Spring 1995, Vol. 4, No. 1

Classification System Proposed for Workplace Behavior

By Len Sperry, MD, PhD,
Contributing Editor

A recent article (Sperry, 1994) in the Fall 1994 AOOP News described the necessity and value of a diagnostic classification system for workplace behavior and functioning. There have been only a few previous efforts to specify such a classification system. Cowan (1992) described what he calls an "organizational problem map" of 11 interrelated problem categories noted in a survey of corporate executives. These included problems with communication, strategy, customers, and personnel. Blake and Mouton (1982) indicate that all issues involving organizational behavior and functioning can be subsumed under four categories: power/authority; morale/cohesion; norms/standards; or goals/objectives. Lowman (1993) has described, in some detail, two classes of work dysfunctions: disturbance in the capacity to work-including patterns of under-commitment and over-commitment; work-related anxiety and depression; personality dysfunctions and work; life-role conflicts; and transient, situational stress-and dysfunctional working conditions-including defective job design; defective supervision; and dysfunctional interpersonal relationships. While each of these efforts is noteworthy, none of these schemas are sufficiently comprehensive and inclusive to be useful for those involved in workplace psychiatry. This article introduces a more inclusive, comprehensive classification system.

The proposed classification system is based on the following premises:

1) psychopathology and medical problems are both brought to and result from the work setting; 2) any organizational component or process (i.e. structure, culture, leader-worker interaction) can "cause" physical and psychological distress or symptoms; these symptoms may present as somatic, psychological or psychosomatic; 3) symptoms vary in severity from situational stress to work-related anxiety, depression or somatization to full-blown DSM-IV Axis I, II and III disorders, which often present to medical and psychiatric consultants for disability evaluation and management; and 4) problems or workplace dysfunction spans a continuum from technical to personal/behavioral, wherein technical problems are typically less complex and require less effort and time to ameliorate or change, while personal/behavioral dysfunction is much more complex and requires significant effort and time to modify or change.

As you can see in the Diagnostic Categories of Individual and Organizational Dysfunction table, I've delineated two main categories: Dysfunctional organizational working conditions and Disturbance in capacity to work. Eleven categories articulate dysfunctional organizational conditions. The first four categories are primarily technical issues, while categories 6-10 are both technical and personal/behavioral. Four categories articulate disturbances in capacity to work. All four are primarily personal/behavioral.

Typically, management consultants focus on what I've designated as technical problems, while the majority of organizational psychiatrists focus on personal/behavioral problems or issues. Actually, since technical problems and dysfunctions (i.e. merger and downsizing) nearly always create a variety of psychological and somatic symptoms or disorders, organizational psychiatrists should be involved with all the technical categories. Their involvement might be as a member of the consultation team, if not the main consultant, as they would be for all the personal/behavioral categories.

Space does not permit detailing case definitions for each category and subcategory of this classification system or schema. Cf. Sperry (in press) for such case definitions. It is my hope that the proposed schema will challenge readers to critique this schema, and/or propose other classification systems.

References

Blake, R. and Mouton, J. (1983). Consultation, (2ed). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Cowan, D. (1992). An executive map of organizational problems. In Golembiewski, R. (ed).; Handbook of Organizational Consultation. New York: Dekker.

Lowman, R. (1993). Counseling and psychotherapy of work dysfunctions. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Sperry, L. (1994). Should work disorders and dysfunctions be a clinical category of DSM-IV? AOOP News. 3, 1: 4-5.

Sperry, L. (in press). Corporate Consulting and Therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

 
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