Work: A set of coordinated and goal-directed activities that are conducted in exchange for
something else, usually some form of monetary reward
- Coordinated: welcome guests, give menu, serve, bill in the same order
- Goal-directed: want to make the customer happy
- In exchange for something else: salary, compliment
Psychology: individual level, people’s behavior, motivation, thoughts, and emotions
Work psychology: Use insights from psychology to help workers achieve their work-goals in an
optimal manner, and to help organizations achieve their goals. Balance approach! Belief: engaged
employees = productivity.
What do work psychologists do? design work so that it is motivating, enjoyable, doesn’t induce
stress, and allows the employees to work in a productive way
Example: waitress
The organizational goals: are good service performance, high customer satisfaction, and high profits.
When do waiters show the desired behaviors for good service performance?
- Positive mood/feeling well
- (Not) under pressure
- Motivation
Why is work psychology important?
1. Because of the amount of time we spend working -> 1/3rd of our day.
2. Because work has the potential to make us happy (working from home) -
> Sense of identity and meaning in life (lost when retiring).
3. Because work has the potential to make us sick (burn out).
4. Because of the increasing expectations of employers -> challenge yourself, push your limits,
continuously develop, high-pace environment.
Contemporary work psychology
A balance approach, performance (the action or process of performing a task or function) but also well-
being.
Work performance: action or outcome?
- Action: performance is what the organization hires one to do and do well (Campbell).
- Outcome: the consequence or the result of the individual worker’s behavior
(Sonnentag & Frese).
Dimensions of individual job performance
- Task performance (proficiency)
- Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB; going the extra mile)
- Counterproductive work behaviors
- Employee withdrawal behaviors.
Well-being: the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy. Health is a state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Well-being at work:
, - Health (physical well-being) Decrease disease and injuries, stress, and increase health
benefits.
- Relationships (social well-being) Increase trust, support, decrease exploitation, and
power abuse.
- Happiness (psychological well-being) Increase pleasure, satisfaction and fulfillment /
engagement, and decrease the opposite thereof
2.THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON WORK
Theory helps us to make sense of the complex world around us.
Summaries the knowledge of the field, and provides us with a framework for understanding and
explaining complex phenomena. Often allows for accurate predictions about future events or outcomes.
Our course
How to design jobs that can maintain or increase employee well-being and productivity?
What is design?
- The art or action of producing a plan or drawing of something before it is made.
- Purpose or planning that exists behind an action, fact, or object (Oxford Dictionaries)
What is job design?
“Specification of the contents, methods, and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and
organizational requirements as well as the social and
, personal requirements (employee wellbeing) of the jobholder” (Davis).
2.1. Job Characteristics Model
Classic Theory of Job Design
Reflection moment: design features at your work. How to create a working environment that facilitates:
1. Skill variety
2. Task identity
3. Task significance: more motivated to work.
4. Autonomy: taking decisions of our own job; how to do a specific task/which one first/later.
5. Feedback: increases motivation at work (feedback loop). Are 5 core job
dimensions enough? What is missing?
Criticisms:
- Narrow set of motivational job characteristics
- Neglecting negative job features (job demands)
- The mediating role of critical psychological states not widely supported
Modern Theoretical Perspectives
2.2. Job Demands-Resources Model
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