Work design is the new black: Or is it orange?

In Australia, winter season is often Netflix season - that is, why we were happy when we saw that (since June 9) the new season of "Orange Is The New Black" is streaming on Netflix and we can binge-watch the Emmy-winning show again.

While we realize that the show is partly fictional and partly based on the biographical memories of Piper Kerman, we also discovered that the series provides the viewers with some good examples about the impact of work design on both inmates and prison staff.

A 2015 article from the The Washington Post stated that the show is "the best show about work since ‘The Wire’".

In season 3, the show gives vivid examples of how running the prison kitchen can provide an important source of job significance (and what happens if we take it away). More interestingly, the show illustrates how restructuring measures (due to privatization of the prison) relate to changes in work design:

"When Red [the kitchen chef] does get back in the kitchen, though, she returns just as MCC [the private prison company] institutes a new food supply chain, turning kitchen work into a matter of preparing boil-in-the-bag meals and denying Red the creativity that sustained her. Though she’s initially discouraged, Red ends up using her connections in the garden to prepare a series of locally sourced, limited-attendance dinners. MCC may have gotten per-meal costs at Litchfield down to the average the company was aiming for, but it’s sacrificed the much greater value of Red’s talents."

(Quoted from The Washington Post, July 9, 2015)

There are many more examples from the show that help us understand how work design can be a source of motivation and creativity.

Without spoiling too much of the last fourth and the (now streaming) fifth season, we can tell that an emerging topic is the question how an organisation can manage the tension between giving (both inmates and guards) control versus flexibility – with very entertaining examples on how too-much of control and autonomy-restrictive measures can fire back easily.

Those readers who feel that watching the shows blurs the lines between fiction versus scientific evidence of work design might be more interested in scientific studies around the effects of job characteristics on prison staff (for example, the negative effects of job autonomy and skill variety on burn-out or the effect of work characteristics on organisational commitment) .

However, the Netflix-show might also stimulate some thinking around the question how far work design does not only impact on the well-being of prison staff but may also relate to the well-being of the respective inmates.

Digging in the past, to look in the future: What impact had the "spreadsheet" on modern wo

We recently came across this podcast episode around the impact of "spreadsheets" (episode 606, a rerun from 2015) that caught our attention. The podcast looks back on to an article with the title “A Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge” written in 1984 by Steven Levy who describes how the invention of the "spreadsheet" could potentially transform the nature of work (in particular those from accountants).

A question that we are also interested in one of our research stream about the "future of work". The fun part about the podcast is that we (as the podcast-listener) are already in the future that is described so vividly in the 1984-article.

We learn that before the invention of the spreadsheets, accountants spend numerous hours in carrying out calculations by hand in order to answer questions from business owners (e.g., what happens if we change the interest rate in the billing procedure?). The electronical spreadsheet reduced the duration of this task from several hours to only a few minutes. A good example of how technology can largely reduce work demands of employees. At the same time, we see how technology redefines the role of workers and creates new tasks and even impacts our economy and society as a whole (if you think about the economic-financial crisis in 2008).

The profound transformation of jobs is described in the following:

"Already, the spreadsheet has redefined the nature of some jobs; to be an accountant in the age of spreadsheet program is — well, almost sexy. And the spreadsheet has begun to be a forceful agent of decentralization, breaking down hierarchies in large companies and diminishing the power of data processing."

In our research, we are particularly interested to which extant work design can be used to deliver the benefits of technological change that is also constantly happening in our current work environments.

Can you think about modern examples of technological change that have the potential to make jobs “sexier”? What type of radical technological change can reduce the work demands of particular jobs?

Click here for the podcast and here for the article.

The Costs of Loneliness at Work

From the Financial Times, June 8, 2017

A recent article in Financial Times, authored by Emma Jacobs, discusses about the problem of employees' feeling lonely at the workplace and the costs it could bring about.

The article starts with a story of a young analyst, Steve, who works in a bank in London that hires thousands of people. Steve works hard, but was not prepared for the loneliness he suffers from at work. He complained that he, as a new joiner, barely received any support or mentorship, and confessed that "being on a team with experienced professionals was 'intimidating' and even a snide remark from a manager would make him feel small". Over time, his self-esteem diminished and he started to isolate himself. As a result, his performance was badly affected.

It was then discussed in the article that managers should not treat Steve's loneliness as his private problem but rather one that affects the business. Findings from a number of papers were cited to support this argument. Here are some highlights:

• A 2011 study from California State University and the Wharton School confirms that an employee’s work loneliness could trigger his or her emotional withdrawal from work.

• A forthcoming paper, co-authored by John Cacioppo, the director of the University of Chicago’s Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, suggests that the internet, while could be used to enhance existing relationships and forge social connections, could also be a way of escaping “the social world” and thus increasing loneliness.

• A paper published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes in 2015 found that employees with low levels of autonomy and power felt lonely.

• A report co-authored by Professor Adam Waytz of Kellogg School of Management found that high-ranking employees are vulnerable to loneliness.

Besides, it was also suggested in the article that virtual working could make the loneliness problem even worse, as working remotely usually means missing many social activities with fellow colleagues, which are essential for the social and emotional well-being of employees.

For details, click here to read the article.