Behavioural Studies - Psychology

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

Semester 1.1

~ BEHAVIOURAL STUDIES II ~ Psychological Analysis 

Reference: Effective Human Relations – A guide to people at work by Paulus, Seta & Baron

5/11/2001 Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1915) Frederick Winslow Taylor is one of the founders of Scientific Management. In fact, Taylor is said to be the father of scientific management, method study, work measurement and incentive payment systems that link work outputs directly to levels of reward. The problem of efficiency and inefficiency has resulted in a lot of costs throughout past years. Taylor tried to analyse in detail the various inefficiencies in companies, and most of the time, costs were incurred because of human deficiencies.

i. ii. iii.

Scientific Management portrays perspectives where management and repeated analysis are carried out to arrive at some specific results. Scientific process entails: Formulation of hypothesis Testing of hypothesis with interviews, observations, lab experiments, etc… Conclusion of results and analysis People are then managed to do different tasks and jobs.

Method Study - Detailed observations of various simple tasks within a particular job are carried out. Work Measurement – Measurement of output from employees; profits can be analysed. Incentive Payments – How workers are motivated; the main incentive being money. Psychology focuses on the individual worker as at the end of the day, if they are dissatisfied, they form groups (unions) and become very powerful to be able to bring a company down. Business is after all the management of people without which a product can easily go down the drain. Taylor started his studies from a simple observation: “Inefficiency is rife – the wastage of resources and time in the workplace is appalling.” He noticed how workers were, in a way going about without giving their maximum output. Work brings about pressure. -1-

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

Semester 1.1

 What is the source of this alleged inefficiency? 1) Natural Soldiering 2) Systematic Soldiering 3) Poor design of performance of the work by rule-of-thumb. As Carl Barth, a disciple of Taylor noted in his testimony to the “U.S. Commission of Industrial Relations”: “My dream is that the time will come when every drill press will be speeded just so, and every planner, every lathe the world over will be harmonised just like musical pitches are the same all over the world…so that we can standardise and say that for drilling a 1-inch hole, all over the world it will be done with the same speed. That dream will come true, some time.” (Barth, 1914, p. 889)

Appalling – For example, a worker in a factory drilling holes each taking 5 seconds from 7.30am to 5.30pm on the assembly line (very boring and repetitive work). The consequences of this is that his job is very monotonous, and there is too much pressure on him to reach production; humans are expected to be turned into robots working in situations like these. Taylor’s 4 principles of management:1) Development of a true science Getting the same results free from any bias or any negative subjective conclusion. 2) Scientific selection of the workman 3) Scientific education and development of the workman Training and re-training. 4) Intimate and friendly co-operation between the management and the workers. Though Taylor was trying to analyse inefficiency, his principles of management are very humanising. Even though management is appointed to pinpoint workers’ inefficiencies, it is their responsibility to behave in a friendly way and make their best not to fire workers. Technical Scientific Management Systems:• • •

Samuel Pepys – Ship production in the 16th century Venice. Gilbreths further took up ‘Time and motion methods’ in early 20th century. Publication of ‘Principles of Scientific Management’ (1911) -2-

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

-

-

Semester 1.1

Re-design of the entire factory: Once you can analyse in detail tasks that have been carried out by workers, we have to re-design the factory so that we can have more efficiency and production. If needs leave, one needs to go around workers. Removing control over operations from foremen to a centralised planning department staffed with experts: Introduce experts. Prepared detailed instructions about the machines and methods to be used and how long the job will take: If one has a worker doing this, the system doesn’t work out. He would be creating levels of organisations like workers at the real end and engineers who have to organise minimal details.

