The Psychology of Working Life

Toon W. Taris

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781315462714
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

What motivates us to do a good job? When does the pressure of work impact upon our health and well-being? How can employers choose the right candidates?

The Psychology of Working Life shows how, whether we like it or not, the way we work, and our feelings about it, play a fundamental role in overall well-being. From the use of psychometrics in recruiting the right candidate, to making working life more efficient, the book illustrates how work in industrialized societies continues to be founded upon core psychological ideas.

Motivation and job satisfaction have become recognized as key to job design and The Psychology of Working Life suggests that changing the way we work can impact on our stress levels, overall health, and productivity.

1

What we talk about when we talk about work

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published their Communist Manifesto. Reacting to the social and working circumstances of the working class, they stated that

Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians [workers] has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman … it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him.¹

This quote may suggest otherwise, but working is not necessarily one of the rotten facts of life. For example, in the classic Donald Duck story Monsterville by cartoonist Carl Barks, the brilliant inventor Gyro Gearloose persuades the city council to turn Duckburg into an automated city in which no human effort is needed to make it run. However, the citizens quickly discover that doing nothing all day makes their lives empty, boring and unhappy: even the toys play by themselves.² Granted, work can be exhausting, frustrating and deadening, and it does take away time that could otherwise be spent on all sorts of fun activities. However, it is hard to imagine us leading a satisfying life without work, not only because work provides us with an income but also because it can be a source of joy, structure, status, challenge, social contact, meaning and purpose, as well a means to impact the lives of others positively. As US President Theodore Roosevelt put it, “A mere life of ease is not in the end a very satisfactory life”.³

This book is about work, working and the role of psychology therein. Its first main thesis is that the way we work today is not only due to technological advances and economic considerations regarding the most efficient and profitable way to employ the three major factors of production (capital, natural resources and labour) for producing goods or services. Rather, the way we work is also to a large degree due to our views on the best way to put these factors – especially labour – to good use. Man has certainly not always worked in factories and offices or at home, performing well-defined tasks following strict rules and procedures and using tools and machinery tailored to these tasks, taking away “all charm for the workman”, as Marx and Engels maintained. Although there is no point in denying that economic and technological considerations have been (and still are) major drivers of change in the way we deal with labour (i.e. the way we work), they alone are insufficient to understand how people perform best at work, why some people perform better than others while holding the same job, why they are happy or unhappy with their jobs, et cetera.

At this point, it is useful to note that it would be wrong to assume that technological innovations unavoidably and irreversibly lead to corresponding changes in the way we work. History has shown that innovations are sometimes rejected in spite of having clear advantages as compared with older technologies, or that older technologies persist in the presence of more promising alternatives. Examples of the first include the disappearance of wheeled vehicular transportation in Northern Africa between 300 and 700 ad, replacing wagon and cart with the camel and, more recently, the termination of Boeing’s supersonic passenger jet development programme in 1971 by the US Senate (which was intended as a competitor of the British-French Concorde and the Soviet Tupolev TU-144 supersonic airliners). Examples of the latter include the re-introduction of wood stoves as a form of “green energy” and the continuing use of the QWERTY keyboard layout (which was allegedly devised to make fast typing difficult as mechanical typewriters would easily jam) rather than the more ergonomic DVORAK layout. Indeed, positive developments are sometimes reversed in favour of functionally awkward and inefficient technologies, for example consider the use of laptop computers, tablets and even mobile phones instead of devices with full-size keyboards and screens. Clearly, in the face of the availability of new technology, we have a choice whether and how we will let new technological features impact our lives and the way we work.⁴

Building on the assumption that the way we work is to a large degree due to our views on the best way to put labour to good use, the second main thesis of this book is that the way we work is an important factor in determining the “outcomes” of a job, for the worker (e.g. in terms of motivation, health, well-being and performance), his or her environment (e.g. their work team) as well as the organization he or she works for (including its efficiency, profitability and overall performance). This implies that the choices we make regarding the organization of work have real and important consequences for both individual workers and for society as a whole, in tangible financial terms as well as in terms of human well-being and happiness. Therefore, it is important for all of us – whether we are workers who are subjected to the choices of others as to how we must work, professionals who affect the way others must work (e.g. as human resource professionals, supervisors or employers) or students aspiring to become such professionals – to understand how these choices regarding the organization of work affect workers, their well-being and behaviour.

