Ricky W. Griffin

Health and Well-Being in the Workplace: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature

Health and well-being in the workplace have become common topics in the mainstream media, in practitioner-oriented magazines and journals and, increasingly, in scholarly research journals. In this article, we first review the literature that serves to define health and well-being. We then discuss the primary factors associated with health and well-being, the consequences of low levels of health and well-being, and common methods for improving health and well-being in the workplace. Finally, we highlight important future directions for future theory, research, and practice regarding health and well-being from an organizational perspective.

Participation in Organizations: A Preview of the Issues and Proposed Framework for Future Analysis

This paper provides an overview of research related to participation programs in organizations. Although certain relationships, such as the participation-performance association, have been adequately addressed in the literature, other aspects of the participation process have received very limited research attention, We propose that research move away from a narrow focus on certain aspects of the participation process and move toward a more inclusive agenda. To facilitate this movement, we provide a participation framework that organizes what is and is not known about participation, develop an operational definition of participation, summarize the incentives that motivate participation, review individual and organizational contextual factors that relate to participation, describe participation-outcome relationships, and note essential measurement questions.

EFFECTS OF WORK REDESIGN ON EMPLOYEE PERCEPTIONS, ATTITUDES, AND BEHAVIORS: A LONG-TERM INVESTIGATION

The work of Hackman and his associates stimulated current interest in work redesign (Hackman & Lawler, 1971; Hackman & Oldham, 1976, 1980). Drawing from earlier work by Turner and Lawrence (1965), Hackman argued that the motivating potential of jobs can be best represented by a number of task dimensions. The dimensions most commonly described are task variety, autonomy, feedback, identity, and significance. The presumption is that if a job has relatively high levels of these attributes, its motivating potential is greater than that of a job that has relatively low levels of the attributes. Although others have advanced alternative theoretical formulations (cf. Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978), Hackmans basic theoretical framework has not been refuted. And even though the potential role of individual differences has fallen to a position of secondary interest, the general approach of relating task perceptions to outcome variables is still a common method of studying tasks (e.g., Idaszak & Drasgow, 1987; Gerhart, 1988). Indeed, the extant research in this area has found fairly consistent support for a link between task perceptions and attitudes (cf. Griffin, 1982a). On the other hand, the link between task perceptions and performance is less clear-cut (Griffin, Welsh, & Moorhead, 1981). In some instances, for example, task perceptions have been unrelated to performance (e.g., Hackman &

“Bad Behavior” in Organizations: A Review and Typology for Future Research

In recent years, organizational scholars have increasingly focused on various forms of bad behavior in the workplace. Notable examples of these behaviors include deviance, aggression, antisocial behavior, and violence. Unfortunately, as this body of work has grown, so too has a proliferation of concepts, constructs, and definitions. This article reviews the literature regarding the general set of concepts and constructs relating to bad behavior in organizations. The authors identify both areas of uniqueness as well as areas of overlap among these various concepts and constructs. They also propose a typology to guide future theory development and empirical research.

Consequences of Quality Circles in an Industrial Setting: A Longitudinal Assessment

The purpose of this study was to test the consequences of implementing quality circles in an industrial setting. Using a longitudinal and experimental research design, the study tracked 73 employees organized into eight circles over a three-year period. A matched-pairs comparison group was drawn from another plant within the same company. Results indicated that attitudes, behaviors, and effectiveness all improved initially for the experimental group but then dropped back to previous levels. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Relationships Among Individual, Task Design, and Leader Behavior Variables

A model predicting relationships among individual, task design, and leader behavior variables was examined for 171 employees of a large manufacturing firm. Correlational analyses revealed significa...

Objective and Social Factors as Determinants of Task Perceptions and Responses: An Integrated Perspective and Empirical Investigation

The purpose of this study was to test the merits of an integrated perspective derived from the job characteristics and social information processing models of task design. We conducted a complex la...

Theorizing and Researching the Dark Side of Organization

The paper offers an introduction to research that concerns itself with the ‘dark side’ of organization and attempts to bring theoretical resources from a range of disciplines to bear upon the problem. This stream of research has emerged most visibly since the 1990s, although its concerns can be found in much earlier research. Frustrations with the tendencies of mainstream work to overlook, ignore or suppress difficult ethical, political and ideological issues, which may well mean life or death to some people, has in recent years led to a research that self-identifies its concerns as being with the dark side. We structure our review around key contributions on the dark side of organizational behaviour, mainly in psychology but also including the concept of organizational misbehaviour; the sociology of the dark side, with particular reference to mistakes, misconduct and disaster; and a wider range of critical approaches to the dark side including Marxist, post-Marxist and postcolonial perspectives. We also undertake a review of methodologies for investigating dark side phenomena, and finally introduce the five papers that comprise this special issue.

Dysfunctional organization culture: The role of leadership in motivating dysfunctional work behaviors.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to expand and extend previous work on the role of organizations in influencing deviant or dysfunctional behavior in those organizations.Design/methodology/approach – Conclusions from previous work on the role of individuals and organizations in influencing dysfunctional behavior is used to lead to a discussion of the interactions between those two especially through organizational culture and leadership.Findings – A model is developed that more carefully identifies how all of these factors come together, resulting in no, little, some, or a lot of dysfunctional behavior.Research limitations/implications – The model developed here can be employed to improve understanding of the role of organization culture and leadership in motivating dysfunctional work behaviors. Both the individual and the organization constructs utilized in the framework need more complete conceptual development. In each instance, a more complex and integrative analysis of diverse literatures need...

Research Notes. Effects of Work Redesign on Employee Perceptions, Attitudes, and Behaviors: A Long-Term Investigation

This study investigated the long-term effects of work redesign on a number of perceptual, attitudinal, and behavioral variables. For the experimental group, 526 bank tellers, attitudinal variables initially improved, but then declined to previous levels. Performance showed no change after 6 months but significant improvements after 24 and 48 months.