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8
Job Design and
Organ~zaffonal Vanables
INTRODUCTION
Jobs in which VDTs are used are not purely "VDT jobs," even when
a VDT dominates everything else about the job. A total job is
defined less by the equipment used than by the outcomes to be
achieved, the methods and procedures to be followed, the skills
and abilities demanded, and the general set of circumstances
under which the work is done. Jobs can be carefully designed to
make a work experience satisfying and productive, but they
usually are not; most jobs develop with little real planning, and
any planning that does take place is more likely to consider the
equipment than the person who uses it. If equipment is poorly
designed, constructed, or maintained, a worker is not likely to be
either productive or satisfied; in the extreme example of unsafe
equipment, a worker's complaints are likely to anticipate health
and safety hazards. Even equipment that is poor but not physi-
cally dangerous can negatively affect mental health or the sense
of well-being and, perhaps, job performance.
Workers' Complaints and Job Structures
VDTs, like any other work technology, can be used properly or
improperly. The research evidence examined in previous chapters
has indicated little likelihood that VDT use involves serious health
or safety hazards, but there is evidence that some jobs in which
VDTs are central parts of the work equipment are associated with
many kinds of worker complaints--including (but not only) com-
plaints related to vision. On some jobs, including some where
visual contact with a display unit is relatively intensive, com-
plaints seem rare. Although it may be that the number of com-
plaints is related to the quality of VDT equipment, there has not
been any research testing that hypothesis. In the absence of such
173
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174
research showing a substantial difference across equipment in
performance decrements on a standard task, for example, it seems
more useful to consider whether the design of a job as a whole is
associated with the variations in complaints. Perhaps some
aspects of jobs are associated with VDT technology but are not
necessary concomitants of VDT use: an example would be the
availability of immediate feedback (from either the work or the
supervisor or both) about productivity. Perhaps other aspects of
the job, such as low status, close supervision, or absence of oppor-
tunity to plan work sequences, lead to dissatisfaction and health
problems independently of whether there is a VDT involved in a
job.
We note that complaints are less likely to be reported by
workers in "good" jobs--those in which a worker is well paid, has
had substantial training or education, and has varied kinds and
levels of responsibility (National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health, 1981; Smith et al., 1981~. Rather, most of the com-
plaints are reported by workers in jobs in which a single task (e.g.,
data entry) dominates the workday, the pay is relatively low, and a
worker's responsibility is almost entirely limited to working
continually and avoiding errors. Such jobs are not ordinarily
described as good; indeed they can be seen as deadly jobs in the
sense that they seem to stifle, if not kill, human initiative,
creativity, and sense of achievement. The question that demands
answering is whether people who complain and develop various
symptoms--including visual or musculoskeletal discomfort,
physiological changes, or dissatisfaction with the job--are
responding to the equipment, the basic nature of the job, or their
own perception of the job and its opportunities and limitations.
Complaints exist. They must be taken seriously by
researchers. Should the response simply be concentrated efforts
to find causal relationships between characteristics of VDT
equipment and visual complaints or problems? We think not: it
seems unlikely that such an approach, by itself, will offer the
greatest probability of payoff in terms of human well being.
Rather, we believe that research should also consider total job
design.
No systematic research program has yet been undertaken to
study job design specifically for jobs in which VDTs are used.
Consequently, there is no adequate body of knowledge concerning
the psychosocial aspects of VDT work and the resulting mental and
physical strains (see Table 2.1 in Chapter 2 for an evaluation of
existing studies). Studies have not examined the wide array of
psychosocial stressors that can influence how VDTs are used and
how their use may influence workers' wellbeing. However, there
has been research that shows the kinds of psychosocial stressors
that affect employee well-being in other kinds of situations.
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175
Work on psychosocial stressors in jobs, and particularly work
that emphasizes the desirability of a good fit of the character-
istics of the job and the characteristics of the worker, seems ver y
much worth considering in evaluating complaints about VDTs.
Accordingly, this chapter identifies the kinds of psychosocial
characteristics of jobs that have been associated with employee
well-being in other kinds of work, offers what might be called a
pretheoretical point of view about some of the relationships
among these characteristics, and indicates how such characte r-
istics can be considered in designing jobs and research in order to
eliminate or reduce workers' complaints and symptoms of physical
and mental problems.
Defining Psychosocial Stress and Strain
Strains refer to complaints and include negative affective states
or changes in attitude, performance decrements, and poor bio-
logical functioning. Strains often result from stressors, including
stressors on the job. Most of the literature on the psychogenic
aspects of work that effect strains focuses on emotional states
and physiological responses (e.g., heart rate, cholesterol level, and
blood pressure). Strains are usually not diseases themselves, but
may be risk factors for mental or physical illnesses. In many
cases, a link between a condition of the work environment and
those risk factors may have health consequences that are poorly
understood. For example, is one's life really shortened if one has
a heated argument with a coworker that raises one's blood
pressure for a few minutes? Is an elevated heart rate due to anger
unhealthy but an elevated heart rate due to working on a complex
arithmetic problem not (or less) unhealthy? As for the health
consequences of emotional reactions to work, although one does
not expect work life to be euphoric, workers probably prefer to
experience satisfaction rather than dissatisfaction with their job
and a sense of psychological well-being rather than feelings of
anxiety, depression, and anger. The reader should keep this
discussion in mind when evaluating the review of literature that
follows.
