Matakuliah : L0064 / Psikologi Industri &
Organisasi 1
Tahun
: 2007 / 2008
PSIKOLOGI ORGANISASI
PERTEMUAN 14 & 15
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to
1. Contrast classic and modern organizational styles
2. Describe the nature of total-quality-management (TQM)
programs and why some programs fail
3. Explain the nature of worker participation programs, and
quality control programs
4. Describe the organizational development (OD) process
5. Understand the socialization of new employees and also
new members of labor unions
6. Describe the affect of organizational culture and informal
groups on behavior
7. Explain how computer technology has impacted
organizational structure and work procedures
Bureaucracy
• A formal, orderly, and rational approach to
organizing business enterprises
• Proposed by Max Weber to correct the inequities,
favoritism, and cruelty during the Industrial
Revolution
• System devised to function like a machine,
unaffected by the whims of owners
• First organization chart created in 1850’s by
Daniel McCallum for the New York & Erie Railroad
Bureaucracy
• Characteristics of a bureaucracy
– Decentralization into component parts and
operations
– Operations linked in a fixed rank order of control
– The concept of division of labor simplified and
specialized jobs
– Responsibility and authority delegated downward
– Communications flowed upward through same
channels
– Employees cut off from contact with other levels
and sectors of the organization
Bureaucracy
• Problems with bureaucracies
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Human needs and values are often ignored
Human motivations tend not to be recognized
Employees have no identity or control over their work
“Ideal” employees are docile, passive, dependent,
and childlike
– Decision making is centralized
– Workers are isolated from management
– New developments are viewed as threats
Participatory Democracy
• The modern organizational style is a highinvolvement participatory approach
• Concerned with employees’ intellectual,
emotional, and motivational characteristics
• Participatory decision and policy making
• Application of McGregor’s Theory Y philosophy
Participatory Democracy
• Basic assumptions about people, participation,
and performance
– Human relations - people should be treated fairly and
with respect
– Human resources - people are a valuable resource
– High involvement - people can be trusted to make
important decisions about the management of their
work
• “Taking charge” - the work behavior stimulated
by high-involvement management
Total Quality Management
(TQM)
• TQM refers to participative management programs
characterized by increased employee involvement
and responsibility
• Quality-of-worklife (QWL) programs restructure
job and management requirements to enhance
worker participation
– Quality control circles - small groups of workers meet to
solve problems relating to production
– Self-managing work groups - a work team controls all
aspects of the job
– Virtual self-managing work groups - linked electronically
Why QWL Programs Fail
• When employees don’t understand the increased
demands of the redesigned job (e.g., Volvo)
• Some workers don’t desire to participate in decision
making and may need more rather than less
supervision
• Some managers are uncomfortable releasing control
• Top management and union officials must embrace
the program
• Diversity and contingent workforces present
challenges for inclusion
Self-Managing Work Groups
• Employee groups that allow team members to manage,
control and monitor all facets of their work, including
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Hiring
Training
Recruiting
When to take rest breaks
Self-Managing Work Groups
• Characteristics (Hackman, 1986)
– Employees assume responsibility and
accountability
– Employees monitor their own performance and
seek feedback
– Employees manage their performance and take
corrective action
– Employees seek resources when needed
– Employees help each other to improve
performance
Self-Managing Work Groups
• Requirements
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Mature employees and responsible, supportive managers
Clear direction from the organization
A support staff to provide technical expertise
Adequate material resources
• Disadvantages
– Conversion to the process is difficult, expensive, and time
consuming
– It takes a while to become effective
Virtual Self-Managing Work Groups
• Virtual team members may work in geographically
separate locations, but meet via Desktop
Videoconferencing Systems (DVCS)
– Recreates face-to-face interactions
• Research is sparse
• Communication and ensuring timely attendance are
critical to providing team members the opportunity to
participate
Organizational Change
• Employee participation programs call for radical changes and resistance to change is to be expected
• Organizational development (OD) involves techniques for
introducing large scale changes
• The process is carried out by change agents who
diagnose problems, devise strategies, and implement
interventions
Organizational Change
• External factors relating to overcoming resistance
to change
– Providing explanations about policy change has
beneficial effects
– Openness to change is positively affected by the
amount of information received from management
– Greater trust in management is related to employee
beliefs that they had ample opportunity to
participate, and the reasons for change were
adequately communicated by management
Organizational Change
• Personality factors related to overcoming resistance to
change
– People who score high in risk tolerance and self-concept,
including locus of control, positive affectivity, self-esteem, and
self-efficacy, cope with change better
• When properly introduced, change can have a longlasting positive effects (e.g., Seashore & Bowers, 1970)
Organizational Development (OD)
• OD is the study and implementation of planned
total organizational change
• Techniques include sensitivity training, role
playing, group discussion, survey feedback,
team building, and job enrichment
