Organisational Behaviour For Dummies

By Cary Cooper, Sheena Johnson and Lynn Holdsworth

Your plain-English introduction to organisational behaviour

Organisational Behaviour (OB) is the study of how people, individuals, and groups act in organisations. Whether you're studying OB, or you just want a better understanding of people at work, Organisational Behaviour For Dummies gives you all the essentials for understanding this fascinating subject.

Inside you'll find out about personality and individual differences, teams and groups, personnel selection and assessment, and health and well-being at work. You'll also find out how leaders lead, how motivators motivate, and how the modern workplace is changing and evolving.

• An easy-to-read introduction to organisational behaviour for business, management, and organisational psychology students
• A useful reference for managers
• A fascinating look at behaviour in the modern workplace

Whether you're a student of organisational behaviour, a manager, or a lifelong learner with an interest in human behaviour and psychology in the workplace, Organisational Behaviour For Dummies has you covered.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Apr 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781119951247

Cary Cooper

Cary Cooper is Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at the University of Lancaster.

Book preview

Part I

Getting to Grips with Organisational Behaviour

9781119977919-pp01.eps

In this part . . .

In Part I, we introduce organisational behaviour and work psychology and explain how an understanding of psychology and behaviour can help organisations. We briefly look at the variety of topics the book covers and consider how to gather information about such topics; for example, through using workplace questionnaires or conducting face-to-face interviews with employees or managers. We also think about what’s going on in today’s workplace and why applying psychology in workplaces can help organisations to be successful.

Chapter 1

Introducing Organisational Behaviour

In This Chapter

arrow Introducing organisational behaviour

arrow Using organisational behaviour in the workplace

arrow Seeing how people behave at work

The three of us writing this book (Cary, Sheena, and Lynn) are all work psychologists, which means that we use some of the principles of psychology to study people and behaviour in organisations.

When asked, we tend to describe ourselves as work psychologists rather than organisational behaviourists. Why is that? Well, introducing yourself as a psychologist is bad enough with the questions that follow (for example, can you read my mind?). Imagine calling yourself an organisational behaviourist at a party – not the best opening line! At least people have heard of psychology, and it doesn’t take too much thought to figure out that work psychology is basically psychology applied to the workplace.

You may be wondering, then, why this book isn’t called Work Psychology For Dummies as opposed to Organisational Behaviour For Dummies? Well, organisational behaviour and work psychology look at similar ideas and have similar aims. Both involve looking at the ways in which people behave at work and what this behaviour means for organisations. However, the term ‘work psychology’ can imply a more focused look at individuals. Organisational behaviour, on the other hand, is a broader term because the name implies an overall look at behaviour (that is, from the perspective of people, groups, and the overall organisation), and that is our approach in this book.

We look at organisational behaviour in more detail throughout this chapter and focus on the application of organisational behaviour/psychology at work in Chapter 2. Reading these chapters gives you a good understanding of what organisational behaviour is and, perhaps more importantly, why it’s relevant to you and your workplace.

Describing Organisational Behaviour

We define organisation behaviour for you in full in this section, but first take a look at the following questions. These questions are the sort that organisational behaviourists consider when looking at people at work. Having an idea of what questions are of interest in organisational behaviour gives you an understanding of what it is and why it’s relevant to you and your studies or workplace. We provide answers to all these questions in different parts of this book.

Typical questions that an understanding of organisational behaviour can begin to answer for you are:

check.png What do you think about work?

check.png Why do you behave in certain ways at work?

check.png How do you react to the things that happen to you at work?

check.png What impact can your reactions have on the wider workplace?

check.png How does work affect you?

check.png What does your manager need to know about managing and motivating you at work?

If you’re a manager, here are some more questions that organisational behaviour can begin to answer that you’re sure to be interested in:

check.png What can I do to ensure that I recruit the best person for a job?

check.png How can I best motivate my employees?

check.png What is the best way to identify training needs in my employees?

check.png How can I instigate change without risking losing employee trust?

Offering a helpful definition

You can probably come up with an explanation of what organisational behaviour is without looking in a dictionary or searching on the Internet. It’s how organisations behave, yes? And because you know that organisations aren’t living things, then organisational behaviour has got to be about how the people and groups within organisations behave.