Objective job stress (or stressors) refers to conditions of the
work environment that represent some demand (such as, workload
on a person's abilities or represent some deficit of supplies or
resources (such as salary, praise, opportunities to participate) to
meet some need of the employee. Elective job stressors refers
to an employee's perceptions and reports of these environmental
conditions.
This chapter focuses on psychosocial rather than physical
stressors. Physical stressors refers to the direct physical effects
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176
of physical forces (mechanical, heat, light, and chemical, for
example) on psychological and physiological well-being; psycho-
social stressors refers to the symbolic meaning of actions and of
conditions of the environment. Psychosocial stressors may come
from several sources, including the design of the job (such as
pacing, control over tasks, sequencing, quantity, and nature of
tasks), the psychosocial environment of work (such as the degree
of supportive relations with superiors, peers, and subordinates),
and the broader organizational system (such as the reward and
influence structures and the isolation of the person from fiscal and
political turbulence in the larger environment of which the
organization is a part).
FRAMEWORK FOR STUDYING PSYCHOSOCIAL
STRESSORS IN VDT WORK
Person-Environment Fit
We find it useful to think of the misfit between the character-
istics of a worker and of the work environment as a potential
precursor of psychological and physiological strain. This concept
of misfit is used here as a heuristic device for evaluating the
extent to which VDT technology, the social environments in which
VDTs are used, and the nature of the human operator contribute
to healt~related outcomes. The basic hypothesis is that the
goodness of fit between characteristics of a person (P) and the
environment (E) can be thought of as a predictor of well-being
(see, e.g., French and Kahn, 1962; Levi, 1972; French et al., 1974)
and performance (McGrath, 1976~. By considering both a VDT
operator and the work environment, one can start to explain
situations in which one worker is overwhelmed by a task that does
not overwhelm another person, as well as situations that are likely
to overwhelm or not to overwhelm most workers. It is noteworthy
that with one exception (Johansson and Aronsson, 1980), none of
the studies of psychosocial stressors in VDT work (summarized in
Table 2.1) even mentions the possible contribution of personal
characteristics to health outcomes.
We can think about two kinds of goodness of P-E fit in work
situations (French, et al., 1974~. The first is the fit between the
person's needs (or preferences, desires, values, etc.) and the
related supplies for these needs in the job environment. A variety
of needs might be thought about in terms of person-environment
fit, such as needs for cognitive stimulation, for social support or
social interaction, for structure and clarity in task definition and
task demands, for esteem, and for achievement. Many of these
needs are discussed in more detail below with regard to VDT work.
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177
A second type of fit is concerned with the match between
demands in the job environment and the relevant person's abilities
to meet those demands. For example, one can think of the fit
between the demands of a VDT job for accuracy and speed and a
person's ability to do such work with accuracy and speed.
These two kinds of fit, need~supplies and demands-abilities,
may not always represent two mutually exclusive classifications.
Excessive job demands, for example, may threaten a worker who
has strong security needs as much as one who has inadequate
abilities. Nevertheless, the distinction is used as a reminder that
dimensions of fit must be considered both from the viewpoint of
an employee's characteristics and motives and from the viewpoint
of a job's demands.
Objective and Subjective Fit
The concept of P-E fit also distinguishes between objective and
subjective fit. Objective P and objective E are operationally
defined as P and E measured free of any bias in self-reporting.
Subjective P and E refer to the perceptions of these parameters by
the person (employee); consequently, they are measurable only by
self-reporting. Subjective fit is expected to be related to
objective fit, but the relationship can be less than perfect. The
relationship can be weakened by a personts subjective distortions
(e.g., defense mechanisms such as denial and repression) or by lack
of information about the objective state of P or E because such
information may be hard to provide or intentionally withheld.
Although objective misfit may have to be changed in order to
improve the objective conditions of work, the pathway by which
the reduction of such misfit reduces psychogenic ill-being is
hypothesized to be partly and significantly through a worker's
perceptions of the misfit. This hypothesis is supported by the
work of Kraut (1965), French and Caplan (1972), and Frankem
haeuser (1980) and is an important point in both theory and
application. If a well-intended change in work conditions is not
perceived as such, an objective improvement in work conditions
will unintentionally generate strain. For example, the introduction
of VDTs to make a work environment quieter and to make text
editing more pleasant may be negatively perceived by employees
because it generates a misfit with regard to their technological
word-processing skills. Rather than feeling more satisfied, the
employees may feel just the opposite, at least until their objective
skills change. To take another example, a VDT operator may
perceive good fit with the job ("I key in 300 characters per minute;
the job only requires that I key in 250"), when the objective fit is
poor (the real typing speed of the person is only 250; and the job
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actually requires a speed of 400, but this has not been pointed out
to the VDT operator). In terms of person~nvironment fit, the two
characteristics of a person, needs and abilities, along with the two
characteristics of the environment, supplies and demands, combine
to determine how the ways in which VDTs are used in the
workplace affect workers' wellbeing. ~
STRESSORS FOR STUDY IN VDT WORK
Given the paucity and inconclusiveness of the psychosocial
literature on VDTs, one can only suggest possible stressors for
study. The stressors discussed below were selected primarily
because of circumstantial evidence or because other research on
psychosocial stressors has suggested that they may have important
and general effects on workers' well-being.
