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Two levels of prevention can be used to counter the key stressors of personnel at work; the first deals with organizational techniques and the second with individual techniques such as systematic desensitization, biofeedback, or aerobic exercise. (Author)

Discusses research that shows the conditions most likely to be associated with a successful job enrichment program. (Author/LD)

Research has shown that high-involvement work practices are positively related to corporate financial performance. However, it is unknown if investors are able to use information on high-involvement practices to predict the performance of specific companies. In this study, we examine earnings forecasts for a sample of Fortune 1000 firms and find professional stock analysts consistently underestimated the earnings of firms that made greater use of high-involvement practices during the 1990s. Based on data collected from newspaper articles and annual reports, we argue that these lower estimates resulted from a lack of information on innovative HR practices. Recommendations to managers for disseminating information on and leveraging high-involvement HR practices are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most profound organizational changes currently under way is the application of project-based structures within and between firms. This change is happening in both growth and mature industries. Several management scholars have taken interest in the reasons why firms adopt project-based ways of working. However, the effect of project-based organizing on the firm's HRM is a recurrent problem and a challenge to many companies. We develop a framework for the analysis of HRM in project-intensive firms. Based on a study of four companies and the transformation of their organizational structures and processes, we identify four managerial issues and a number of questions that must be addressed to improve HRM in project-intensive firms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Successful work-design initiatives must overcome many obstacles in order to have their intended impact.This article outlines eight obstacles to work redesign: (1) influences on multiple outcomes, (2) trade-offs between different approaches, (3) difficulty in choosing appropriate units of analysis, (4) difficulty in predicting the nature of the job, (5) complications from individual differences, (6) job enlargement occurring without job enrichment, (7) creating new jobs as part of growth or downsizing, and (8) differences between longterm and short- term effects. This article examines the nature of these eight obstacles, reviews prior research on this topic, and outlines suggestions for managing these obstacles in practice. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today employees are encouraged to become more career-resilient and engage in career development activities to deal with changes in required knowledge, skills, and abilities, and to facilitate their mobility. This study found the participation in decision making (PDM) and autonomy, along with supervisory career support (information, advice, and encouragement), fostered this career adaptability. These practices were also positively associated with commitment and negatively with intentions to leave, suggesting some unintended consequences for management approaches supporting career adaptability. Implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the detailed process of redesigning and implementing the human resources (HR) function at Lafarge. The article argues that a well-articulated and integrated approach of (1) recruitment, selection, and induction, (2) retraining and redeployment, (3) a performance appraisal system, (4) a compensation and reward mechanism, and (5) rightsizing and (6) integration is required to be aligned with the overall business strategy of the organization. It also reinforces that the foundation of a value-added HR function is a business strategy that relies on people as a source of competitive advantage. Key challenges for Lafarge in the future include (1) maintaining the change momentum, (2) fast and effective integration of acquired companies and transfer of "best practices," and (3) attracting and retaining a diverse workforce through their internationalization program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a study on the role of contextual factors on the level of success of reduced-load work in a sample of high level professionals and managers. Results reported in this article come from a qualitative study of eighty-two cases of reduced-load work arrangements among corporate professionals and managers in forty-two organizations in Canada and the U.S. In all of the cases, the target individuals studied had worked on a reduced-load basis for a minimum of six months. Most of the cases involved one-on-one negotiation between the individual employee and the senior manager involved, and the timing was most often associated with the birth of a first or subsequent child. Multiple-data sources and collection methods were used. Researchers face-to-face interviews with each reduced-load target manager or professional, as well as his or her spouse or partner, senior manager, a peer co-worker, and a human resources representative. Interviews were semi-structured and included the following topics: the structure of and reasons for the reduced-load work arrangement; how the job was restructured to accommodate the reduced-load schedule; perceptions of the challenges and difficulties involved in restructuring the job; costs and benefits of reduced-load work arrangements from multiple perspectives; and factors important in making the reduced-load work arrangements successful or unsuccessful.

This article examines the commonly hold beliefs about the consequences of job insecurity among white-collar employees. One of the more dramatic outcomes of the recent wave of restructuring is that white-collar workers who had assumed that their positions were secure now have to deal with potential or actual job loss. Because organizations are less willing or able to provide job security it is now even more important that they do not indicate to white-collar employees that they will. Loyalty is at the center of the traditional white-collar employment relationship. Organizational loyalty refers to one's psychological commitment to a specific organization. In particular, it is the aspect of organizational commitment that is an affective response to and identification with an organization. Loss of organizational loyalty has been proposed as a major consequence of organizational change and the resulting job insecurity. The results of this study indicate that white-collar workers who feel insecure about their jobs are less willing to act on behalf of the organization. The pattern suggests that white-collar workers with high job insecurity are less supportive of their organization, but in ways that draw little attention to them, therefore, support is lower in subtle, but important ways.