To elaborate a bit, here are some basic themes that cover what organisational behaviour is all about:

check.png Appreciating how people affect each other at work

check.png Applying knowledge at work based on what we know about how people act at work

check.png Understanding how people are affected by work

check.png Studying how people, individuals, and groups act at work

check.png Using organisation behaviour principles to improve an organisation’s effectiveness and productivity

What organisational behaviour isn’t

Organisational behaviour isn’t about reading minds or reading body language. Organisational behaviour helps you understand how people behave at work and what’s important to them and their organisations. But organisational behaviour doesn’t give you amazing powers of insight so that you suddenly just have to look at people to know what their attitudes are toward things.

warning_bomb.eps Organisational behaviour doesn’t enable you to perfectly predict what will happen at any given time at work. Having an understanding of some general rules about the types of behaviours you may see at work doesn’t mean that you can predict exactly how someone will behave!

Who Needs to Know about Organisational Behaviour?

Anyone who’s ever worked, or who’ll work in the future, can benefit from finding out about organisational behaviour – in other words, pretty much everyone needs to know about organisational behaviour! Organisational behaviour is all about people and work, so if you’re a person who works or has worked, then this topic is relevant to you.

Understanding the ideas underpinning organisational behaviour not only gives you insight into past events but enables you to better predict what may happen at work in the future.

remember.eps Understanding and using organisational behaviour principles in the workplace can help you keep yourself and others happier at work.

You may be reading this book because you’re studying organisational behaviour (or work psychology). Indeed, this area of study is now more popular than ever. This growing interest is unsurprising because people now generally accept that looking at issues relating to staff in the workplace is an effective way of improving organisational efficiency and of supporting and encouraging employees.

Most organisational behaviour students are within the university sector, which has vast numbers of undergraduates, postgraduates, and professional training individuals. Many of these students go on to apply the principles directly at work either in their capacity as managers or as professional advisors with expert knowledge into organisational behaviour or work psychology.

remember.eps Having work experience isn’t essential, but it does make understanding some of the things that organisational behaviour covers easier.

You may already be in a managerial or advisory role, in which case this book is also aimed at you. Perhaps you want to better understand how to manage your people, in which case you need to know about organisational behaviour, too.

Organisational Behaviour in Action

People use organisational behaviour theories all the time in the workplace in a number of diverse ways. For example, managers can use these theories to attract and recruit the best candidates to a job position and also to handle downsizing and retirement issues so as not to lose the goodwill of remaining employees. We explore a wide range of organisational behaviour topics throughout the book and split them into three main areas:

check.png Individuals: Covers things such as what we know about the differences between people and how these differences affect behaviour in the workplace.

check.png Employers: Looks at things like how different leadership and motivational styles affect employees.

check.png Organisations: Includes things like looking at the culture of an organisation and considering how change can best be implemented.

Helping individuals at work

People differ in many ways. (In fact, Part II of this book is all about the individual at work.) Consider your closest friend. Clearly, you like that person, or she wouldn’t be your friend. You probably don’t agree on everything, though, which means you’ve different attitudes toward some things. You also have different personalities.

Take a minute to think about how you and your friend act (or would act) at work. Not always in the same way, right? Now think about what this means to an employer. Because people are different, they act in different ways at work. Understanding these differences can help you understand what happens at work and allow you to better manage situations.

Organisational behaviour research has taught us a lot about how people differ and also offers advice on how to understand and manage these differences to your advantage. For example, if you’re hiring a new employee, then fitting the person to the job in terms of her personality and job requirements can lead to better performance and there being less likelihood of her leaving because she doesn’t fit in. A lot is also understood about how attitudes affect behaviour at work. As an example, paying attention to keeping job satisfaction and employee commitment levels high should pay off in terms of good performance and employee willingness to help the organisation meet its aims and goals.

Topics we include under individual organisational behaviour are

check.png Personality and individual differences (see Chapter 3)

check.png Work attitudes (see Chapter 4)

check.png Working in teams and groups (see Chapter 5)

check.png Health and wellbeing at work (see Chapter 6)

check.png Emotion work: working with people (see Chapter 7)

Affecting the employer

Almost all organisational behaviour topics are of interest to employers, but in this area, we specifically focus on those topics that are mostly under the control of the employer. As an example, different leadership styles affects employees, and perceived unfairness from employers affects performance at work.

Understanding these issues and appreciating the influence an employer can have on the reactions of employees can help employers get the best out of their workforce and prevent them making expensive mistakes with how they manage people at work. (Part III of this book is all about the employer at work.)

In addition to looking at the key organisational behaviour topics such as leadership styles and motivation theories, we introduce newer topics, such as the dark side of leadership, which is where leaders behave in a manner that is destructive, and the importance of creating fairness at work if you want to get the best out of your employees.

