working conditions.
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   Part 3: mass interviewing programme
   > 21000 employees were interviewed over a period of three years to find out reasons for increased productivity.
   > It was concluded that productivity can be increased if workers are allowed to talk freely about matters that are important to them.
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   Part 4: bank wiring observation room experiment
   > A group of 14 male workers in the bank wiring room were placed under observation for six months.
   > A worker’s pay depended on the performance of the group as a whole.
   > The researchers thought that the efficient workers would put pressure on the less efficient workers to complete the work.
   > However, it was found that the group established its own standards of output, and social pressure was used to achieve the standards of output.
4. Further experiments were conducted which explored the effect of several other variables.
   > In each of these studies, the researchers were forced to conclude that the variable under examination was not responsible for the increased productivity and some other variable must be responsible.
5. Initially the suggestion was made that the improved relationships between the workers and the management was the key.
   > Wickstrom and Bendix argue that this initial suggestion ‘evolved into a conclusion’.
6. The workers took part in the studies received a number of special privileges as a result of taking part.
7. Other interpretations:
   > For example, the workers in one of the studies increasingly took the opportunity to alter their work roles.
   » Kahn described this as a genuine transfer of power, as rather than being supervised as they had been before, the women in this study were consulted about each stage of the experiment and genuine efforts were made to create positive working environments.
   > Greenwood interviewed some of these original participants 50 years after the study and concluded that the women had worked harder in the test rooms to avoid being sent back to the ordinary manufacturing rooms where the supervision was described as ‘harsh’.
8. The original experiments also lacked experimental rigour with many uncontrolled variables and changes of participants.
   > It is also important to realise that the studies were conducted during the Depression, a time of economic hardship across the USA.
   > Therefore the threat of losing one’s job may also have contributed to the work levels.
   > Finally, the workers were being paid according to an incentive pay system based on the outcome of the experimental group rather than the workforce as a whole and this is likely to have improved productivity.
9. Wickstrom and Bendix conclude that reference to the Hawthorne effect should be avoided in attempting to explain the results of intervention studies as its use is likely to add more confusion than clarity, i.e., this study’s findings were affected because there were many other factors that had an infuence on the workers.
   > The so-called Hawthorne effect has thus become more and more ambiguous over time.
   > Therefore, it is questionable whether the term has a function any longer in the evalution of results from intervention research in industry.

Question 2

Physical work conditions 2

Answer 2

Bullying at work (Einarsen, 1999)

1. A key issue in considering organisational working conditions is bullying.
   > Einarsen identifies a number of different types of bullying at work.
2. The term ‘bullying’ can refer to a wide range of behaviours but in this paper is defined as ‘hostile and aggressive behaviour, either physical or non-physical, directed at one or more colleagues or subordinates’.
3. Bullying causes humiliation, offence and distress and may also affect an individual’s work performance and create a negative working environment.
4. Zapf suggests that there are 5 types of bullying behaviour:
   > Social isolation.
   > Work-related bullying such as changing tasks or making them harder to perform.
   > Physical violence or threats of physical violence.
   > Personal attacks or attacks on private life by ridicule, gossip or insulting remarks.
   > Verbal threats including criticism and humiliation.
5. One of the key factors in workplace bullying is power.
   > Einarsen caims that managers and supervisors are perceived as the bullies in the majority of cases and that bullying by a superior creates more psychological distress than bullying by a coworker.
   > Einarsen suggests that it is important to consider whether peer-bullying and leadership bullying are the same behaviours or whether they are different enough to warrant separate examination.
6. Bullying tends to develop gradually. 4 stages of bullying are suggested:
   > Aggressive behaviour
   > Bullying
   > Stigmatisation
   > Severe trauma
7. Causes of bullying can be divided into 2 broad areas:
   > Individual or personality factors of the victim of the bully
   > Psycho-social or situational factors
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   > One of the reported studies (Bjorkqvist) surveyed employees at a Finnish university and identified three main perceived reasons for bullying:
   » Competition concerning status and job position
   » Envy
   » The aggressor being uncertain about their own abilities
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   > A surprisingly high proportion felt that the personality of the victim was also a significant factor.
   > Many other studies reported by Einarsen support these findings.
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   > Other research has focused on the situational factors which may promote (or at least allow) bullying to take place:
   » Deficiencies in work design
   » Deficiencies in leadership behaviour
   » Socially exposed position of the victim
   » Low morale in the department
8. Finally, Einarsen concludes by discussing the need to identify different types of bullying.
   > He argues that we need to move away from treating all bullying as one phenomenon and that we need to develop an understanding of the many different types.
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   A. Predatory bullying
   > The victim has done nothing to trigger the bullying behaviour, but is ‘accidentally’ in a situation where a predator is demonstrating power over others.
   > This would be what might be termed ‘institutional harassment’ where a culture of bullying and aggression is ingrained throughout the organisation.
   > The victim may be a member of a certain group (the first woman in that role for example) and this may produce bullying behaviour against the individual as a representative of that group.
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   B. Scapegoating
   > When people are highly stressed or frustrated and are looking for someone to vent their frustration on.
   > Used as an explanation of prejudice.
   > In many cases, the organisation effectively tolerates bullying by not responding appropriately to it or by failing to have the correct policies and procedures in place.

