Gazing forwards into 2012 it's easy to feel a bit back-up-against-the-wall. We all know that it's going to be a tough year, and it's not as if the last few have been booming. One of the big challenges is keeping staff optimistic and focussed when there is little scope for pay rises for yet another year and not much money in the budget for training and treats. Yet there are things that managers can do that are shown to make a difference to workers' happiness and productivity that don't require a big cash outlay.
One of the factors that is known to improve job performance is the degree to which employees have autonomy in the way they work. According to the classic model of work design1, job autonomy is the extent to which people have perceived control over the work they do. Yet there has been a long term trend in the UK for the reduction of job autonomy across all occupational sectors, as captured by the 2006 British Skills Survey2. It's not difficult to see what some of the driving factors might be here - control has been increasingly centralised, as more uniform and stringent processes are dictated to improve efficiency and quality standards everywhere, from globalised corporations to production lines and call centres. The downside is that a lack of job control has a direct relationship with poor outcomes for physical and mental health as well as productivity. This is shown most clearly by what are generically known as the Whitehall studies, an impressive group of longitudinal studies of large cohorts of UK civil servants. These studies3 show, broadly, that the greater an individual's perceived job control, the less likely they are to suffer from mental distress and ill health. The good news is that some pretty rigorous studies4 show that even inviting employees to participate in finding ways to improve autonomy in their work can reduce sickness and absenteeism, and increase productivity. So one of the ways that we can improve life in the office this year could be to have a look at the way work is organised. Ask people to think about how they might improve their control over what they do. What are the blocks to more efficient working? What simple steps could they take? The studies show that making a couple of small changes in controlling the way we work can have a really positive impact. And it needn't cost a penny.
References
1 Hackman, J.R. & Oldham, G.R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: a test of a theory. Organizational Behavior & Human Performance, 16 (2), 250-279.
2 Felstead, A., Gallie, D., Green, F. & Zhou, Y. (2007). British Skills Survey. ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance.
3 e.g. Stansfeld, S.A, Fuhrer, R, Shipley, M.J. & Marmot, M.G. (1999). Work characteristics predict psychiatric disorder: prospective results from the Whitehall II Study. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 56, 302-307.
4 Bond, F.W, Flaxman, P.E. & Bunce, D. (2008). The Influence of Psychological Flexibility on Work Redesign: Mediated Moderation of a Work Reorganisation Intervention. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93 (3), 645-654; Bond, F.W. & Bunce, D. (2003). The Role of Acceptance and Job Control in Mental Health, Job Satisfaction, and Work Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88 (6), 1057-1067.
