Work orientation

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File: Perspektiven der Arbeit.jpg
Perspectives of the work

Work orientation (often also called work attitude ) relates to the personal work perspective - in contrast to the operational one. It is commonly divided into an instrumental one , in which work is considered a means to an end, and a substantive one , in which work (also) represents a value in itself. The picture “Perspectives of Work” shows an order of these work perspectives.

Work orientation is an important prerequisite for the way employees react to work structuring . Employees with a strong instrumental work orientation will tend to reject work structuring. An expensive measure can therefore lose its effect or even turn into the opposite. However, the work orientation after a long period of work is strongly determined by the individual work experience. Therefore, it is usually not a sufficient reason to forego work structuring just because the existing employees have a strong instrumental work orientation.

In recent times, an increasing trend towards instrumental work orientation has been observed. The following causes can be seen for this:

  • Social security and prosperity in the developed industrial nations may have diminished the importance of work as a central living environment, even for social groups with traditionally more work-oriented content.
  • Reduced working hours can contribute to the same effect .
  • Furthermore, it can be assumed that in the German educational system - and not only in the German - democratic values ​​and forms of behavior have increasingly been socialized in recent years, which are in an increasingly clear contrast to the world of work, as one of the few social worlds that largely evaded this process has to kick.

Scientific basis

The discussion about the connection between personality and work activity is closely related to the research on work and performance orientation . Lewin already formulated in 1920 that there are different forms of work orientation and that fundamentally different demands on work organization can be derived from them . In the wake of the first job enrichment programs, in which the desired positive effects could by no means always be achieved, a considerable number of those affected even reacted negatively to this statement . Turner and Lawrence , for example, found that work expansions were only positively correlated with satisfaction among workers from small-town companies . Hulin and Blood learned that workers with a predominantly instrumental understanding of work, as found predominantly with urban residents, tend to have a negative view of work enrichment - as Lewin already claimed.

The first conclusions from these studies, however - in Taylor's sense - were the coordination of personnel selection with work organization . The best-known model for this comes from Porter , Lawler and Hackman , in which they empirically derived the dimensions of organizational structure (organic - mechanistic), work organization (simple - enriched) and growth needs (grouth need satisfaction - translated from Kleinbeck into German as: achievement- motivated - success-oriented) and determined meaningful and non-meaningful combinations. In a subsequent, empirical review of the work by Porter et al. found Pierce , Dunham and Blackburn that, notwithstanding Porter et al. , the variable work organization is much more important than the organizational structure .

The demand for a differential work organization is justified from the results of these investigations .

Individual growth needs are conveyed through work orientation to professional growth needs. A content-related work orientation can apply as a prerequisite for work-related growth needs, but an instrumental work term does not mean that there are generally no growth needs. For a healthy personality , these needs are taken for granted. This context can justify the fact that even with employees with an instrumental work concept, a change in orientation and thus a socialization towards a content-related work concept can be observed when work is enriched. After a literature study, Niederfeichtner comes to the conclusion that although school education, social class and professional position essentially determine work orientation, this influence quickly and significantly decreases in favor of actual professional experience. Other studies such as those by Kern and Schumann and Kohn and Schooler also indicate the influence of the work itself with increasing strength. This results in a development model for training work orientation, as shown in the picture “Development model work orientation”.

Development model work orientation

In this model, personality and belonging to social groups primarily affect the type and scope of the qualifications acquired . These are primarily responsible for the first professional experiences, the reception of which is still influenced by social background and personality.

Work orientation and work experience reinforce each other in the period that follows, while the other influencing factors are becoming increasingly less important. As a rule, if there is a change in work organization due to changed work situations that cannot be experienced under normal circumstances, subsequent changes in work orientation can also be assumed. Although the pre-occupational socialization can sometimes prove to be permanently stable, this does not provide a justification for refraining from enriching work - this would only result from the overwhelming scope of changes.

Work organizations that promote personality therefore require a corresponding reception by the members of a work system designed in this way , which will be different for the members and moreover not constant for each individual, i.e. not the same over time. These circumstances require the perspective of an image of man that appears to be called a “ complex man ”. “The concept of the 'complex man' postulates ... that

  1. People also have diverse needs in relation to their work and that
  2. whose hierarchy is subject to change and does not have to apply to all people in the same way at a certain time. ".

The result of the work organization is that it should not only meet the different needs of people at a time, but also their different development needs. This is the justification for the demand for a differentially dynamic work organization . It should be noted in particular that finding instrumental work terms and a temporary dominance of the characteristics from the human image of the " economic man " does not constitute a justification for not doing personal work. Since the Tayloristic work organization currently generally forms the starting point for work structuring , the emphasis must be on the development of the other characteristics of a differential work organization.

