- The essence of an organization is patterned human behavior
o This definition is not sufficient enough it need more elements
(structure) Organization
o Structure: job descriptions, organizational policies, organizational
goals
Department
▪ All organizations have goals
▪ Example: the goal of uni is education (it is possible that you
reach a goal for example Das en Boom) Group
▪ Can also be a non profit organization (often has no business
goals) Individual
- Different levels in the organization: has a typical, hierarchical structure
o Difficult when there is no structure to give everyone a role
- Nonindependence: members of organizations are typically more
similar to each other than people outside of the organization
14
o A group puts pressure on you to fit in
13
o Leads to a pattern: if you select people randomly, you’ll see a
12
Group Average
lot of variation (average of the groups is the solid line)
11
o We also see that groups become more homogenous
10
o We see that psychology research often specifies a lot more on
9
individuals instead of groups
8 0 20 40 60 80 100
2. WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY? Index
- Organizational psychology: the scientific study of
individual and group behavior in formal organizational
settings
o Or in a narrow sense
- Organizational psychology as the science of Cross-level
Moderation effects (graph from Bliese & Jex, 2002,
JOHP)
o Sometimes a lot of working hours van
improve well being and sometimes it means
you’re overworking
o Differs across humans (some groups have
positive, negative or simply no relationship)
o The meaning of individual changes in function
of the context → context matters!
2
, - A breakdown of topics associated with the industrial and organizational sides
of the field:
2.1 SCIENTIST-PRACTITIONER MODEL (JEX & BRITT, 2008)
- Within the general field of I/O psychology, the scientist-practitioner model
has become so important that it serves as the underlying philosophy for many
if not most graduate training programs in the field. Graduate training guided
by the scientist-practitioner model suggests that, first and foremost, student
need the skills necessary to conduct scientific research.
o People say you have to be this or that, but that is not in line with the
scientist-practitioner model
2.2 SCIENTIST -PRACTITIONER MODEL (RYAN & FORD, 2010)
- If the S-P model is a central attribute of the organizational psychologist identity, then this should be
core to training and a point of positive distinction. However, some would argue that “at present most
I-O psychologist … are either one (scientist) or the other (practitioner)
o The philosophy, but also a lot of criticism
o Psychologists either identify as scientist or practitioner but not something in between or even
both
3. OPSY VERSUS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
- Organizational psychology: the scientific study of individual and group behavior in formal
organizational settings (Jex & Britt, 2008)
o Vibrant yet vulnerable: “we don’t know who we are, are we psychologists, management
people?” → there’s a tension between the two fields (industrial/organizational)
- Organizational behavior: the study of human behavior in organizational settings, the interface
between human behavior and the organization and the organization in itself (Moorhead and Griffin,
1995) → this definition is broader
o It focuses on three determinations of behaviors in
organizations: individuals, groups and structure
o OB includes these core topics: motivation, leader
behavior and power, interpersonal
communications, group structure and processes,
attitudes development and perception, change
processes, conflict and negotiation, work design
o OB mainly based on psychological research, both
concepts are practical the same
- Other fields that have a value contributing OB
o (Social) psychology, antropology, sociology
o Sociology: the study of the social system in which
individuals fill their roles; that is, sociology studies
people in relation to their fellow human beings
(politic, cultural, religious and economical aspects
of the human society)
o Anthropology: the study of the societies to learn
about human beings and their activities
3
, - When you do research you think about inputs, measure them and try to understand them as a
process. Then you look at the outcomes and you start all over again
- Most of the research in our field is focused on individuals, groups or organization levels
- There are a few, if any, simple and universal
principles that explain OB
o Contingency variables: situational factors
are variables who moderate the relationship
between the independent and dependent
variables
▪ Example: situational factors that
make the main relationship
between two variables change-
relations hold on better in one
condition but not another
4. WHY IS OPSY/OB IMPORTANT?
- Why is Opsy/OB important?
o Quote by Jeff Immelt (Ex-CEO): “I hated OB in business school but OB just turns out to be the
most important class you can take here. Because the ability to attract people, to pay them
the right wat, to create culture and values and reinforce them, that’s what makes companies
great.”
4.1 MINTZBERG’S MANAGERIAL ROLES
- Mintzberg concluded that managers can perform 10 different, highly interrelated roles of sets of
behaviours, thus serving a critical function in organizations.
- The 10 roles are primarily interpersonal, informational or decisional
o Interpersonal: all managers are required to perform duties that are ceremonial and symbolic
in nature (figurehead, leadership and liaison role)
o Informational: to some degree all managers collect information from outside organizations
and institutions (monitor, disseminator and spokeperson role)
o Decisional: Mintzberg identified four roles that require making choices (entrepreneur,
disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator)
▪ Roles van be different across people and they often need to channel between them,
so the field OB has a big influence on training
4
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