Taylor emphasised that the manager must: 1) Discover and establish the best method and what is a reasonable time for the job Cut away loss of time. 2) Select staff on technical criteria and use rigorous training to develop their skill in the methods advised. Besides specifying a job on the assembly line, staff has to be selected depending on their skills that are appropriate for the specific job. Personality traits are needed to do certain jobs. 3) Inspection of organisation structure and routine-technical planning. Taking all of the organisational structure into consideration, better known as holistic approach. One needs to identify inefficiencies in every level on the place of work. Taylor warned against some risks: - Culture of the organisation: Style of interactions within an organisation and the way communication goes down from the boss to the workers. - Management commitment and the need for gradual implementation: Managers dictate codes of behaviour and methods of communication at the place of work. - Education: People need time to adjust to new rules and the issue of education is central. Unless one trains his workers in new skills they would not reach production level.  Taylor thought there was only ONE method to maximise efficiency at the place of work. “And this one best method and best implementation can only be discovered or developed through scientific study and analysis. This involves the gradual substitution of science for ‘rule of thumb’ throughout mechanical arts.” Through scientific study and analysis, training needs to be established from previous experience. Employees need to have time and space to make mistakes and there is also -3-

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

Semester 1.1

the must to assess workers after training and give bonuses at a certain level of output if necessary. Scientific Management requires:1) A careful investigation of each of the many modifications of the same implement, developed under the rule of thumb – Like the foreman system in Malta, where one has that little extra experience by some people, who have thrust of the owner to lead teams. That has to go away because such a foreman cannot produce a real picture of ability of work. An expert has to be introduced. 2) After time and motion studies have been made, the good points of several of them shall be unified in a single standard implementation, which will enable the workman to work faster and with greater ease than before – The role of the expert is to carry out time-measurement of a task. Motion studies, on the other hand is how difficult it is to carry out such a task and the various procedures that it carries along. Simple rules were stuck on walls to make process faster and efficient. In Taylor’s view, supervisors and workers with such low levels of education were not qualified to plan how work should be done. They were only trying to replace tasks by simpler ones to measure the output of workers, reduce costs of wages and increase profit. Rationalisation of work is the putting of scientific analyses on jobs in an organisation. Managerial levels were also included in this. Maximisation of profit keeps business going, while workers should be part of both the costs and profits.

12/11/2001 Defining Psychology Part of the scientific management is the role in business. Taylor introduced rationality but he himself realised that individuals were to suffer as he tried to machinize human beings, which is practically impossible (dehumanising). People working for someone else have needs as all other people, and treating them in such a way is not tolerable. There are various misunderstandings in psychology like the occult for example, and also various misconceptions like mental illnesses and psychiatry (The latter is the medical aspect to try and cure illnesses by balancing chemicals in the human brain). In Malta, we are kind of ignorant on topic areas and subject matter. In the USA, UK and Europe, this area is heavily employed in various settings such as education and -4-

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

Semester 1.1

business. Psychology in the world is a must because all business entities and organisations that have to do with people and behaviour need it. Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental process (how the brain thinks). It is therefore a human science carried out through scientific procedures. It deals with overt (visible) and covert (invisible) thinking processes and aspects. Context is also very important because people do not live in labs or confined environments but we live in a social environment together.

Subject Matter of Psychology -

Behaviour: Detaching oneself from the concept of demands, organisms’ actions and demands. Cognition: Mental events like frames of thought – how people reason things out and make decisions – different perspectives of people. Affects: Feelings, moods and emotions – experiences of situations. Operational definitions: What is anxiety and intelligence? The latter is not tangible; therefore something operational must bring this phenomena to something concrete.

Key principles of Psychology 1) Our biological nature and our psychological nature interact to make us who we are. A crucial dilemma is the nature and nurture debate. Psychology is a human science, so we have to take into consideration the way we are made and the environment in which we live. Both of these aspects interact and create every individual’s personality. 2) No two persons are exactly alike. Not even twins are characterwise alike. They do not perceive the environment alike. 3) Our experience of the world may reflect something other than what is actually ‘out there’. It is important for managers to know that what one thinks is good, may not be perceived by subordinates in the same way one perceives it. One should keep an open eye on what one decides, as it will effect others’ lives. 4) For many questions there are no simple answers. Why? Human personalities have many faults so sometimes one never gets to satisfy all people working in the same environment. 5) Psychology is relevant to our daily lives. What we feel is based on psychological aspects.