Others

Cessation of work is also used for stoppages or strikes .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heeg, Franz Josef: Modern work organization: Basics of the organizational design of work systems when using new technologies. 2nd edition Munich: Hanser, 1991 (REFA series). P. 58.
  2. ↑ Cf. the compilation of opinion research at Rosenstiel, Lutz v .: Work motivation and changing values: their importance for personnel management. In: Berthel, Jürgen; Groenewald, Horst: Personal Management. Landsberg: Verlag modern industry, 1990 (basic equipment), Part I, Section 3, p. 19 f.
  3. ↑ Argyris, Chris: The Individual and the Organization: Some Problems of Mutual Adjustment. In: Türk, Klaus: Organization theory. Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe, 1975, - ISBN 3-455-09185-7 . Pp. 229-234.
  4. ↑ Lewin, Kurt: The socialization of the Taylor system: A fundamental investigation into work and occupational psychology. In: Korsch, Karl (Ed.): Practical Socialism. Volume 4, Berlin: Verlag Society and Education, 1920. pp. 5–36, here p. 11 f.
  5. ↑ Turner, Arthur; Lawrence, Paul: Industrial jobs and the worker: An investigation of response to task attributes. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1965.
  6. ↑ Hulin, Charles; Blood, Milton: Job enlargement, individual differences and worker responses. In: Psychological Bulletin (1968/69), pp. 41-55.
  7. ↑ Hackman, John; Lawler, Edward; Porter, Lyman: Perspectives on Behavior in Organizations. 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 1975. p. 308.
  8. ↑ Kleinbeck, Uwe: Is the theory of achievement motivation suitable for the justification of work structuring measures? In: Kleinbeck, Uwe; Ernst, Gert: On the psychology of work structuring. Frankfurt / M .: Campus, 1981. - ISBN 3593329131 . Pp. 32-41.
  9. ↑ Pierce, Jon; Dunham, Randall; Blackburn, Richard: Social systems structure, job design, and growth need strength: A test of congruency model. In: Academy of Management Journal (1979) 2, pp. 223-240.
  10. ↑ Ulich, Eberhard; Troy, Norbert; Alioth, Andreas: Technology and Organization. In: Roth, Erwin: Organizational Psychology. Göttingen: Hogrefe, 1989 (Encyclopedia of Psychology 3). 1989, - ISBN 3-8017-0518-8 . Pp. 119–141, here p. 128.
  11. ↑ Bruggemann, Agnes: Experiences with important variables and some effects of professional socialization in a project on the “humanization of working life”. In: Ulich, Eberhard; Groskurth, Peter; Bruggemann, Agnes: New forms of work design: possibilities and problems of improving the quality of working life. Frankfurt / M .: European Publishing House, 1973. - ISBN 3-434-00214-6 . Pp. 146-175.
  12. ↑ Niederfeichtner, Friedrich: Work design and work orientation: The socializational development of work orientation and its importance for the design of organizational incentive systems. Bern: Haupt, 1982. - ISBN 3-258-03145-2 . P. 231 f.
  13. ↑ Kern, Horst; Schumann, Michael: Industrial work and workers' consciousness. Frankfurt / M .: European Publishing House, 1970 (Part I). P. 218 ff.
  14. ↑ Kohn, Melvin; Schooler, Carmi: The reciprocal effect of the substantive complexity of work and intellectual flexibility: A longitudinal assessment. In: American Journal of Sociology 84 (1978) 1, pp. 24-52.
  15. ↑ Grap, Rolf: New forms of work organization for the steel industry. Aachen: Augustinus, 1992. - ISBN 3860730886 . Pp. 88-91.
  16. ↑ Gaitanides, Michael: Industrial work organization and technical development: Production-technical possibilities of qualitative improvements in working conditions. Berlin: de Gruyter 1976 (People and Organization 1).
  17. ↑ Niederfeichtner 1982, p. 238.
  18. ^ Schein, Edgar: Organizational Theory. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1980.
  19. ↑ Ulich, E .: Problems of changing the management system. In: Duell, Werner; Free, Felix; Alioth, Andreas; Baitsch, Christoph; Ulich, Eberhard: Guidelines for Qualifying Work Design. Cologne: Verlag TÜV Rheinland, 1986. - ISBN 3885852985 . Pp. 160–169, here p. 163.
  20. ↑ Ulich, Eberhard: Subjective activity analysis as a prerequisite for autonomy-oriented work design. In: Frei, Felix; Ulich, Eberhard: Contributions to psychological work analysis. Bern: Huber, 1981, - ISBN 3-456-80905-0 . Pp. 327-347.