As Chubb & Son's growth became focused more and more outside the United States and the company faced more competition in the U.S., it was apparent that the Human Resources' world at Chubb could no longer remain only administratively focused. Their Worldwide Human Resources meeting was designed to set the stage for the future and this presentation was designed to give the Human Resources Managers a template for what would be expected of them in the future. This presentation was followed by a workshop that helped the Human Resources Managers identify and better understand core Human Resources competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's business environment, human resource development (HRD) and organization development (OD) practitioners need to be experts at helping executives and managers deal with organizational change. This article presents survey research findings, based on responses from 357 HRD/OD practitioners, related to this critical area of expertise. The authors first describe the results of their research, and then conclude with implications of these results for HR and related professionals. Overall, HRD/OD practitioners were found to be quite knowledgeable about managing organizational change, and were more likely to describe their work style as transformational rather than transactional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which attempts to examine worker attitudes towards the job and specific life constructs, for related work groups receiving and not receiving change efforts. The research was conducted in an intermediate size production facility of a major manufacturer and distributor of food and cleaning products. A decision was made to initiate a dramatic change in the equipment and methods in the food processing section. In order to examine the effects and counter-effects of the changes, a questionnaire was designed that contained measures of life satisfaction and anomie, self esteem, alienation, job satisfaction and consumer discontent . Several middle level managers admitted to spending a much greater portion of their time and energy working with the process group than they had previously. As they noted, the demands placed upon the system by such sweeping changes had required extraordinary attention and concern with getting the new process operation up and functioning. The research suggests that attitudes of a non-treatment group may be made more negative by their perception that the treatment group was positively affected and changed. Thus, it is possible that management of firms experimenting with change efforts are likely to find that successful change in one area opens a set of demands by adjacent work groups which are difficult to resolve or manage.

This article cites a study which investigates the profit-oriented objectives various behind job enrichment projects of different organizations. The data for this study used was collected during an extensive investigation of 58 job enrichment projects in as many organizations. Individuals in 189 companies and six agencies of the Federal Government which were believed to have enrichment projects were contacted and asked to cooperate in a study designed to investigate the economic benefits of Job Enrichment. Ninety percent of those contacted responded. Three different strategies emerged from a study of these objectives. The first strategy is characterized by organizations striving primarily for economic returns. Within these organizations projects were implemented principally for the financial benefits which might occur. A second strategy was illustrated by firms interested strictly in non-economic motives. This is best described as an attempt to improve employee well-being with a complete lack of concern regarding the occurrence of economic returns. The data revealed that most organizations choose a performance related strategy, that is the third strategy, which falls somewhere between the two. This can, suggestively, be described best as a desire to improve profitability while at the same time creating what are believed to be better jobs for the employees involved.

Job evaluation and job enrichment are two concepts in conflict and when juxtaposed they collide. In this article, the author analyzes the collision course and suggests the kinds of new thinking needed to harmonize the two. For many years, industrial compensation specialists advocated the painstaking work of job analysis. It was needed during an industrial era when chaos prevailed in respect to defining work. Leaders in the rationalization of work, the pioneer industrial engineers, desired to impose order on this chaos. For them, getting the job facts was essential to controlling work assignments, supervising the behavior and performance of employees, and establishing criteria for the recruitment, selection, training, development, and pay of all employees. The development of job analysis was characterized by the specific delineation of work according to its elements and tasks, including the detailing of the employee's qualifications, skills, and contributions. The point of view, which was adopted, meant that jobs and human behavior in the conduct of work were minutely subdivided in a meticulous process of analysis, after which the constituent parts were reviewed to determine the complexity of one job in relation to all others.

The article focuses on the task of personnel administration. The article notes that personnel administration does not contribute all it might to cutting better patterns of human behavior on the job. A specific shortcoming lies in the neglected use of motivation as a basis for selection. The authors consider why this possibility remains largely unexploited, discuss the research finding that indicate its promise, and suggest a procedure to select for motives. The key to the use of motivation in selection lies in recognizing what patterns of behavior are instrumental to successful performance of the job and in finding persons predisposed by their needs or motives to behave that way. Since motives mingle with several factors in affecting performance, selecting for motives alone makes about as much sense as selecting for abilities alone. Any selection practices that seek to identify and match motivational predispositions and task requirements had better be accompanied by well designed ability-sensitive selection practices and management practices that nurture desired motivation and behavior.

The effectiveness of assessment centers for many types of selections is well documented. In addition, in at least one such use, it is shown that the method does not discriminate against minorities. Longitudinal studies clearly show that the assessment process can be a definite improvement over other means of identifying supervisory potential at the lower levels. The extension of the assessment center process to the selection of upward mobility candidates was apparently well-founded. It appears that supervisory ratings should be given very little weight in such selection processes other than perhaps to measure dependability or loyalty factors. Furthermore, it may well be worthwhile to conduct a controlled study of the conventional systems of performance evaluation in which supervisors individually fill out forms to assess job performance without training in objective observation and standardized rating. Accurate performance evaluation is crucial to employee motivation and fair promotion systems. The intuitive assumption that a supervisor is in a position to evaluate employee performance with at least some accuracy may be quite wrong. Instead, completion of performance ratings through some system such as a trained panel of supervisors might be much more fair and accurate.

