1JV10 Chapter 1: Introduction to Work Psychology PDF

Part A Introduction to Work Psychology  1 Setting the Scene People at Work Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge Chapter Objectiv...

Part A Introduction to Work Psychology  1 Setting the Scene People at Work Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge Chapter Objectives After studying this chapter, you should be able to: describe the key elements of work; explain what work psychology is about, and what is meant by contempo- rary work psychology; specify some main features of the world’s labor force; understand what working means to workers; summarize the history of work psychology; explain the six most important changes that have occurred in the world of work; understand the general outline and structure of the current book. 1.1 Introduction For as long as mankind has existed, people have worked. Needless to say the nature of work has changed tremendously: our distant ancestors were mostly hunters and collectors, but nowadays people work with data, “goods” or other people, or provide services. What has not changed is that we still spend a substan- tial part of our lives working. It is therefore not surprising that some people’s work is about understanding the nature and conditions of the work of others in An Introduction to Contemporary Work Psychology, Second Edition. Edited by Maria C. W. Peeters, Jan de Jonge, and Toon Taris. © 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2024 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 4 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge an attempt to explain, predict and improve it. These are work psychologists, teachers, trainers, and practitioners in work psychology, as well as those who study the phenomenon of work and worker behavior: the researchers. This book is aimed at everyone who would like to learn more about work psychology. The primary intended readership consists of advanced (second and third year) bache- lor students as well as master students in work and organizational psychology programs. In addition, this textbook will also be useful for advanced students in related fields, including ergonomics and human factors, (applied) social psychol- ogy, clinical psychology, social and occupational medicine, occupational health, human resource management, epidemiology, health sciences, industrial engineer- ing, business administration, and management science. Finally, researchers who would like to familiarize themselves quickly with state-­of-­the-­art issues in the area of work psychology will also be interested in this volume. This first chapter starts with a brief introduction to what work involves and what work psychology aims to achieve (Section 1.2). In Sections 1.3 and 1.4 we consider the world’s labor force, and discuss what having and doing work means for individuals. After describing the history of the field of work psychology (Section 1.5), we describe some important changes that the world of work has witnessed over the last decennia (Section 1.6). The chapter ends by explaining the general outline and structure of the book (Section 1.7). 1.2 What We Talk About When We Talk About Work Psychology This book is about work. According to the Merriam-­Webster dictionary (2023), in everyday life the term “work” refers to “perform work or fulfill duties regularly for wages or salary; to perform or carry through a task requiring sustained effort or continuous repeated operations; to exert oneself physically or mentally espe- cially in sustained effort for a purpose or under compulsion or necessity; to func- tion or operate according to plan or design.” That is, work is about performing activities that require sustained effort to achieve a particular objective, and these activities are conducted to obtain some form of income. More formally, work can be defined as a set of coordinated and goal-­directed activities that require sustained effort and are conducted in exchange for something else, usually (but not necessarily and often not exclusively) some form of monetary reward. Three key elements of this definition are as follows: 1. Work consists of a set of goal-­directed activities; that is, actions at work are intended to bring about a particular previously specified result. After all, the goal of work is to produce a good (including data and knowledge) or to deliver a particular service (Frese & Zapf, 1994). 2. Work consists of a set of coordinated activities. To achieve the intended goal, workers do not act randomly. Rather, successful task accomplishment often requires that workers execute a series of interrelated activities following par- ticular work routines, procedures and guidelines, and often using tools and machinery especially devised to bring about the intended goal. Even the sim- plest jobs require incumbents to coordinate their activities. Without coordi- nation, the intended goal will be difficult to achieve, if it is achieved at all.  Setting the Scene 5 3. The activities involved in working require some degree of physical, emo- tional and/or mental effort, and this effort is usually compensated in some way. That is, work is conducted in exchange for something else. Few of us would go to work without getting anything in return. Rather, for many peo- ple working is a necessary evil: it is easy to think of more attractive, interest- ing and enjoyable activities, but working is often simply essential for earning a living. This book is also about psychology. Psychology refers to people’s behavior, motiva- tions, thoughts and emotions related to a particular topic. Work psychology thus relates to these concepts in the context of work (Arnold, 2005). As the goal of work is to produce something (goods, services, or knowledge), one central aim of work psychology is to facilitate obtaining that goal: how can we use the knowl- edge and insights of psychology to help workers achieve their work goals in an optimal and sustainable manner? Or, from an organizational point of view, how can we help organizations achieving their goals? Note that work psychologists are not only interested in pushing workers’ per- formance to (and perhaps even beyond) their upper limit. On the contrary, at present many work psychologists are primarily interested in maximizing worker health and well-­ being (this used to be different in the early days of work psychology—­see Section 1.3). This interest partly follows from the idea that happy, satisfied workers are presumed to be productive workers (see Chapter 19, for a discussion). In this view, maximizing worker well-­being is the same as maxi- mizing work performance. Additionally, as we believe that psychologists should improve people’s lives, work psychologists are genuinely interested in improving workers’ health and well-­ being. For example, the American Psychological Association (2023), the largest professional organization of psychologists, says in its mission statement: “Our mission is to promote the advancement, communi- cation, and application of psychological science and knowledge to benefit society and improve lives.” Similarly, the British Psychological Society (2023) states that it “helps to influence and develop a psychological approach to policy-­making that puts people first.” Similar statements can be found on the web sites of other professional organizations for psychologists. Clearly, work psychologists are not solely there for the benefit of organizations or employers, but surely also for the benefit of workers. This is not to say that a focus on worker health and well-­ being can or should not be beneficial for organizations as well. It is by now well-­ accepted that work can have adverse effects on worker health and well-­being (e.g., consider the potential effects of working with harmful and even carcinog- enous substances, or of being chronically bullied by your supervisor and co-­ workers). Since many organizations frequently face difficulties in finding suitably trained personnel, it is important to them that their current staff remain healthy and motivated. Moreover, the costs of replacing sick employees are high, which also underlines the need for organizations to make sure that the workability of their current staff remains high. Stated differently, contemporary work psychol- ogy aims to promote what might be called employee sustainable performance: a regulatory process in which an individual worker enduringly and efficiently achieves particular desired work goals while maintaining a satisfactory level of well-­being (Ji et al., 2021). 6 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge This book is about work psychology; that is, the way workers’ behaviors, motiva- tions, thoughts, emotions, health and well-­being relate to each other, and about ways to influence these concepts. As we have defined work in terms of the specific activities that are conducted by workers, work psychology is not primarily about the context in which these activities are conducted (e.g., the organization or the work team), that is the realm of organizational psychology. Similarly, work psychol- ogy is not primarily about the characteristics of the person conducting a particular work task (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity, level of education, experience, or personal- ity) or selecting or hiring new staff—­that is the domain of personnel psychology. Work psychology is about the tasks that are carried out at work; that is, the specific work activities that require sustained effort and are conducted to achieve a particu- lar goal. Of course, these activities are accomplished by workers having specific characteristics within a particular context, and in this sense work psychology is inevitably and often strongly related to the other strands of what is often called “work and organizational,” “personnel” or “industrial” psychology. We therefore also pay attention to some of these subjects in this book. In the present introduc- tion we define work psychology in a considerably narrower sense, namely, in terms of the psychological study of work activities and work (re-­)design. For introductions to other subfields of work and organizational psychology we refer to standard texts in these areas, such as Aamodt (2022), Spector (2021), and Jex and Britt (2014). Replay Work can be defined as a set of coordinated and goal-­directed activities that require sustained effort, and are conducted in exchange for something else, usually (but not necessarily and often not exclusively) some form of monetary reward. Work psychology refers to people’s behavior, motivations, thoughts, and emo- tions in the context of work. Work psychologists aim to simultaneously maximize work performance and worker health and well-­being. In that sense they aim to promote employee sustainable performance. Work psychology focuses on the specific activities conducted to achieve work goals. It does not (or at least not primarily) focus on the work context or on worker characteristics; these are the domains of other subfields of what is known as work and organizational psychology. 