Control
The amount of control a worker has may have an important
influence on stress in VDT-related work. Control can be exercised
over the onset of a specific stressor, its intensity, its termination,
or any combination of these (Cohen, 1980~. In studying VDT use,
researchers might examine the extent to which an operator can
control (a) the introduction into the workplace of the specific
hardware or software itself and the alteration of his or her role in
using the new technology; (b) the amount of incoming work and
associated deadlines; (c) the variety of the work content (such as
data entry, data acquisition, or some mix; complex as well as
simple interactive tasks; etch; (d) the amount of time spent
continuously at the VDT and the scheduling of such time (such as
massed versus spaced periods of time), and interactions with other
persons (such as telephone and in-person interruptions). It should
be clear from this list, which is not exhaustive, that "control" is
not a unitary concept; there are many aspects of VDT worl<~to be
examined from the perspective of control.
lit is not our intent to advocate the concept of P-E fit as the
particular device for studying VDTs and well-being; rather, it is
meant as an example and is meant to provide a framework for
discussing job design. Readers interested in empirical research
involving the theory may consult a number of references (e.g.,
Harrison, 1976; Kulka, 1979; Caplan, 1983~.
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Opportunity to Control: E
In the studies on VDT use reported in Table 2.1 in Chapter 2, some
employees have complained about lack of control and others have
not. Rigid pacing of a job task by a VDT and automatic monitor-
ing of the rate and accuracy of task performance are among the
concerns expressed by VDT workers about control (Johansson and
Aronsson, 1980~. Equipment-paced work, in general, has usually
been found to be more likely to produce undesirable emotional and
somatic symptoms when compared with self-paced work (Caplan
et al., 1975; French et al., 1982~. The research to date does not
permit firm conclusions about how variations in control influence
employee well-being when work involves VDT use, but research on
control per se suggests that there are measurable, undesirable
effects on employee well-being. Literature reviewed by Cohen
(1980) suggests that lack of control may produce emotional and
physiological strain as well as performance deficits and insen-
sitivity to the needs of others. Many of these outcomes may, in
turn, adversely affect the well-being of other employees, starting
a chain reaction of strains and other stressors. For example,
highly controlled jobs, such as machine-paced assembly work, can
produce elevated adrenalin and noradrenalin levels (Franken-
haeuser and Gardell, 1976~. Such jobs may also lead to anxiety,
depression, boredom, and somatic complaints (Caplan et al., 1980;
French et al., 1982~.
Need for Control: P
Individual differences in need for control are important. Experi-
ments by Lundberg and Frankenhaeuser (1978) suggest that
withdrawal of control, or low levels of control, are particularly
upsetting for people with a high need for control (Burger and
Cooper, 1979~. Among those with high needs for control are Type
A coronary-prone people. Experiments show that in uncontrol-
lable situations, Type A people have particularly high autonomic
reactivity (Glass, 1977~. It is hypothesized that this reactivity
may increase the risk of atherosclerosis. If so, VDT work that
threatens a person's need for control could increase the risk of
coronary heart disease. Reactivity to uncontrollable aspects of
VDT work may vary by gender as well as by personality type. In a
sample of Swedish workers, Frankenhaeuser (1980~- found that
females had lower catecholamine reactivity than males to uncon-
trollable stressors, suggesting that females are better able to
withstand exposure to jobs involving such tasks.
These data suggest that lack of control may produce strain and
that there may be individual differences in strain responsivity
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depending on the person's need for control. (The extent to which
too much control can be a stressor is discussed below.) As noted,
there are a variety of points at which control can be exercised in
VDT work. Distinguishing among those points when assessing the
role of control in VDT work may allow specific enough diagnoses
of the stressors so that preventive or corrective action can be
designed.
Participation
Participation, a concept closely related to control, refers to
having a say in decisions that affect the nature of one's work. In
VDT work, participation could extend to decisions regarding the
introduction of VDT work into the job, the flow and nature of the
work to be processed, and the nature of the VDT hardware and
software.
Opportunity to Participate: E
Cross-cultural surveys in the United States, Italy, Yugoslavia, and
Israel indicate that greater perceived control is associated with
greater job satisfaction (Tannenbaum et al., 1974~. Multivariate
cros~sectional analyses suggest that participation may reduce job
dissatisfaction and boredom, allowing employees to influence
person~nvironment fit on a number of facets of work, including
task complexity, responsibility, and quantitative workload (Caplan
et al., 1980; French et al., 1982~. Consequently, participation may
be a useful social mechanism for reducing such strain in VDT work
when misfit is present in the job.
Need to Participate: P
People's need to participate has not been well studied; see the
discussion above regarding need for control.
Predictability and Controllability
Unpredictable events are by definition uncontrollable in terms of
when their onset will occur, but not all uncontrollable events are
unpredictable. For example, a VDT user may know in advance
that a computer system serving the VDT will be down for a
specified period and that the user will be unable to do anything
about it. One of the special aspects of VDT work is unpredictable
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181
system breakdown. In time-sharing systems, delays in access,
processing, and output may be both unpredictable and uncontrol-
lable in that one cannot influence when these delays will occur.
