Blended Working: For Whom It May (Not) Work

2003

The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of the Internet at Work

2008

Knowledge workers whose employers allow them the freedom to access organizational resources from outside the premises, and/or outside normal working hours, are able to reach a new equilibrium in the balance between work and life. This research uses narrative method to obtain stories from a number of such knowledge workers in New Zealand, and observes how the participants make sense of the choices open to them, and reach decisions about them The research finds that despite expressed resentments, such people have tended to move the equilibrium in ways that accommodate more work. Implications of this research are that despite the short term productivity gains, organizations would do well to ensure that these well motivated staff are managed for their long term well being and continued contribution to the organization.

2007

Nature Reviews Psychology

Self-determination theory has shaped our understanding of what optimizes worker motivation by providing insights into how work context influences basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness. As technological innovations change the nature of work, self-determination theory can provide insight into how the resulting uncertainty and interdependence might influence worker motivation, performance and well-being. In this Review, we summarize what self-determination theory has brought to the domain of work and how it is helping researchers and practitioners to shape the future of work. We consider how the experiences of job candidates are influenced by the new technologies used to assess and select them, and how self-determination theory can help to improve candidate attitudes and performance during selection assessments. We also discuss how technology transforms the design of work and its impact on worker motivation. We then describe three cases where technology is affecting work design and examine how this might influence needs satisfaction and motivation: remote work, virtual teamwork and algorithmic management. An understanding of how future work is likely to influence the satisfaction of the psychological needs of workers and how future work can be designed to satisfy such needs is of the utmost importance to worker performance and well-being.

The New Workplace, 2002

The European Work …, 1993

2003

Work organization denotes how tasks are grouped into jobs and how activities are coordinated across these various jobs. It is an important factor shaping (as well as shaped by) both workers' values and behavior and managers' policies in human resource management and industrial relations. The reciprocal effects of these three (clusters of) variables -work organization, worker attitudes, management policies -shape key dimensions of organizational performance such as turnover, satisfaction, and efficiency. Given the importance of work organization, it is regrettable that there is so little agreement about its underlying determinants or its evolution. We have many studies of the evolution over time of management doctrines of work organization -from scientific management, to human relations, job enrichment, socio-technical systems, total quality management, and business process reengineering. But we lack systematic studies of the corresponding practices, so we do not know how extensively these doctrines were implemented. We have numerous fragments -accounts of the evolution over short time periods of specific facets of work organization in specific firms, occupations, and industries. But we lack a common theoretical frame, so we do not know how to weave out of these fragments a compelling characterization of the broader trends. In the absence of reliable data, we are forced to rely on anecdotal evidence. Consider this worker's recollection of his father, who was a trimmer for Cadillac from its very early years (quoted in Peterson, 1987: 38): "I remember seeing him one time in the factory and he wore a leather apron which was filled with all types of needles, round and semicurved and long and short and thick and thin, and he had a thread in this pocket. And I remember he used to say that he would take a bolt of cloth and some springs, some mohair and tacks and a hammer and his needles and go into a car and trim it from one end to another....He had a half dozen pairs of shears and he used to have yellow chalk that had string around it and it used to hang from a cord around his neck and he would stick it in his pocket. My father would draw the patterns out for the cushions and the various other pieces of upholstery that was necessary for the trimming of the automobile. Then came the automatic cutters or machine cutters and the scissors got rusty around the house. ...Then came sewing machines and my father no longer sewed. Then came men who just tied springs together, and my father was no longer in spring tying. Gradually he lost all the components of his trade." Faced with eloquent stories such as these, scholars have divided into three broad camps. A first camp reads such accounts as evidence of a broad trend towards the deskilling of jobs, the degradation of labor, and the alienation of workers. They point to the progressive elimination of artisans in the occupational structure and to the narrowing of skills and discretion for a broad range of jobs. * The environment of most jobs becomes more pleasant and safer. * Industrial relations challenges are substantial, in particular because "It may not longer be feasible to abide by seniority as the mechanical determinant in job placement." Unions and management will need to find a way to recognize the importance of "trainability." * "Old work groups are now broken up" -but "new group relationships are evident...Not only does each crew member have to understand his own responsibilities and tasks, he also has to coordinate his efforts with those of his co-workers, particularly in diagnosing and correcting machine breakdowns." * "Negative factors" were often salient during transition periods but tended to disappear with time; nevertheless, an increase in shiftwork seems unavoidable, and in highly automated facilities, boredom at work constitutes a major challenge. Some 20 years later, the findings were remarkably similar in general tone (Helfgott 1988: 67-78, ff.): * "Computer technology is having a profound effect on the nature of job and the ways in which work is organized. The scope of jobs is expanding. Workers are being trained to be more versatile and are being accorded greater responsibility and control over their work." * "The work environment also is undergoing change, becoming safer and cleaner." * "Operators will not gain control [over production processes] if management is reluctant to allow them such control. Some managements, however, have been more willing to share power with their employees, pointing to a movement toward a more versatile, higher skilled work force." * "Not all types of jobs benefit from new technology in terms of skill." Numerical control of machine tools, for example, turns machinists into machine tenders. But the subsequent generation of technology -CNC -usually brings some programming back to shop floor. * "Since programming a robot is not difficult, many companies find that it makes sense to train production workers as programmers. If programming of NC machine tools is often performed by white collar technicians, "the explanation lies in the labor relations areaa management desire to keep programming out of the bargaining unit in unionized situations. This desire is based on the fear that if the job is in the bargaining unit, it will be subject to stringent rules on demarcation and seniority bumping procedures, which could threaten flexibility of operations and result in extraordinary training costs and inefficient operations as untrained workers bump into positions involving programming." * Broader job classifications allow production workers to do some maintenance and setup. * A common problem was social isolation in the factory because human-manned work stations become physically farther apart. Therefore, more enlightened managers allowed music and created Employee Involvement teams. The changing nature of authority Over the course of the century, the nature of managerial authority changed profoundly. The arbitrary authority of the "foreman's empire" and the "drive system" were progressively replaced by more bureaucratic forms of discipline (Nelson, 1975, Ch. 3). This change was due partly to the rising power of unions and partly to management's

From the University to the Workplace, 2007

Over the last 100 years, technological advances have changed our lives in our homes and society and have continually impacted on the way we work, where we work, how we work, and with whom we work. Our work and workplace is changing through the use and reliance of information systems. It is therefore critical to develop information systems (IS) professionals who can manage the change but also have the skills to adapt to the changes. Within the IS development domain, the changing environment is driven by two key factors; collaboration and technology. An IS professional is one who designs, develops, and implements services and products for an organisation, and for the dissemination of information. Today the design and development of IS not only relies on the technical skills of the individual, but relies heavily on effective teams. The personal and interpersonal skills of people in the team have become just as important (and in some cases, more important) as the development of the IS. ...