Topics we include under employer organisational behaviour are

check.png Leadership at work (see Chapter 8)

check.png How to motivate your workforce (see Chapter 9)

check.png The psychological contract – the unwritten agreement between employer and employee (see Chapter 10)

check.png The importance of fairness at work (see Chapter 11)

Aiding organisations

Organisational behaviour doesn’t just look at individual employees and employers; it also considers the organisation as a whole, looking at things such as how organisations can design jobs to achieve high performance and what advice exists for organisations that face major change events. Issues such as the culture of an organisation, why culture is important to employees and how employees behave at work are covered under the umbrella of organisational behaviour.

Organisations are facing times of great change. In addition to change as a result of the economic downturn, other changes are evident in the world of work, such as the increasingly global market that organisations now have to work within and the technology explosion that has occurred over the last few decades. Having knowledge of organisational behaviour can help you to understand and decide how to best manage these changes.

Here are the topics we include under organisational behaviour:

check.png Job design (see Chapter 12)

check.png Organisational culture and climate (see Chapter 13)

check.png Organisations and change (see Chapter 14)

check.png The global workplace (see Chapter 15)

check.png The impact of new technology (see Chapter 16)

Some areas affect all organisations that have employees. We include these topics in the organisation section because they’re under the control of the organisation (even though they do relate to employees). These three topics are

check.png Hiring new employees (see Chapter 17)

check.png Assessing and appraising employees (see Chapter 18)

check.png Training and developing employees (see Chapter 19)

Studying People in Organisations

Organisational behaviourists go about studying people at work in a number of ways, including testing people and theories, talking and listening to people, and watching what happens in a workplace. We discuss each of these methods in more detail in the following sections.

remember.eps The theories and studies we discuss throughout the book are based on information and data collected using these methods. We also have direct experience of using each of the methods in workplaces.

Testing

Organisations commonly use psychometric tests, which measure psychological attributes, such as knowledge, ability, intelligence, and personality. Individuals are often tested during recruitment, which we focus on in Chapter 17.

Looking more generally, testing is evident throughout organisational behaviour research in the form of theory testing. The term theory usually denotes something that’s been tested or proven. Usually, when a study is designed to look at a specific issue, such as stress at work, researchers form hypotheses (ideas) about the likely links, such as increased exposure to stress at work causing poorer health. Researchers can then test these hypotheses through a study where both stress and health are measured and the relationship between the two examined. Studies and accumulating evidence that supports the links between stress and health then support the general theory that stress affects health.

Questions about organisational behaviour topics are developed into hypotheses that workplace studies can prove or disprove. Organisational behaviourists and work psychologists use the evidence that comes from such studies to develop theories about organisational behaviour topics.

warning_bomb.eps An idea or thought that’s not based on evidence can be wrong or misleading.

Asking and listening

Probably the most popular methods of researching organisational behaviour come under the broad heading of asking people things (either by talking to them or asking them to complete written questions) and then listening to what they have to say. This approach makes sense really. If you want to find out about what people think about work and how they behave, then you can’t go far wrong by talking to the people involved.

tip.eps Comparing people’s responses to see whether they match can be an interesting endeavour. For example, we’ve talked to managers who state that their employees are happy, and yet the employees are quick to tell us they’re not! Looking at misunderstandings between people and groups of people can be important to understanding organisational behaviour.

In Table 1-1, we outline key methods that fit under the heading of asking and listening.

Table 1-1 Asking and Listening Methods

Watching

You can find out a lot about people and workplaces just by watching what happens at work, such as through direct observation studies where you physically visit a workplace and observe behaviours directly.

warning_bomb.eps Be careful with observation studies because you can affect how people behave because they know that you’re watching. (For more on this subject, check out the Hawthorne studies that we discuss in Chapter 9.)

In addition to direct observation, organisational behaviourists also look at more general workplace information to try to understand work behaviours such as

check.png The type of work being done and the type of people in work (see Chapter 2 for more on this topic and how it is changing)

check.png Work laws, rules, and regulations, along with the changes that occur with them and the reasons for the changes

check.png Other indicators of work attitudes and behaviours, such as discrimination claims and the reasons cited

This kind of information can help you understand work attitudes and work behaviour, but you’re limited on how sure you can be about the causes and reactions without directly researching the people involved.

tip.eps Observing work behaviour indicators can give you ideas of areas you may want to investigate further.

What’s in Store for Organisational Behaviour?