Unpredictable Events: E
Overall, little research has been done on the effects of unpre-
dictable versus predictable stressors. Johansson and Aronsson
(1980) had data on six VDT operators who, fortunately (for the
study), encountered an unexpected system breakdown and showed
elevated levels of adrenalin, systolic and diastolic blood pressure,
heart rate, irritation, feelings of fatigue, and boredom. Labora-
tory research examining the role of unpredictable noise as a
stressor found that it had no effect on performance (Glass and
Singer, 1972; Gardner, 1978~. Unfortunately, these studies
confound unpredictability and uncontrollability. However, studies
of warnings before disasters suggest that people cope better when
they have warning even though they cannot control the onset and
effects of the disaster (see, e.g., Janis and Mann, 1977~.
Tolerance of Unpredictability: P
Experiments giving people realistic job previews indicate that such
previews reduce job turnover as well as increase job satisfaction
(see, e.g., Ilgen and Seeley, 1974; Wanous, 1978~. Whether such
previews have their effects because they make the job predictable
or because of other mechanisms (such as creating feelings of trust
or opportunities for better selection in and out of the job by pro-
spective job applicants) is not known. Research could be done to
determine the extent to which strains might be reduced by giving
VDT operators and those who make demands on them realistic
expectations about system reliability. By increasing people's
expectations of unpredictability, one might increase their toler-
ance of it. No research on this topic in VDT work has been done.
As with control, predictability can be influenced at several
points in the flow of VDT work. Some strategies for experimen-
tally reducing strain might focus on changing P (such as increasing
tolerance for unpredictability); other strategies might just as
easily focus on making the design of the work environment better
fit a person. For example, the flow of work to a VDT operator
could be made more predictable by improving the reliability of
VDT systems, carefully training those who provide work for the
VDT operator, and studying workflow patterns. Even an impend-
ing peak in workload might be better tolerated if a VDT operator
were given plenty of early warning to allow adjustments to be
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182
made in other pending work. Experiments that vary such param-
eters, as well as studies that assess the predictability of different
aspects of VDT-related work rather than characterize job predict-
ability at a global level, are needed. Such studies may lead to
knowledge about how to estimate the strain-producing contribu-
tions of different parts of the workilow and how to locate points,
if any, of intervention.
Complexity
The complexity of work performed using a VDT can vary dramati-
cally, from that of a programmer or scientist attempting to create
or discover new algorithms to that of a clerical worker confined to
entering meaningless (to the operator) data (such as strings of
invoice numbers run together on a code sheet).
Studying complexity in VDT-related work is likely to be
complicated. It would be ideal to define and measure complexity
in terms of standard units of cognitive information load. This
ideal can be met in the laboratory (Berlyne, 1958), where an
investigator can carefully define '~its of information" and can
carefully vary the presentation (e.g., complexity of a visual
pattern) of stimuli to a viewer. In the workplace, however, the
problem of comparing different types of work in terms of bits of
information remains unsolved. As an example, how should a
secretary doing word processing have workload defined in terms of
bits of information? What constitutes a bit in information theory
when comparing the work of entering first~raft text and of
making revisions? If the secretary's phone rings while VDT work
is being done, is the interruption included as part of the normal
definition of complexity as bits of information? And so on.
Recognizing this problem, social scientists have tended to
define complexity in the work environment in terms of a number
of stressors: (a) relatively vague definitions of the occupational
role (role ambiguity; (b) changes in tasks from day to day
(variety); (c) contact with people (which may involve unpredict-
ability, uncontrollability, and variety); (d) time sharing rather than
linear processing of multiple role responsibilities; and (e) work
with several groups outside one's own immediate work group (Kohn
and Schooler, 1969; Caplan et al., 1980~. A VDT job might be
defined as complex with only a few of these elements present in
almost any combination. For example, a mathematician at a VDT
might have little contact with people (simplicity), a relatively
vague definition of the job and of work from day to day
(complexity), and task variety across time some days routine and
some days involving a high level of problem solving (complexity).
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These elements of complexity have not been examined in any
systematic way as components of jobs involving VDTs. Some of
the studies discussed in Table 2.1 in Chapter 2 compare VDT
operators whose occupations look as though they might vary in
level of complexity, requirements for cognitive skills and knowl-
edge, and the level of complexity desired by employees. In such
studies the extent to which employee (person) versus task (environ-
ment) characteristics account for group differences in well-being
cannot be determined because no differentiation between these
characteristics has been made. The separate elements of
complexity also have not been examined in VDT studies, so the
effect of complexity in VDT work on well- being is unknown.
Although research on complexity and well-being has not been
conducted on VDT-related work, it has been done in a wide vari-
ety of occupations. The studies indicate that complexity can
affect employee wellbeing. In a cros~sectional survey study of
over 2,000 employees in 23 different occupations ranging from
unskilled work to highly skilled professions (Harrison, 1976; Caplan
et al., 1980), poor P-E fit on job complexity was associated with
emotional strain and somatic complaints (such as heart beating
hard, sweaty palms, and trouble sleeping). It is important to note
that too little as well as too much complexity produced these
outcomes. When one considered only the absolute level of
complexity in the job (E) or only the absolute level of desired
complexity (P), the findings were not as striking.