• OD consultants, or change agents, work with
groups to implement change and develop group
confidence and effectiveness
– Outside agents generally able to provide more
objective assessment of organizational needs
Organizational Development (OD)
• OD is an on-going process
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Assessment and diagnosis
Feedback
Development of recommended strategies
Implementation (intervention)
Evaluation and feedback
• Implementation must begin with top
management
• Job satisfaction may be negatively correlated
with OD, while productivity is positively related
Socialization of New Employees
• Socialization is the adjustment process by
which new employees learn their role in the
organizational hierarchy, the company’s
values, and the behaviors considered
acceptable by their work group
Socialization of New Employees
• Employees high in extroversion and openness
to new experiences demonstrated higher
proactive socialization behaviors
• Newcomers high in self-efficacy held higher
expectations about how well they would
perform their new job
• Socialization is quicker when there is interaction
between old and new employees
Socialization of New Employees
• Role ambiguity - when job responsibilities are
unstructured or poorly defined
• Role conflict - when there is disparity
between job demands and the employee’s
personal standards
– High levels of role conflict and role ambiguity are
related to low satisfaction, dissatisfaction with the
supervisor, low organizational commitment, and
high turnover
Socialization of New Employees
• Resocialization occurs every time one joins a different
organization with new rites of passage, or.r even
transfers to a different unit within the same organization
• Feedback from peers and especially supervisors is
important during the socialization and resocialization
process
Organizational Culture
• Organizational Culture is the pattern of beliefs,
values, and expectations that guide the behavior
of the organization’s members and manifested
in company and industry practices
• Organization climate is what we see when we
observe the functioning of a company
– Researchers often use climate and culture
interchangeably due to fundamental similarities
– Others argue that climate is the surface manifestation
of culture
Person-Organization Fit
• Person-organization (P-O) fit is the degree of
congruence between an employee’s values
and the organization’s values
• Enhanced by how closely the values of the
newcomer agree with those of their supervisor
• Similar personalities also enhance P-O fit
– Applicants are attracted to organizations whose structure, mission
and attitudes they seem comfortable with
Labor Unions
• Labor unions help define a company’s culture
• Socialization of new union members is similar to the
process of becoming acclimated to a new organization
• A review of pay scales indicated that union workers made
up to 33% more and had better and safer working
conditions than non-union workers in similar jobs
Declining Union Membership
• In 1945, more than 35% of U.S. workforce belonged to
unions
– Percentage had fallen to 12.9% by 2003
• Unions initially resisted quality of worklife programs
because they were seen as eroding union loyalty
• The greater the threat of job loss, the greater the union
commitment
Union Grievances
• Specified in union contracts, the grievance
process establishes a formal mechanism for
worker complaints
• Highly cohesive work groups also file more
grievances
• Supervisors who are low in consideration
behaviors are the targets of more grievances
• When a complaint is resolved in favor of the
worker, the process is seen as fair, but when
resolved in favor of management, relations suffer
Informal Groups
• Informal groups develop within every organization and
have tremendous power to shape employee attitudes,
behavior, and productivity
• Hawthorne studies provided empirical evidence of
informal work groups
– The Relay Assembly Group established its own standards of
productivity which were lower than those set by management
Social Loafing
• The idea that people do not work as hard in a
group as they do when working alone
• Social loafing is more likely to occur when
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Individual outputs cannot be evaluated
Tasks are not meaningful or personally involving
Working with strangers
Co-workers are expected to perform well on the
task
– Work groups are less cohesive
Group Cohesiveness
• Group cohesiveness is the degree of
closeness within the group
• A group’s affective tone influences its work
performance
• The greater the cohesiveness, the greater the
group’s power over its members and the greater
the pressure to conform
• Wage-incentive systems that reward individual
rather than team performance increase
competition and lower cohesion
Computer Technology
• Creates the need for greater coordination and
integration of the company’s basic units
• Requires greater formalization of work
procedures which reduces opportunities for
individuality in structuring and organizing work
• May result in decentralization, giving more
decision making authority to the computer
operator
Computer Technology
• May result in operators who know more about
equipment capabilities than their supervisors,
thus disrupting traditional working
relationships
• Changes procedures for meetings (e.g., virtual
meetings), disrupting traditional lines of
communication
• Reduces the opportunity for personal
interaction and weakens cohesiveness
Internet Addiction
• Excessive Internet use can lead to a form of
addiction (see www.netaddiction.com)
• Employer monitoring of computer usage has
a disruptive effect on the employee-employer
relationship
• An AMA study reports 78% of companies
monitor employees’ behavior on the job
• Many companies discipline employees for
online abuse
Key Terms
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Bureaucracy
Change agents
Group cohesiveness
Organizational culture
Organizational
Development (OD)
• Person-organization
(P-O) fit
• Self-managing work
groups
• Social loafing
• Socialization
• Total quality
management (TQM)