In the future, organisational behaviour studies will continue to investigate and understand workplace behaviours. Workplaces are constantly changing, meaning that we need to keep looking at new issues and recognise when organisations need to change to allow successful adaptation to new and changing situations. At the moment, you can see the most obvious example in almost all workplaces as organisations struggle to survive in difficult economic conditions.

Chapter 23 takes a look at up-and-coming issues in organisational behaviour and offers detail on what we believe are the key contemporary issues:

check.png Changing jobs and career development

check.png Happiness at work

check.png Health and wellbeing

check.png Managing constant change

check.png Managing post-recession

check.png The ageing workforce

check.png The new industrial relations

check.png Understanding management style

check.png Workforce engagement

check.png Work–life balance

Chapter 2

Working Nine to Five: Understanding Psychology and Behaviour in the Workplace

In This Chapter

arrow Seeing how the world of work is changing with the times

arrow Applying psychology at work

arrow Working toward happy employees and happy employers

arrow Knowing the value of psychology at work

As the business world becomes increasingly competitive, with profits more difficult to make, organisations are looking for new ways to be more effective and productive. In addition, the traditional workplace is changing with less focus on making things (manufacturing) and more on doing things for other people (service jobs). How jobs and the workplace are evolving changes employees’ expectations and needs and, ultimately, impacts on how they behave.

The study of work psychology and organisational behaviour can help employers make the changes that they need, such as improving productivity and the quality of working life. Psychologists and organisational behaviourists develop theories, test them, and use this knowledge to meet the changing needs of the workplace.

In this chapter, we consider what changes to jobs mean to employees and employers and explain how psychology and organisational behaviour is useful in today’s workplace. Understanding the changes to the makeup of the workforce and being aware of how they can affect employee needs are important parts of understanding organisational behaviour.

remember.eps We talk about organisational behaviourists predominantly in this chapter, but don’t forget that work psychologists do much the same job.

Figuring Out the Changing World of Work

The late twentieth century witnessed sweeping changes to the nature of work. Economic trends and technological advances, such as improved communications and the ability to work virtually, were at the root of many of these changes. (We look at the impact of these changes at work in Chapter 16.) One enduring trend is the movement of manufacturing jobs from developed countries to developing countries – a result of which is that job opportunities in the USA and UK are increasing in service industries but becoming scarcer in manufacturing. These changes impact on the type of leaders organisations require (see Chapter 8) and on employee expectations.

In the UK, USA and other developed countries, changes have also taken place in the working population, due to demographic patterns, legislation, and growth in higher education opportunities. For example, the average age of the working population and increasing life expectancy suggests an increase in the number of older workers and resulting challenges for organisations in terms of employee health; and an increase in the number of female workers can create a greater need for fairer selection processes (see Chapter 11) or more flexible working practices. Investigating the consequences of these, and many other, changes to the world at work are a large part of organisational behaviourists’ roles.

Decreasing manufacturing, increasing services

Jobs are evolving, and change affects how you behave at work. For example, the development of machinery and technology means fewer people need to work in jobs with natural resources, such as mining and farming (the primary sector). Next time you see a farmer gathering crops using farm machinery, think about how many people would have been needed if crop gathering was still manual! A farmer working alone in a tractor behaves differently from a farmer working with a team of farm hands.

Over the last few decades, some countries have seen a large rise in the number of people working in the service sector – for example, in jobs within financial, business and information services, in hospitality, retail, insurance, and real estate. In countries like the USA and the UK, the majority of people work in the service sector (the tertiary sector), and manufacturing has decreased. In comparison, in poorer countries, most people still need to work in the primary sector – for example, in fishing, mining, and forestry. So, in the USA and the UK, around three quarters of people are tertiary workers, whereas in Nepal, over 80 per cent of people work in the primary sector. China, meanwhile, has seen a drop in the percentage of people working in manufacturing, and the service sector is growing.

The worldwide trend is generally toward more service work. Managing an increasing service sector workforce successfully is paramount across much of the industrialised world. The study of organisational behaviour recognises the different challenges facing managers in the service sector compared to the manufacturing sector.

example.eps For example, in the service sector, satisfying customers is the key to an organisation’s success, so employees need support to cope with the demands of difficult customers. If employees don’t get the support they need, it has a knock-on effect: The employees feel under too much pressure, the stress may affect their health, and levels of customer satisfaction may get worse. This example demonstrates how an understanding of organisational behaviour can help employers. You can read more about issues specific to the service sector in Chapter 7.

