10. Occupational Health Psychology

📚 Organizational Change and Theory – Complete Summary & Explanation

🌀 Organizational Development (OD)

Organizational Development (OD) refers to planned efforts aimed at improving an organization’s effectiveness and well-being. These efforts are broad and involve changing how people work, communicate, and collaborate—not just reorganization.

💡 Key Concepts:

• Change Agent: A person who facilitates change; often acts as a guide or expert.

• Why OD is hard: Resistance, stress, and fear of uncertainty.

• Success Process (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999):

  1. Employees realize change is needed → may feel anxious or doubtful.

  2. A plan is created and implemented.

  3. Resistance occurs.

  4. New practices must be reinforced and become the norm.

🔄 Organizational Change Strategies (Expanded)

🎯 1. Management by Objectives (MBO)

• A goal-setting method where each employee's goals align with higher-level objectives.

• Goals must be specific, measurable, and linked to performance.

✅ Good for: Increasing alignment and productivity.
❌ Weakness: Can become rigid or overly bureaucratic.

Example:
CEO sets goal to “increase revenue by 20%.”
Sales team gets target: “Close 10 new clients per month.”

📊 2. Survey Feedback

• Employees fill out surveys anonymously (job satisfaction, communication, etc.)

• A report is compiled and shared across the organization for reflection and improvement.

✅ Good for: Giving employees a voice, data-driven decisions.
❌ Weakness: Requires leadership openness.

Example:
Survey shows many feel undervalued → Company introduces recognition programs.

🧩 3. Team Building

• Helps improve performance and communication within teams.

Types:

• Task-focused: Focused on performance.

• Interpersonal-focused: Focused on relationship and trust.

✅ Good for: Fixing team dysfunctions.
❌ Weakness: Can feel forced or superficial.

Example:
A marketing team learns to clarify roles through a weekend retreat.

🧠 4. T-Group (Training Group)

• Groups of strangers undergo interpersonal exercises to increase self-awareness and feedback skills.

• Feels a bit like group therapy.

✅ Good for: Deep self-awareness.
❌ Weakness: Emotionally intense; no guaranteed workplace impact.

Example:
A participant learns they come across as dismissive, which changes their communication style back at work.

🧠 Key Organizational Theories (Explained + Examples)

🏛 1. Bureaucracy Theory (Max Weber)

Focus: Clear hierarchy, rules, and role specialization.

Main Features:

• Division of Labor – Each role has a specific task.

• Delegation of Authority – Work flows downward.

• Chain of Command – Clear lines of responsibility.

• Span of Control – # of subordinates per supervisor.

• Line vs Staff Roles – Line = core function; Staff = support.

✅ Great for: Stability, predictability (e.g., government, banks).
❌ Weak for: Creativity, adaptability.

Example Scenario:
A government agency where paperwork must pass through five approvals before action is taken.

👨‍💼 2. Theory X and Theory Y (Douglas McGregor)

Focus: How a manager’s beliefs shape how they lead and how employees behave.

• Theory X: Assumes workers dislike work, avoid responsibility, and need close supervision.

• Theory Y: Assumes workers are motivated, enjoy responsibility, and thrive with autonomy.

✅ Theory Y encourages: Empowerment, creativity, and trust.
❌ Theory X encourages: Control, micromanagement.

Example Scenario:

• X: A manager closely monitors all remote workers and doesn’t trust self-management.

• Y: A manager gives employees freedom to design their own schedules and rewards creativity.

Also:

• Theory Z (Ouchi): Commitment grows when people expect to spend their whole careers in one organization.

🌱 3. Open Systems Theory (Katz & Kahn)

Focus: Organizations are like living organisms that must adapt to their environments.

How it works:

• Takes inputs (resources),

• Processes them (production, systems),

• Produces outputs (goods/services),

• Constantly receives feedback to adapt and survive.

✅ Good for: Businesses that face change and competition.
❌ Challenging: Requires continuous adjustment.

Example Scenario:
A tech company uses customer reviews and market trends to pivot its strategy every quarter.

🤖 4. Sociotechnical Systems Theory (Trist & Bamforth)

Focus: The fit between people (social systems) and tools/machines (technical systems).

Core Ideas:

• Joint Optimization: Design tech and social systems together.

• Unit Control of Variance: The person encountering the issue should fix it.

• Self-regulation: Teams organize themselves rather than rely on rigid hierarchies.

✅ Good for: Agile teams, manufacturing, tech startups.
❌ Risky for: Rigid or highly controlled environments.

Example Scenario:
A software team has autonomy to solve bugs, deploy updates, and coordinate daily without asking for managerial permission.

🧭 Comparison Chart of Theories

☀ Organizational Culture vs Climate

Culture = The DNA of the organization
Climate = The weather today in the workplace

✅ Final Words

Each theory and strategy brings a unique lens to understanding how organizations function and how change can be implemented. If you're a future psychologist, manager, or consultant, combining the right mindset (Theory Y), structure (sociotechnical or open systems), and strategy (MBO, team-building, etc.) can make change smoother and more successful.