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(Last updated 12/3/99)

8/15/99

STUDY FINDS MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOR KEY TO WORKER EFFORT, HARMONY

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In the new global marketplace, managers expect workers to show increased commitment, participation and effort to help their companies succeed.

But a new study finds that the behavior of managers plays the biggest role in whether workers put more effort into their jobs.

The study found that managers who did two things -- respected worker rights and maintained an effective, productive environment for workers -- also had workers who put forth more effort and who got along better with each other and with bosses.

“There’s been a big push to have employees work harder and smarter, but not a lot of attention about what managers should contribute to the new workplace,” said Randy Hodson, author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State University. “We found that workers need some things from management in order to have effective, productive workplaces.”

Hodson presented his results August 9 in Chicago at the
annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Hodson said many popular business books and academic studies in the past several years have looked at a concept often called “worker citizenship.”

“The central aspect of worker citizenship is extra effort on the part of workers. This often involves a willingness to work harder and longer, work as part of team, help with peer training and identify ways to increase production. This is put forth as a way for American companies to stay competitive.” Hodson said this study was an effort to look at the other side of the equation -- management citizenship -- and see how that affects worker citizenship.

For the study, Hodson and three advanced graduate students did a detailed analysis of 83 book-length studies of employees in various workplace settings. They examined the books for instances of worker citizenship behavior, such as pride, extra effort at work, and levels of absenteeism. They also measured management citizenship behavior, such as leadership, communication, commitment to job security, and the presence or absence of management abuse. The researchers also looked at the level of harmony among workers and between workers and management

Results showed that management citizenship was the single biggest factor influencing worker citizenship, harmony among workers, and harmony between workers and management. “Workers appear to be keenly interested and motivated by management behavior,” Hodson said. “Without consistent management citizenship, worker citizenship and the productivity of the flexible workplace may have a tenuous future.”

The study found other factors also played a role in worker citizenship and workplace harmony, although not as large as management citizenship. For example, workers showed higher levels of citizenship when they had more job autonomy -- the freedom to determine how they would perform their jobs on a day-to-day basis. Citizenship was also higher in workplaces with less bureaucracy. Results showed company size played a role in how well workers got along with each other and with management; larger companies had less harmonious workplace relations.

Hodson said the two parts of management citizenship revealed by the study -- respecting worker rights and maintaining an effective, productive environment for workers -- are not difficult to understand, but are still not as common as one might think.

Respecting worker’s rights means not being abusive -- not berating workers, not firing people indiscriminately, and offering support for workers’ ideas, for example.

The other part of management citizenship, providing a good environment for workers, really means providing competent leadership. For example, managers must clearly communicate to workers what is expected of them, and need to ensure that workers have the supplies and tools to do their job. “This was somewhat surprising to me,” Hodson said. “It shows that what bothers workers more than anything is chaos and mismanagement. Workers want to feel that managers know what they are doing and providing both the knowledge and the materials to get the job done.”

Hodson said these results suggest managers should examine what their role should be in helping their companies compete. “We talk a lot about what workers should do. We don’t talk a lot about what management should do,” he said.

Contact: Randy Hodson, (614) 292-8951; R.hodson@osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu