A Handbook of Work and Organizational Psychology

Volume 4: Organizational Psychology

Charles,De,Wolff, P J D Drenth, THIERRY HENK, Charles,De,Wolff, P J D Drenth, THIERRY HENK

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134838257
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psicología
• Subtopic: Historia y teoría en psicología

Organizational processes and the organization-environment interaction are discussed in this volume of the Handbook of Work and Organizational Psychology. Both organizational and environmental characteristics affect the behaviour of individuals and groups, but such characteristics are in turn also influenced by behavioural features. This volume on organizational psychology covers subject areas such as organization theory, organizational culture and change, leadership, decision making and participation, motivation and satisfaction, payment systems, effective communication, and social-organizational aspects of automation. The final chapter describes the impact upon behaviour and attitudes of the transition of a socialist-led society to a market economy.

1
Interaction of Person/Group-Organization-Environment

Henk Thierry

The chapters in this fourth volume of the Handbook bear upon the behaviour of individuals or groups in work organizations. This behaviour is not only related to features of organizations but also to those of the organizational environment and the links between them. Organizational characteristics concern, e.g., the organization structure (such as the degree of centralization or formalization) and its strategy and culture. Environmental characteristics include such things as legislation and regulations, political decision making, investment climate, and industrial relations (e.g. between employers and trade unions). A first question is the extent to which the behaviour of individuals and groups is determined by organizational and environmental features. For example, it appears that under uncertain conditions people are motivated by slightly different aspects of their work than in situations where the circumstances are predictable. A second question that links up with this is to what extent such features are in turn influenced by the behaviour of people in groups or organizational units. An example of this is the phenomenon that the more highly educated people there are in an organization who perform quite complex tasks, the less specific the rules often are. We see, moreover, that a number of subjects at the organization and environment levels can also be considered as independent themes, including such things as organization culture, democratization in companies, and interorganizational networks.

The subjects addressed in this volume are characteristic of organizational psychology. Often it is not only the behaviour of groups of people in an organization that is at issue, but also the behaviour of an organization, for example, of particular sections or company units. Furthermore, various levels of analysis play a continual role; and in almost every chapter, contributions from other disciplines are discussed in greater or lesser detail. Yet it is the “psychological” explanation, the predicting and the influencing of behavior (of individuals, groups, and other “sets” of people) that constitute the key theme of this volume. The reader will also repeatedly come across references to chapters from earlier volumes. Thus we emphasize, as we did in the Introduction (“What is Work and Organization Psychology?”) to this new handbook, that, although a distinction can be made between organizational psychology, work psychology, and personnel psychology, they should certainly not be separated from each other.

The first four chapters in this volume bear upon the theme Organization theories or, what is perhaps a more appropriate term, Perspectives on organizations. Remarkably, virtually all the other chapters in this fourth volume regularly hark back to this theme. For organization theories are nearly always (also) about how people's behaviour—in organizations or in a part of them—can be interpreted, and subsequently regulated and predicted. This occurs, depending on the “school” to which an author belongs, by means of very wide-ranging concepts. Such concepts often form the poles of one dimension. The following are some such examples (which are not always completely independent of each other):

• Development… Design: the learning capacity and the growth of a social system versus the experts' plan for the solution to a particular problem.
• Control… Involvement: the steering of behavior through “control” and hierarchy versus through the development of staff “commitment” to work and organization.
• Stable structure… “Negotiated order”: the view that features of an organization lead an “objective” existence versus the view that those features are based on social exchange processes, a shared value structure, and negotiation.
• Short term… Long term: criteria for success (and survival) bear upon efficiency in the short term versus effectiveness in the long term.

In their chapter on “Organization Theories”, Veen and Korver focus primarily on the behaviour of an organization whereby the question of what an organization actually is (a building?, a collection of people?, a differentiated social structure? etc.) regularly crops up. More than 10 organization theories or perspectives are discussed, more or less chronologically: In addition to such conceptions as “scientific management” and “integration—motivation”, contingency theory is also addressed.

Pennings keeps the focus on this last-mentioned subject in his chapter on “Structural Contingency Theory”. He calls this theory an empirical reaction to a whole range of ideological management theories (a number of examples of which are discussed by Veen and Korver) that believe that there is one best way of organizing. A distinctive feature of structural contingency theory is rather the view that the effectiveness of an organization depends on the congruency between the organizational structure and the environment (a congruency that must be re-established each time changes occur). He discusses this theory vis-a-vis deterministic definitions of organizational structure among others, and those that conceive of the organization as a socially constructed reality.

Van Eijnatten describes the “Developments in Socio-Technical Systems Design” by means of four phases. Certainly, in its first decades, socio-technical design was seen as a typically European development. Its point of departure was that technological and social conditions must be seen as having equal value and that, by redesigning technology and the requirements of the job, both the human being and the organization would function better. It all started with the famous study carried out in English coal mines in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Van Eijnatten clearly illustrates that countries such as England, Sweden, Norway, and The Netherlands have different emphases.

The environment of organizations forms the subject of Van Gils' chapter on “Interorganizational Networks”. The environment can also be seen as a limitation on the organization, as a collection of interacting organizations, as a social system, and as a network (whereby two or more organizations join forces). Remarkably, a number of organization theories mentioned in earlier chapters can also shed light on the nature and the meaning of networks. Finally, the hybrid organization, e.g. a “joint venture”, is discussed.

The next five chapters share Organizational culture and change as a common theme. In “Organizational Culture”, Van Muijen points out that interest in a subject such as culture has existed for quite some time, but that in anthropology and social sciences this has shown a sharp increase over recent decades. Very different approaches to, and thus also definitions of, culture have resulted from this. Thus, culture can, for example, be considered as a feature of an organization (an organization “has” a culture), but also as a metaphor: What is meant by this is that organization structures and processes have a symbolic meaning. After a discussion of the work of Schein, this author addresses the functions of (sub)culture, the concept of organization climate, and the competing-values model of organizational culture.

In their chapter “Organizational Psychology in Cross-cultural Perspective”, Drenth and Groenendijk address the question of whether cultural factors can account for differences in organizational characteristics or for those in attitude and behaviour, as well as whether culture might be a contingency factor in the relationship between organization and human behaviour. They provide a detailed discussion of methodological problems that occur in cross-cultural research (including equivalence and aggregation), followed by an examination of the results of cross-cultural research. Finally, they pose the question: To what extent will cultural differences converge in the future?

Van der Vlist, in “Planned Change in Organizations and Organizational Development in the 1990s”, describes how both main streams (development or planned change) have gradually lost some of their exclusive character and partly flow into one another as far as such concepts as the “design” and “development” of organizations are concerned. Furthermore, both streams are approached increasingly from the perspective of organizational theories, namely from contingency theory. Van der Vlist elaborates on the role of participation and involvement, on resistance and barriers to changes.

The diagnosis and assessment of changes, partly so that decisions by interested parties (for example, administrators) can be more effectively made, are the main themes of “Assessment of Organizational Change” by Thierry, Koopman, and De Gilder. A number of concepts and variables are discussed by means of a system model. After a discussion of methods and instruments for “assessment”, various phases are addressed with regard to the relationship between principal, clients, and researcher/consultant.

Then Heller analyzes the backgrounds to successful organizational changes as well as the causes of failure in such change projects. The latter may well occur rather more often than one might think; it is very likely that the literature available tends to be selective in favour of “success stories”. With regard to the contribution of the social sciences to important change processes, the author comes to the conclusion that this is not only modest, but has also been made with a somewhat varying degree of success.

The subject of the next chapter, “Motivation and Satisfaction”, might also have been included in the volume on Work Psychology or that on Personnel Psychology. Characteristically, theories on (work) motivation relate to features of the individual person, aspects of the nature of work, and organization characteristics. Thierry reviews 10 motivation theories, categorized according to two dimensions: reinforcement-cognition, and content-process. Then various (work) satisfaction models are discussed, jointly with an overview of some returning measurement problems. Satisfaction is conceived as a construct that usually operates rather independently in empirical research, although it is conceptually closely related to the cycle of motivated behaviour.

In the chapter that follows Thierry examines the subject of “Compensating Work”. First, various pay theories are discussed, most of which were designed with different intentions (often to explain individual motivation). After an account of the recent reflection theory, Thierry focuses on various systems and forms of pay, as well as the main points of empirical research. Finally, because this subject is playing an increasing role in “strategic” company policy, a number of themes for future research (e.g. on “strategic” pay) are addressed.

Three chapters relate to “Leadership”, “Decision-making” and “Participation”. In the first chapter Andriessen and Drenth analyze the theory and research about leadership in general terms. They show that concepts of the leader's functions are heavily dependent upon the view of the organization as a whole. They are different in a strongly economically-oriented, Taylorist organization than they are in one in which human and social factors are acknowledged as making an important contribution, or in a concept which considers organizations as complex systems or as political arenas. A discussion of the wealth of research into the meaning and influence of the personality factors, behavioural styles, expectations and attitudes of the leader him- or herself, and of members of the group, culminates in the presentation of a complex leadership model which attempts to integrate the essential elements of the leader, the group, and the situation.

In “Complex Decision-making in Organizations”, Koopman, Broekhuysen, and Wierdsma demonstrate that there is often a close relationship between decision-making theories and organization theories. After a discussion of four models, which differ from each other in the outcomes that they consider to be acceptable, a number of process approaches are sketched, including Mintzberg's phase model. Furthermore, the context in which the decision making takes place is examined, including the newness of a problem and its environment. Subsequently, the focus is on the individual manager and the factors that determine how his or her decision making is structured.