1.3 Who Do We Mean When We Talk About Workers? We now have an impression about what we conceive as work and what contempo- rary work psychology is about. Next, we turn to the workers. There is probably no group in the world that is as heterogeneous and diverse as the world’s workforce. This makes it hard to describe this group. Consider the differences between an Ethiopian farmer who still uses traditional farming methods such as manual sow- ing and harvesting and a Silicon Valley software engineer who works for a large tech company, and you will understand the enormous diversity within the world’s workforce.  Setting the Scene 7 The world’s workforce In order to have an impression of who we are talking about in the remainder of this book we will present some general figures about the world’s workforce. However, we must first discuss what we mean by the “workforce of the world.” The world’s labor force comprises people aged 15 and older who supply labor for the production of goods and services during a specified period. It includes people who are currently employed and people who are unemployed but seeking work, as well as first-­time job-­seekers. However, not everyone who works is included. Unpaid workers, family workers, and students are often omitted, and some coun- tries do not include members of the armed forces. The size of the labor force tends to vary during the year as seasonal workers enter and leave the labor force (World Bank, 2023a). To understand the number of people who are really at work we must consider unemployment rates. Unemployment rates refer to the share of the labor force that is without work but available for and seeking employment (World Bank, 2023a). According to the International Labor Organization (International Labour Office, 2023), the global unemployment rate was 5.8% in 2023, coming from 5.2% in 2021 and from 4.7% in 2019. The COVID-­19 pandemic had a sig- nificant impact on global employment, with job losses and labor market disrup- tions affecting millions of workers around the world. In comparison, in the United States the unemployment rate was 3.6% in 2022. The average unemployment rate in the 27 EU Member States (EU27) was 6.1% in 2022, which was a slight decrease from the 7.0% rate in 2021 and nearly 11.1% in 2012 (Eurostat, 2023). Taken together, out of a world population of slightly more than 7.9 billion peo- ple, 4.6 billion were employed and 224 million were unemployed (International Labour Office, 2023). When considering international labor statistics, a distinction is generally made between three different work sectors: (a) agriculture, including forestry, hunting, and fishing, (b) industry, including manufacturing, mining, and construction, and (c) services, including transportation, communication, public utilities, trade, finance, public administration, private household services, and miscellaneous other services. Figures from 2019 show that 26.7% of the total labor force was working in agriculture, 22.7% in industry, and 50.6% in services (World Bank, 2023b). Contemporary work psychology has a major drawback in that its scope is rela- tively narrow. The majority of work psychological research is conducted in Western-­ oriented economies such as the United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia. Unfortunately, countries in Central and Northern Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia (with the exception of China) are largely neglected. Focusing on specific groups in specific parts of the world limits our ability to gen- eralize findings and ignores important issues that may be especially pertinent for vulnerable workers in less developed regions of the world. So, rather than direct- ing our research efforts solely towards the WEIRD-­ est people in the world (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic; Henrich, 2020), it is critical to diversify our sampling and avoid generalizing from a peculiar subgroup to the entire world’s workforce. Only by recognizing this diversity we can begin to rewrite our textbooks in ways that provide a more inclusive picture of the psy- chology and behavior of the world’s workforce. 8 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge Replay Around the world 4.6 billion people are at work (out of a total population of nearly 8 billion). The global unemployment rate is 5.8% in 2023; this figure differs widely across countries. The number of people working in the service sector is growing fast. Worldwide, the agricultural sector is still the second largest source of employ- ment after services. Historically, work psychology has predominantly focused on WEIRD workers. Research on less-­studied groups of workers in remaining parts of the world is recommended. 1.4 The Meaning of Working In the preceding sections we argued that work psychologists should aim to simul- taneously maximize work performance and worker health and well-­being (i.e., strive towards promoting sustainable work performance). However, in spite of these efforts, workers do not always (or “usually,” or even “frequently”) enjoy their work. Popular culture (songs, movies, books, TV series) provides many examples of jobs that are not particularly satisfying, suggesting that the sole rea- son for working is the fact that it yields the money needed to subsist. Work Psychology in Action: Popular views on working One way of understanding of what working means to people (i.e., how they think about work) is to look at cultural artefacts relating to work and employment, such as popular songs, movies, books and paintings. The idea behind examining such artefacts is that they reflect real cultural and societal values and attitudes (e.g., DeWall et al., 2011). What do these artefacts say about work and working? Whereas most popular music is about love, sex or partying, a small num- ber of songs actually refer to experiences at work. One interesting example is Sixteen Tons, a country song penned by Merle Travis about the dark days of industrial capitalism that reached number one in the 1955 US Billboard charts. In this song, a coal miner warns Saint Peter not to call him to heaven, since however hard he works, he will never have earned enough to pay his debts at the company store (in mining towns the local store was owned by the mining company, and miners often had no choice other than to spend their wage at this store, paying the [high] prices asked for by the mining company). The miner therefore owes his soul to the company and not to God. A more recent example is presented by Dolly Parton’s 1980 number one hit song Nine to Five, in which the persona complains about being underpaid and about bosses taking the credit for others’ ideas. Or take The Offspring’s 1998 Why Don’t You Get A Job, in which a boy “works his hands to the bone” to give his girlfriend—­who apparently just “sits on her ass”—­  Setting the Scene 9 money every payday. Pop singers often have little good to say about work. However, whereas work can be bad, boring and even debilitating (e.g., see NBC’s long-­running comedy The Office, in which many characters mainly spend their time trying to look busy), it can also be a source of inspiration and even friendship (as in CBS’s sitcom The Big Bang Theory, in which the characters’ jobs at the California Institute of Technology and similar high-­ tech research organizations constitute an important part of the personal and professional identities of most of the main characters—­all technology geeks, and proud of it). This short and admittedly ad hoc inventory of some of the artefacts of popular culture shows that work may have both positive and negative features: work provides boredom and challenge, success and failure, and friends and foes. Research on what working means to people has found that people do not just work for money, but that work serves many other functions as well. One way of examining the functions of working is to compare the effects of having a job to those of not having a job—­especially being unemployed. In a sense, the history of mankind can be construed as a continuous and ongoing pursuit to make working life easier; that is, to reduce the effort needed to subsist. For example, the intro- duction of new technologies (ranging from the wheel in the distant past via the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century and the rise of Information and Communication Technology [ICT] during the 1980s, to the current advance of Artificial Intelligence [AI] and Machine Learning [ML]) all made it easier to accomplish the work tasks of the day—­or even made these superfluous, promising to free time and energy to be invested in other, more pleasurable, activities (cf. Basalla, 1988) (see also Chapter 25). From the perspective of the individual worker, an important driver of the