Syddansk Universitet, Slagelse Afleverings dato: 04-05-2016

Det Samfundsvidenskabelige fakultet

Antal Tegn: 24.125

Sociology of work and management

Task #1 & #4

Opgaven er udarbejdet af: Undervisere:

Introduction

We have chosen to complete task #1 and #4 in this home assignment. Task

#1 will be written by Kristian and 4# by Senad.

(Kristian)
In this assignment we are exploring different topics regarding the sociology of
work management and motivation. In task #1 we will explore and discuss the
concept of “The Informal Organization”. This theory, which came to light under
the interpretation of the Hawthorne experiments, has had a big influence on
how management is carried out today. Through these experiments, it was
made evident, how there are more incentives towards working than just pay,
and how important social needs is for the organization's employee. Humans
need to be around others, and having a sense of cohesion at the workplace.
Through this social interaction, informal structures are created within the
organization. People form informal groups, which is structured depending on
their social relationships. We are looking to discuss, how these informal
structures contribute to the organization as a whole, and how it affects the
workers and their motivation in the organization.

(Senad)
In task #4 we explore the theories behind motivation and how incentives can
contribute to it. We discuss how economic incentives and non-economic
incentives can affect employees in an organization to perform better. People’s
behavior often depends on what incentives they are receiving, and every
individual has different motivational needs to fulfill. Employees are pushed into
action from both internal and external drives, and the goal is to achieve their
reward - satisfaction.

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Task 1 – The Informal Organization (Kristian)

Prior to the exploration and notation of the concept ‘Informal Organization’,

classical theorists on organizational theory, such as Taylor and Weber, focused
on the study of rationality in organizations. Scientific management is one
example of rational management theory – before instigating any work, a
manager should analyse it, and only then make the decision. Scientific
management has undoubtedly made an enormous impact on future
organization and management studies. In relation to rationality of
organizations, was the belief of the rational individual, also expressed as “the
economic man”, who was solely motivated by maximizing personal utility in
reference to economic theory. The personal utility was in the late 19-century
interpreted as money, although we now know, that there are more
motivational factors than just pay. Elton Mayo explored some of these factors,
during the interpretation of the results from the Hawthorne Experiments. The
experiment was carried out, to determine which working conditions affected
employee output. This was done by performing several experiments at the
Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Co. plant.

Industrial sociology as well as Human Relation was based on or established by

the Hawthorne experiments1, which includes our topic at hand The Informal
Organization. Elton Mayo laid the foundation for the Human Relations
movement and the origin of “the social man”. This stood in sharp contrast to
the thoughts of classical rationalist theories. Mayo believed that the rapid
development of society caused by the industrialization, could easily lead to a
high level of anomie among society members, and he regarded companies as a
place where the individual could be integrated in a social system and
subsequently belong to a social group.2

1
Scheuer (2000)
2
Scheuer (2000)
2
During the interpretation of the Hawthorne experiments, Mayo made many
findings in terms of organizational structure and the existence thereof. One of
the key findings was the existence of the informal organization.

The first two parts of the Hawthorne Experiments (Illumination Test and Relay
Assembly Room) showed either no change or an increase in employee’s output
no matter which change to the workers environment was introduced. It
became clear for the researchers that they had been ignoring key variables of
the social aspect in the work environment. In other words, people did not
behave as explained by classic economic theories. By dividing employees into
groups during the Relay Assembly experiment, the employees became part of
a social structure, which in turn affected their output during changes to
working conditions and environment. It for example showed, that the group
with a good relationship with superiors had an increased level of output.

The next experiment of the Bank Wiring Observation room, had an objective to
obtain a better understand the “informal organization” among the workers,
based on the previous experiments and the interviews of affected employees.
How did social structures create norms on the workplace and how did this
affect the output and feelings towards colleagues and management?

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What is “the informal organization”? (Kristian)

Almost every organization has both formal and informal structures within
them. The formal organization consists of a set of rules and structures, which
is the basis of the organization's operation and ways of carrying out work. In
the formal organization the set of rules and structures serves the
organization's goals and position towards obtaining these. This includes the
structure of authority, job descriptions and financial resources. It can be said,
that the formal organizations structure is created intentionally by organising
towards reaching organizational goals.3
Every organization may have several hidden informal structures, which is not
part of the formal organization. It is a system of relationships, which develop
within the formal organizational structure, and does not share characteristics
of the formal organization. The informal organization can be characterized as
informal groupings and interactions within the formal organization. These
groupings and interactions are clearly related, to the human need to socialize,
and could include both friendly and hostile groupings.