Lack of complexity--i.e., repetitive, monotonous work- has
been found to be a key predictor of job dissatisfaction in a number
of studies in the United States, some of which were of random
samples of the U.S. workforce, and in Scandinavia (see, e.g.,
Walker and Guest, 1 952; Gardell, 1 97 1; Barnowe et al., 1 973~.
With regard to physical health, research in Scandinavia suggests
that lack of complexity in work can increase the risk of accidents,
headaches and nervous disturbances, and abnormal catecholamine
excretion, although the results of this study are themselves
complex (Johansson et al., 1978~.2
Too much complexity, as aptly characterized by the Peter
Principle (Peter and Hull, 1969), is believed to lead to feelings of
incompetence, emotional strain, and poor performance. Aside
from the study of 23 occupations, discussed above (Harrison, 1976;
Caplan et al., 1980), very little is known about excess complexity
in tasks. But it is a very important concept when studying
~ —
'The interested reader is advised to consider the findings in their
entirety. They deal with how different aspects of complex and
noncomplex tasks may affect different physiological and
emotional responses, a case of response specificity.
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184
changes in work technology. The move per se from non-VDT to
VDT technology may appear to future VDT operators as a
significant increase in complexity even if, from the point of view
of those who designed the hardware and software, the VDT will
"greatly simplify things." Once an employee becomes familiar
with the new technology, however, the perception of excess
complexity may disappear.
Anecdotal evidence (e.g., Leo, 1980) indicates that fear of
computers and allied technology may occur because the machines
are viewed as "too complicated." These fears seem to know no
boundaries of occupation and can be found in executive as well as
in line positions. We do not know how widespread such fear is and
what effect it has on physical and mental health when VDTs are
introduced. It would seem useful to conduct systematic research
on the magnitude of such effects and the educational conditions
that might overcome such fears. It is likely that these effects are
secular. Younger people, increasingly exposed to VDT technology
in school and recreation, will probably have fewer problems
accepting VDT technology in work than will older people.
The rate at which elements of a job become more complex has
been referred to as complexification. Large-scale, ecological
analyses suggest that as complexification increases in societies,
does mental illness, suicide, and bankruptcy (Terreberry, 1968~.
Toffler (1970) argues that "future shock" consists of a high rate of
complexification without the resources to adapt to it. If this is
the case in VDT work, then it would be valuable to monitor the
rate of change in VDT software and hardware technology as a
predictor of the well-being of employees. To our knowledge no
such research has been done.
Role Ambiguity
Role ambiguity refers to the extent to which a given work role
clearly defined for an employee. Cros~sectional correlational
analyses indicate that too much ambiguity relative to a person's
preferred level of clarity~mbiguity is associated with job dim
satisfaction, depression, anxiety, and anger-irritation (Harrison,
1 978~.
Role ambiguity may be pervasive in the workforce (Kahn et al.,
1964), but of 33 facets of work, role ambiguity ranked in the lower
one-third in its effects on job satisfaction in multivariate analyses
of data from a random sample of the U.S. workforce (Barnowe et
al., 1973~. Lack of challenge and lack of complexity were the -
most important causes of occupational strain. Is role ambiguity an
important stressor in VDT-related work? The variable has not
been studied in VDT-related work. Any effects of too little
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185
ambiguity in highly structured, input~riented clerical VDT work
may be highly correlated with lack of task complexity and variety.
There is no evidence of any association between role ambiguity,
per se, and physical health outcomes (see Caplan et al., 1980~.
Threat of Unemployment
Some VDT research (e.g., Johansson and Aronsson, 1980) has found
that VDT operators, particularly those in clerical occupations,
worry about the possibility that their jobs might be eliminated in
the future by a computer. How might such worry affect the
well-being of these operators?
We know of one study of the effect of the threat of job loss
and the actual job loss on physical and mental well-being (Cobb
and Kasl, 1977~; it followed employees from the time of the
announced job loss to two years after termination. As evidenced
by higher levels of anxiety and serum cholesterol, the anticipation
period was more stressful than the time of actual termination.
Lazarus (1966) reviews other literature suggesting that the threat
of an unpleasant event is more strain-producing than the actual
event. No research has assessed the prevalence and strength of
threatened job loss perceived in various VDT jobs in relationship to
physiological and psychological manifestations of strain. Conse-
quently, we cannot draw conclusions about its effects on well-
being in VDT work.
Quantitative Workload
Up to this point we have considered qualitative aspects of the
work. Is it controllable? How complex is it? And so on. There is
also the factor of quantitative workload, the sheer amount of work
to be done in a given unit of time regardless of its qualitative
nature. The pace and flow of work are important aspects of
quantitative workload.
A study in Sweden (Johansson and Aronsson, 1980) presents
evidence suggesting that the nature of the human use of VDT
technology influences the level of workload over the course of the
day. This study showed that the heaviest use of computer systems
occurs in the afternoon and that with increased use there are
greater delays in response time by the VDT in interactive and
batch modes and greater probabilities of unscheduled breakdowns
in the system. Johansson and Aronsson note that VDT workers
appear to cope with this pattern by increasing the pace at which
they work in the morning: the increased pace in the morning is
insurance against system delays in the afternoon. This self-pacing
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186
appears to lead to elevated adrenalin levels in the morning. The
data are not precise enough to indicate the extent to which the
elevation of adrenalin precedes the anticipation of high workload
or results from the high workload itself. Furthermore, the health
consequences of these elevations are unknown.