acceptance of these innovations was (a) the desire to spend less time on work, and (b) to make work initially easier and more comfortable. What would a world without work look like? Would people be happier without having to work? In many Western societies, unemployed workers receive an unemployment benefit that allows them to subsist (although often only barely) without having to work. Research comparing the quality of life of unemployed and employed people shows that the latter are usually considerably happier than the former. For example, levels of suicide, mortality, long-­term illness, anxiety, depression, and risky behaviors (drinking, unhealthy eating, and smoking) tend to be higher among unemployed than employed people, whereas for the first group lower levels of life satisfaction and general health have been found (e.g., Paul & Moser, 2009; Wanberg, 2012). The relation between unemployment and health runs both ways: whereas lack of health increases the chances of becoming unem- ployed, unemployment also contributes to the emergence of health problems (De Witte et al., 2019). Apparently, having a job contributes positively to people’s health and well-­ being. But why would this be the case? Obviously, being without a job often nega- tively impacts on one’s income, meaning that it is difficult to spend money on 10 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge goods and activities that go beyond the bare necessities for survival. However, research into unemployment has generated several theoretical perspectives on the reasons why being unemployed yields these negative consequences. The most influential of these is Marie Jahoda’s (1982) Relative Deprivation Model. Born in Vienna in 1907, Jahoda examined the impact of unemployment on 478 families living in a small community of Marienthal (now in Germany) during the Great Depression of the 1920s. At that time, the only factory in town was heavily hit by this depression. Jahoda and her colleagues showed that the often devastating psy- chological consequences of unemployment went beyond the obvious hardships of financial deprivation. Based on these observations, Jahoda concluded that, apart from providing an income, having employment also provides five classes of social benefits: (a) time structure, (b) opportunities for social contact, (c) sharing of a common purpose, (d) social identity or status, and (e) regular activity. Without work, people are deprived of all five benefits, accounting for many of the adverse consequences of unemployment for health and well-­being. Of course, this does not imply that having a job is necessarily fun; rather one might say that being unemployed—­especially in the dire circumstances of the 1920–1930s—­is worse. In this sense, the insights presented in this section can be summarized by para- phrasing Matt Groening’s (1987) famous dictum: “work is hell—­but it beats unemployment.” Replay Examining the artefacts of popular culture may provide some insights into what working “means” to people; that is, what they think of it and what func- tion it has in their lives. Popular culture frequently depicts work and working life as something that is unpleasant, and may have adverse consequences for employee health and well-­being. Contrary to this popular view, research strongly suggests that having a job contributes positively to health and well-­being, at least when compared to having no job (i.e., being unemployed). According to Marie Jahoda’s Relative Deprivation Model, main drivers for the positive consequences of having employment are the fact that working pro- vides people with (a) time structure, (b) opportunities for social contact, (c) sharing of a common purpose, (d) social identity or status, and (e) regular activity. 1.5 The Roots of Work Psychology As indicated above, contemporary work psychology is concerned with promoting employee sustainable performance, which has been referred to as a regulatory process in which an individual worker enduringly and efficiently achieves particu- lar desired work goals while maintaining a satisfactory level of well-­being (Ji et al., 2021). Historically, these foci of work psychology have not always been emphasized equally strongly by both researchers and practitioners in the area of work and work performance. Indeed, when researchers and practitioners started to study work and organizations systematically in the middle of the nineteenth  Setting the Scene 11 century, key emphasis was on the best way of organizing work and the work organization (with an eye to maximizing productivity and profit, leading to what has come to be known as industrial capitalism), and on the socio-­political implica- tions of this (e.g., consider the criticism of industrial capitalism by scholars such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels). Systematic thinking about the organization of work However, far before this era, scholars had already considered how particular tasks should be conducted. For example, Ancient Greek medical knowledge is docu- mented in what is known as the Hippocratic Collection, a collection of about 60 books written by various authors during the fifth to third centuries BC. The Hippocratic Collection provided Greek doctors with detailed guidelines on how particular types of complaints were to be treated. It is basically a collection of routines and guidelines prescribing how the tasks of a medical doctor should be accomplished. As an example, here is how doctors were expected to start their examinations: First of all the doctor should look at the patient’s face. The following are bad signs: sharp nose, hollow eyes, dry skin, and strange color of face such as green, black or leaden. If the face is like this, the doctor must ask the patient if he had lost sleep, or had diarrhea, or had not eaten. (Lloyd, 1982) As this example illustrates, early work on how particular tasks should be con- ducted largely rested on rules of thumb, long-­standing practices, and common sense. A more scientific (i.e., systematic, theoretical, evidence-­based) approach to examining work and its effects and antecedents only emerged much later, after the middle ages had ended. The birth of occupational medicine The scientific study of work, worker health and well-­being, and work perfor- mance can be traced back to the 1500s, when Georg Bauer (otherwise known as Agricola) published De Re Metallica (On metal matters), an influential book on the art and science of mining. Being the town physician in Chemnitz, Saxony (at the time an important mining area in Central Europe), Agricola not only dis- cussed the technical details of mine operation, but also paid attention to miners and their typical diseases: “It remains for me to speak about the ailments and accidents of miners, and of the methods by which they can guard against these” (cited in Weber, 2002, p. 294). He recommended wearing personal protective clothing (e.g., elbow-­high leather gloves for work with aggressive minerals, and a veil worn before the face to protect from dusts, since “The dust which is stirred and beaten up by digging penetrates into the windpipes and lungs and produces difficulty in breathing, and the disease which the Greeks call asthma. If the dust has corrosive qualities, it eats away the lungs, and implants consumption in the body” (cited in Weber, 2002, p. 294). Furthermore, Agricola stated that mines should be operated in a 5-­day work week with three shifts of 8 hr each per day, and recommended that miners should not work two shifts per day because of the increased risk of occupational injury (Weber, 2002). Agricola’s work was later 12 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge f­ ollowed up by Bernardino Ramazzini (1633–1714), an Italian physician and uni- versity professor who wrote a seminal book on the typical diseases encountered by workers in 52 occupations. These works can be considered the starting point for the discipline now known as occupational medicine (Gochfeld, 2005). Work psychology, 1850–1930 The industrial revolution of the 1750–1850s marked a transition towards new manufacturing processes, in that production processes were increasingly mecha- nized (using novel technology such as water power, steam power and machine tools) and industrialized (i.e., production processes changed from artisanal, piece-­ by-­piece production to mass production). These changes reformed the economic system into that of industrial capitalism, transforming the social and physical land- scape in the process. Large mills and factories were built, and canals, roads and railways were constructed to transport materials to the factories and their prod- ucts to the stores selling them. Working people found increased opportunities for employment in the new mills and factories, leading to increased urbanization. However, the working conditions in the mills and factories were harsh, working days were long and pay was low. From a work-­psychological perspective, the nature of the tasks conducted in this new era was different from the pre-­industrial (or agrarian) time preceding it. The emergence of the industrial economy meant that young workers entering the labor market could seek out, occupy and identify with jobs that were completely different from the jobs that their fathers and mothers could choose from. However, this also implied that many young people struggled to find a career that suited their interests, talents, and accomplishments (Porfeli, 2009). Moreover, the tasks in the factories were characterized by a high level of division of labor and were usually simple, repetitive, and boring—­requiring few skills. The important issues in this era therefore became how can workers be motivated to work hard and how can they be made more productive? The then-­young science of psychotechnics or applied psychology promised to pro- vide answers to these issues. Its founders (psychologists such as the Germany-­ born Hugo