-5-

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

Semester 1.1

Branches and roles of the psychologist Various areas of behavioural studies include: a) Humans and animals: The attempt to try and correlate social behaviour of animals with that of humans. b) Heredity and environment: Nature vs. Nurture – What one inherits from biological perspectives. The level of anxiety and social skills are sometimes inherited but can be effected from the environment we live in. c) Conscious and unconscious: Sigmund Freud stated that the way we think and react to the environment is almost 80% reflected by our unconscious through our dreams. d) Normal and abnormal: Defining normality and abnormality is difficult, as the line that distinguishes them is very thin. e) Age Range: Different age groups have different ideas, expectations and needs. f) Theory or Applied: The theory and its application in which one cannot apply anything if he doesn’t have a set theory and a list of consequences with implementation of change. Restructuring – how are employees going to take it? Can they create havoc with mergers coming in, companies going in liquidation and employees trying to be more flexible and find more work? Branches of Psychology a) Developmental psychology: Related to developmental processes in one’s life and the stages of development are especially related to early years but also later years. b) Social psychology: How people behave in social groups and understanding how marketing affects people. Individuals, as a member of a group are sometimes lost in the crowd. c) Experimental psychology: This is related to the senses, perception of reality, and consciousness. d) Cognitive psychology: The way we perceive reality and consciousness. e) Personality psychology: The way characters are formed. f) Physiological psychology: The effect in behaviour related to substances. Integration and different mixes Linking with other branches (medical, cognitive, etc.) Psychology specialisation include: 1) Clinical psychologists: They specialise with psychopathology and schizophrenia, when an individual loses touch of reality and cannot react. 2) Counselling psychologists: They try to guide and provide support to people in need. 3) Educational psychologists: They provide the educational aspect in schools working with disabled children and introducing them to organisations, for example. -6-

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

Semester 1.1

4) Forensic psychologists: The work with criminals and help them advance in the rehabilitation of their mental processes. 5) Organisational/Industrial psychologists: They study groups at work and what goes on at the place of these people’s work, which might sometimes reflect workers’ mentalities. • •

• • • • •

• •

Personal Selection – Trying to find people that have the skills needed for particular jobs. Career and management development – How careers are planned and job design is created at work. Sometimes, we have to find methods of not creating repetitive (therefore tedious) jobs. Organisational change and development Performance appraisal systems – How one motivates his employees to be more productive by giving extra bonuses to the heads of each section and managers. Job and task design – How to rotate people around particular tasks. Group process and skills – Groups work better and are more productive. Giving autonomy to groups is more productive. Occupation safety and stress management – In Malta, we don’t have high standards of safety. The perception of stress is different for every person; the problem is in organisation. Evaluation and design of training – We need to provide training, otherwise we cannot be flexible and elastic. It is costly to employ new people. Industrial relations, etc. – How management deals with unions – different relationships, contacts and managers can discriminate some workers.

19/11/2001 Organisational Stress One cannot take decisions on his own and stress has a different meaning to every individual. Stress is pressure coming from deadlines derived from directors, managers and parties that control our lives. Stress can lead to panic attacks and other manifestations like tension, high blood pressure, baffled moods, sleepless nights and nightmares, among other things. Furthermore, it can also lead to depression. Personal life will come in, eventually, and influence everyone’s life at work and away. This is when a good manager is needed to control and guide his employees and keep them away from stress. Stress is an expensive phenomenon for many organisations: injuries at work by employees (risk of personal life is always stress); chronic illnesses (physical/psychological -7-

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

Semester 1.1

illnesses including disability, or persons under therapy and depression to take respective examples of each); turnover when people decide to leave the job; and absenteeism when workers miss work. These few causes of stress were identified by the World Labour Report. Since Taylor’s research, one has realised that under pressure, output decreases, therefore employees do not produce 100% and this brings about further costs. This area was highly researched and mechanism to be carried out was very complex and variable.

 What is stress? Stress may be caused of physical and social stressors. The consequences of stress can be physiological, behavioural and affective (strain). Physical causes are mainly caused from the environment at work. To take University, for example, such stress may be a result of small lecture rooms, lack of resources, lack of parking, directors and superiors, etc. These factors can affect behaviour and change in body that can result in accidents. Stressors, like for example, poor ventilation, role ambiguity, unresolved conflicts, workloads or too much responsibility, lead to strain (when workload stretches the limits of what one can actually do). Strain, like for example poor job satisfaction, symptom report, Coronary Heart Disease, low risk perception, frustration and intention to quit may lead to serious hazards if they are ignored. As a manager, one has to ask, “How am I going to know if a worker’s intention is to quit?” For an answer, one should provide a pleasant work environment for his employees and cater for their needs to avoid all this. Stress results from the excessive and persistent organisational demand (perceived) that drain an individual’s coping abilities. Managers cannot just ignore their workers’ situation, otherwise, the whole company goes down the drain. Profit is brought about by improvement at the place of work and provision of resources for the workers’ benefit. Stress = Individual x Environment If everything is stress free, we would reach our ideal, however, jobs cannot be unstressful. Implications of stress include: a) Job fit: How are managers going to assess and re-design the job for the employees to feel less stress? Sometimes this is impossible to happen. b) Organisational Change: How ready is the organisation to change its environment at a shop-floor level and fit around the employee? -8-