In a longitudinal study of a 21-day planned (i.e., anticipated,
predictable) computer shutdown at a large university, there was
evidence that the workload generated in anticipation of the
shutdown was more likely to lead to anxiety and to elevated heart
rates among people who had traits like those of the Type A
coronary-prone person (Caplan and Jones, 1975~. These people
have an inner sense of time urgency, a tendency to express pref-
erences for competitive situations, and a preference for deadline
pressures. Later work by Glass (1977) suggested that the elevated
levels of anxiety and heart rate may have been part of a reaction
to threatened, strong needs for control that characterize Type A
persons. Such research suggests that there may be individual
differences in response to workload pressures created by VDTs.
It may be important to assess the extent to which excessive
quantitative workload (E) signals a threat to some operators'
strong needs for control but poses no threat to others for whom
this need is not as salient (P).
Laboratory research indicates that quantitative overload
(E > P) can increase serum cholesterol levels and maintain high
pulse rates (Sales, 1969) and that both too little (E < P) and too
much work (E ~ P) can increase noradrenalin and adrenalin
(Frankenhaeuser et al., 1971; Prankenhaeuser and Gardell, 1976~.
Field studies have found similar effects of deadline pressures on
the cholesterol levels of medical students facing academic exams
(e.g., Horwitz and Bronte-Stewart, 1962), on tax accountants
approaching the April federal income tax deadline (Friedman et
al., 1958), and among professional staff at the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration, whose telephone calls and
meetings were observed and tallied (French and Caplan, 1972~.
There is also evidence that heavy quantitative workload may
disrupt the circadian rhythm of adrenal cortisol (Caplan et al.,
1979~. Such effects may occur in VDT-related work that involves
poor P-E fit on workload.
Multivariate analyses of stressors in data from a national
sample survey of the workforce (Barnowe et al., 1973) indicate
that workload, per se, ranks near the bottom of 33 facets predic-
tive of job dissatisfaction. The analyses suggest that it is not hard
work itself that is the key stressor on effects; rather, the culprit
may be excessive workload that is also uncontrollable or carries
with it misfit with regard to complexity. This analysis is con-
firmed by results of a study of 23 occupations that showed the
effects on psychological strain (such as depression and anxiety) of
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187
P-E misfit on quantitative workload were greater for persons who
also had P-E misfit on job complexity, either too little or too
much complexity (Caplan et al., 1980; French et al., 1982~.
Persons with the right amount of complexity in their work rela-
tive to what they wanted were the least affected by large amounts
of work, even when the workload exceeded their preferred levels.
Overall, these findings suggest that the study of VDT operations
should consider both the quantitative and qualitative nature of the
workload.
Prescription for Overload—Deadline Plus Delay
We have discussed both delays and deadlines as potential stressors
in VDT work. Together they can greatly increase quantitative
overload. Deadlines create quantitative workloads by setting a
time limit during which a given amount of work must be accom-
plished; delays exacerbate the pressure of a deadline, reducing the
amount of time for completing the job.
There is some evidence of individual differences in tolerance
f or delays (P). Type A persons tend to be impatient (Friedman and
Rosenman, 1959~. Furthermore, Type A coronary~rone persons
are described as having a sense of time urgency sense that no
matter how much time there is, it is never quite enough. In
studies of VDT workers, Johansson and Aronsson (1980) found that
operators preferred having delays of less than 5 seconds when
awaiting a system reply to a VDT input. If Type A persons are
faced with delays they feel are excessive, they might be more
upset than Type B persons by the delay. Research by Glass (1977)
indicates that Type A people have a strong need for control. Long
delays on a VDT are periods during which an operator gives up
control to the machine; for Type A people, the longer the delay,
the more the need for control may be threatened. It may be the
loss of control, rather than the quantitative workload, that is
especially strain-producing about VDT delays, but stress research
on the health consequences of these delays, short of a computer
breakdown, has not been reported.
In general, the meaning of poor P-E fit on workload to the VDT
operator may be important to assess before attempting to
determine the effects of such misfit on strain. Delays induced by
computer system overloading may not be as threatening to a
scientist faced with only vague and perhaps self-imposed dead-
lines as they are to a newspaper reporter attempting to meet a
press deadline. And overload in VDT-related work may signal to
some VDT users that their work is important and, consequently,
that their VDT-related jobs are secure; in contrast, underload may
signal a possible reduction in workforce.
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Responsibility for Persons
Some jobs involving VDTs--for example, air traffic control work—
also involve direct responsibility for the lives and well-being of
other people. Given that fact, is it possible that the responsibility
and not the VDT exposure produces strain? Might the two factors
have joint effects? Although no studies of VDT work have con-
sidered responsibility as a competing stressor, there is enough
literature linking responsibility to ill-being to justify serious
consideration.
