The Experience of Work

Influences on Work Experience• Influenced by a company’s set of

rules and expectations for employees attitudes and behavior

• Employees allow parts of our lives to be controlled by company

• Organizations work to get employees to coordinate and work toward its goals

• Challenge for employees is to achieve individuation and identification simultaneously though communication

• Each person experience of work and sense making is impacted by organizational assimilation, indicators of cooperation and indicators of resistance

Impacts• Assimilation – is a process where

people learn the rules, norms and expectations of a culture over time and become members of that culture

• Assimilation is essential in any culture and begins at an early age

• Organizational assimilation – learning process has three stages

– Anticipatory socialization – learning about nature of work through communication with others before job begins: two ways

– Vocational anticipatory socialization – begins in childhood – learning what is work

– Organizational anticipatory socialization – learning that occurs before first day of work via organizational literature, interactions with interviewers and employees

Assimilation Stages Two and Three

• Organizational Assimilation – process where new employees learn about, make sense of and transition into members of new organizational situation

– Initial part of process involves surprise and sense making

– Newcomers learn the requirements of new roles and solicit information about organizational culture

– Time needed for newcomers to fully transition into members varies and not everyo9ne fully completes assimilation process

– During transitional period employees learn to balance their own satisfaction with their role in organization

• Organizational turning points are critical moments in workplace that help employees understand their role

– Moments can change relationship between employee and organization

– Turning points alter employees’ perceptions of identification with company and also structure their perception of career choices, job transfers and their purpose in life

Indicators of Cooperation• Job satisfaction – is most common

indicator of the quality of an employees’ work experiences

– A satisfied employee is said to be one whose needs are being met

– Employees have three levels of needs that correlate with degrees of job satisfaction

• Level 1 needs include safe working conditions, fair play, rewards and proper equipment

• Level 2 needs include supportive interpersonal relationships with co-workers and supervisors

• Level 3 needs include opportunities of personal growth

– Challenging work only increases satisfaction when employees desire it

– There is little proven correlation between job satisfaction and productivity

Indicators of Cooperation• Job involvement – degree to which

employees personally involve themselves in their work

– There are extreme levels of job involvement from person who lives to work to whose who work to live

– Can lead to workaholism• Organizational identification is the

overlap between an employee’s values and those of the organization

– Identification involves the internalization of company values and assumptions by employees and can be essential in crating sense of community

– Organization identification exerts control over decisions and can destroy employee’s definitions of what is real or taken for granted

– Organizational restructuring can shift identification from the organization to teams or work groups.

Indicators of Cooperation• Organizational commitment – is the

amount of dedication and support an employee has for organization goals and values

– Commitment can be displayed in attitudes and behaviors

– Employees can be highly committed even with low levels of identification or job involvement

– Commitment usually varies by industry • Employee empowerment – giving

employees control over significant aspects of their work

– High involvement management assumes people do best work when they feel ownership of processes and decision making

– Empowerment can be achieved via compensation including stock ownership

– High involvement management is not easily implemented as it requires cooperation of both managers and employees

Indicators of Cooperation• Employee productivity – most

important indicator from organization standpoint

– Defined as relationship between the outputs generated by system and the imports required to create outputs

• Productivity linked to efficiency and effectiveness

• Most organizations do poor job measuring individual productivity except in routine jobs

• Two alternative scenarios relating communication to productivity

– Monologic approach – connects communication by promoting a work environment in which simple tasks and performance measure permit continuous measurable improvement

» View similar to scientific management in that communication comes from supervisor

– Dialogic approach- emphasizes mutual, two-way communicating between managers and employees

Indicators of Resistance

• Stress – marked by feelings of anxiety, tension or pressure– Increased levels of stress

linked to absenteeism, tardiness, sabotage, poor quality, turnover and dysfunctional conflict

– Job stress is a psychologically disturbed response to work

– Four areas that are sources of stress: environmental, organizational, job and individual

Environmental Stress• Low control over environment

stressors• Often generated by national

culture, intercultural difficulties and physical characteristics of workplace

• National culture influences attitudes about nature of work, leisure and employment

• Intercultural – six sources of stress of business travelers

– Culture shock– Challenge of diversity– Bias, discrimination and prejudice– Language barriers– Customs and taboos – Physical stress

• Physical – lighting, noise, crowding, etc

Stress as Damaging to Employees

• Organizational culture problem– A mild-mannered person may

work in environment that creates stress

– Even successful individuals can find pressure situations

• Organizational norms about aspects of culture – employees effected by features such as– Social support– Participation in decision

making– Diversity– Expressions of emotion

Job Stressors

• Workload – number of projects one is responsible for completing within a period of time

• Role uncertainty – uncertain and inconsistent job descriptions – even from too much information

• Job design – characteristics of work

Stress Reducers

• Factors creating work satisfaction– Job variety– Task significance– Autonomy or degree of

freedom in performing own work

– Feedback about work from others

• Autonomy most important – use RAA delegation – responsibility, authority and accountability

Outside of Work Stressors

• Personality traits (workaholic, type A behavior, etc)

• Personal life • Communication style

New Trends in Work Experience

• Rise in entrepreneurship• Third sector – soft-money

supported projects• New career path via

continuing education, shifting identifications

• New sources of self-employment

• Outsourcers – specialists who work for themselves