During the Hawthorne Experiments, it was made clear, that social interaction
within the formal organization affects the working environment. But how does
these groups arise? Informal groups within the organization arise throughout
human interaction and the human need to socialize. As mentioned earlier,
these can be of both friendly and hostile character, and may often arise from
changes within the organization. Since these groups are closely related to
social relationships and interactions, there may be several informal groups
within the organization. Like most other groupings, the informal group often
constitutes an informal leader. The leader can be elected for several reasons, it
might be their job situation, their outspokenness, experience or even how
likeable they are to the rest of the group. Despite the informal leader not
having managerial status, the leader can still influence the decisions of other
members in the group.

3
Katzenbach (2010)
4
The informal leader has the role of helping the informal group reach its
goals, and to maintain and enhance group life.4 The role of being the
informal group leader may therefore change, provided the goal of the informal
group changes, and the need for different competences is enhanced.

What is the informal organizations role - in relation to the formal

organization?

As earlier described, the formal organization is a set of rules and structures,

often defined by top level management to obtain the production and economic
targets of the organization.
The informal organization incorporates the social structures and relations,
which has not been formally created or recognized. The informal organization
or group may arise in the formal organization for many reasons. One would
think that insufficient structures in the formal organization can cause the
adherence of the informal groups. This might be true, but as mentioned
earlier, they can also arise due to friendly social interaction. Due to the large
difference in the two organizational types, these might complement each other
in different ways, and both serve the organization well at the same time5. One
thing is certain, that the adherence of informal groups will always exist.
Informal organization among workers cannot be avoided, and needs to be
handled correctly to avoid giving it a dysfunctional influence6.

In The Bank Wiring Observation room experiment of the Hawthorne study, it

was evident how norms within an informal structure, can have a negative
effect on output of production for the formal organization.

4
http://bankofinfo.com/nature-of-informal-organization/
5
Scheuer (2000)
6
Rose (1988)
5
The production group created norms, which served as a coherent set of
objectives, towards not only output of production, but also in terms of
treatment of supervisors etc. This was also evident in the Moss Cellulose study,
where a restriction on output was also a norm at place: “One should not do
more than one has to. Must stick to the rate.”7 The social norms is a powerful
aspect of the informal group, and may influence production output at a larger
scale, as to restrict the ability of workers to “fit in” the informal group.
As will it be harder to perform changes towards these groups, as the norms
and social structures can be hidden from members outside of the informal
organization. It would therefore be in the management’s best interest to
understand the social structures of the organization, to predict how employees
will react to certain initiatives, even though it will be close to impossible to
identify the social norms in all of the informal groupings.

The fixed structure and rules of the formal organization, makes communication
and flexibility towards work processes and decision-making limited. The formal
structures can be related to the top-down approach of communication and
information sharing, whereas the informal structures supports a bottom-up
approach. Incorporating and acknowledging the informal organizations role,
would enhance communication patterns this concept known as “Grapevine
communication”. In most organizations, the information flow often has a
critical relationship with the social structures, and in organizations of today,
you are more likely to hear rumors or news of the organization from the social
groups you are related to. At the same time, informal ways of communication
can also lead to learning, and is often quicker than formal means of
communication.

7
Lysgaard (1967)
6
What is the relevance of the informal organization for the incentive
and motivational systems in companies? (Kristian)

In today’s organizations, it is obvious that there are more incentives towards

work than just pay. The social aspect has been acknowledged, as an important
part of working for the employees. But how is an organizational informal
structure relevant for employee motivation?

Of course individual motivation of employees can be very different in terms of

their own incentives. But can too much formal structure hinder motivation?
Informal structures help the organization in satisfying employee needs of social
interaction. If the organization has strong formal structures, employees can
easily get demotivated from the rigidness of their working environment. The
informal structures can help the employee, and the organization as a whole, in
creating a balance towards the social needs of the employees.

The Hawthorne experiment showed the importance of “the friendly supervisor”,

and how it is apparent to the workers motivation and production output.
Personal interaction should be increased, as well should the workers possibility
of participating in decision-making processes in matters concerning
themselves.8 This is evident in organizations of today, where it is
acknowledged how important the employee are, in terms of being an
organization which is ready for change. Not involving employees in critical
decisions regarded their job will lead to resistance, which will lead to poorer
performance and job satisfaction. Poorer job satisfaction will inevitably also
lead to lower motivation among the employees. In other words, the intrinsic
motivation of employees will be lower, if social needs are not satisfied.

8
Rose (1988)
7
Not only does the informal structures within an organization serve the
employee’s basic needs, it also supports the formal structures. It makes for
better dynamics and collaboration in the organization, which also enhances
creativity of workers and their performance.

