The Social Environment

Question 1

The Social Environment: Crowding, Teams and Leaders

Answer 1

Many potential stressors arise from the social situation at work. After consideration of the social factors that may make a person feel crowded, the ways in which such feelings may arise from relationships with others (peers, managers and subordinates) is discussed. Solutions to crowding through effective team building and effective leadership.

Question 2

Personal Space (Proxemics)

Answer 2

Area with invisible boundaries surrounding a person’s body into which intruders may not come (Sommer, 1969).

Interpersonal distance:
Hall (1966) 4 main zones for communication:
- Intimate: 0-18in
- Personal: 1.5-4ft 
- Social 4-12ft
- Public distances: 12-25ft

Orientation and Eye contact: Corner to corner or face to face for casual convo; Side to side for cooperative work; Distanced face to face for competitive.

Question 3

Territoriality

Answer 3

Perceived, attempted, or actual control of a physical object or space.

Question 4

Altman (1975) 3 types of theory

Answer 4

Primary territory: that owned by individual on permanent basis, and under their perceived control. Extensions of self: your home, your room, your neighbourhood (personalising)

Public Territory: free access areas, belonging to no body. e.g. place on beach, seats on public transport, first come first served.

Second territory: owned by the individual on temporary basis. Does not have exclusive rights to it Office space at work, desk in classroom, semi public areas

Question 5

Crowding - Invasion of personal space and/or Territoriality

Answer 5

Constrains our behaviour

Disturbs our equilibrium

Loss of personal control
Schmidt and Keating (1979) on cognitive control (degree of understanding the situation), behavioural control (degree of constraints on actions) and decisional control (degree of choice available).

Stimulus overload: Social and informational overload. Actual amount in relation to preferred amount

Question 6

Factors affecting Crowding

Answer 6

Who we are, how we feel at the time, who is other person - cognitive appraisal of the situation

• Culture, gender, age, personality and cooperative and competitive tasks

Question 7

Social density of the work environment:

Answer 7

Office Landscaping is an attempt to create privacy in open plan offices. Dividers/screening and partitions.

Balance between individual needs, perceived status and prestige and social contact.

Freedom from unwanted intrusion and freedom to determine the time and place of communication.

Question 8

Relationships with Peers in the Workgroup

Answer 8

Crowding a result of poor relationships with peers

Stress from Bullying and Harassment

Question 9

Much team building area related to whether:

Answer 9

Heterogeneity (diversity) - appearance, personality, ability, manner, age , status is conductive to performance

Through everyone working together in group cohesive rather than group conflict

Question 10

Compatibility of interpersonal needs

Answer 10

Stress-reducing if socially/mutually supportive (French and Caplan 1972).

Question 11

Task-orientated roles

Answer 11

Regardless of actual functional responsibilities, a mix of team roles so that one person initiates things, another coordinates, another summarises (Belbin 1996 or Margerison and McCann 1990)

Question 12

Belbin’s Team Role Inventory

Answer 12

1. Implementor
2. Coordinator (Controller-Inspector)
3. Shaper (Thruster-Organiser)
4. Plant (Creator and Innovator)
5. Resource Investigator (Explorer-Promoter)
6. Monitor Evaluator (Assessor-Developer)
7. Completer Finisher (Concluder-Producer)
8. Specialist

Team of 9, however some people carry a few characteristics, therefore a team of 2/3

Question 13

Relationships with Leaders

Answer 13

Crowding a result of poor relationships with leaders

Question 14

People Oriented

Answer 14

Ohio State Leadership Studies (1940s) using the leader behaviour description questionnaire came up with two underlying styles:

Consideration - the extent to which the leader demonstrates trust of subordinates, respect for their ideas and consideration of their feelings

Initiating Structure - the extent to which a leader defines their own and others roles towards goal attainment

Question 15

Michigan Leadership Studies (Likert 1950)

Answer 15

2 styles:
Employee Oriented
Task Oriented

Variations include: benevolent authoritative/ participatory systems

Question 16

Democratic and Autocratic (Gastil 1994)

Answer 16

Distributes responsibility
Empowers
Aids deliberation

Question 17

Transformational and Transactional Leaders (Bass 1985)

Answer 17

Transactional - contingent reward, management by exception

Transformational - Charisma, individual consideration, intellectual stimulation and vison

Question 18

HSE Management Competencies for Reducing Stress at Work (2009)

Answer 18

Empowerment
Participative approach
Development
Health and Safety
Feedback
Seeking Advice
Empathy
Friendly Style
Acting with integrity

Question 19

Contingency Theories

Answer 19

HSE Management don’t take into account of different leadership behaviours being more or less appropriate depending upon the aspects of the work situation at the time.

Question 20

Fiedler (1967) and least preferred Co-Worker scale

Answer 20

High LPC similar to consideration: Low similar to initiating structure.

Depends on:
Leader-member relations
Task Structure
Position Power

Low LPC seems best, High LPC desirable in moderately favourable situations

Question 21

Vroom and Jago (1988) Leader Participation Model

Answer 21

Styles from Autocratic > Consultative > Group

More participative if subordinates committed, no time pressure, decision information unclear

Question 22

Hershey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory (1982)

Answer 22

Delegating, Participating, Selling and Telling depending upon the maturity of the subordinates. Tell the less mature.