Women at work in workplaces designed for men: Anthropometry and ergonomics

Abstract

This article considers one of the sources of stress faced by modern working women: that of having to work in environments largely designed for men. It outlines how this problem has arisen, and examines the different ways in which it can be overcome, pointing up some of the main ergonomic issues that should be addressed in the design of work environments and facilities.     

Relationships between stressful work environments and bullying: Results of a large representative study

This paper contributes to the relatively sparse knowledge about relationships between stressful work environments and bullying. Relationships between job stressors and leadership behaviour were analysed as possible predictors of bullying at work on the basis of the work environment hypothesis, which states that stressful and poorly organized work environments may give rise to conditions resulting in bullying. Analyses of a representative sample (n=2539) of the Norwegian workforce showed role conflict, interpersonal conflicts, and tyrannical and laissez-faire leadership behaviour to be strongly related to bullying, and that the strength of associations to a high degree differed for various measures of bullying. Support was found for an interactive relationship between decision authority and role conflict at different levels of laissez-faire leadership. Not only targets and bully/targets but also bystanders assessed their work environment more negatively than did non-involved employees, while perpetrators of bullying did not differ significantly from non-involved employees as regards their perception of the work environment. Hence, bullying is likely to prevail in stressful working environments characterized by high levels of interpersonal friction and destructive leadership styles. In addition, bullying is particularly prevalent in situations where the immediate supervisor avoids intervening in and managing such stressful situations.     

Relationships between stressful work environments and bullying: Results of a large representative study

Abstract

This paper contributes to the relatively sparse knowledge about relationships between stressful work environments and bullying. Relationships between job stressors and leadership behaviour were analysed as possible predictors of bullying at work on the basis of the work environment hypothesis, which states that stressful and poorly organized work environments may give rise to conditions resulting in bullying. Analyses of a representative sample (n=2539) of the Norwegian workforce showed role conflict, interpersonal conflicts, and tyrannical and laissez-faire leadership behaviour to be strongly related to bullying, and that the strength of associations to a high degree differed for various measures of bullying. Support was found for an interactive relationship between decision authority and role conflict at different levels of laissez-faire leadership. Not only targets and bully/targets but also bystanders assessed their work environment more negatively than did non-involved employees, while perpetrators of bullying did not differ significantly from non-involved employees as regards their perception of the work environment. Hence, bullying is likely to prevail in stressful working environments characterized by high levels of interpersonal friction and destructive leadership styles. In addition, bullying is particularly prevalent in situations where the immediate supervisor avoids intervening in and managing such stressful situations.     

Changing work environments: Innovative coping responses to occupational stress

To what degree do individuals adapt their work environments in response to occupational stress? The research reported below addresses this question through a qualitative questionnaire survey that assesses the extent to which innovation is used as a stress coping strategy amongst health care professionals (community and hospital nurses, administration workers and paramedics; N = 333). Overall, 32% of these workers reported a coping response subsequently coded as innovative, and significant between-occupational group differences in the frequency of usage were found. Overwork, procedural difficulties and dealing with others were the stressors eliciting the greatest number of innovative coping responses. The study indicated that such responses were perceived as an effective and important way of dealing with occupational stress. It is concluded that stress management programmes that encourage individuals to change workplace factors through innovation, would be a worthwhile addition to interventions that emphasize individual adaptation to stressful work environments.     

Maximizing Throughput of Bucket Brigades on Discrete Work Stations

One way to coordinate workers along an assembly line that has fewer workers than work stations is to form a bucket brigade. The throughput of a bucket brigade on discrete work stations may be compromised due to blocking even if workers are sequenced from slowest to fastest. For a given work distribution on the stations we find policies that maximize the throughput of the line. When workers have very different production rates, fully cross‐training the workers and sequencing them from slowest to fastest is almost always the best policy. This policy outperforms other policies for most work distributions except for some cases in which limiting the work zones of workers produces higher throughput. In environments where the work can be adjusted across stations, we identify conditions for a line to prevent blocking.     