Münsterberg and William Stern, who both obtained professorships in the United States early in the twentieth century) attempted to apply psychological insights, obtained through empirical research and rigid measurement, to the work environment. Both Münsterberg and Stern worked in the field of vocational psychology—­the branch of personnel psychology that focuses on the link between workers’ characteristics and job requirements, assuming that worker well-­being and productivity are optimal when there is a good match or fit between the job and the worker (see also Chapter 5). Scientific management Productivity could also be optimized by not focusing on the match between the worker and the task, but rather by concentrating on the task itself, especially by simplifying it to such a degree that any worker would be able to do it. This idea was worked out in great detail by the American engineer Frederick Taylor (1856– 1915), the founder of the scientific management approach (or Taylorism). As one of the first management consultants, he sought to maximize industrial efficiency  Setting the Scene 13 and his ideas were highly influential until at least the 1950s. His ideas were also controversial because they rested on two basic assumptions, namely that workers are both lazy and stupid. As regards laziness, Taylor (1911, p. 13) stated that:... instead of using every effort to turn out the largest possible amount of work, in a majority of the cases [a worker] deliberately plans to do as little as he safely can—­to turn out far less work than he is well able to do... Underworking, that is, deliber- ately working slowly so as to avoid doing a full day’s work... is almost universal in industrial establishments... the writer asserts without fear of contradiction that this constitutes the greatest evil with which the working-­people of both England and America are now afflicted. With regard to stupidity, Taylor writes that “one of the very first requirements for a man who is fit to handle pig iron as a regular occupation is that he shall be so stupid and so phlegmatic that he more nearly resembles in his mental make-­up the ox than any other type” (p. 59). Taylor proposed to counter the stupidity issue by: 1. Simplifying tasks using scientific methods: tasks requiring complicated actions were broken down into considerably smaller and simpler subtasks; 2. Examining the best way to conduct these tasks: it was assumed that for each task there is one best way to accomplish this task and that any other approach is suboptimal and should therefore be discouraged; 3. Training workers in the “one best way” to conduct their simplified task so that even relatively unskilled (or dumb) workers could be trained to perform the task fast and efficiently, resulting in higher productivity; 4. Separating the planning of tasks from their execution: during the execution of their tasks workers should not think about how they should conduct the tasks, but instead this should be decided for them by their supervisors; 5. Selecting workers for particular tasks: if a major requirement for a man who is fit to handle pig iron is that he is as stupid as an ox (cf. Taylor, 1911), then there are also workers that are too intelligent for this particular task. Similarly, some tasks would involve great strength, other tasks require high levels of precision, and so forth, meaning that not all workers were equally well-­suited for all tasks. The laziness issue was addressed by introducing high levels of management con- trol and supervision, as well as by introducing pay-­for-­performance systems—­you work harder, you get paid more; you work too slow, you get fired. Taylorism may be construed as being the start of contemporary work science, with standardiza- tion and efficiency as its core concepts. Work Psychology in Action: Discovering the one best way A basic assumption of scientific management is that there is one best way for each task to be conducted. However, how can this one best way be dis- covered? Taylor proposed to analyze tasks thoroughly and systematically 14 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge (i.e., “scientifically”). For instance, he often selected the employee most successful in his or her task, studied the way this person worked and then trained the other employees to use these work methods. Later on Taylor used the possibilities offered by modern technology—­ photography and movies—­in order to reduce process times. The possibilities of these new media were fully explored by the US couple Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, who conducted so-­called time and motion studies in the 1910s and 1920s. The Gilbreths developed a method based on the analysis of work motions that consisted of filming the details of a worker’s activities while recording the time needed for these activities. In this way they could see how the work had been done, showing where improvement was possible (e.g., which motions were superfluous and could be skipped). In doing this, the Gilbreths sought to make processes more efficient by opti- mizing the motions involved, rather than by reducing process times, as Taylor had done. Work psychology, 1930–present Perhaps not surprisingly, scientific management became quickly popular among the management of large factories of the early twentieth century, whereas (equally unsurprisingly) workers and worker unions detested this system. The introduc- tion of Tayloristic principles at work often resulted in repetitive, boring, and phys- ically demanding jobs, as the management of these organizations sought to maximize productivity and profit—­irrespective of the cost to the workers involved. The heyday of Taylorism was over by the middle of the 1930s. Employers realized that redesigning jobs in line with the principles of scientific management affected worker morale negatively. Consequently, they tended to stimulate conflicts between managers and workers, resulting in the strengthening of the position of labor unions and recurring strikes (e.g., Ingham, 1966). All this neutralized part of the benefits of the productivity gains achieved by the introduction of scientific management, and it was superseded by the human relations movement. The human relations movement Rather than fitting the worker to the job (as scientific management had attempted), the adage of the human relations movement was to fit the job to the worker, pay- ing special attention to the human side of working. It originated from the series of experiments conducted from 1924 to 1933 by Harvard-­based researchers such as Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric/AT&T in the USA. At the time, some 40,000 people worked at the plant, producing telephones, cables, transmission and switching equipment. Western Electric had adopted the principles of scientific management in the early 1900s, and in the 1920s the company had become aware of its drawbacks for employee well-­being and motivation. To promote worker commitment and to discourage worker turnover and unionization, the company’s managers began to focus on the well-­being of the workers. Western Electric introduced pensions, sick  Setting the Scene 15 pay and stock purchase plans, and there was a range of educational and recrea- tional programs for its employees. It is against this background that Western Electric became increasingly inter- ested in research on the antecedents of worker productivity, motivation and satis- faction, and it undertook a series of behavioral experiments to examine the effects of contextual factors (such as lighting, rest periods, and wage incentives) on worker productivity. These studies provided little, if any, evidence for the system- atic effects of the factors of interest (later re-­analysis of the original data showed that productivity did not even increase—­see Kompier (2006) for a discussion). However, during the course of the experiments Mayo and Roethlisberger became convinced that the intimate atmosphere of the experiments led the participants to develop strong friendships across time, and the fact that they were a team was the main driver of the increased work productivity witnessed by the researchers: “the most important finding of all was unquestionably in the general area of teamwork and cooperation” (Mayo, 1945, p. 82). Although the evidence for this claim is weak at best, the Hawthorne studies helped develop ground-­breaking ideas on social relations at work, motivation, satisfaction, resistance to change, group norms, worker participation and leadership that even today inspire much research on the effects of job characteristics on work performance (Sonnenfeld, 1985). Contemporary work psychology Work psychology nowadays builds on the notions discussed in this section. It aims to improve employee productivity by optimizing the organization of work, work methods, and job characteristics, but at the same time strives towards maximiza- tion of worker health and well-­being. It is interdisciplinary: it builds on, contrib- utes to, and blends ideas and findings developed in disciplines such as occupational medicine, epidemiology, ergonomics, organizational psychology, sociology, social psychology, and personality psychology. However, at its core is always a focus on work as a set of coordinated activities that are conducted by people—­each with their own capacities, needs, skills, and talents. Added to this, it is assuming that sustainable work performance can only be achieved if task requirements, worker characteristics as well as worker health and well-­being are all taken into account. Replay Scholars have long thought systematically about the best way of performing work tasks. The first truly scientific texts on the association between work and health appeared In the early 1500s. The books by Agricola and Ramazzini consti- tuted the starting point for the discipline now known as occupational medicine. The industrial revolution marked a transition to new manufacturing processes. These processes also affected the shape of employment of the masses, chang- ing it from artisanal piece-­for-­piece production to mass production. A major issue in work concerned the productivity of the workers. Psychotechnics was introduced in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century. It applied psychological insights to working life, focusing on optimizing the match between worker and vocation. Scientific management was introduced and 16 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge popularized by Frederick Taylor. It focused on the simplification and optimi- zation of tasks as well as increased work motivation by introducing strict supervision and pay-­for-­performance systems. After 1930 these ideas were replaced by the insights of the human relations movement. This school of thought focused particularly on the social context in which the work tasks were conducted. Contemporary work psychology merges ideas from many different disciplines in an attempt to promote employee sustainable performance: a regulatory process in which an individual worker enduringly and efficiently achieves par- ticular desired work goals while maintaining a satisfactory level of well-­being. 