Introduction

Over the past 80 years, organization theorists have formulated three main conceptual frameworks to examine the relationship between employees and their work environment. An emphasis on employee productivity in the 1920s led to Taylorism and the scientific school of management, which focused on how to maximize task efficiency and production. Scientific management sees the work environment as a set of conditions for ensuring task performance and controlling employees: there is little regard for interpersonal issues or individual differences.

The human relations approach was shaped by concern about employee alienation and the conviction that a narrow focus on productivity could lead to poorer job performance. This approach emphasizes the value of individual and small group relationships and focuses special attention on organizational development and the quality of work life. Most recently, proponents of the socio-technical school have encompassed the technological or task attributes of a job as well as the interpersonal and organizational context in which it is performed.

These three approaches provide a gradually evolving perspective on the work environment and its connections to personal characteristics and work outcomes. We use these ideas here by describing a systems perspective that considers job-related and personal factors, the salient aspects of healthcare work environments and their impact on healthcare staff and how staff morale and performance can affect the quality of patient care and treatment outcome.