Job relocation: Stress and the role of the family

Job relocation is an accepted feature of the career structure for an ever increasing number of employees. Moving from one work environment to another, coupled with relocating the family, can induce stress and so influence performance at work. This paper reviews the available evidence concerning possible roles the family may play in the relocation process. It is argued that a systemic approach is ideally suited to unravelling the complex relationship between work and home environments that underlies the process of individual and family adaptation to relocation. This relationship must be understood in order to provide constructive advice to employers concerning effective relocation policies.     

The Violent Incident Form (VIF): A practical instrument for the registration of violent incidents in the health care workplace

The Violent Incident Form (VIF) is a practical instrument that has been developed for the registration of all types of threatening and violent behaviour directed toward staff in health care work environments. The instrument uses a broad definition of violence that encompasses verbal aggression and threats. A 1-page checklist, the VIF, summarizes key aspects of the violent incident, identifying the circumstances, perpetrator, event, and consequences. Results from a 15-week pilot study as well as a follow-up study of the instrument's test-retest reliability are presented. The VIF was then introduced at 47 health care workplaces and used for a period of 12 months. During this period, 684 incidents were recorded by 32 workplaces. Of these, only 147 incidents (21 %) were also filed as official work injury reports. The checklist is based on the principle that all kinds of violent events must be included if an accurate assessment of violence at the workplace is to be made. The VIF is not intended as a replacement for official work injury reports, but as a complement, focusing more specifically on the nature of the violent incident. It is presented here as a research tool for studying violence in today's health care environments. Further work is needed to assess the use of the VIF as a learning tool, and as a possible catalyst for the development of effective violence management programmes.     

4 The Physical Environment in Organizations

Abstract

We review empirical research on the physical environment in professional, organizational work settings (i.e., offices, meeting rooms, and design work spaces) from the past several decades. This research reveals no common elements of the physical environment (e.g., enclosures and barriers in work spaces, adjustable work arrangements, personalized work spaces, and ambient surroundings) that are consistently and exclusively associated with desired outcomes in these work settings. Instead, these elements are routinely associated with both desired and undesired outcomes. Based on these findings, we suggest that understanding the role of physical environments in organizations requires an understanding of common trade-offs in organizational life. Further, we suggest that the prevalence of such trade-offs is grounded in tensions that are inherent to the functions that physical environments serve (i.e., aesthetic, instrumental, and symbolic functions). We provide an outline of these tensions and trade-offs in relation to common elements of the physical environment, and suggest that researchers consider these tensions and trade-offs in their future research.     

Resource exchange theory: a problem-solving tool

In the creation and operation of work environments, problem solving can be more effective with some theories or models than with others. In this article, the author describes a theory that he has found to be especially useful for his management responsibilities. The Resource Exchange Theory, he says, engenders a unique view of power that is useful in managing a reward system, negotiating, managing conflict, and empowering people.     

Leadership and Crew Resource Management in High-Reliability Organizations: A Competency Framework for Measuring Behaviors

High-reliability organizations (HROs) have emerged across a number of highly technical, and increasingly automated industries (e.g., aviation, medicine, nuclear power, and oil field services). HROs incorporate complex systems with a large number of employees working in dynamic, and potentially dangerous environments. Effectively managing contingencies in HROs, to simultaneously promote safe and efficient behaviors is a daunting task. Crew Resource Management (CRM) has emerged in HROs as a highly effective approach to training and sustaining essential skills within work teams operating across a large workforce. CRM provides a competency framework that enables adherence to standard work instructions while, at the same time, encourages adaptive variance in responding to effectively manage current environmental circumstances that depart from normal routines. This paper considers the development of CRM across several high-reliability industries, develops a behavior analytic account of CRM behaviors, and describes an approach to measuring behaviors within simulated and actual work environments.     

A woman leader's experience in Korea

The methodology described in this article is of significance to HRD scholars seeking to better understand employee perceptions of the work environments in which practitioners seek to develop employees. Diagnostic instruments tailored to specific work settings can be developed simply and inexpensively with the approach described. A summated rating scale was developed to measure employee perception of a broad range of work environment variables that research has shown influence employee development and performance. An employee perception-based factor model was then developed based on factor analysis of data gathered with the study instrument. Analysis of the data indicated an interpretable five-factor model. Based on the salient variables of the factor model, a shorter diagnostic instrument was developed specifically for the work setting used in the study. The approach developed in this study can mitigate the obvious problem that arises if one attempts to generalize a single set of work environment factors as representing the perceptions of work groups which may have significantly different demographic or occupational characteristics, work settings and cultures. While the specific factor model and diagnostic tool generated in this study cannot be generalized beyond the study population, the instrumentation and methodology can be used to develop unique factor models in other work settings to provide the basis for diagnostic instruments appropriate for those settings and work groups.     