Andriessen provides in “Industrial Democratization and Industrial Relations” an overview of a number of different forms of participation, at various levels in a work organization, which are found in a range of countries with highly diverse systems of labour relations. After an account of the goals of participation, the author examines structures in the United Kingdom, and in southern and northern Europe. There follows a discussion of examples in The Netherlands (including the works council), after which the results of (inter)national research are addressed.

It is not possible to classify the following chapters under one umbrella theme; they are, however, all linked to one or more of the preceding themes. De Cock, de Witte, and Nieuwkerke begin their chapter on “Effective Communication within the Organization” with a discussion of the components of the communication process. Then they turn to main determinants of effectiveness, one of which is constituted by the nature of feedback. An important role is attributed to organizational climate, that is differentiated into four distinct types of climate. Communication processes are clearly affected by the dominant organizational climate type.

Koopman and Algera examine in “Automation: Social-organizational Aspects” first various forms of automation. After a discussion of the effects of automation on employment and the extent to which automation is a part of strategic company policy, they draw attention to various problems that regularly crop up between designers, principals and the future users of equipment. This leads to a discussion of two models, after which two strategies are addressed: the incremental-iterative and the linear-integral strategies.

The final chapter presents an interesting case study: the transition from a centralized, socialist-led society to a free market economic system, and the effects of this upon work organizations, and the attitudes and behaviour of employees. Describing this transformation in Poland, Borkowska and Kulpinska argue that, despite a number of circumstances that are unique to Poland, many problems and social reactions which they note, also apply to other central European nations which have passed through a similar transition.

2
Theories of Organization

Peter Veen and Ton Korver

1 Introduction

An organization is a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon. It is therefore virtually impossible to provide a satisfactory all-encompassing definition. Listing its characteristics is usually felt to be sufficient. In this vein, organizations are often described as associations:

• of individuals, whose aim is to achieve goals;
• in which the work is split up into different tasks (specialisation and differentiation);
• in which the integration of activities takes place by means of formalized rules and a hierarchical structure (management structure);
• with a certain permanence in time.

(For comparable description see Hall, 1972, p.9; Katz & Kahn, 1978 ch. 3; Miller & Friesen, 1984; Mintzberg, 1979; Pfeffer, 1982; Robbins, 1987.)

The problems of definition already indicate that it is unclear what organization theories are seeking to explain exactly: how goals are formulated, how differentiation and integration develop, how permanence is achieved? In dealing with organization theories it is necessary continually to ask what an organization actually is, and what aspects the theories are trying to explain in consequence. Consideration of the different approaches to organizations is therefore at the same time a consideration of the question as to which are the most important problems for organization. To illuminate this, the theories will be dealt with, more or less, in order of their historical occurrence. The emphasis in this analysis will be placed on the behaviour of organizations rather than on behaviour in organizations, although in the course of the analysis it will become clear that these two approaches are difficult to separate from one another. This means, for example, that traditional theories of motivation, satisfaction, roles, conflicts, communication, and so forth will only be taken into consideration in so far as they play a role in more general organizational theories.

2 Four Traditional Approaches

2.1 Introduction

In this section a description is given of the four traditional approaches to “organization”: scientific management, the bureaucratic tradition, the human relations school, and scientific administration.

2.2 Scientific management

The scientific management school (Taylor, 1911) is primarily known for its time-and-motion studies. The theory proceeds from a conception of organization in which goals are well known, the selling of goods or services is no problem, and the availability of the means of production is guaranteed (Sofer, 1972, p.38). The approach is characterized by a concentration on repetitive tasks. Using methods of rational analysis, tasks are analyzed and measured as accurately as possible. Based upon this analysis, the task is broken down into its component parts, and then regrouped in such a way that the highest possible level of productivity (ratio: benefits/costs) is achieved. In this way the task-related behaviour of individuals is directed toward very specific and specialized goals (March & Simon, 1958, p. 13). An important aspect of this approach is that it links remuneration to performance. Taylor proceeded from the assumption that the interests of employer and employee ran parallel. His method enabled managers “to give the workman what he most wants— high wages—and the employer what he wants—a low labour cost—for his manufactures” (Taylor, 1911, p.10).

The techniques developed by Taylor have had a longer life than his general points of departure. He offers four principles by which “scientific management” distinguishes itself from regular management practice:

1. The manager systematically gathers knowledge (science) about each aspect of the employees' work. This knowledge replaces the guesswork used until then in structuring the work.
2. The manager “heartily” works together with his or her subordinates to make sure that the work is done in accordance with the acquired knowledge and insights.
3. Work and responsibility are al...