Responsibility: E
Research suggests that responsibility for persons plays a role in
the development of coronary heart disease (see, e.g., Russek,
1965~. Studies of foremen and people in jobs involving both
responsibility for persons and role conflicts, have shown that they
are particularly prone to peptic ulcer (see, e.g., Doll and Jones,
1951; Gosling, 1958; Pflanz et al., 1966~. Of particular interest is
the study by Cobb and Rose (1973) of the universe of U. S.
medical records of air traffic controllers and commercial pilots,
all of whom entered their occupations passing the similar
standardized medical examinations. The data (corrected for age
effects) showed that of the two occupational groups, air traffic
controllers had developed the highest incidence of high blood
pressure and peptic ulcer. Furthermore, the disease rates were
highest for controllers at airports with high-density, compared
with low~ensity, air traffic. The data do not allow one to isolate
the extent to which these occupational differences in illness
represent effects caused by quantitative workload, complexity, or
responsibility for persons.
Responsibility: P
With regard to coronary heart disease, Kasl (1978) notes that some
large sample epidemiological surveys have shown that employees
at higher levels of management have lower levels of coronary
heart disease (e.g., Lee and Schneider, 1958; Pell and d'Alonzo,
1963~. This finding runs contrary to the responsibility hypothesis.
Perhaps responsibility (E) is not the key stressor, but rather
whether the amount of responsibility exceeds one's resources (P).
Individual differences in preference for responsibility and in need
to discharge responsibility (P) versus supplies of authority and
resources to meet that need (E) have rarely been examined. One
study found that too little as well as too much responsibility (P-E
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misfit) was associated with high levels of cholesterol. Neither the
amount of responsibility desired (P) nor the amount demanded (E)
predicted high levels of cholesterol (Caplan, 1971; French et al.,
1974~. This finding has not been replicated.
Given the possibility that responsibility for persons may affect
employee well-being, this aspect of work should probably be
measured in studies of VDT operations in which such responsibility
varies as part of the task. In this way, one could statistically
control for psychosocial effects of responsibility when exploring
any link between exposure to the physical aspects of VDTs and
health.
Role Conflict
Conflicting demands from different persons in one's work does not
seem like an obvious concomitant of VDT work. Should it be
suspected in some VDT operations, there is literature on it from
other work situations (e.g., Kahn et al., 1964; Kahn and Quinn,
1970; Miles, 1976~. Its main effects appear to be job-related
tension (Kahn et al., 1964) and anger-irritation (Ca plan et al.,
1980~.
Social Support
Social support can be defined as affirmation of someone's
attitudes and beliefs, liking, trust and respect, and certain kinds of
direct assistance (Katz and Kahn, 1978~. There are a variety of
other definitions (see Caplan, 1979), but they generally share the
above properties. Some VDT work may, by its organization,
reduce social interaction and thereby reduce opportunities for
social support among workers. We have already noted that, at
least in theory, certain types of stressors can occur as part of the
way in which \lDT-related work is organized (heavy or excessive
workload, boring work that lacks adequate complexity, and so on).
If the design of a job reduces chances for social support, the
undesirable effects of VDT work on well-being may be magnified.
Evidence suggests that loss of social support reduces well-
being both directly and via its effect as a buffer between stressors
and workers. Having a nonsupportive supervisor in the workplace
has been associated with increased risk of mortality from coronary
heart disease (Medalie, et al., 1973~. Lack of social support at
work has also been associated with dissatisfaction with work and
with depression (see, e.g., Caplan et al., 1980~.
When stressors such as those that have been described above
are present in the work environment (heavy workload, excessive
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responsibility, too little control, etc.), social support may buffer
their effects on well-being. Buffering refers to interaction:
social support reduces the relationship between the stressor and
health consequence. Buffering has been found with regard to a
number of healt~related outcomes (see reviews by Cobb, 1976;
House, 1981~. These outcomes include serum cholesterol
elevations among employees losing their jobs (Cobb and Kasl,
1977; Gore, 1978), escapist drinking among a national random
sample of employees experiencing various levels of occupational
stressors,3 emotional strain in a sample of 23 occupations ranging
from blue to white collar (LaRocco et al., 1980), and ulcer
symptoms among factory workers (House and Wells, 1978~. In
other studies (such as Pinneau, 1975; Frydman, 1981), however,
social support has not buffered the effects of stressors on strain.
Although the conditions under which buffering does and does
not occur are not understood, the evidence of both the direct and
buffering effects of social support on well-being suggests that it is
an important health-related predictors In VDT-related work,
social support takes the form of supervision as well as relation-
ships with peers and with any clients who interact with the VDT
user. Accordingly, studies of VDT-related work may encounter
healt~related outcomes that are partly affected by the social
support available to the VDT user. By studying that support, it
would be possible to determine the extent to which DOT work
generates certain types of interpersonal frictions and generates
needs for social support as a buffer. It would be possible to
determine the extent to which any lack of social support is not
unique to the VDT work, but is part of the larger organizational
climate of the worksite.
When studying the role of social support in VDT-related work
as a buffer of strain or, when low, as a stressor, it may be useful
to view supervisory support in terms of two major factors that
have been repeatedly identified in leadership studies. These
factors can be generally described as task and process orientation
(see, e.g., Bales, 1950; Bowers and Seashore, 1966; House and
Mitchell, 1975~. Task orientation, sometimes called initiating
structure, deals with supervision that provides information to a
subordinate about the definition and execution of the work role.