How the psychosocial work environment of motor vehicle mechanics may influence coping with musculoskeletal symptoms

A number of studies have shown that musculoskeletal symptoms are related to the physical and psychosocial work environments. Workers with musculoskeletal symptoms are often advised to cope by such measures as changing working technique, using lifting equipment and discussing health and environmental problems with supervisors and colleagues. Intervention studies at the individual level, however, have shown that such advice has limited effects in reducing the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms. The hypothesis for this study was that negative social and organizational factors may prevent workers from implementing such coping strategies. All 103 motor vehicle mechanics surveyed in 12 different garages responded to a questionnaire on coping with musculoskeletal symptoms and the psychosocial work environment. Positive and significant relationships were shown between how mechanics coped with their musculoskeletal symptoms and such psychosocial factors as work demands, social support, control, manager's involvement in health and safety work, and whether the garages had regular meetings between management and workers. Achieving positive results from preventive work through back schools and other ergonomic interventions seems to require that an organization with positive attitudes towards health and safety work be created before such interventions are implemented.     

Organization theory: Where are you?

This paper seeks to summarize the present state of organization theory. It takes as its starting-point the work of early organization theorists and demonstrates that their work has been challenged in basically four different ways, i.e. regarding the view on (a) individuals in organizations, (b) the interaction among individuals in organizations, (c) the relationship between organizations and their environments and (d) the technology of organizations. The implications of these qualifications are discussed with reference to recent literature. These discussions led to the conclusion that the number of research questions have increased rather than decreased over the years. Thus, a unified organization theory may be less valid today than at the beginning of the century. This circumstance, however, it is argued, should not be considered a regression but rather a sign of increasing insight.     

A Comparative Revenue Analysis of Hotel Yield Management Heuristics

Yield management is the dynamic pricing, overbooking, and allocation of perishable assets across market segments in an effort to maximize short-term revenues for the firm. Numerous optimization heuristics for allocation and overbooking exist for the airline industry, whose perishable asset is the airplane seat. When an airplane departs, no revenue is gained from the empty seat(s). In the hotel industry, the perishable asset is the hotel room-once a room is left empty for a night, that night's revenue cannot be recaptured. The literature on yield management heuristics for the hotel industry is sparse. For the hotel operating environment, no research has adequately (1) integrated overbooking with allocation, (2) modeled the phenomenon of hotel patrons extending or contracting their stay at a moment's notice, or (3) performed a realistic performance comparison of alternative heuristics. This research develops (1) two hotel-specific algorithms that both integrate overbooking with the allocation decisions, (2) a simulation model to reproduce realistic hotel operating environments, and (3) compares the performance of five heuristics under 36 realistic hotel operating environments. Seven conclusions are reached with regard to which heuristic(s) perform best in specific operating environments. Generally, heuristic selection is very much dependent on the hotel operating environment. A counterintuitive result is that in many operating environments, the simpler heuristics work as well as the more complex ones.     

Editorial: Cognitive science,occupational stress and organizational health

A number of studies have shown that musculoskeletal symptoms are related to the physical and psychosocial work environments. Workers with musculoskeletal symptoms are often advised to cope by such measures as changing working technique, using lifting equipment and discussing health and environmental problems with supervisors and colleagues. Intervention studies at the individual level, however, have shown that such advice has limited effects in reducing the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms. The hypothesis for this study was that negative social and organizational factors may prevent workers from implementing such coping strategies. All 103 motor vehicle mechanics surveyed in 12 different garages responded to a questionnaire on coping with musculoskeletal symptoms and the psychosocial work environment. Positive and significant relationships were shown between how mechanics coped with their musculoskeletal symptoms and such psychosocial factors as work demands, social support, control, manager's involvement in health and safety work, and whether the garages had regular meetings between management and workers. Achieving positive results from preventive work through back schools and other ergonomic interventions seems to require that an organization with positive attitudes towards health and safety work be created before such interventions are implemented.     

