Transcript Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Organizational Development and Theory
Copyright Paul E. Spector, All rights reserved, March 15, 2005
Organizational Development, OD
• O.D.: System wide effort to apply social science principles to improve
organization social system.
• Purposive and systematic change in organizational structure and/or
functioning
• Change occurs constantly as organization adapts to internal and
external environment
• Many changes not planned - reaction to inside and outside forces
• Planned change: Program to alter targeted aspect
• Change agent: Usually outside person who introduces change
• Specific techniques for change
– Management by objectives
– Survey feedback
– Team building
– T-groups
Management By Objectives
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Based on goal setting
Interlocking goals across levels of organization
Top officials set organization-wide goals
Each level sets goals to achieve higher level goals
Research suggests it leads to productivity gains
Requires full management commitment
Management By Objectives Process
Survey Feedback
• Survey employees of organization on attitudes and
opinions
• Results shared with employees as basis for change
• Steps
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Design and conduct survey
Produces report
Presents results to organization
Holds meetings to discuss possible actions
Implement change
Resurvey about reactions
• Studies suggest increased job satisfaction
Team Building
• Many techniques designed to enhance team functioning
– Enhance performance
– Improve communication
– Reduce conflict
• Meetings of team with facilitator or trainer
• Team exercises to improve working together
• Results of team building are inconsistent across studies
– Some have positive effects
– Some have no effects
T-Group
• Training or T-Group
• Designed to enhance communication and interpersonal
skill
• Conducted away from workplace for 3 days to 2 weeks
• Usually strangers
• Experiment with interpersonal behaviors
• Positive effects on skills in training
• No effect or detrimental effect at work
• Some individuals hurt by experience
• Concerns about ethics of requiring employees to attend
Organizational Theory
• Describe structure and functioning of organizations
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Distinguishing characteristics
Structure
Interrelationships among people
Interactions of people with technology
• Descriptive theory explains how organizations work
• Prescriptive theory indicates how organizations should
work
Bureaucracy
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Max Weber, 19th Century
Based on rationality in design of organization
Rationality as efficiency
Maximum results with minimum resources
– 1. Division of labor to minute (low scope) tasks
• Minimum skill, easy selection
• Short training time
• Easily achieved criterion
– 2. Delegation of authority
• Responsibility for specific functions
– 3. Span of control: Optimal
– 4. Line vs. staff functions
Theory X/Theory Y
• Focus on linkages and interpersonal relationships
• Douglas McGregor
• Relationship between belief system of supervisor and subordinate
behavior
• Theory X
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Belief that employees are lazy and will avoid work unless watched
Basic incompatibility of worker & organization
Extrinsic motivation approach
Control via rewards and punishments
• Theory Y
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Belief that employees seek challenge & responsibility
Worker & organization goals made compatible through meaningful work
Intrinsic motivation approach
Control via challenge, responsibility & trust
Open System Theory
• Daniel Katz & Robert Kahn
• Organization as an open system with 10 characteristics
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1. Importation of energy: Hire people
2. Through put: Transformation of energy (product creation)
3. Output: Produced goods and services
4. Cycles of events: Semesters: Raw material to finished product
5. Negative entropy: Tendency to run down
6. Information input: Marketing surveys
7. Homeostasis: Resistance to change
8. Specialization: Create different job positions
9. Differentiation: Movement toward specialization of function
– 10. Equifinality: System can evolve toward same end state from
different initial conditions.
Sociotechnical Systems Theory
• Views organization as interplay of people and technology
• Eric Trist
• Studied British coal miners and technological change
– Move from short to longwall mining caused social disruption
• Joint optimization of social and technical systems
– Not just fitting technology to people
• Unit control of variances
– Exceptions should be handled at level encountered
– Argument for greater autonomy and skill variety
• Interventions based on STS theory effective most of the time (Pasmore
et al. 1982)
– Improved attitudes, productivity, and safety