1.6 The Times, They are A-­changin’ As we have seen in the preceding section, systematic thinking about work and the organization of work dates back to ancient times. However, in Chapter 4 you will learn that most job (re-­)design theories have been developed in the mid-­twentieth century when workers were still predominantly working in large-­scale manufac- turing plants. After that time, things kept on changing. There is general agree- ment that the world of work has changed substantially over recent decades. The levels at which transformations take place range from the macro level of econo- mies and demography via the meso level of organizations to the micro levels of tasks. Many of these changes arise from a combination of technological advances and economic trends which themselves often go hand in hand. Wayne Cascio (2003, p. 406) once said: “It is no exaggeration to say that modern technology is changing the way we live and work. The information revolution will transform everything it touches—­and it will touch everything.” The changing nature of work Probably one of the most important changes in the world of work has to do with the nature of work. Since the mid-­1970s the developed economies have witnessed a vast increase in service sector working and a simultaneous decline in the number of employees working in manufacturing. This transition implies that a larger pro- portion of workers is involved in less physically strenuous jobs associated with less exposure to physical health risks. Related to this, heavy manufacturing jobs have been made easier with the help of new technologies that have made jobs less labor-­intensive. Working in service jobs is also not without risks as it brings about new types of job demands (see also Chapter 6). Typically, service work requires some degree of emotion work (see Chapter 7), in which employees have to adhere to rules regarding the expression of emotions. Service organizations largely depend on their customers. This usually implies that service employees have to interact with customers in a positive way, for example by being friendly and show- ing positive emotions. In this sense “service with a smile” becomes a task requirement. Another rapidly growing segment of the workforce is that of the “knowledge worker”—­a highly educated employee who applies theoretical and analytical knowledge to developing new products and services. Knowledge workers include those working in the areas of product development, data management,  Setting the Scene 17 consultancy and information systems. The existence of “knowledge workers” is not new: it was already described by Peter Drucker in his 1959 book The Landmarks of Tomorrow. Drucker (1999, p. 135) stated that “The most valua- ble assets of a 20th-­century company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st-­century institution, whether business or nonbusiness, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.” Knowledge work is typi- cally characterized by a high degree of cognitive load, a term which is used in cognitive psychology to illustrate the load or effort related to the executive control of the working memory. In knowledge work the level of information processing is relatively high in order to achieve intellectual performances. Over the last decade, technology and AI have significantly changed the nature of work in various ways. They have replaced some routine and repetitive tasks, leading to the creation of new jobs requiring skills like data analysis, data manage- ment, programming, and machine learning. Technology has also enabled remote work, allowing people to work from anywhere, increasing flexibility and work-­life balance. Collaborative tools like cloud-­based platforms, virtual meeting software, and project management tools have transformed the way teams work, making it easier to communicate and collaborate from different locations. Overall, technol- ogy is always being developed with the aim to enhance productivity, efficiency, and innovation, leading to new products, services, and providing employees with more opportunities to work smarter, not harder. The extent to which this desir- able goal is always attained is the subject of much debate and investigation nowa- days, making it a research objective in and of itself (see Chapter 25). The changing workforce Along with the change in the nature of work, the composition of the workforce itself is also very different to the era when work design first became of psychologi- cal interest. About 50 years ago the demographic features of most work organiza- tions were fairly homogeneous (William & O’Reilly, 1998). Many employees shared a similar ethnic background, were male, and mostly worked for the same employer throughout their working lives. Nowadays managers are confronted with a workforce that is more diverse in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, organiza- tional tenure, educational background, and so on. Along with this development there is a growing recognition of the importance of diversity and inclusion in creating a thriving workplace culture. However, challenges still exist, such as pay inequity, unconscious bias, and barriers to career advancement for underrepre- sented groups. Meeting these issues necessitates considerable effort and motiva- tion on the part of various stakeholders. According to a study conducted by Homan et al. (2020), higher levels of employee openness to experience were asso- ciated with better team performance. According to the researchers, encouraging openness to experience and recognizing the value of diverse perspectives in the workplace may improve team performance in diverse work groups. In this regard, the role of managers who prioritize diversity and inclusion initiatives to create a more inclusive workplace appears undisputed. However, many diversity programs today fail because they are designed as stand-­alone initiatives that are discon- nected from managers’ day-­to-­day work. Therefore, managers should also be trained to (a) recognize and address bias and discrimination, (b) provide diverse 18 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge employees with equal access to opportunities, and (c) create inclusive work envi- ronments (Dobbin & Kalev, 2019). We can make diversity work, especially when it is viewed as a shared responsibility of both employees and managers. The changing flexibility of working Over the past few years, there has been a significant shift in the flexibility of work arrangements. Many companies have adopted more Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) that allow employees to work from home and/or on a flexible schedule (see Chapter 13). This trend has been driven by a number of factors, including changing attitudes towards work-­life balance, advancements in ICT, and the need for companies to attract and retain top talent. Collaborative tools like cloud-­based platforms, virtual meeting software, and project management tools have trans- formed the way teams work, making it easier to communicate and collaborate from different locations. The COVID-­19 pandemic of the early 2020s has further accelerated this trend, as many companies were forced to quickly adopt remote work policies in response to social distancing requirements and other public health measures. One of the key claims of these FWAs is that they may help employees better balance their work and home life, as well as minimize employee stress and burn- out by allowing them to manage their workload more effectively (see also Chapter 12). Results of a meta-­analysis demonstrated that FWAs are associated with better physical health, reduced absenteeism, and fewer somatic symptoms, suggesting that FWAs can indeed facilitate employees in optimizing their health (Shifrin & Michel, 2022). However, there are also some potential downsides to these arrangements. For example, remote work can make it more difficult for employees to collaborate and build relationships with their colleagues. Additionally, some employees may struggle to maintain a healthy work-­life balance if they are working from home full-­time. Moreover, boundaries between work and non-­ work (family and leisure time) can become increasingly blurred. Overall, the trend towards more FWAs is likely to continue, as companies and employees alike rec- ognize the benefits of these arrangements. However, it will be important for com- panies to carefully consider the potential downsides, and work to address them as they develop and implement FWAs. The changing organization Organizations themselves, whether service, manufacturing or other, have also undergone dramatic changes. They are no longer the rather static and