Question 3

Physical work conditions 3

Answer 3

Open plan offices (Oldham and Brass, 1979)

1. Oldham and Brass have conducted a field study which shows that employee satisfaction ratings fell dramatically after the working environment was changed to an open plan one.
   > Conducted in a large newspaper office in the USA.
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   > Original office:
   » All the employees worked in a conventional ‘multi-cellular’ office.
   » Each department was in a separate office and within each office desks or workstations were separated from each other by internal walls, or by filing cabinets and partitions.
   »This meant that employees had their own space and that in order to interact with anyone, it was necessary to travel down corridors and around partitions.
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   > Reasons the management had been considering a change of office location:
   » The current office space was nowhere near a railway and this meant that papers had to be moved from the offices to the railway station by truck, creating additional expense as well as using up valuable time.
   » The current office had many practical problems; it lacked air conditioning, was difficult to heat and there was limited storage space.
   » The management thought that the current layout of the offices was not conducive to good communication both between individuals and between departments. They believed that an open plan office would alleviate this problem and create a more positive working environment.
   » All of these reasons meant that a move to new office premises was necessary.
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   > New open plan office:
   » Was purpose built and was located next to a railway line.
   » Constructed as a typical open plan design.
   » No internal walls and no cabinets or partitions more than three feet high.
   » There was no private offices anywhere in the building although two meeting rooms were available.
   » All members of a department were still grouped together as they had been in the old building and the amount of space was roughly equivalent in both old and new buildings.
   » The only exception to this was staff working in the pressroom, who kept their working space as it had been. This was useful as these staff formed a type of naturally occurring control group.
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   > Staff were fully informed at all stages of this process and data was collected at the beginning of the research which revealed that most staff were in agreement that the old building was no longer ‘fit for purpose’.
   > It was important to note that the change in office was the only change - the move did not produce any other changes to people’s working conditions, contracts, salaries or duties.
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   A. Aim
   > Designed to assess employees’ reactions to their new office and to their work.
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   B. Hypothesis
   > The experiments predicted that there would be an increase in supervisor and co-worker feedback, friendship opprtunities, intra-departmental and inter-departmental interaction.
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   C. Participants
   > All the 140 full-time employees were invited to participate.
   > A total of 128 participated in some way.
   > A total of 76 participated in all three stages of the study and the majority of the results presented by the authors are based on these 76 participants.
   > Five members of the pressroom formed the control group. Although they completed the questionnaires at all three time periods, the fact that their working environment remained unchanged meant that little if any change over time was predicted for this group.
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   D. Data
   > Collected at the offices.
   > First set of data (Time 1) was collected approximately 8 weeks before the move to the open plan office.
   > Second set of data (T2) was collected 9 weeks after the move.
   > Third set of data (T3) was collected 18 weeks after the move.
   > Collected using a questionnaire which was given out to groups ranging from 2 to 12 people.
   > Briefly, the questionnaire measured:
   » Work satisfaction
   » Interpersonal satisfaction
   » Internal work motivation
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   E. Procedures
   > Participants were asked to put their names on the questionnaires so that their responses could be followed through the different stages of the study.
   > They were assured that their responses would be confidential.
   > Management and staff were also questioned more informally to gather additional feedback about the move to the new office.
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   F. Results
   > Findings were that employees’ internal motivation and satisfaction with work and colleagues actually decreased sharply after the move to the open plan office.
   > The control group showed no such changes.
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   G. Difficulties faced
   > The interview data revealed that workers felt that they were in a ‘fishbowl’, that it was difficult to concentrate and complete a task.
   > It was also difficult to develop friendships and impossible to do something like invite someone for a drink after work without the whole office hearing.
   > A supervisor also commented that it was difficult to provide feedback to a worker without moving to a private meeting room.
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   H. Conclusion
   > All of this strongly suggests that it was the physical space itself rather than any other factors associated with the move that were responsible for these changes and although there are some weaknesses with the way that this study was designed these weaknesses do not contradict this conclusion.
   > Open plan offices were the cause of decreased satisfaction and motivation.

Question 4

Evaluation

Answer 4

1. Situational explanations
   > The effect of working conditions, that is the situation in which you are working.
   > All three studies demonstrate that situations, whether this be change, office layout or a culture of bullying, can have significant effects on the individuals who work in these situations.
2. Application in everyday life
   > This is important for organisations and for organisational psychologists to recognise so that they can strive for the most effective and harmonious working environment.
3. Research methods
   > Experimental studies
   » The Hawthorne studies discussed by Wickstrom and Bendix.
   » Field experiment as the experimenters manipulate the variables that they were interested in but did this in a real working environment as opposed to a laboratory experiment.
   » This gives the research high levels of ecological validity, which means that the results can easily be applied to the real world.
   » However, conducting research in this way produces very low levels of control. There are a number of other variables that were not considered at the time of the research that might actually offer a better explanation of the findings than the explanations that were offered at the time.
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   > The study into open plan offices by Oldham and Brass.
   » Has a high level of ecological validity but low levels of control.
   » Natural experiment; the experimenters did not move the workers from one office environment to the other for the purposes of the research but took advantage of this naturally occurring change (IV) to investigate the effects.
   » Unfortunately, in this kind of study, it is going to be almost impossible to control for every possible variable and this does mean there are weaknesses with the way that this study was conducted.
   » The control group only contained five individuals, which makes comparisons difficult.
   » The researchers were only able to collect data on worker motivation and worker satisfaction and it is possible that scores on productivity or efficiency for example may have shown significant benefits of moving to the open plan office.
   » Finally, it is also possible that the negative ratings would have been temporary and continuing to monitor the employees over a longer time period would have shown more positive results later.