Growing the female labour force

A large part of the changing face of the workforce is that women now make up half of the total workforce in the UK and USA and, in some regions, even outnumber men. Increasingly, women are becoming more and more important to the economy. Using established knowledge from psychology, we can predict the consequences. If employees are juggling a full-time job while rearing children, or caring for ageing relatives, their work–life balance can fall apart, and daily stress levels rise. (We discuss stress in Chapter 6.) The problem of managing family schedules and household chores can also put pressure on relationships at home in dual-income families, because deciding who does what around the house can become a bit of a battleground.

Considering different job roles

One challenge of understanding behaviour in organisations is the vast differences in job roles (and, of course, the differences between people – see Chapter 3). Understanding different work sectors and types of jobs can help you to appreciate aspects of employee behaviour. For example, the experience of someone working in manufacturing making things is different than the experience of working in retail selling things. Also, if you consider specific jobs, how different is working in nursing compared to working in investment banking? Have a look at Chapter 7 on ‘Handling emotionally demanding jobs’ to get an idea of what we mean.

Think about whether different types of people are likely to be attracted to different types of jobs. Jobs have a variety of motivations, rewards, and day-to-day tasks, meaning that the job your best friend loves may be one you hate. Just fitting the right person to the right job is important for the employee, in terms of health and wellbeing, and to the organisation in view of wasting money. (See Chapter 17.)

All these differences make the role of an organisational behaviourist challenging!

Organisational behaviourists look at how to redesign jobs so that employees can fit in family responsibilities without calling in sick or leaving their jobs. Proposing that employers offer options, such as tele-working (working from home – see Chapter 16), flexible working, job sharing, and part-time working (see the following section), for example, are possible responses to the increase of women in the work force that can benefit employees and organisations.

Increasing part-time work

Part-time work has become popular over the past 20 years because it can offer more flexibility for workers and employers. Being part-time basically means that you’re not working as many hours as a full-time worker. As it presents a solution to combining family and work (see the previous section), the increasing availability of part-time work is helping the female workforce to grow, although the opportunity to take part-time work tends to be concentrated in lower-skilled, low-pay sectors.

Organisational behaviourists can help employers redesign work to be suitable for part-time workers, and as a result, these employers can reach out to a more diverse pool of workers. For example, you can attract more people to part-time work if you pay attention to these sorts of issues:

check.png Fitting work around family commitments

check.png Combining work with studies

check.png Returning to work after having children

But offering part-time work to employees isn’t always straightforward for the employer. For a start, the employer has to pay to recruit and train more workers and the jobs themselves may offer limited career opportunities. How many part-time chief executive officers of organisations are there? Organisational behaviourists can apply their knowledge to guide employers around the pitfalls. For example, to get the most out of part-time workers, employers need to ask are people working part-time to maintain their work–life balance, or are they trapped in this type of work due to lack of choice? And if they feel trapped, how does this feeling affect their motivation to work? You can read more about employee motivation in Chapter 9.

Expanding graduate labour force

Higher education available for all and up-skilling the population is a growing trend. Is this trend a good thing? Is it changing the world of work? Can the labour market absorb this increase in the number of graduates? So many questions!

Organisational behaviourists can help employers understand the needs of graduates in the changing workforce. For example, you probably know someone who gained a degree and is now working in a fast-food restaurant. Organisational behaviourists call this skill-mismatch, under-employment, or over-qualification, and this problem is more likely to happen as a result of the recession. If an organisation is not prepared to find opportunities to utilise the graduate’s abilities and skills, the graduate is likely to become demotivated and dissatisfied, which can lead to low productivity (bad for the organisation!) and poor psychological and physical health (bad for the employee!).

One of the many ways organisational behaviourists suggest that employers can get the best out of graduate trainees is to appreciate them and support them along their career path so that their investment in the new talent won’t be wasted. Organisational behaviourists know that graduate career paths aren’t clear-cut. Studies show that career paths evolve slowly, and it can take more than five years to settle into a career. This journey may involve further study, a number of false starts, and a few rethinks about initial career choices.

This type of knowledge can be useful for organisations to understand. For example, managers often look at a job applicant’s résumé and dismiss it if the applicant left a number of previous jobs. A typical response is, ‘What’s the point of taking them on because they’ll only leave?’ But by knowing that some degree of job-hopping in a person’s twenties is normal, the employer gains confidence in hiring the graduate.

In Chapter 19, we discuss general training and development principles that can provide support to your employees as they progress through their careers.