inflexible enterprises of earlier times. Some used to say that the only constant factor that characterizes organizations is “change.” Two major trends are mainly responsible for the ongoing changes in organizations. The first trend is globalization, or com- merce without borders, which—­along with the interdependence of business operations in different locations (Cascio, 2003)—­changes the markets and envi- ronments in which organizations have to operate, thereby creating a global econ- omy with both opportunities and threats. The second trend is ICT, which is redefining how, where and when work is performed. These developments have not only changed organizations as we know them, they have also led to the emergence of new types of organizations. For example,  Setting the Scene 19 the rise of the sharing economy, facilitated by platforms such as Airbnb and Uber, has led to the creation of peer-­to-­peer organizations that connect users directly with providers of goods and services. These so-­called platform organizations con- nect multiple parties, allowing them to interact and exchange value. Examples include also Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba, which connect buyers and sellers. Although platform organizations offer many benefits, their potential dangers should also be carefully considered and addressed. Many platform workers are classified as independent contractors rather than employees, which means they may not be entitled to benefits such as health insurance, paid time off, or mini- mum wage and overtime protections. This lack of employment protections can leave workers vulnerable to exploitation, instability, and financial insecurity. In addition, platform organizations often use algorithms to assign work, rate worker performance, and determine pay. While algorithms can increase efficiency and reduce bias, they can also lead to arbitrary and unfair decisions and low pay. Workers may be subject to opaque and unaccountable management decisions, leading to social isolation, working unsocial and irregular hours, overwork, sleep deprivation and exhaustion, as well as feelings of powerlessness and frustration (Wood et al., 2019). Taken together, new organization forms have disrupted traditional industries and business models, challenging established players and leading to new opportu- nities for entrepreneurship at the same time. Overall, technology has opened up new possibilities for organizational design and structure and it is key to be alert on the good, the bad and the ugly sides of these new “players.” The changing office Next to changing organizations, the architecture of modern offices has been changing. Around the 2000s, traditional office spaces with isolated, single-­person rooms were more and more replaced by larger, open-­plan spaces for more per- sons. These offices allowed an increase in collaboration and communication. After the recession of 2008, there was more interest in co-­working, cooperation, and just-­in-­time office space. New technology (such as mobile phones and instant internet access) allowed greater leverage to maximize the goals and flexibility of open-­plan offices. The transition from traditional offices to open-­plan spaces has led to a greater density of employees assigned to an office area. A nation-­wide workplace survey by Gensler Research Institute (2019) among more than 6,000 US office workers showed a significant reduction in office space from approxi- mately 23 m2 in 1995 to 7 m2 per employee in 2019 (i.e., a reduction of 70%). After 2013, there was an increasing trend of workers’ complaints about the open-­ plan office across various sectors, including technology, financial services, and the public sector. Its value-­added had been questioned as distractions and noise in open-­plan offices might cause concentration problems and lower work perfor- mance. Research revealed that employees working in unassigned office spaces are among the most dissatisfied and the least productive workers (Gensler Research Institute, 2020). In 2020, the COVID-­19 pandemic forced a lot of employees to work remotely (i.e., not working in the company offices). Work offices, either with a traditional or open-­plan design, lost their former buzz after the pandemic. Companies were 20 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge then confronted with a so-­called hybrid working model; that is, a flexible working model where employees work partly in the company offices and partly remote (e.g., at home or from other workspaces—­Beno et al., 2021). This model is driven by benefits both employers and employees might perceive, such as a reduced need for office space, reduced commuting time, and higher flexibility in work hours and workspace (Prasad, 2021). Empirical evidence for the potential benefits of the hybrid working model on work performance is mounting (SER, 2022). For example, several large-­scale surveys among knowledge workers show that people working partially remote reported higher levels of productivity than workers still working in the office (Elliott, 2021; Stanton, 2021). However, these surveys also detected several indicators that could dampen the positive effects of hybrid work on work performance in the longer-­term, such as worse employee work-­life bal- ance and higher distrust by employers. So, the COVID-­19 pandemic forced many companies to shift to an online mode of working, and some employees realized they preferred it after the pandemic as well. For instance, a survey among more than 10,000 knowledge workers from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, UK and US revealed that 18% of the workers were not going into the company offices at all anymore. Different types of the hybrid working model had become the norm for nearly 50% of the workforce (Future Forum, 2022). To conclude, company offices changed from traditional office spaces via larger, open-­ plan spaces to the hybrid working model. The COVID-­ 19 pandemic ­disruption could be seen as an opportunity to reconfigure offices in a way that prioritizes flexibility, sustainability, employee well-­being, and work performance. The office will never dominate the world of work in the way it did pre-­pandemic, and hopefully the hybrid working model will add great value to employee well-­ being and (sustainable) work performance. The changing psychological contract Finally, the relationship between employees and organizations has also ­undergone significant change. In the past, it was certainly not uncommon for employees to spend their entire careers with one or two companies. However, today’s workforce values career mobility and the opportunity for lifelong learn- ing and development. As a result, employees are more likely to change jobs and seek new opportunities throughout their careers. This shift has led to a change in the psychological contract between employees and employers, with charac- teristics such as stability and predictability giving way to self-­regulation, flexi- bility, and sustained employability. The COVID-­19 pandemic and the rise of remote work have accelerated these changes, as employees seek greater auton- omy, flexibility, and work-­life balance. As a result, individualized deals (i-­deals) have become more common, where employees negotiate with employers to create modern work arrangements that better meet their personal needs (Simosi et al., 2021). Overall, the psychological contract is evolving to meet the changing needs and expectations of today’s workforce. As employees seek greater autonomy and ­flexibility, employers must adapt to these new demands and create work arrange- ments that foster trust, support, and a sense of shared purpose. In addition, a study of Tomproe and Lee (2022) showed that algorithmic management can also  Setting the Scene 21 influence the psychological contract between employee-­and employer, and that this influence differs depending on the context such as the employment stage. In conclusion, this brief and undoubtedly incomplete account shows that the world of work today is very different from the time in which the major work (re-­) design theories were developed. Altogether, these changes have led to what may be called in developed countries the intensification of work. Intensification refers to increasing work hours and work pressure, the need for lifelong learning and the ability and willingness to continuously change the type of work one does (Arnold, 2005). These developments call for some reorientation and new per- spectives on job demands. The restricted range of job characteristics and outcomes addressed by traditional theories might become insufficient to capture the salient aspects of modern work. New demands such as illegitimate tasks (Semmer et al., 2010), demands arising from temporal and spatial flexibility (Kattenbach et al., 2010) and demands arising from accelerated change (Obschonka et al., 2012) might represent promising approaches for future research. In Chapters 5 and 6 you will learn more about job demands. Replay The nature of work has changed from mainly manufacturing work to pre- dominantly service and knowledge work. The workforce has become more diverse in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, organizational tenure and educational background. New ways of working are characterized by (a) flexibility in the timing of work, (b) flexibility in the place of work and (c) the facilitation of information technologies. Because of globalization and the increasing use of ICT organizations must continuously adapt to new realities. Company offices changed from traditional office spaces via larger, open-­plan spaces to the hybrid working model. The psychological contract—­what employees and employers want and expect from each other—­has been changed from an emphasis on stability and perma- nent employment to a desire for flexibility and employability. 