Describe what psychologists have discovered about physical and psychological work conditions in organisations.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2021). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [0] (a) Physical and psychological work conditions in organisations, including the following: • Physical: the Hawthorne studies (Wikstrom and Bendix, 2000) • Psychological: bullying at work (Einarsen, 1999) • Open plan offices (Oldham and Brass, 1979)
2. [0] (a) Hawthorne studies (Wikstrom and Bendix, 2000) – This study reviews the Hawthorne studies conducted in the 1920s. The original was done at the Hawthorne Plant in Chicago to test the effect of changes in the environment on productivity. Researchers changed many aspects of the working environment (e.g. lighting and work structures) but found regardless of what they did the productivity increased in both the experimental group where changes were made as well as a control group which had no changes. It was concluded that it could be due to the special privileges received by those involved in the study as well as the improved relationships the workers formed with each other and management. They also found that further research has not replicated these findings and this could be due to a number of factors including that the workers in the Hawthorne Plant may have received higher income, positive attention from their work, etc.
3. [0] (a) Bullying at work (Einarsen, 1999) This is a review article of many pieces of previous research. A summary of these pieces of research can also be given credit. Four stages are also identified in the article including – aggressive behaviour, bullying, stigmatisation and finally severe trauma. Five types of bullying behaviour identified – physical, verbal, social isolation, personal attack (e.g. ridicule/gossip), work-related (e.g. making tasks harder to perform)
4. [0] (a) Open plan offices (Oldham and Brass, 1979) Employees of a newspaper in the Midwest, USA. 123 participants. 76 in experimental group who experienced all three waves of the move to the open plan office design. 5 were a control group (office design did not change) and 26 experienced two of the waves. Three questionnaire items were used to measure each of the following job characteristics: autonomy, skill variety, task identity, task significance, and task feedback. Also asked questions about how easy it was to interact with others, perception of conflict, concentration, etc. Found employees’ internal motivation and satisfaction with work and colleagues decreased after the move to the open plan office. Found it difficult to concentrate/complete tasks.
5. [0] (a) Mark according to the levels of response descriptors in Table A.
6. [0] (a) Other appropriate responses should also be credited.
7. [0] (b) A range of issues could be used for evaluation here. These include: • Named issue – validity – e.g. temporal validity due to the studies being developed a long time ago 1920s, 1979, 1999. Population validity (Hawthorne studies in a factory, Oldham and Brass in a newspaper in Midwest USA). Validity of measures (e.g. quantitative data collected from self-reports in Oldham and Brass which allow comparisons but might lack validity due to social desirability). Good ecological validity in the studies as they are investigating employees in their normal jobs. However, the Hawthorne studies did put the workers into a separate part of the factory when they were doing the study and some argue that this attention that these workers received could have led to the increases in productivity.
8. [0] (b) Individual and situational explanations
9. [0] (b) Any research methods issues that are applied to the Hawthorne study and/or Oldham and Brass study (e.g. generalisability, ecological validity, type of data)
10. [0] (b) Reductionist or holistic nature of explanations.
11. [0] (b) Deterministic nature of the conclusions.
12. [0] (b) Usefulness/application to everyday life.
13. [0] (b) Mark according to the levels of response descriptors in Table B.
14. [0] (b) Other appropriate responses should also be credited.