Conclusion: (Kristian)
Formal organizations contains informal structures within them. The informal
structures and groups, have their own set of social structure, norms and even
culture. The Hawthorne Experiments showed how these informal groups were
present at the Hawthorne Works. These informal groups had an obvious
influence on the organization, and showed how much informal structures can
influence how an organization is run. These social structures can without doubt
harm an organization production and culture, if given too much power.
However they can also support the formal organization in reaching its goals, as
they provide the much needed social satisfaction for the worker. Informal
structures can also lead to a higher level of dynamics at the workplace, and
will serve as an innovation catalyst, by removing obstacles set by the formal
organization.
Since the Hawthorne Experiments and the acknowledgement of social
structures at the workplace, the informal organizations continues to play a
large role in organizations today. The need for flexibility and innovation is as
tough a challenge for companies today as ever, and securing a balance
between formal and informal structures can be essential for success.

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Task 4 (Senad)
Motivation and the controversial role of incentives.

Many organizations in the world today, considers employees as big, important

assets. Big resources are used to keep the employees happy, satisfied and
motivated.

When talking about incentives used to motivate employees, an organization

can use either economic or noneconomic incentives. Economic in form as
higher salaries, bonuses and performance pay, and noneconomic as job
satisfaction, challenges, responsibility etc..

One definition of motivation is “The drive or willingness to do something”9. In

an employee's workplace, social status, achievements and fear can motivate to
a higher performance. But in the end, it is important that leaders make
employees achieve the goals of the organization, while the employees also
share the common thought.

There a quite a few motivational theories today, and they have all evolved
during the 20th century. The typical way of dividing the theories are in the
process theories and content theories. The process theories is about the
psychological processes that are going on in the employee's head. The
employee selects behavioural actions so they can make a choice based on their
needs.10 The content theory is based on, that certain needs and incentives
have to be present in order to create motivation for the employee.

9
David Parsley (2007)
10
Mohr, Lawrence B. (1982)
9
Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management (Senad)
One of the very first theories was made by Frederick Taylor called Taylor’s
Scientific Management theory. Frederick Taylor created the theory to focus
more on efficiency of the employees, that worked in the US production
companies.
Frederick Taylor believed that the resources (the employees) were not used
optimally, and that companies needed to find a more efficient way of obtaining
their goals. Taylor believed that companies should not focus on the individual,
but on the work processes, and try to optimize these.

The basics of Scientific Management is built on a rationalization of workflows

meaning, that you should make your employees follow a detailed description of
their tasks, created by the management, and because this, you would increase
productivity, efficiency and standardization of especially production companies.

The thing Taylor wanted, was to find “the best way” of optimizing different
workflows. This would in the end result in a workplace, where the human is
being demoted to a machine. Because of this, the individual is not taken into
account because it is the workflow that is the determinant to the processes to
work optimally. According to Taylor, efficiency, standardization and discipline
are the most important thing when implementing Scientific Management.11

According to Taylor, motivation and pay is closely connected. Because of the

Scientific Management, employees would be more productive, and because of
this, get a higher pay.

11
Wrege, Charles D. & Greenwood, Ronald G (1991)

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So Taylor argued that the employee’s motivation should be derived from their
wage and bonuses if the employee exceeds the quota for the day.
Furthermore, the employee should be motivated to use their maximum
potential and be effective to do their best every day.

Taylor’s Scientific Management has gotten a lot of criticism because the model
is depriving employees of their control of their work. In other words, the
employees does not get to think, nor know, what they are doing, just as long
as they follow the guidelines made by the management.
This can lead to dissatisfaction between the employees, as the theory does not
take the employee's social and emotional feelings in consideration.

So the Scientific Management theory primarily focuses on motivation, through

the incentives of wage and bonuses, instead of the individual feeling of
achievement and responsibility.

A.H Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (Senad)

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is used to identify the employees needs and
explain what drives their behaviour. Maslow argued that the human needs can
be divided in a hierarchy of five basic layers.

12

12
Maslow, A (1954)
11
The pyramid is built so the basic physical needs are at the bottom, and these
need to be fulfilled before moving up the latter. If the basic needs are not
fulfilled, they will dominate the behavior and mind of a human being, and the
rest will not be active. When the physical needs are fulfilled, the psychological
ones will start to influence.

According to Maslow, the lowest three layers of the pyramid are called the
deficiency needs. The individual will always seek to fulfill these needs before
starting to think about the top two layers. The top two layers are for the
individual to evolve and grow. They are there to strengthen the motivation,
and make the individual feeling satisfied with their life.
To sum it up, an individual cannot be satisfied and motivated until all of the
layers in the pyramid is fulfilled.