Its third main thesis is that there is nothing intrinsically bad about working hard, provided that the job does not have lasting adverse effects on the worker. For instance, while working with carcinogenic or poisonous substances may sometimes be unavoidable, utmost care should be taken in preventing that doing so affects worker health negatively. Similarly, working excessively hard (all work, no play) will make Jack (or Jill, for that matter) not only a dull but also a stressed and burned-out boy (or girl). Thus, there should be a balance between work and high performance on the one hand and health and recovery from work on the other, to maintain what may be called sustainable performance.⁵

The final thesis of this book is that taking a psychological view on working life – which we construe as the choices made regarding the organization of work and their consequences for the health, well-being and behaviour of the workers involved, and the performance of workers and organizations – is essential in understanding how the balance between being highly productive and remaining healthy and happy can be optimized. Specifically, psychologists and psychologically-inspired management researchers (and I am talking about the academics here, not the gurus) have generated a wealth of research in these years, containing many useful insights in the areas of work organization, work motivation, occupational health and work performance. I am convinced that work design is (and should be!) as much a matter of psychology as it is of technology and economics, which is the main impetus for this book in the first place.

Against this background, this book is built around two broad questions. The first is “why do we work the way we work?”, focusing on the insights, theories and findings that have guided the design of the workplace. To some degree, the answer to this question requires taking a historical perspective, as yesteryear’s undisputed truths have sometimes been superseded by more recent and conflicting insights – yet continue to affect the way jobs are designed. The second question is “how can work performance and worker well-being be optimized – and at what costs?”, referring to the applied potential of this subject as well as to the need to maintain a healthy balance between high performance and worker health on the longer term. Although in the subsequent chapters of this book, I refer to these questions only in passing, in its concluding Chapter 7, I return to these issues and discuss how the insights presented in this book are relevant to these questions.

Talking about work …

In everyday life, the noun “work” refers to “activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result … a means of earning income”.⁶ This definition highlights two important facets of the term. First, work consists of goal-directed activity, rather than of a set of more or less random actions that may, perhaps, at some time in the future, bring about a desired outcome. Specifically, actions at work are intended to bring about a particular intended result, usually the production of goods or services. Consequently, actions at work are usually planned and coordinated to fit well with other workers’ actions and the aims of the company. To this aim, the tasks to be conducted at work often follow particular routines, guidelines and procedures and are frequently conducted with the help of computer programmes, tools and machinery that are especially developed to allow the worker to achieve the intended goal. To maximize the ease at which the worker is able to achieve the goals of the job, a particular type and level of education and training is often required.

Second, the activities conducted at work require mental and/or physical effort and this effort is compensated in some way, usually in the form of a monetary reward. It is conceivable that this reward is not received immediately or takes a non-monetary form. For example, students may take an unpaid internship as part of their college duties in exchange for study credits or to gain valuable skills and experience that will help them find a paid job after graduation. Such internships may be considered as an investment that will hopefully reap its returns in the future.

Note that the requirement that work involves a compensation of one’s effort means that unpaid work (such as household activities) is not classified as “work”, although these activities may be very similar to those conducted by others as part of their paid jobs. Taking care of your own young children is not classified as work. However, if you frequently take care of other parents’ offspring, it is likely that you are either a babysitter or an employee of a day-care centre and that you receive some sort of pay in return: that is, you are working. Thus, the difference between work and other activities is whether the person conducting the tasks receives some sort of monetary reward; it does not reside in the type of tasks that are conducted. The principles discussed in Chapter 2 concerning the optimal design of tasks can therefore often be applied to both work and household activities.

