Ecological Dimensions of Occupational Health Psychology 571Professionals in OHP may develop a speci“c focus in this
broad spectrum. For example, Theorell and Karasek (1996),
Karasek (1979), Gardell (1987), and Sauter, Hurrell, and
Cooper (1989) emphasize the concept of worker control, self-
determination, or job decision latitude as an important work
environment design parameter that impacts employee strain
(distress) and health. Beyond the concept of control, Landy,
Quick, and Kasl (1994) address uncertainty and con”ict as
other key concepts in the design of healthy work environ-
ments. At the organizational systems level, the climate and
the culture of the organization is an important OHP concept
(Rosen, 1986). For example, Chaparral Steel Company and
Southwest Airlines exhibit healthy organizational climates
and work cultures that place people at the center, treating
them as human resource assets rather than labor cost liabili-
ties. In the case of Chaparral Steel, four pieces of evidence
support this conclusion: (a) more than 90% of the workforce•s
participation in corporate sponsored continuing education;
(b) over 65% of the workforce•s stock ownership in the com-
pany; (c) an employee turnover rate of less than 2% per quar-
ter; and (d) an extraordinary labor productivity of 1.38 man
hours per ton or 1,100 tons of steel per man year. While
highly productive, Chaparral Steel cares equally for its people
through a safe, secure working environment. Chaparral Steel
is ranked second in workers• compensation experience rat-
ings (0.36 compared to an industry average of 0.91) by the
United States National Council on Compensation Insurance.
Chaparral•s lost time frequency for the 20-year period of
1975 to 1995 is also signi“cantly better (range
1to4)
than the steel industry average (range 6 to 15).
Gordon Forward has been an advocate for a new industrial
revolution from manufacturing (made by hand) to mentofac-
turing (made by the mind), based on a paradigm shift to a work
environment that emphasizes learning, human development,
risk-taking, and technology transfer (Forward, Beach, Gray, &
Quick, 1991). The values at the center of Chaparral•s work
culture are (a) trust and responsibility, (b) risk and curiosity,
(c) knowledge and expertise, (d) networking and information
exchange, and (e) humor and humility. These values empha-
size human strength, capability, and competence. Chaparral
Steel managers like to say that they manage by •adulteryŽ be-
cause they treat employees like adults and expect them to act
and behave responsibly. The German industrial engineer
Luczek (1992) has advocated anthropocentric, •good work
design,Žfor well over a decade. Anthropocentric work design
places the individual at the center of the work design process.
In addition to the product sector of the economy, organizations
in the service sector of the economy espouse similar values in
their organizational cultures. Southwest Airlines is an exam-
ple of a service organization with a healthy work culture,
whose core values center around humor, altruism, and people.
In the early 1990s, Southwest•s productivity per employee
was signi“cantly better than the U.S. airline industry average
while its labor-management relations have been better than
many of its sister airlines where con”ict and acrimony have, at
times, resulted in organizational demise (Quick, 1992).The IndividualA broad range of individual characteristics similarly in”u-
ences the health of a work environment. These characteristics
include career stage, age, coping style, negative affectivity,
self-esteem, health-status, and self-reliance. Beyond design-
ing work environments that are person-oriented and healthy,
OHP is concerned with individuals in their own right. Some of
the speci“c concepts related to individual behavior important
to OHP include emotion, anger, workaholism, and gender dif-
ference predispositions. For example, anger has been found to
have a lethal role in individuals• lives and to exacerbate the
experience of distress and strain (Spielberger, Krasner, &
Solomon, 1988; L. Wright, 1988). Some normative data on
trait anger precipitated by the work environment, apart from
state anger, has found that individuals who score above the
75th percentile are at risk of psychological and interpersonal
problems, while individuals who score above the 90th
percentile run the additional risk of medical problems
(Spielberger, 1991). Played out in the workplace, anger can
have psychologically and physically destructive effects as
well as adverse organizational impacts such as reduced pro-
ductivity and impaired teamwork.
Gender, one important diversity difference in organiza-
tions, is an individual characteristic that has important impli-
cations for OHP. For example, men and women experience
stress and strain differently. Nelson, Quick, and Hitt (1989)
found signi“cant differences in distress between men and
women in the personnel profession while at the same time
“nding only one difference in their experience of work-related
demands. Speci“cally, women reported that they experienced
signi“cantly more stress associated with organizational poli-
tics. Research further suggests social support may be a more
potent buffer for women and white-collar men and percep-
tions of control a more potent buffer for blue-collar men
(Johnson & Hall, 1988).
Von Dusch (1868) was the “rst to call attention to exces-
sive involvement in work; workaholismis the contemporary
label for this individual behavior. It is a third individual fac-
tor that may have destructive organizational impacts and has
been a concern in the domain of work stress for more than a
decade (McLean, 1979). While healthy work behavior results
in a wide range of positive outcomes for individuals and