Psychology (9990) | Organisational work conditions

Welcome to Organisational Work Conditions!

Hello A-Level Psychologists! This chapter is all about how the environment and scheduling in a workplace can affect a person's performance, health, and happiness.

Organisational Psychology isn't just theory—it's incredibly practical! Understanding these conditions helps managers create safer, more productive, and happier workplaces. Don't worry if some of the terms seem technical; we will break them down into simple, real-world examples.

4.4.1 Physical Work Conditions

Physical work conditions refer to the tangible aspects of the environment that workers operate in, such as lighting, temperature, noise levels, and office design. These elements have a direct impact on productivity and satisfaction.

The Hawthorne Effect and Productivity

Historically, psychologists believed that simply improving physical conditions (like brighter lights) would lead to better productivity. However, research complicated this view, most famously the Hawthorne studies.

Explaining the Hawthorne Effect

• What it is: The Hawthorne effect is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed.
• Why it matters: When researchers at the Hawthorne Works plant changed environmental factors (like increasing or decreasing light), productivity usually went up, regardless of the direction of the change. Why? Because the workers felt special and valued simply because someone was paying attention to them and consulting them.
• Memory Aid: Think "Hawthorne = Head Turning." People perform differently when they know heads are turning (watching) them.

Impact of Physical Work Conditions on Productivity (Kompier, 2006):
While the Hawthorne effect highlights the role of attention, Kompier reminds us that physical conditions *do* matter, especially when they are poor. Extreme noise, temperature, or bad air quality can directly cause stress and reduce focus, leading to decreased performance.

Impact of Office Design: Open Plan Offices

The design of the work environment, particularly the shift towards open plan offices (OPOs), has major psychological implications.

Open Plan Offices are large rooms where many employees work without physical barriers like walls or individual cubicles.

Study Example: Oldham and Brass (1979)

Oldham and Brass investigated how moving workers from traditional offices (private rooms/cubicles) to a new open plan office affected their attitudes and behaviours.

• Methodology: They used a longitudinal study (measuring satisfaction before and after the move) and used questionnaires.
• Findings: Moving to the open plan office generally led to:
  • Decreased job satisfaction.
  • Lowered perceptions of privacy (feeling watched).
  • Decreased internal motivation.
• Conclusion: While OPOs might save money on construction, they can negatively impact employee psychological well-being due to factors like noise, lack of privacy, and loss of control over one's space.

4.4.2 Temporal Conditions of Work Environments

Temporal conditions refer to the arrangements related to time—specifically, schedules and shifts, which heavily influence our biological clocks.

Design of Work: Shiftwork

Shiftwork (working outside traditional 9-to-5 hours) forces the body to adjust its circadian rhythm (our natural 24-hour cycle of sleep and wakefulness). This disruption can be very stressful.

There are several types of shiftwork design:

• Rapid Rotation: Shifts change very frequently (e.g., every 1–3 days). Advantage: The body doesn't fully adjust to the new rhythm, so returning to the "normal" schedule is easier.
• Slow Rotation: Workers stay on the same shift (e.g., night shift) for several weeks or months. Advantage: The body can fully adjust to the new rhythm, reducing fatigue during the shift itself.
• On-call: Employees must be available to work immediately when called, even if they aren't scheduled. This causes uncertainty and stress.
• Flexitime: Employees choose their start and end times, often around core required hours. This increases autonomy and control, usually improving satisfaction.

Effects of Shiftwork on Health and Accidents

When our circadian rhythm is repeatedly disrupted (especially with slow rotation or frequent night shifts), it impacts both safety and health.

Study Example: Gold et al. (1992)

Gold et al. investigated the long-term effects of shiftwork on women's health.

• Findings: They found a correlation between shiftwork (especially rotating shifts) and increased health risks, including a higher incidence of coronary heart disease and overall mortality.
• Explanation: Working against the natural body clock chronically increases stress hormones (like cortisol) and disrupts normal bodily functions, leading to long-term health issues.

Did you know? Many serious industrial accidents (like Chernobyl) have occurred during late-night shifts, illustrating how fatigue caused by temporal conditions severely impacts performance and safety.

4.4.3 Health and Safety

Organisational psychologists also focus on reducing accidents in the workplace by looking at two main sources of error: human actions and system design.

Accidents at Work: Human and System Errors

Accidents often don't happen because someone is deliberately careless, but because of predictable errors in human behaviour or flaws in machinery design (operator-machine systems).

1. Human Errors (Operator Errors)

These are mistakes made by the employee:

• Error of Omission: Forgetting to do a required step (e.g., failing to check a safety lock).
• Error of Commission: Doing a step incorrectly (e.g., pressing the wrong button).
• Sequencing Error: Doing steps in the wrong order (e.g., opening a valve before closing another).
• Timing Error: Doing a step too late or too early (e.g., reacting too slowly to an emergency signal).

2. System Errors (Operator-Machine Systems)

These are errors caused by poorly designed equipment or systems:

• Machine Controls: If a control is counter-intuitive (e.g., turning a dial clockwise decreases volume), it invites errors of commission.
• Displays: If the dashboard or display screen is confusing, cluttered, or uses unclear symbols, it can lead to misinterpretations (e.g., a critical reading is tucked away in a tiny corner of the screen).

Reducing Accidents at Work

Psychology offers effective methods to reduce human errors and promote safe behaviour.

Token Economy (Fox et al., 1987)

A token economy is a behavioural technique based on operant conditioning. It involves rewarding safe behaviours to encourage their repetition.

• Procedure: Workers earn "tokens" (or points/stamps) for performing safe actions (e.g., wearing safety gear, reporting hazards).
• Reinforcement: These tokens can be exchanged for desirable rewards (like time off, company merchandise, or cash bonuses).
• Study Example (Fox et al., 1987): This study demonstrated the effectiveness of token economies in reducing lost-time injuries in large open-pit mines. By rewarding safety compliance, the number of accidents decreased significantly.

Key Study: Monitoring Accidents and Risk Events - Swat (1997)

Swat (1997) focused on improving safety by analysing not just accidents, but risk events—minor incidents that could have led to serious injury. This involves monitoring the system for potential weaknesses.

Context and Aims

Swat recognised that major accidents are often preceded by numerous small, observable failures or "risk events." The aim was to develop a proactive system for monitoring accidents and risk events in industrial plants (like chemical factories).

Procedure and Methodology

The study involved designing a safety management system that used detailed observation and record-keeping in an industrial environment.

• Monitoring: The system tracked both injury accidents and less severe "risk events" (near-misses or minor equipment failures).
• Data Collection: This required meticulous objective data collection, including detailed records of the environment and sequence of actions preceding each event.
• Focus: The emphasis was on identifying latent failures—hidden flaws in the system, equipment, or organisation (e.g., poor maintenance schedule, confusing instructions), rather than just blaming the worker.

Results and Conclusions

• Findings: By focusing on minor risk events, the organisation was able to identify and fix underlying systemic flaws before they resulted in major catastrophes.
• Conclusion: Swat concluded that effective safety management requires a shift from simply counting severe accidents to systematically monitoring all risk events and using that objective data to improve system design and organisational practices.

Overall Encouragement

You've just navigated through how everything from the lightbulb above your desk to the timing of your shift affects your work life! Remember that Organisational Psychology connects directly to the real world. When tackling evaluation questions, think about how these concepts impact validity (is an OPO experiment ecologically valid?) and application (how can a token economy be ethically implemented?). Keep up the great work!