Work Group Size Research Articles

A Public Choice Approach to Motivation People in Bureaucratic Organizations

This paper examines the problem of motivating people in organizations from a public choice viewpoint. A number of propositions are derived deductively from assumptions regarding individual goals, discretion, and preferences. These suggest how managers can improve productivity by changing either incentive systems or work group size, job design, and personnel rotation practices.

A Public Choice Approach to Motivating People in Bureaucratic Organizations

This paper examines the problem of motivating people in organizations from a public choice viewpoint. A number of propositions are derived deductively from assumptions regarding individual goals, discretion, and preferences. These suggest how managers can improve productivity by changing either incentive systems or work group size, job design, and personnel rotation practices. Public choice is the application of economic analysis to the study of political behavior. Within public administration, public choice has formed a theoretical basis for a critique of government bureaucracy and for an examination of market and quasi-market mechanisms for the delivery of public services, including privatization, voucher schemes, contracting out, and competing bureaucracies. This growing body of research has been reviewed by Straussman (1981) and Weschler (1982). Little attempt, however, has been made to apply public choice methodology to the problems facing those who must manage people in large bureaucratic organizations. This is surprising because a central concern of public choice focuses on how rational individuals cooperate to

GROUP SIZE AND ABSENTEEISM RATES: A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS.

The article presents a study which examined whether absenteeism rates are related to the relative size of work groups as they change over time. The study has utilized data from the organizational r...

HFS Job Description Survey: Where We Work, What We Do

This paper reports findings from a survey of members, fellows, and associates of the Human Factors Society living in the continental US. Data are presented on gender, ethnic background, salary, types of organizations in which we work, workgroup size and composition, and activities performed on the job. Analyses are presented by highest degree held and by type of organization.

Supervisor accessibility and subordinate role clarity

The relationship between supervisor accessibility and role clarity has been established. Previous organizational analyses have underscored the importance of structural determinants of accessibility. It has long been assumed that these formal organizational designations were among the most important determinants of access to supervisors. The structural orientation excluded the contributions of shared normative and dyadic expectations to the accessibility of supervisors. This study examined the significance of each of these components in the role assimilation process. The Supervisor Accessibility Measure and formal work group size were used to estimate supervisor accessibility. Two hundred and forty‐six civil service personnel at a midwestern university completed these scales along with the Rizzo, House, if Lirtzman (1970) measure of role ambiguity. The results suggest that structural aspects of the work environment contribute little to the ease of communication between superior and subordinate, while norma...

Effects of Work Group Size and Task Size on Observers' Job Characteristics Ratings

The effects of number of workers (work-group size) and number of tasks (task size) on perceptions of job enrichment were investigated using a simulated assembly-line job. Forty subjects observed workers performing a job in four combinations of work-group size and task size, rating the respective jobs on dimensions taken from the Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1975). The results indicated that jobs performed by smaller work groups were perceived as significantly more enriched on four of the five dimensions and had greater potential for worker motivation. Significant main effects were also found for task size on three of the five dimensions such that jobs with larger tasks were seen as more enriched and as having greater motivating potential for the workers. A significant interaction was noted for only one job dimension. An ecological perspective of the data (manning theory) supported these results and suggests theoretically useful interpretations of the data.