News: University prizes

Abstract

Stressful working environments are often assumed to create conditions that may lead to bullying. However, few studies have investigated how factors experienced in the work environment may trigger perpetrators to engage in bullying of others. Drawing on Spector and Fox's (2005) stressor–emotion model of counterproductive work behaviour, the present study investigated the predictive effects of both individual and situational factors as predictors of being a perpetrator of workplace bullying, as applied to a representative sample of the Norwegian workforce (N=2359). Results from logistic regression analysis show that being oneself a target of bullying, regardless of the frequency, and being male strongly predicted involvement in bullying of others. Among the situational factors, only role conflict and interpersonal conflicts significantly predicted being a perpetrator of bullying. The present findings support the notion that bullying will thrive in stressful working environments and thus yield an important contribution in identifying antecedent conditions to counteract the development of bullying at workplaces.     

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT: AN EXAMINATION OF SERVICE STRATEGY IN A HIGH‐CONTACT SERVICE ENVIRONMENT

A critical component of service strategy in high‐contact environments is service encounter management. Effective service encounters are a result of the quality of employee development, including systems for work and job design, training and development, and attention to employee well being. Results of empirical analysis indicate that service strategies reflecting the dimensions of employee development drive employee outcomes such as productivity and satisfaction. Employee outcomes are significantly associated with customer satisfaction, but only some linkages to financial performance are significant. This study illustrates the importance of employee development in service strategy design for managing service encounters in high contact service environments.     

Target Levels—Tools for Prevention

Although occupational exposure limits are sought to establish health-based standards, they do not always give a sufficient basis for planning an indoor air climate that is good and comfortable for the occupants in industrial work rooms. This paper considers methodologies by which the desired level, i.e., target level, of air quality in industrial settings can be defined, taking into account feasibility issues. Risk assessment based on health criteria is compared with risk-assessment based on "Best Available Technology" (BAT). Because health-based risk estimates at low concentration regions are rather inaccurate, the technology-based approach is emphasized. The technological approach is based on information on the prevailing concentrations in industrial work environments and the benchmark air quality attained with the best achievable technology. The prevailing contaminant concentrations are obtained from a contaminant exposure databank, and the benchmark air quality by field measurements in industrial work rooms equipped with advanced ventilation and production technology. As an example, the target level assessment has been applied to formaldehyde, total inorganic dust and hexavalent chromium, which are common contaminants in work room air.     

Staffing a Multiskilled Workforce with Varying Levels of Productivity: An Analysis of Cross-training Policies*

Service operations that utilize cross-trained employees face complex workforce staffing decisions that have important implications for both cost and productivity. These decisions are further complicated when cross-trained employees have different productivity levels in multiple work activity categories. A method for policy analysis in such environments can be beneficial in determining low-cost staffing plans with appropriate cross-training configurations. In this paper, we present an integer linear programming model for evaluating cross-training configurations at the policy level. The objective of the model is to minimize workforce staffing costs subject to the satisfaction of minimum labor requirements across a planning horizon of a single work shift. The model was used to evaluate eight cross-training structures (consisting of 36 unique cross-training configurations) across 512 labor requirement patterns. These structures, as well as the labor requirement patterns, were established based on data collected from maintenance operations at a large paper mill in the United States. The results indicate that asymmetric cross-training structures that permit chaining of employee skill classes across work activity categories are particularly useful.     

A success story on improving white collar productivity: Implications for engineering management

This paper discusses the experience of the American Productivity Center and seventeen corporations that particpated in a two-year action research project that tested the Center's six-phase methodology for improving productivity in the white collar workplace.The six-phase methodology was implemented in 98 pilot groups representing the full range of “knowledge worker” environments: accounting and finance, customer service, engineering, facilities management, marketing and sales, operations, MIS personnel/HRM, research and development, and purchasing. The project demonstrated that white collar work can be measured; worthwhile improvements are possible in all functional areas; and the managerial, professional and support staff can lead the improvement process on a continuous basis.