A big criticism of Maslow’s theory is, that you do not necessarily have to fulfill
the layers in the pyramid in the order Maslow is suggesting. In an
organizational perspective, an employer should determine what layers an
employee has fulfilled, and then give the employee the possibility to fulfill the
rest. This can, however, be a problem, as every individual is driven by different
motivational factors.

Every employee has a job to fulfill their basic needs eg. they need to eat, drink
and have a place to live. Security could be in the form of a stable work
environment, without the threat of being fired in the near future. A workplace
is also where the employee fulfills their need of being social and belonging to
something. The employee creates a relationship with their colleagues, and
goes through positive and negative periods and sharing these between one
another. The last of the top layers can be argued to be fulfilled by the
organization the employee is in. The ego of an employee can be strengthened
by being in a strong organization. In many cases, the job title does not
necessarily has to influence the employee’s motivation, as the status of
working in the organization can be enough (eg. Apple, Google, Microsoft)
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Frederick Herzberg and the Two-factor theory (Senad)
This theory is chosen because it is a natural transition from Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs. Herzberg created a theory based on motivational factors in the
workplace. In short, the two-factor theory says that it is not necessarily the
same variable that creates dissatisfaction and job satisfaction. Herzberg
believed that organizations only had a small influence on its employees, and
even though employees can easily become demotivated by eg. lower wage, it
does not mean that the employees are motivated if the wages and workplace
rules are fair.

One of the central points of Herzberg’s theory is that employees become

motivated by challenging work tasks and personal achievement. If a research
was made by asking an employee if they experience dissatisfaction in their
workplace, you could get answers as “low wage”, “bad manager” eg. But if you
asked employees what motivates them, you probably would get other answers
as self-esteem and responsibility.

The two-factor theory is based on two categories - the hygiene factor and
motivational factor.

The hygiene factor is covering external factors such as status, job security,
salary etc. In other words, factors that do not increase the job satisfaction or
motivation, and are there to prevent the employees from becoming
dissatisfied. It is also important to note, that the word “hygiene” is used as
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factors for maintenance.

The motivational factors are factors that have an impact directly on the
employee’s work or their work position. This could, as mentioned above, be
responsibility, challenges and recognition. These are factors that can increase
the employee’s job satisfaction. In other words, the motivational factors are
there to increase the motivation and better job performance.

13
Hackman, J. Richard; Oldham, Greg R. (August 1976
13
One could argue, that even though Herzberg believed that certain factors had
different impact on employees, it does not necessarily mean that a higher job
satisfaction is equal to a better job performance.

Discussion and conclusion on task #4 (Senad)

The theories listed are all motivational theories that can tell, how an individual
can be motivated to a better job performance. Motivation can be defined as
“factors that activate, direct, and sustain goal-directed behavior... Motives are
the "whys" of behavior - the needs or wants that drive behavior and explain
what we do.”14

So the individual has a list of needs that it seeks to fulfill. As mentioned in the
section about Maslow’s theory, a job in itself can be enough to fulfill almost
every need on every layer. But it is important to also notice, that even though
Herzberg is agreeing with Maslow, that the hierarchical needs can be used by
employees on their workplace, Herzberg does not agree that it is all the factors
that motivate. Herzberg argued that one will need to get up to the last two
layers in the pyramid, before we can start talking motivational factors.

With other words, when we are working, it is the work itself, the challenges
and the responsibility that creates the employee motivation.

Employee motivation does not necessarily only spring from economic-

incentives as Taylor argued. There is a lot more going on in an individual's
head than just the pursuit of higher wage. Job satisfaction, coworkers,
recognition, responsibility and development are all factors that play a role in an
individual’s motivation, as Herzberg argued in his two-factor theory.

14
Nevid (2013)
14
Today, the workplace is something that is very important to many employees
in their everyday life. You could therefore argue, that some of the motivational
factors, are a great workspace and social environment. As long as the
employee is fulfilling these needs, the motivation will stay high.
As mentioned earlier, responsibility and recognition also plays a big role in
motivation of employees. It is important to recognize your colleague, but also
important to you, as an individual, to receive recognition back. The level of
responsibility is also a factor that can determine the significance of your
motivation.

As a final word, it can be argued that an employee does not get motivated by
only one factor, but by a lot of different factors, depending on what the
employee needs to become motivated. Economic incentives are great, and
valued by the employees, as it can give them an increase in motivation in the
short-run, but non-economic incentives as job satisfaction, recognition,
responsibility eg. are the factors that are contributing to keep the motivation
high in the long-run.

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