Changing age range

Following the Second World War, the UK saw an increase in babies born. This baby boom generation, born between 1945 and 1965, is now entering the older worker age range. By 2016, in the UK, the number of workers below 50 years old is likely to fall by 2 per cent, and those aged 50 to 69 are likely to increase by 17 per cent. And this trend is the same in the US and other developed countries.

Did you know that that if you’re over 50, getting a job is a lot more difficult?

An understanding of organisational behaviour is useful here because we can help employers to appreciate that they need to do things differently:

check.png Overcome prejudices within the organisation. Despite anti-age discrimination regulations, some managers believe that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks, particularly tricks that involve technology.

check.png Change how they advertise and recruit employees. Not all over 50s are up to speed with Internet job searching.

check.png Look at existing training methods. Something as simple as how you train employees can turn people off if you use inappropriate methods. For example, take into account older employees’ existing experience and knowledge, as sitting through hours listening to what they already know may turn them off learning.

check.png Understand how to keep an ageing workforce engaged. Ensure that older employees feel valued through communication and feedback. Continue to revaluate career objectives, and be flexible over working hours (for example, by offering flexible working or phased retirement packages) and compensation packages (such as health insurance).

example.eps We carried out a series of interviews with staff in a large retail organisation. The aim was to find out what the employees thought about the continuous training and development on offer. (You can read more about training and development in Chapter 19.) The extra skills training was voluntary and consisted of working alone through manuals and filling in the exercises as you go along. The younger employees felt comfortable with learning this way, but few of the older employees bothered to pick up the manuals and learn the extra skills. The organisation presumed that the older employees couldn’t be bothered to develop their skills and justified this opinion on the basis that they were too old to acquire new skills. Through interviews, we realised it wasn’t that the older employees didn’t want to progress; it was that they wanted to be shown how to do something by a real person and not a book. The organisation has now set up a mentoring scheme where the younger employees demonstrate their new skills to older employees.

You can find out more about how organisational behaviour can help alleviate age discrimination in Chapter 11.

tip.eps Recognise that people respond differently to different opportunities and that they need different types of support.

Applying Psychology in the Workplace

Organisations can apply the principles of psychology in many ways in the workplace. For example, organisations can

check.png Update the design of jobs so that workplaces can function efficiently

check.png Understand what motivates people in the workplace to work harder

check.png Improve morale and job satisfaction, both of which are likely to lead to better performance

check.png Change employee behaviour, for example to meet legal requirements in areas such as health and safety and to prevent discrimination

In the following sections, we look in detail at how organisations can use psychology to increase productivity, improve morale, raise profits at work, and meet legal requirements.

remember.eps Understanding and using psychology principles at work can help directly increase profits and reduce other things, such as turnover and absenteeism that negatively impact on profits.

Increasing productivity through better job design

You may be wondering how exactly psychology can impact productivity. Well, one famous example is the Hawthorne Studies (see Chapter 9), where employees were motivated to increase their productivity as a reaction to the attention given to them. It’s not a huge leap from this study to realise that if you make sure that jobs are well designed, it can also affect productivity and efficiency in a good way.

How well you do your job can boil down to something as basic as how the job is designed. The strategy behind most job redesigns is part of an overall plan by employers to get the workforce to work harder with fewer people and less money. However, based on knowledge of psychology, organisational behaviourists look at job design from a different approach and focus on how the redesign improves the quality of people’s working life. For example, some people are satisfied by doing the same thing at work every day; they want to follow instructions and have no decisions to make. But other people are motivated by doing a job with variety that offers a challenge, gives responsibility, and allows them to do it the best way they can.

The basic approach to job redesign involves some, or all, of the following principles:

check.png Creating a meaningful job (that has a relevance to the organisation as a whole)

check.png Giving more control over how the job is done

check.png Varying the types of tasks or skills used

example.eps A few years ago, we went into a call centre. The customer service representatives didn’t like the job and kept leaving. The job was simple: Answer the phone, follow a scripted conversation, pass the query to the correct department, and finish the call in no more than 2.35 minutes, and start the process all over again by answering the next call . . . Can you see the problem here?

The job was monotonous. Sometimes monotony is good – a chance to think about where to go for your summer holiday is handy – but not every day. The customer service representatives had no control over what they said, and even if they were able to solve the problem, they had to pass the customer on to the ‘right department’.

We made some simple suggestions for redesigning the job following the principles we mention earlier in this section:

check.png Create a meaningful job by providing training to solve the customer’s problems first time.

check.png