An introduction to contemporary work psychology

Edited by Mario C.W. Peeters, Jan de Jonge and Toon W. Taris

2014
Chapter 1

By: Derya van Berkel

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 What we talk about when we talk about work psychology
Work: a set of coordinated an goal-directed activities that are conducted in exchange for something
else. Three key elements of this definition:

 Goal-directed activities: actions at work are intended to bring about a particular previously
specified result. Goal of work is to deliver a service or produce a good.
 Coordinated activities: workers execute a series of interrelated activities following particular
work routines, procedures and guidelines. Without coordination, the intended goal will be
difficult to achieve.
 In exchange for something else: few would go to work without getting anything in return.

Psychology: refers to people’s behavior, motivations, thoughts and emotions related to a particular
topic.

Psychologists their task is to improve people’s lives and benefit society.

Work psychology: psychological study of work activities. Relates to these above said concepts (people’s
behavior, motivations, thoughts and emotions) in the context of work and how these relate to each
other and can be influenced. It is about the tasks/activities that are carried out at work. Not only aiming
for best performance, but primarily aim to maximize worker health and well-being. Satisfied workers are
productive workers.

Organizational psychology: the context in which activities are conducted (organization, team, leadership
etc.)

Personnel psychology: the characteristics of the person conducting a particular work task (age, gender,
level of education etc) or selecting or hiring new staff

Contemporary work psychology: aims to promote sustainable performance, maximizing work

performance as well as worker health and well-being.

1.2 What do we mean when we talk about workers?

Workforce of the world: The world labour force comprises people aged 15 and older who meet the
International Labour Organization (ILO) definition of the economically active population: all people who
supply labour for the production of goods and services during a specified period. It includes both the
employed and the unemployed.

Underemployment rates: Refers to the share of the labour force that is without work but available for
and seeking employment.

Three different work sectors

 Agriculture: forestry, hunting and fishing (declining 2 nd )

 Industry: manufacturing, mining and constructing (declining 3 rd )
 Services: transportation, communication, public utilities, trade, finance, etc. (increasing 1 st)
There is an inclination in work psychology to focus predominantly on high-status workers and ethnic
majorities in well-developed parts of the world (large organizations, white-collar, professional and
middle to highly educated people). Limitation to generalize findings because research about others stays
behind.

1.3 The meaning of working

Artefacts of popular culture (music, series etc.) provide insights into what working means to people.
Often depicts work as something unpleasant which might have negative consequences for health and
well-being. It has positive and negative features (boredom vs challenge, success vs failure, friends vs
foes).

New inventions at work are accepted because there is a desire to spend less time on work.

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. Employed people are usually considerably happier than
unemployed people. For example levels of suicide, mortality, long-term illness, anxiety, depression and
risky behaviours tend to be higher among unemployed than employed people. Furthermore, life
satisfaction and general health have been found lower for the unemployed. Lack of health increases the
chances of becoming unemployed, unemployment also contributes to the emergence of health
problems.

Having a job positively contributes to people’s health because people can spend money on goods and
activities that are beneficial for their health.

The Relative Deprivation Model by Marie Jahoda’s shows that there are five other positive
consequences when having a job next to providing an income:

 Time structure
 Opportunities for social contact
 Sharing of a common purpose
 Social identity or status
 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.

Matt Groening’s: ‘Work is hell – but it beats unemployment’.

1.4 The roots of work psychology

Sustainable performance: stimulating high work performance as well as maintaining worker health and
well-being.

Historically (middle of the nineteenth century), the emphasis of work psychology was on the best way of
organizing work and the work organization (maximizing productivity and profit  industrial capitalism)
and on socio-political implications of this (consider criticism of industrial capitalism by for example Karl
Marx and Friedrich Engels)
Systematic thinking about the organization of work: Far before this era (middle of the nineteenth
century), scholars had already considered how particular tasks should be conducted and organized. For
example Hippocratic collection with medical knowledge or Roman army scripts. After the middle ages a
more scientific approach to examining work and its effects and antecedents emerged.

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 (On
metal matters). He did not only discuss technical details of mine operation, but also paid attention to the
miners and their typical diseases. He gave advices in the book about what people should wear and how
long they should work etc.

Work psychology, 1850-1930: The industrial revolution (1750-1850s) resulted in a transition towards
new manufacturing processes (because of power resources and mass production). These changes
reformed the economic system into that of industrial capitalism, transforming the social an physical
landscape in the process (large factories, infrastructure etc). The conditions were harsh, days were long
and pay was low.
Jobs differed from previous jobs, resulting in struggles to find a career that suited the interests, talents
and accomplishments. The tasks were characterized by a high level of division of labour and were
usually simple, repetitive and boring, requiring few skills. How to motivate people and make them
more productive?
Psychologists assumed that worker well-being and productivity were optimal when there is a good
match between job and worker, fit the worker to the job.

Frederick Taylor thought it could be optimized by concentrating on the task itself by simplifying it to
such a degree that any worker would be able to do it. His assumptions were that workers are lazy and
stupid and tried to maximize industrial efficiency by:

 Simplifying tasks using scientific methods: subtasks

 Examining the best way to conduct these tasks: only one way
 Training workers: faster and more productive with that one way
 Separating the planning of tasks from their execution: supervisors should think how, worker
does it
 Selecting workers for particular tasks: smart person other task than strong person

There was high level of control and supervision and pay-for-performance systems were implemented
(done more, paid more). Standardization and efficiency were the core concepts.

