Paper on Work, Organization and Sociology Class

The Concept of Boredom at Work And a sociological point of view

Universitat de Barcelona

June , 2011

If we truly knew the meaning of life--then nobody would be bored at all Schopenhauer

Boredom is Meaninglessness: Boredom can be understood as a discomfort which communicates that the need for meaning is not being satisfied. In order to remove this discomfort, we attack the symptoms rather than the disease itself, and search for all sorts of meaning-surrogates. Lars Svendsen, A Philosophy of Boredom, 2005;

Introduction:

In certain moments, work can be fatiguing, tedious and not interesting for nearly all of us, inciting the experience of boredom and withdrawing us by being truly engaged and productively occupied (Fisher, 1998; 1993). Employee wellness is at the focus of a vast number of studies on organizational behavior and different theoretical models (Bakker and Demerouti, 2008). Even though, different studies show that boredom is positively related with performance decrement, general dissatisfaction, turnover, attention difficulties and accidents (Fisher, 1998), the work-related well-being studies show a low interest on the issue of work boredom (Game, 2007, Fisher, 1998) by suggesting that more have to be done on exploring boredom in work environments. Work environment become one of the most important sources of psychological stress. One of the reasons why work related stress became very important issue to the public health community and working people is because its adversely impacts to the workforce. Theory and research on occupational stress imply that work should be challenging but not over demanding. It is widely accepted that the combination of high level of psychological strain and low levels of job satisfaction predict work-related stress. Furthermore, these levels have a negative impact on performance and organizational productivity. The lack of change and stimulation , as also the repetitiveness of tasks in

some simple and formal occupations settings can be considered stressors and predict that what is stated like the absence of meaningfulness ore better defined: boredom at work. Despite the late focus on the issue of boredom at work there are few researches that demonstrate its role in the worker health and organizational outcomes.

Defining Boredom

Boredom is a common phenomenon that impacts a heterogeneous rage of human activities reported as a stressor factor linked with anxiety, depression and neuroticism that can have adverse effects on morale, performance and quality of work (Sommers and Vodanovich, 2000; Kass, Vodanovich, and Callender, 2001; Game, 2007). Boredom is experienced as very unpleasant and generally results because of a monotonous, repetitive, dull and tedious situations, influenced by specific external factors or from general tendency to boredom proneness (Martin, Sadlo, and Stew, 2006; Game, 2007; Watt and Hargis, 2009; Vodanovich, 2003). Fisher (1993) defined boredom as an unwanted transitory state in which individuals feel an extreme lack of interest in their current activity considering it almost the opposite of the totally and effortlessly focused attention. In another theoretical perspective, boredom is considered an emotion that it is caused by a lack of value in a given situation or activity (Pekrun, Goetz, Daniels, Stupnisky, and Perry, 2010). OHanlon (1981) boredom definition consists on a unique psychophysiological state possessing interrelated and inseparable emotional, motivational, perceptual and cognitive concomitants with negative impact on performance efficiency, general life satisfaction and health. Boredom can be expressed in to ways, (1) as an experience of withdrawal from the surrounding environment lack of personal involvement and enthusiasm, and (2) as a frantic way of acting distinct as an anguish desire to engage in significant actions with no positive results (Watt and Hargis; 2009, Vodanovich, 2003; Vodanovich, Wallace and Kass,2005;). Several studies have examined the relationship of boredom with job satisfaction, psychological and physical well-being, performance, and safety (Martin, Sadlo, and Stew, 2006; Game, 2007, Watt and Hargis, 2009; Wallace, Vodanovich, Restino, 2003; Britton and Shipley, 2010; Kass, Vodanovich, and Callender, 2001).

It has been found that boredom was a significant predictor to cognitive failures (Wallace, Vodanovich, Restino, 2003), negative subjective perception and wrong value of the passage of time (Danckert, and Allman, 2005), increase subjective underemployment, strengthened the perception of less support and lower performance ratings from the supervisors at boredom-prone employees (Watt and Hargis, 2009). Britton and Shipley, (2010) stated that boredom is positively related to mortality, more reported from juvenile people, female, individual that rate their health worse and people that work in low employment grades and report lower physical activity level.

Boredom at work

Boredom at work has been associated with work dissatisfaction, turnover intentions absenteeism and longer organizational tenure, (Kass, Vodanovich,and Callender, 2001) and it is described as a negative dissatisfying emotional state and negative factor with relevance on stress and quality of life in work place (Thackray, 1981). The imperceptibly destructive nature of boredom is strongly related to the sense of meaningless (Svendsen, 2005) and of the individual feeling of a pervasive lack of interest in the current activity. A broad literature on job boredom research on work environments suggested that monotony and repetitive work and inspection tasks anticipate feelings of boredom and fatigue especially on jobs considered as simple that requires a minimal thought, attention and vigilance on executing repetitive activities (Fisher, 1993; Pekrun, Goetz, Daniels, Stupnisky, and Perry, 2010). Thats way, work environments in which the level of stimulation is perceived as unsatisfactorily low will lead to experience of boredom. Monotonous tasks have a high level of physical control, but are lack of a human interaction and autonomy. Working with machines requires continues concentration and minimal thought by indulging the worker in experiencing of boredom and day dreaming (Thackray. 1981), with negative consequences in job-satisfaction and personal growth (Kass, Vodanovich, and Callender, 2001). By bringing the distinction of situational and dispositional boredom, job boredom is recognized as a state (common temporary experience) and as a trait of the employee (boredom proneness), (Kass, Vodanovich,and Callender; 2001). Related to the person traits, studied focused on boredom proneness