Process orientation, sometimes called consideration, refers to the
provision to the subordinate of mutual trust, respect, considera-
tion for feelings, and general rapport (Stodgill, 1974~. A review of
the literature (House and Mitchell, 1975) indicates that employees
Robert P. Quinn, associate research scientist, Institute for Social
Research, University of Michigan, personal communication, 1973.
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in some jobs want task leadership more than process leadership,
while in other jobs the reverse may be true, and in still other jobs
some more equal mix may be desired. Following House's theory
(House and Mitchell, 1975), in particularly noncomplex work, such
as that involving highly repetitive VDT input of data, employees
may experience more satisfaction with the job if the supervisor is
process oriented, because there is little in the way of task infor-
mation and structure that is required (or perhaps that can be
changed). The best a supervisor can do under such circumstances
is to provide a pleasant and agreeable environment as compensa-
tion for the potential stress of an uninteresting job. In highly
professional VDT-related work, such as the work of scientists and
engineers, however, VDT operators may want task orientation--
that is, technical information. In such jobs, satisfaction derives
primarily from structural and informational guidance and from the
intrinsic nature of the job, not from leadership that is aimed at
creating a pleasant social environment. Thus, the extent to which
a style of supervision leads to VDT operator satisfaction may
depend on whether that style meets the needs of the operator,
which probably vary by type of VDT work. Person-environment fit
with regard to social support, rather than either amount of support
(E) or amount desired (P) may be an important predictor of strain.
Is there anything about the physical parameters of VDT work
that might influence social support? In highly computerized
environments, it is possible (although it need not be) for VDT
employees to be denied the social support that can derive from
interaction with coworkers and others. For example, in the
interest of reducing glare, cubicles may be erected that block of f
vision in all directions except to the screen. In highly computer-
ized operations, even some forms of supervisory feedback,
particularly negative feedback, may come to the employee in the
form of computer-generated messages, sometimes called error
messages (such communication, even if containing words of praise,
does not constitute true social support because it lacks the
element of human response). Such situations and the extent to
which a task is highly confined to a terminal itself when deadlines
and other pressures arise may reduce opportunities for social
support and may deny people the opportunity to satisfy basic needs
for social interaction (Murray, 1938~.
There has been no systematic study of the extent to which
different types of VDT work have an effect on social support.
Given the key role of social support in the literature on
psychosocial stressors and well-being, it may be worthwhile to
investigate whether VDT work in some conditions creates a new
form of sociotechnical system (Emery and Trist, 1960) with
important effects on employee wellbeing.
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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The VDT, like the typewriter, is a technology that can be used in
ways that abuse or augment the human resources of society. In
this chapter we have attempted to indicate the types of stressors
that might be associated with VDT work when the work is not
organized with the well-being of the user in mind.
In our opinion, most, if not all, of the stressors we have
reviewed (unlike the physical properties of the VDT itself) are not
inherent to VDT technology and software but depend on how the
VDT work is structured. Therefore, there is a great deal of
freedom to make work at a VDT as pleasurable or as painful as
work at a desk with a typewriter. If there are health risks
inherent in VDT work that derive from psychosocial stressors,
there is no compelling evidence in the literature. As reviewed
earlier, the VDT literature on psychosocial stressors is, with a few
exceptions, inconclusive because the designs of the studies have
not allowed conclusiveness.
VDT use occurs in jobs that vary greatly in their complexity,
responsibility for others, quantitative workload, control over the
work pace, and so on. Consequently, it would be accurate to
conclude that there is no such thing as VDT work if it is defined as
a particular occupational title or condition. The concept of VDT
work is relatively meaningless for use in studies of occupational
health because the concept refers to too diverse a set of con-
ditions. Systematic studies of the relative contributions of each
psychosocial stressor as a component of the context in which the
VDT is used would provide a much greater increase in knowledge
about the psychogenic health effects of VDT use than would
studies that compare a VDT group and a non-VDT group, as has
been done in some designs.
If more detailed evaluations of psychogenic factors in VDT
work and well-being are carried out, P-E fit theory may provide a
useful conceptual device for systematically examining the
relationship of the VDT user and the work environment to user
well-being. The concept of P-E fit can help generate the options
for improving fit between a person and a job and can involve both
changes in the person (selection, training, and so on) and in the
environment (managerial and coworker increase in resources,
workflow, variety, complexity, increased opportunity for par-
ticipation, and so on). Once areas of misfit are identified, one can
turn to choices between how much of P and how much of E should
be changed. Some of the strategies for reducing stressors have
been discussed elsewhere (e.g., French and Caplan, 1972; Caplan
et al., 1980; French et al., 1982) as well as the strategies for
introducing change (e.g., Bowers and Hauser, 1977; Katz and Kahn,
1978~. The selection of P or E (or a mix) as the target for
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lmprov~g P-E fit in VO1 work in which misfit exists should
neces=dly consider both the acceptance of the strategy by me
VOl user as well as the costs of the strategy in terms of human
welshing. Acceptance is relatively easy to assess assessing
costs may be quite another matter. But it is that assessment that
is at the heart of research on psychosocial stressors and how they
affect employee wellbeing. ~ is that assessment that largely
remains to be done with regard to psychosocial aspects of VDT use.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
vdt work