In the beginning …

Although since the 1950s many scholars have studied working life from a psychological perspective, systematic thinking about the way work tasks can be conducted best started much earlier. An early example is what has come to be known as the Hippocratic corpus, consisting of a collection of about 60 books written by various Greek authors from the 5th to the 3rd century bc. These books document ancient Greek medical knowledge, providing doctors with detailed procedures and guidelines as to how specific complaints (such as haemorrhoids, ulcers or fractures) should be treated. Here is how physicians should behave while treating a patient:

Do everything in a calm and orderly manner, concealing most things from the patient while treating him. Give what encouragement is required cheerfully and calmly, diverting his attention from his own circumstances; on one occasion rebuke him harshly and strictly, on another console him with solicitude and attention, revealing nothing of his future or present condition.⁷

Similarly, the Roman legion was organized according to clear and simple principles. Positions in this organization were well-defined in terms of the tasks to be conducted and how these tasks should be executed. Several manuals described how various parts of this army should operate in specific situations. Based on older texts, the Roman writer Vegetius published De Re Militari (“On military matters”) around 390 bc. In this short treatise, he discussed the organization, equipment and drill of the Roman legions, including topics such as the selection and training of recruits, the organization of the legion and how to stab the enemy. For example, Roman officers were advised to prevent mutiny among the troops by making

it their business to keep up so strict a discipline as to leave [the troops] no room to harbour any thoughts but of submission and obedience. Let them be constantly employed either in field days or in the inspection of their arms…. They should be frequently called by roll and trained to be exact in the observance of every signal … let all this be continually repeated and let them be often kept under arms till they are tired…. All the different kinds of troops thus trained and exercised in their quarters will find themselves inspired with emulation for glory and eagerness for action when they come to take the field … a soldier who has proper confidence in his own skill and strength, entertains no thought of mutiny.⁸

Interestingly, this quote not only shows how Roman officers were advised to behave while on duty, but also demonstrates that Vegetius had a keen eye for the psychological consequences of training and exercise. Keeping the troops busy with all sorts of drills and training activities would not only rob them of the energy and initiative needed to start a rebellion, but it would also increase their skills, strength, self-confidence and eagerness for action. Thus, by keeping their troops engaged, Roman officers were assumed to be able to turn them into compliant yet skilled and motivated fighting machines.

As these examples show, early thinking on how particular tasks should be conducted relied on common sense, tradition, moral axioms, long-standing historical practices and laymen’s psychological insights. A more scientific (i.e. more rigorous, systematic and empirical) approach to examining work and its effects on worker performance and well-being emerged much later. The 1500s saw the publication of Georgius Agricola’s De Re Metallica (On the nature of metals), an influential book on the art and science of mining. Agricola discussed the technical details of mining, but – being the town physician of Chemnitz in Saxony, then an important mining area – he was also interested in the occupational diseases typical of miners. Not only did his book cover “the ailments and accidents of miners”, but Agricola also discussed methods to prevent these, such as wearing face veils to guard miners from inhaling mining dust. Moreover, he recommended that mines should be operated in a 5-day work week with three 8-hour shifts per day; no miner should work two or more shifts per day because of the increasing risk of occupational injury. Moreover, in line with the third main thesis of this book that performance should be sustainable, Agricola states that “we should always devote more care to maintaining our health … than to making profits” – ideas that sound surprisingly modern.⁹ Similarly, first published in 1700 in Modena, Italy, Bernardino Ramazzini’s seminal book titled De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (“On the diseases of workers”) documented the typical illnesses occurring among workers in 52 occupations. Ramazzini argued that occupational diseases could result from four sources: handling minerals and metals; inhaling toxins; being exposed to fluids such as water, milk and alcoholic beverages; and taking unnatural positions or holding positions for long periods.¹⁰ The works of Ramazzini and Agricola constituted the beginning of the discipline now known as occupational medicine.

The industrial revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century marked an unprecedented transition towards new manufacturing processes that drew heavily on the use of water power and steam power. These manufacturing processes changed from artisanal piece-by-piece production to mass production. The economic system itself was transformed into that of industrial capitalism. Large mills and factories were erected that often employed hundreds or even thousands of workers: men, women and children. Thousands of miles of canals, roads and railways were built to transport raw materials to these factories and mills and the goods they produced to the stores where they were sold. Workers found new employment into these mills and factories, causing cities to burgeon. This fierce industrialization process was not without success: according to one author, in Britain the income per person (an indicator of the standard of living) roughly doubled during the period 1760–1860. Expressed in 1970 US dollars, this income increased from about...