1.7 The Organization of the Book This book is organized around nine parts, which are discussed below. At the end of this section we will describe how this book can best be used. Overview of the book A central assumption in this textbook is that working constitutes a series of usually conscious and goal-­directed acts in order to produce particular goods, knowledge or services. Thus, worker behavior is at the core of work psychology, and work psychology is concerned with the psychological aspects of that behavior, in terms of its antecedents and outcomes as well as the context in which the behavior is performed. A second important assumption in this book is that, while working admittedly requires sustained effort expenditure and may result in psychological 22 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge and/or physiological costs on the side of the worker, working may also result in positive outcomes for both the organization and the worker. Traditionally, work psychology has tended to emphasize the fact that specific constellations of job characteristics could result in adverse consequences for workers (such as poor health, ill-­being, and sickness absence). More modern approaches acknowledge that work offers incumbents many desirable features. Since the 2000s, the idea that the consequences of working are not necessarily negative has enriched theo- rizing and research in the field of work psychology. This volume will therefore systematically emphasize both the negative and positive aspects of working. The book consists of nine interrelated parts (A–I). Figure 1.1 presents the general outline of the volume. Part A is the Introduction and includes two ­ ­chapters. The current chapter (Chapter 1) presents a general introduction to work psychology. Chapter 2 provides a discussion of research designs and research methods that are typically applied in this area of psychology, including experi- mental, quasi-­ experimental, survey methods, cross-­ sectional and longitudinal designs (including diary research). The basic principles of classical test theory are explained, and the two major characteristics of measurement in work psychology are highlighted: reliability and validity. The chapter ends with an explanation of the role of task analysis in a work psychological context. Part B consists of three chapters that discuss major Theoretical perspectives on the relation between job redesign on the one hand, and motivation, performance, and well-­being of employees on the other. Chapter 3 explains how employees can be motivated at work using Self-­Determination Theory. The three basic psycho- logical needs (i.e., need for autonomy, belongingness, and competence) that are the essential forces that drive employees’ motivation, are discussed. It is explained how the extent to which the three needs are satisfied or frustrated leads employees A: Introduction B: Theoretical perspectives F: Work context C: Demands at work Behavior D: Resources at work G: Work outcomes E: Boundaries of work H: Workplace interventions I: Future of work Figure 1.1 General outline of this volume.  Setting the Scene 23 to experience different forms of motivation. Chapter 4 describes the five most significant approaches to job redesign that have laid the foundation for contem- porary work psychology. These approaches are the Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1976), the Demand–Control–Support Model (Karasek & Theorell, 1990), the Vitamin Model (Warr, 1987), the Effort–Reward Imbalance Model (Siegrist, 1996) and Contemporary Socio-­Technical Systems Thinking (Cherns, 1987; Clegg, 2000). Strengths, weaknesses, and empirical evidence for these models are addressed. Many of these models propose a specific and limited set of job characteristics that are presumed to lead to a relatively well-­specified set of work outcomes. Chapter 5 presents two current theoretical perspectives in work psychology; that is, Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner and Schaufeli’s (2001) Job Demand–Resources Model and de Jonge and Dormann’s (2003) Demand-­ Induced Strain Compensation Model. These two models have boosted a lot of empirical research, and impose less restrictions on the work-­related factors that may be included in them and on the outcomes studied. Part C (Demands at work) and Part D (Resources at work) build further on the information discussed in Part B. As mentioned above, Part B discussed several theo- retical models for the relations among various job characteristics on the one hand, and work outcomes on the other. Parts C and D extend this information with an in-­depth focus on specific types of job and personal characteristics (i.e., job demands, job resources, and personal resources) and their relations to particular outcomes. Based on the idea that work entails goal-­directed behavior and that these goals usu- ally describe what has to be achieved in a job (i.e., what one’s task actually involves), Part C focuses on various types of demands at work. In this regard, Chapter 6 dis- cusses several forms of job demands, such as quantitative and qualitative job demands, and how they may interact. It is discussed what the antecedents and consequences of these job demands are, as well as how they can be measured. Some practical applications to address job demands are also taken into account. As the importance of the service sector is constantly increasing, the emphasis in Chapter 7 is on emotion work as a specific job requirement. Emotion work is based on the notion that we cannot freely express our emotions in most social contexts. There are usually always “rules” concerning which emotions are acceptable and which should not be displayed. This necessitates emotional management. Finally, the last chapter of Part C (Chapter 8) elaborates on the dangerous social aspects of work and being an employee. This chapter examines the nature and history of workplace bullying, sexual harassment, and destructive leadership. Part D addresses the role of Resources at work and consists of three chapters. The first of these, Chapter 9, introduces a fundamental theory for addressing work-­related stress; that is, the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. COR theory underscores the critical role of resource possession, lack, loss and gain, making it a pivotal theory for interpreting and predicting both the negative impact of stress and resiliency processes. Chapter 10 delves deeper into the definition and role of job resources, which include the assets or means that could be used as part of one’s job to attain one’s personal needs, such as other people (e.g., social sup- port), tools (e.g., a good chair or a bed lift), or information (e.g., feedback or internet access). Job resources are incorporated in a variety of job resource models and the most important ones are introduced and reviewed in this chapter. After discussing the role of job resources, the final chapter in this part (Chapter 11) 24 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge addresses the psychological processes by which personal resources help employees deal effectively with their job demands to prevent job strain, and interrelate with job resources in promoting work motivation. Empirical evidence is presented that highlights the relevance of different personal resources for negative (i.e., burnout, stress, fatigue) and positive (i.e., work engagement, job satisfaction) indicators of employee well-­being and job performance. Finally, interventions that help mobi- lize employees’ personal resources are discussed. Part E includes three chapters that tap into the Boundaries of work which are the lines that separate work life from personal life. They can be physical, temporal, or psychological, and are essential for preventing stress and burnout and improving overall well-­being. Chapter 12 illuminates in this respect how the boundaries between work and non-­work (family, leisure, and sleep) are frequently blurred now- adays. Positive and negative work-­to-­home and home-­to-­work interactions are dis- cussed, showing that the work–home interface may affect worker motivation and performance, and could moderate and/or mediate the associations between job demands (Part C) on the one hand, and work outcomes (Part G) on the other. Chapter 13 discusses the notion that working at “non-­standard” times of the day (e.g., in the evenings) increasingly blurs the boundaries between work and non-­ work live with potential consequences for job and life satisfaction. Three of the most common forms of non-­standard working arrangements are distinguished: (a) shiftwork, (b) long work hours, and (c) working from home. Each are considered with respect to their definition; how prevalent they are; the underlying psychologi- cal and physiological mechanisms that determine their effects on workers; empirical evidence of how they impact on workers’ well-­being; and finally, how organizations might address those effects. When boundaries of work become blurred it is all the more important to have enough and high-­quality off-­work time to recover from work. Chapter 14 highlights in this respect opportunities for recovery from work-­ stress. This chapter explains basic theoretical notions on work stress recovery with a special focus on psychological detachment from work as a particularly important recovery process. Empirical research on antecedents and consequences of successful work-­stress recovery is discussed and the chapter ends with a focus on possibilities and necessities for work-­stress recovery in the new world of work. While the nature of work mostly refers to the specific demands and resources involved in a job, paying attention to the Context of work is equally important. This is the realm of Part F, containing three chapters. Leadership is an important factor in shaping the organizational context, so the first chapter in this section (Chapter 15) is about the psychology of organizational leadership. The chapter outlines