have suggest that some individuals (extrovert type of personality and high sensation seekers) appear to need more external stimulation (Zuckerman 1979). Boredom prone individual variables such as personality traits (e.g., apathy, neuroticism, and) may perform direct and/or moderator roles on organizational well-being (e.g., turnover intention, job satisfaction, personal growth). Boredom proneness usually comes along with anxiety, irritability, and inclination to avoid job occasion (Kass, Vodanovich, and Callender, 2001). Among the important consequences of boredom proneness at work we can name emotional boredom, stress, hostility and decrease in risk taking, bad concentration and sleep disorders and diminished job satisfaction (Kass, Vodanovich and Callender, 2001; Watt and Hargis, 2009; Zuckerman 1979). Boredom Susceptibility subscale developed within Sensation Seeking Scale by Zuckerman (1979) tends to evaluate the expressed intolerance of boredom relating it to sensation seeking behaviors. Similarly, Farmer and Sundberg (1986) tried to give a characterization of the boredom prone person using the Boredom Proneness Scale. It is well agreed that, boredom at work is an unwanted state during which being focused on duties become so difficult for the workers, and the passing time become too slow. The current view, however, suggests that boredom primarily results from work environment characteristics where environmental factors overpower individual differences (Fisher, 1993). The sociological point of view of boredom Boredom is called as a typical phenomenon of modernity with its roots at restricted small groups, as nobility and clergy. Nowadays, we can say that it is wide ranging in its outcome and can be a relevant phenomenon for almost everyone in the western world (Svendsen, 2005). One of the first that captured this concept and presented in his work was the famous British writer Charles Dickens, which made it a mainstream self-reflective word in his novel "Bleak House" during a time when depression was at its peak in mid-1800's England. In the next following decades Engels, (1984) gave us a descriptive view of the worker portrait and its work characteristic and its social and economic conditions by giving an insight on what were the effects of boredom in a wider range. Thus, boredom was not anymore a concept discussed only by the philosophy, but it becomes more and more used as the society were entering into the late modern period.

The conditions of experiencing boredom are created from an environment thats either impossible to change (due to economic or educational problems) or is based on narrow view of what's truly available to the person and needs to be stimulated (Engels, 1984). Trying to do that when a person gets stuck in a mode of boredom is a complex challenge depending on the particular issues involved. According to Engels (1845) in his notes on the Condition of the workers in England the workers were cast out and ignored by the class in power, morally as well as physically and mentally. With no knowledge, no capacities to change their situation, the workers were left in miserable social conditions were the concept of meaning for them were at risk. With works deprived by their personal meaning which merely fulfilled their existential needs, lead the workers toward the experiencing of boredom. Their anxiety was steamed in activities that lack the sense of progressiveness (like drinking, gambling and interpersonal conflicts). Engels explained this unaddressed anger of the workers as a consequence of the wrong politics and management. In the same stream, Marks described boredom in its central experiential component by highlighting the component of alienation of specialized work under capitalist conditions. He advocated that being 'bored' is a rejection of work - a form of resistance to capitalists and to their failure to connect the person with a meaningful work. The Industrial Revolution changed the nature of the work and reshaped the society by giving the luxury of free time possible to the middle and lower classes. At that period, boredom became a popular concept. In the study Boredom: The Literary History of a State of Mind (1995), Patricia Spacks labels it as a luxury and a threat. Innate during the Industrial Revolution, boredom reflect the rise of individualism, leisure (especially female leisure) and the idea of happiness as a right and a daunting personal responsibility (Schuessler, 2010). Spacks defined it in this way. Boredom implies an embracing sense of irritation and unease. It reflects a state of affairs in which the individual is assigned ever more importance and ever less power. In social processes, meaning is indispensable and the lack of it leads to an experience of boredom, (Barbalet, 1999). Boredom can be expressed by idleness and tedium but this concept are different. To give a better explanation on boredom and its relations with meaning, it is needed to quote Fernando Passoa Tedium is more oppressive when theres not the excuse of idleness. The tedium of those who strive hard is the worst of all. Tedium is not the disease of being bored because theres nothing to do,

but the more serious disease of feeling that theres nothing worth doing, The Book of Disquiet (1998). To continue this thought, In the article on Boredom and social meaning, Babalet (1999) elaborate the concept of boredom as increasing arousal that has an additional dimension of agitated feeling that expresses the subjects distress at their finding no interest in their activities or circumstances at work and at subjects leisure time. That is why that by increasing profits from production in modern industry it has been possible to shorten working hours and prolong leisure, but does not necessarily lead to any improvement in the quality of life or to the reduction of the experience of boredom because it is not a question of idleness but of meaning (Svendsen, 2005).

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