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Personal goals and work design
Books
Personal goals and work design Peter Warr
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Baffins Lane, Chichester, Sussex,
pp 264, £8.75 This book is the result of a NATO Study Institute held at York in 1974. The papers given at that Institute were rewritten by their authors as a result of the discussion sessions held there and have been assembled by the Editor, Peter Warr. They present an unusually coherent group of papers, in that the papers from a conference do not usually provide such an even coverage of their chosen field or consistency of presentation. To quote the cover, the book examines new research and thinking about psychological and social aspects of working life and job satisfaction. It relates, particularly to major issues of understanding, values and change. To long-suffering readers who choke on the last sentence, let me hasten to add that the book itself is mostly in better English. An opening chapter by Albert Cherns readily covers a wide canvas to illustrate the many influences which must be considered before attitudes to work can be assessed. He is particularly concerned with changes arising in society, noting that all our organisations condition our attitudes, our cultural heritage is a vital constituent as is technological change. But of all the factors he suspects that organisational change may be the easiest key to turn to create more opportunities for other changes. George Hines' chapter on cultural influences presents a valuable insight into the effects of culture on the understanding of research evidence in this field, den Hertzog, followed by Louis Davis, discuss work structuring and job design developments respectively. Davis's conclusion - that we should lift our sights from the work process and the business of shifting tasks around to a process of designing work roles and work systems is echoed by this reviewer. He recognises, too, that the technological component must be within the design compass - a plea for looking at the total freedoms available beyond the limits which the book has set for itself. This view is followed by Leopold Vansina, in his chapter on Organisation Development. He urges those concerned with OD to continually refer back to the wider frame of society and the interactions between people, organisations, society and work itself. At this point John Rowan introduces a valuable chapter discussing ethical systems and the issues they raise for those concerned with organisational change. He is followed by van Strien who looks at professional ethics - professional psychologists' ethics - and how they can contribute to work on the quality of working life. It is a chapter which didn't excite your reviewer. The slant of the book changes at this point. Peter Wart discusses theories of motivation and has interesting things
238
Applied Ergonomics December 1976
to say about how such theories are structured and might be developed. Terence Mitchell's contribution attempts to draw similarities from the many theories of motivation and show how these may be used in practical cases. He deduced a number of principles relating to motivation which did not have the full support of his colleagues at the conference. Mitchell remains fairly close to his guns however and the chapter gives an interesting attempt to identify solid ground amongst the marshy vastnesses of theory. The following chapter, on the Loci of Work Satisfaction by Katz and van Maanen, reports a study to identify the contributions to work satisfaction. They suggest that objective features of the occupational situation are the major influences on satisfaction and that these, rather than psychological differences, provide the better route for investigations. Lorne Kendall's chapter looks at the person and the situation, again based on a study. Various predictors were evaluated via multiple correlation analyses. The results need replication as Kendall rightly observes. The last two conference papers were on change in command and the behaviour of subordinate leaders by Paul Bons, and shift work by Pieter Drenth and others. They both report cases and contribute to the overall pattern of the book. Three final chapters are contributed by Edward Lawler, David Elliott and Andrew Pettigrew. These examine the three issues raised for consideration by the conference and ably round off the earlier contributions. They can well be read on their own but would encourage many readers to turn back and look at the rest of the contributions. In sum, the book is a worthy addition to the growing number of texts in this area. It is an illuminating book for any industrial engineer, personnel or other manager although it will have most appeal to teachers and researchers. It is not cheap, but many other books at a lower price could prove more expensive.
Publications received A social scientist in industry Lisl Klein
Gower Press, Erasmus House, Epping, Essex CM16 4BU, pp 257, £6.50 Describes the author's experiences as a practising social scientist with a large industrial company, and in a wider context, examines the ways in which social science knowledge is transmitted and used.
Personal goals and work design Peter Warr
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Baffins Lane, Chichester, Sussex,
pp 264, £8.75 This book is the result of a NATO Study Institute held at York in 1974. The papers given at that Institute were rewritten by their authors as a result of the discussion sessions held there and have been assembled by the Editor, Peter Warr. They present an unusually coherent group of papers, in that the papers from a conference do not usually provide such an even coverage of their chosen field or consistency of presentation. To quote the cover, the book examines new research and thinking about psychological and social aspects of working life and job satisfaction. It relates, particularly to major issues of understanding, values and change. To long-suffering readers who choke on the last sentence, let me hasten to add that the book itself is mostly in better English. An opening chapter by Albert Cherns readily covers a wide canvas to illustrate the many influences which must be considered before attitudes to work can be assessed. He is particularly concerned with changes arising in society, noting that all our organisations condition our attitudes, our cultural heritage is a vital constituent as is technological change. But of all the factors he suspects that organisational change may be the easiest key to turn to create more opportunities for other changes. George Hines' chapter on cultural influences presents a valuable insight into the effects of culture on the understanding of research evidence in this field, den Hertzog, followed by Louis Davis, discuss work structuring and job design developments respectively. Davis's conclusion - that we should lift our sights from the work process and the business of shifting tasks around to a process of designing work roles and work systems is echoed by this reviewer. He recognises, too, that the technological component must be within the design compass - a plea for looking at the total freedoms available beyond the limits which the book has set for itself. This view is followed by Leopold Vansina, in his chapter on Organisation Development. He urges those concerned with OD to continually refer back to the wider frame of society and the interactions between people, organisations, society and work itself. At this point John Rowan introduces a valuable chapter discussing ethical systems and the issues they raise for those concerned with organisational change. He is followed by van Strien who looks at professional ethics - professional psychologists' ethics - and how they can contribute to work on the quality of working life. It is a chapter which didn't excite your reviewer. The slant of the book changes at this point. Peter Wart discusses theories of motivation and has interesting things
238
Applied Ergonomics December 1976
to say about how such theories are structured and might be developed. Terence Mitchell's contribution attempts to draw similarities from the many theories of motivation and show how these may be used in practical cases. He deduced a number of principles relating to motivation which did not have the full support of his colleagues at the conference. Mitchell remains fairly close to his guns however and the chapter gives an interesting attempt to identify solid ground amongst the marshy vastnesses of theory. The following chapter, on the Loci of Work Satisfaction by Katz and van Maanen, reports a study to identify the contributions to work satisfaction. They suggest that objective features of the occupational situation are the major influences on satisfaction and that these, rather than psychological differences, provide the better route for investigations. Lorne Kendall's chapter looks at the person and the situation, again based on a study. Various predictors were evaluated via multiple correlation analyses. The results need replication as Kendall rightly observes. The last two conference papers were on change in command and the behaviour of subordinate leaders by Paul Bons, and shift work by Pieter Drenth and others. They both report cases and contribute to the overall pattern of the book. Three final chapters are contributed by Edward Lawler, David Elliott and Andrew Pettigrew. These examine the three issues raised for consideration by the conference and ably round off the earlier contributions. They can well be read on their own but would encourage many readers to turn back and look at the rest of the contributions. In sum, the book is a worthy addition to the growing number of texts in this area. It is an illuminating book for any industrial engineer, personnel or other manager although it will have most appeal to teachers and researchers. It is not cheap, but many other books at a lower price could prove more expensive.
Publications received A social scientist in industry Lisl Klein
Gower Press, Erasmus House, Epping, Essex CM16 4BU, pp 257, £6.50 Describes the author's experiences as a practising social scientist with a large industrial company, and in a wider context, examines the ways in which social science knowledge is transmitted and used.