different definitions of leadership and introduces various theories of lead- ership that emphasize high-­and low-­quality leadership. Various outcomes of lead- ership are presented as well as the mechanisms by which leadership can have its effects. The chapter ends with a discussion of the future of leadership. Chapter 16 addresses issues of errors, accidents and safety at work. These are ­crucial factors to consider in the context of work because they can have serious consequences for the worker(s) involved, the organization they work for, and even the general public. Providing a safe work environment can improve job s­atisfaction, reduce absenteeism, and increase productivity. The chapter discusses amongst other things two concepts in order to pinpoint the contribution of work psychologists to occupational safety: accident exposure and propensity. In addition, models are  Setting the Scene 25 discussed that specify psychological processes that link work characteristics with safety behaviors, and that organizations may promote to increase workplace safety. Finally, Chapter 17 deals with psychosocial safety issues at work, expressed by Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC). PSC concerns the organizational system for preventing and managing threats to employee psychological health. This chapter addresses the important role of PSC in preventing hazards implying that organi- zations should focus on cultivating a strong organizational PSC to protect worker psychological health. The chapter ends with applications of PSC in terms of inter- ventions, economic benefits, as well as cross-­cultural and national research. Part G is concerned with the Outcomes of work behavior. On the one hand, this cluster of outcomes includes instances of individual-­level outcomes such as burn- out, work engagement and boredom. On the other hand, this part discusses organizationally relevant behavior, such as work performance, and sickness absence presence and the sustainability of careers. The first chapter in this part (Chapter 18) deals with job burnout, boredom at work, and work engagement. These concepts can be placed in a two-­dimensional model consisting of an activa- tion dimension and a pleasure dimension. These indicators of work-­related well-­ being have often been related to work performance, and are considered to result largely from the job characteristics discussed in parts C and D. Regarding the organizationally relevant outcomes, Chapter 19 deals with issues as in-­role and extra-­role performance. As workers may not always be motivated to “do the right thing,” this chapter also addresses counterproductive work behavior. The chapter ends with describing several perspectives in improving performance. Chapter 20 sheds light on the question what makes one person stay away from work while being sick (sickness absence), while the other continues to go to work in spite of being ill (sickness presence)? How often do these behaviors occur, and why does this matter? Prevalence and costs of sickness absence are explored and various forms of absence and traditional and modern models accounting for sickness absence, are discussed. The final chapter of Part G (Chapter 21) takes a long term view to consider people’s work-­related outcomes across their lifespan. The chap- ter presents an introduction to the field of career studies. It presents a brief his- torical overview of how career research has developed overtime and discusses several prominent theoretical frameworks that help understand and analyze contemporary careers, thereby highlighting recent insights into the topic of ­ employability. Part H of this textbook addresses the issue of Workplace interventions. The introductory chapter to this part (Chapter 22) discusses a range of interventions to prevent harm to mental health and promote and protect mental health in the workplace. Different types and levels of interventions are being distinguished and it is argued that an integrated approach to implementing and evaluating multi-­ level workplace interventions is a good way forward. Finally, attention is paid to the implementation and evaluation of interventions. The remaining chapters in this part address various interventions. Chapter 23 introduces job crafting as a new form of job redesign. The conceptualization and the predictors and out- comes of job crafting are explained, and the link between job crafting and the implementation of organizational change and innovation is elaborated. Chapter 24 deals with the issue of “positive” interventions; that is, whereas tra- ditional work-­psychological interventions usually target stressed or burned-­out 26 Maria C. W. Peeters, Toon Taris, and Jan de Jonge workers, positive interventions aim to “amplify” the well-­being and productivity of employees who are functioning well. Building on insights from positive psy- chology, this chapter discusses the principles of such positive interventions and presents some examples thereof, showing that interventions may also have posi- tive effects on the functioning of healthy workers. The very last part of this textbook (Part I) is reserved for a glimpse into the future of work. New developments, whether technological, environmental, social or economic, will shape how people live and interact with each other in the com- ing years. They will impact the global economy, as automation and artificial intel- ligence continue to transform organizations and labor markets. The future of work will also play a crucial role in addressing societal challenges such as income inequality, access to education and healthcare, and the changing nature of work itself. As such, it is essential that individuals, organizations, and governments pre- pare for and adapt to the changing landscape of work to ensure a sustainable and prosperous future. Chapter 25 presents an overview of emergent technologies at work and explains how specific effects of technology on human work depend on (a) the technology itself, and (b) various context factors at the individual and organizational level. The chapter ends with outlining how work psychology can foster technology development, and use it in ways that alleviates potential nega- tive impact and promotes positive impact on future work (re)design. How to use this book Each chapter is guided by sections that accommodate learning. These parts are as follows: Chapter objectives: These are listed at the start of each chapter, and highlight the knowledge and skills students should have acquired after studying the chapter. This section starts with the following statement: “After studying this chapter, you should be able to:....” Replays: These are situated at regular intervals throughout the text, providing a brief review of the main concepts and topics covered in the preceding section. Work psychology in action: These boxes encompass real-­ life and practical ­examples throughout the text that illustrate cases or case studies in which theoretical concepts are translated and/or applied into practice. Discussion points: These encourage critical cognitive reflection on the main topics and issues covered in each chapter. They are presented at the end of the main text of the chapter. Discussion points stimulate the students to contem- plate critically the themes that are addressed in the chapter. Learning by doing points: These encourage practical reflection on the main topics and issues covered in each chapter. These points are presented after the discussion points and provide practical assignments or applications. Discussion Points 1. In Section 1.1 work was defined as “a set of coordinated and goal-­directed activities that are conducted in exchange for something else—­usually some form of monetary reward.” Consider the case of someone who has won a  Setting the Scene 27 large amount of money in a lottery. It frequently occurs that such people continue to go to work, in spite of the fact that they do not need to work for their subsistence. Are these people still “working” in the sense of the ­definition above? Does work still have the same meaning to these people as before they won the lottery, or is their job now better classified as a form of leisure activity? Similar questions may be raised concerning the nature of ­volunteer work: is this a form of “working” according to the definition given above, and in what sense does volunteer work differ from paid work? 2. In response to discussion point 1 above, you may have argued that volunteer work is just another form of working. If so, discuss whether and how the principles of scientific management would apply to volunteer work. Can the work performance of volunteers be improved using Tayloristic principles? Similarly, would the ideas of the human relations movement help in improv- ing the performance of volunteers? The answers to these questions should help you in determining whether and in which respects “volunteer work” is comparable to regular, paid work. Learning by Doing 1. The time-­and-­motion studies conducted by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth aimed to reduce the steps needed to conduct a particular task. In this way they could improve the efficiency of workers and reduce the effort needed to perform their tasks. The principles behind this approach can also be applied to other contexts in which people conduct particular tasks. Consider the task of pre- paring a meal, eating it and cleaning up afterwards, with subtasks such as (a) take ingredients from the refrigerator, (b) cook the meal, (c) put the dishes on the table, (d) dispose of the waste (empty packages), (e) clean the dishes in the dishwasher, and (f) put the clean dishes in a cupboard. Assume that all these activities are done within your own (large) kitchen. What would the layout of your kitchen look like if you organized your activities according to the principles of Lillian Gilbreth? 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