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

Semester 1.1

c) Personality: Implications are pertained to the individual and therefore personality. Not everybody has the same level of capability to cope with stress. There are various personality dimensions that influence the perception of stress. Negative effectivity is when a person gets moody about a psychological event and to what extent it changes his behaviour. Internal locus of control, one the other hand, is whether or not a person is responsible to bring a stressful situation experienced at a certain point. External or extroversivity is the responsibility away from oneself. Extroverts experience less stress than introverts do as they can take critiscm and laugh about certain situations.

i) ii)

iii)

iv)

Coping with stress and therefore finding solutions is very important, especially as managers. There are various methods that were pointed out concerning this idea: Passive vs. Active: e.g. submission vs. voicing concern Not speaking out the problem and keeping it to oneself brings about more stress. Positive vs. Negative: e.g. task-focused vs. emotion focused One tries to make a task less stressful by keeping out the negative sides of the situation. Such a person is considered to be a positivist. Emotion focuses more on this aspect and makes use of people, such as counsellors, managers, etc. even though managers have their own stress. From a managerial perspective, coping to minimise stress is in itself a source of stress. Short vs. Long Term: e.g. dealing with symptoms vs. trying to solve a problem Giving leave or short breaks is not always enough to solve problems, but at least, this will minimise stress. Individual vs. Organisation: e.g. counselling vs. stress-monitoring indicators (SMIs) Bringing in services of counselling, like Caritas or Sedqa, does not always help. Individuals’ lives at work can be solved even internally between colleagues themselves. SMIs, however, are trained persons that can either be employed by the company itself to help its employees, or brought from outside to conduct surveys at the place of work. Services from the outside, however, do not know how a situation really is at work.

There are limitations in any adopted strategy. Even though forms of support are sometimes supplied, it may not always be directed to the target. The organisation has to be the element to accept change and therefore minimise amount of stress. If the service is not provided 100%, clients drop out from the company.

Stress and Performance: -9-

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

Semester 1.1

Task is stressful so performance goes down as stress is increased.

Performance

Stress

Some amounts of stress that are increasing make performance increase as well, therefore stress is important to an extent. For example, before a test, it helps to have a slightly high level of anxiety as it helps us improve and give our best. When one reaches a certain level (top part of the graph), one finds most stress and performance at the same time, before the latter starts to decrease. Therefore although pressure is sometimes beneficial, there is also a limit. Performance and stress have to be balanced. Managers have to be aware of how stressful a job is for their employees so that when the latter reach the highest production output level, managers should change expectations and accept the maximum amount produced. Once performance goes down, one might realise that something is going wrong.

Job stress and home conflicts:

i)

ii)

iii)

There are 3 main theories of stress both at home and at work. Spillover: Stress from either side is carried on from one place to another. For example a couple going into separation, or a family member is seriously sick. When this happens, emotions are easily transferred and carried along to the place of work. Compensation: How people compensate for stressful situations either by performing more or less. Coping with situations at work helps like for example, confiding to colleagues or superiors themselves so that they might support you and know what is going on if one tends to slow down his performance level. Segmentation: Having a particular event that manages to change a person’s mood and therefore is clearly shown. For example, when one receives a cheque, he acts differently and is obviously happier.  Are some jobs more stressful than others are? - 10 -

Behavioural Studies – Psychology – Andrew Triganza Scott

• •

Semester 1.1

Different jobs = different sources of stress Job choice = interests x abilities x personality

Once a lifestyle is changed, going for a job is stressful. Even the choices of the job incur different reasons and hence stress. Incentives are the main elements to reduce stress.

- 11 -