Work psychology, 1930-present: Employers realized that redesigning jobs in line with the principles of
scientific management affected worker morale negatively and tend to stimulate conflicts between
managers and workers, resulting in the strengthening of the positon of labour unions and recurring
strikes. The human relations movement superseded the Taylorism vision (scientific management). The
human relations movement wanted to fit the job to the worker (instead of the worker to the job),
paying special attention to the human side of working. Managers began to focus on the well-being of the
workers to prevent worker turnover and unionization and promote worker commitment. They
introduced pensions, sick pay and educational and recreational programs. Research (of Western Electric)
showed that strong friendships and the fact that employees were a team was the main driver of the
increased productivity. Thus, they began to focus on the social context in which the work tasks were
conducted. Contemporary work psychology: aims to improve productivity by optimizing the
organization of work, work methods and job characteristics, but at the same time strives towards
maximization of worker health and well-being. At its core is always a focus on work as a set of
coordinated activities that are conducted by people, each with their own capacities, needs and talents
and the assumption that sustainable work performance can only be achieved if task requirements,
worker characteristics and worker health and well-being are taken into account.

1.5 The times, they are A-changin’

Most job design theories have been developed in the mid-twentieth century when workers were still
working in large-scale manufacturing plants. Afterwards, the world of work changed on different levels:
macro level of economies and demography, meso level of organizations and micro levels of tasks. Those
changes arise from technical advances and economic trends. Modern technology changes the way we
live and work.

The changing nature of work: Since the mid-1970s there is an increase in service sector working and a
decline in working in manufacturing, so there is less exposure to physical health risks. But also in
manufacturing there are machines to make is less labor-intensive. Service jobs has also risks and brings
new job demands: emotion labour. Employees have to be friendly and positive.
Another growing segment is the ‘knowledge worker’, a highly educated employee who applies
theoretical and analytical knowledge to developing new products and services. They work in product
development, consultancy and information systems. In knowledge work the level of information
processing is high in order to produce intellectual performances, there is a high degree of cognitive load.

The changing workforce: Back in the days (+/- 50 years ago) employees shared similar ethnic
backgrounds, were male and worked for the same employer throughout their lives. Nowadays
employees are diverse in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, organizational tenure, educational background
etc. They have different demographics. There are positive and negative effects due to this change.

The changing flexibility of working: Employees have high flexibility, called a flexible work design (also
called ‘new ways of working’ NWW), which is characterized by:

 Flexibility in timing of work  more autonomy in deciding when to work

 Flexibility in the place of work  from home or at the office
 Facilitation of new media technologies  smartphones, videoconferences etc.

It makes it easier to communicate, people do not have to be in the same room and can even work from
different time zones. It has potential to contribute to work-life-balance when used in a considerate and
moderate way.

The changing organization: Organizations used to be static and inflexible enterprises. They are constant
changing nowadays. Two major trends that are responsible for those changes are:

 Globalization, or commerce without borders  creating a global economy with opportunities

and threats
 ICT, which is redefining how, where and when work is performed  creating network
organizations, strategic alliances and virtual corporations.

Organizations seem to undertake changes needed to survive and prosper.

The changing psychological contract: Once it was normal to work in only one or two companies,
nowadays, employees switch more often. This is due to education and training throughout their career,
which develops and improves competencies, which improves their employability, resulting in change in
the psychological contract: what employees and employers want and expect from each other.
Altogether, these changes are referred to as Past Present
intensification of work, where Stability Self-regulation
intensification refers to the increasing work Permanent employment Flexibility
pressure, the need for lifelong learning and Predictability Employability
the ability and willingness to change the Mutual respect Negotiations to fulfill
type of work one does. This results in new personal needs
job demands due to rapid change and flexibility for example.

1.6 The crucial role of task analysis in contemporary work psychology

Task analysis within work psychology: Task analysis: the study of what an employee (or team) is
required to do, in terms of actions and/or processes to achieve a system goal. It is a fundamental
approach which assists in achieving higher performance (by describing, analyzing and evaluating human-
human and human-machine interactions). It gives a blueprint of the system in human perspective, which
makes it easier to describe how activities fit together. This information can be used for many things
(equipment (re)design, personnel selection and training, allocation of jobs to ‘families’ of similar
functions, task (re)design, job organization, performance assessment). Task analysis is a methodology in
which data will be collected, ranked and evaluated to say something about the nature of the task, called
its psychologically relevant characteristics. It should lead to more efficient and effective integration of
the human factor into system designs to optimize human performance and safety.

Task analysis methods and techniques: Task analysis covers a range of methods and techniques. A task-
analysis method is based on a theoretical model that indicates which characteristics will be analyzed. All
methods covered by task analysis can be categorized in four different approaches:

 Behavior descriptions approach: the focus is on the actual behaviours employees display in
executing task (mopping the floor or reading instruments)
 Behavior requirements approach: focuses on the actual behavior employees should display to
perform the task in a successful way (showing dedication and concentration)
 Ability requirements approach: tasks are analyzed in terms of employees’ abilities, knowledge,
skills and personal characteristics needed to perform a task properly.
 Task characteristics approach: focusses on analyzing the objective characteristics of a task,
independent from the behavior that is actually displayed (behavior description) or that should
be displayed (behavior requirements) or the abilities needed (ability requirements).

Techniques: are instruments or protocols with which data can be collected and described in a systematic
way. There are three broad categories:

 Data collection techniques: interviews, questionnaires, observations etc. to measure

quantitative demanding tasks
 Task-representation techniques: graphic descriptions such as flow charts and hierarchical
networks because they are easier to understand
  Task-simulation techniques: make use of computer modelling and computer-aided design
programs. Two main types:
o Mock-ups: Those which try to simulate the dynamic aspects of tasks in work
environments models.
o Workspace designs: Those which are used for ergonomically laying out work
environments.

Benefits of task analysis: Useful to describe, analyze and evaluate particular tasks to improve
performance and safety by means of task (re)design.