Organisasie-doeltreffendheid en gehalte van werklewe

Inaugural lecture--Department of Industrial Psychology, Rand Afrikaans University, 21 September 1982@@It is of the utmost importance in South Africa today to create organizations which are effective and which simultaneously provide circumstances for employees in order to experience a high quality of work life. Organizational effectiveness comprises more than mere productivity. Productivity primarily refers to an organization's outputs whilst effectiveness encompasses the output/input ratio, that is outputs weighed against availability of resources, wasting of resources -including the manpower resource as well as stress placed upon employees. It is increasingly being required from personnel practitioners, trainers, labour relations experts, and consultants from the personnel consulting business to give clear evidence of their contributions to organizational effectiveness. The danger always exists that organizational effectiveness could be overemphasized at the cost of important, more humanistic considerations. Although we have sufficient proof today that job satisfaction does not lead to improved job performance, we do know that job satisfaction is related to mental health and even sosio-political attitudes of workers. Evidence exists that quality of work life, which is primarily determined by an employee's job satisfaction, is a more valid indicator of longevity than even a comprehensive medical diagnosis. Indications also exist that employees' negative attitudes and insufficient managerial interest in their quality of work life are precursors of declining future economic performance of organizations. The result of this is that a strong movement exists, especially noticeable in the USA, which is advocating that organizations should be forced by legislation to publish information on the quality of work life which their employees enjoy. The creation of functionally effective organizations in South Africa, which provide for the needs of society and simultaneously guarantee an acceptable quality of work life to employees, are challenges which are going to require much effort from behavioral scientists and especially industrial psychologists, in the near future. To achieve this in a rapidly changing South African environment, the development of approaches and techniques to diagnose and improve organizational effectiveness and quality of work life, is a prerequisite. The flourishing personnel consultancy business in South Africa should be carefully scrutinised. Although there are many of these consultancies providing professional services above reproach, there is a number which market especially management and organizational development packages, which do not fit South African organizations and conditions and which are implemented by insufficiently trained consultants. These consultants are very seldom in a position to give proof of the effectiveness of their consulting efforts, as very little research work is undertaken by them to evaluate the effectiveness of their programmes and techniques.The fact that the personnel consultancy business is so active in this country indicates the serious need for professional knowledge on manpower and labour problems such as organizational effectiveness and quality of work life. To provide in these and other needs, the training of industrial psychologists at universities should be directed much more at basic skills-training, for example human relations and conflict management skills. This, together with in-depth attention to specified topics and practical training in organizations, will provide manpower and labour experts capable of adapting to the specific demands of a great variety of South African organizations. Multi-disciplinary research in which the knowledge and skills of industrial psychologists, economists, business economists, industrial engineers, anthropologists and political scientists are pooled, will provide a scientific justifiable basis to address the labour-and manpower problems in South Africa.