The article focuses on a research, which empirically test assumptions that incentive or intrinsic rewards or extrinsic rewards are primary determinants of job satisfaction and productivity. It is evident by now that neither position is all right nor all wrong, but that a third strategy is warranted. The results suggest that what is needed is a contingency approach that takes into consideration the needs of the workers, the characteristics of their work environment, and the requirements of the organization. An organizational reward system based solely on money as the motivator, or at the other extreme intrinsic motivation through job enrichment, is not likely to lead to an optimum utilization of human resources. It clearly shows that what constitutes a meaningful work experience is a composite of many things-chief among them security and self-actualization, which is realized through well-designed jobs that provide job holders the opportunity to be autonomous, demonstrate competence, further develop capabilities, and experience feelings of self-fulfillment and worthwhile accomplishment.

The article focuses on managing positions, which is the key to effective organization, compensation and productivity. From the scientific management revolution, came the idea that compensation, job tides, job qualifications, and therefore personnel selection depended upon the value of the work performed. Past social and economic station, personal educational achievement, union affiliation, seniority, and other non-work-related factors had nothing to do with this fundamental concept. There are some current observers of the world scene who forecast that the really significant watershed between economies and societies today is based on the extent to which the Scientific Management Revolution (SMR) has gained ascendance. On the other hand, many voices are heard today which charge that the apostles of the SMR are out of date. They say that the concept of work based upon an economically justified need has been made irrelevant by the humanistic value considerations promulgated by contemporary psychology, sociology and welfare economics. Their view forms the intellectual foundation for the recent preoccupation with "Job Enlargement," "Job Enrichment," and related interpretations of the working environment.

The article presents conceptual model of job enrichment design that can be used to identify, analyze and evaluate the organizational variables upon which successful application of job enrichment is contingent. Job enrichment, based upon the publicity it has received, has to be considered the leading contender for the crown "solution to motivational and productivity problems in industry." The concept is receiving extensive coverage in academic journals, business and professional periodicals, and the press. Job enrichment seminars are being conducted throughout the nation and are attracting high-level managers from leading business and governmental organizations. The problem encountered in any discussion of job enrichment is reaching agreement on what it is. The concept in a very short time has become all things to all people. During the last three years job enrichment has been associated with the four-day workweek, flexible hours, participative decision making and other human relations techniques, work simplification, job rotation, improved fringe benefits, particularly those that relate to working conditions and numerous other programs designed to increase job satisfaction and productivity. The authors contend that none of the above constitutes true job enrichment.

Paying workers doesn't necessarily motivate them. In order to use money as a motivator, it is necessary that pay be contingent on effective performance. That is, the reward system must be structured so that receiving pay depends on good performance. Money will then motivate performance because performance is instrumental to receiving payments. There are two essential aspects to motivating intrinsically. The first involves designing tasks which are interesting and which necessitate creativity and resourcefulness. The second involves allowing workers to participate in decisions which concern them so they will feel like they have a say about what they do. The newer participative management theories, then, stress the importance of giving employees a voice in decisions which affect them, and giving them greater latitude in the way they do their jobs. A system for motivating employees such as participative management which, through participation and job enlargement, attempts to arouse intrinsic motivation, appears to motivate effective performance at the same time that it satisfies intrinsic needs. To use money and other extrinsic rewards as effective motivators they must be made contingent on performance. However, doing this decreases intrinsic motivation.

The article focuses on areas for making jobs more attractive for young people. Five areas for remedial action has been suggested. These include compensation, performance appraisal, meeting affiliative needs, in on-the-job training pressures and in the general area of management. One of the first things which many companies are doing in an attempt to match young people's needs with the requirements of the job is to devote some extra attention to the financial need of the younger person. The second technique which companies are finding useful in relating jobs to the new young hire is regular performance evaluations done by trained supervisors. To most, however, this means an annual performance review which, because of its infrequency, does little or nothing toward integrating the new young hire into the business firm. Another technique being used successfully by many companies in making their, jobs attractive to young people is that of clearly defining measurable performance goals or objectives. This requires that a great deal of thought be placed on the question of what the young employee can do which is clearly substantive and valuable to the group.

This article focuses on Management By Objectives (MBO), a new perspective on organizational change. All organization development (OD) programs have a time lag between program initiation and achievement of change. While each OD program will have its own time lag, it appears that MBO, as an OD program, has the longest time lag because of its comprehensiveness. Robert Howell has presented one plausible explanation of why it takes so long to install MBO in an organization. He claims that organizations must evolve through three separate and distinct phases of development of an MBO system. In the first phase, objectives are used primarily for performance appraisal. Also, an attempt is made to use MBO as a program for motivation by allowing subordinates an opportunity to participate in setting objectives for their jobs. Development of results-oriented, responsibility sharing, and non-zero-sum attitudes in all managers and supervisors in an organization requires a mini-cultural revolution. Typically organizations are run so that the upper echelons decide what the lower echelons do. Far too many managers accept this as the way organizations should be run.