Class notes
Lecture notes for Psychology in the workplace
- Course
- Institution
Aantekeningen van de 10 hoorcolleges van psychologie in the workplace - notes from the 10 lectures of the course of the minor psychology in society.
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
amstudent
Reviews received
Content preview
Psychology in the workplaceLecture 1
Why study Industrial-Organizational psychology?
Why do people work? = study about motivation
Money doesn’t explain it fully, it is necessary to have money but if you have all the money in
the world what would you do? Most of the people would still work. Maybe because there are
bigger problems to be solved like the climate- and refugee problems.
What is work? People have psychological needs and work values:
• Intrinsic values: interesting work, challenging work, learning new things, making
important contributions, responsibility and autonomy and being creative
• Extrinsic values: pay, social contracts and status in wider community
Organization can serve different work values. If you understand values and needs, you get a
sense why I-O psychology is important.
What is I-O psychology?
I-O psychology applies psychological principles, theory, and research to the work setting.
I-O psychologists are:
• Scientists who derive principles of individual, group, and organizational behavior through
research. They are employed at (semi-) public organizations (universities and Trust No
One governmental like military) and private organizations
• Teachers who train in the research and application of I-O psychology
• Consultants and staff psychologists who develop scientific knowledge and apply it to the
solution of problems at work. They are employed in (semi-) public and private
organizations and consulting companies
Industrial-organizational psychology helps develop strategies that build better organizations.
An I-O psychologist can help organizations with:
1. Staffing and workforce development = personnel or industrial psychology (for example
use of personality tests)
2. Enhancing motivation, team effectiveness, and organizational development =
organizational psychology (work-life balance and vacation policy)
3. Work design and workplace climate issues = human engineering (arbitrations company
manages that you legally can’t prosecute against your company for sexual harassment,
happens at Google. Design of the workplace to increase productivity by maximizing
quality of effort)
Common issues in I-O psychology:
• Employment discrimination like aging and generational differences
• Psychosocial or physical health like stress, safety and joblessness. Depression is mostly
about work in present, past, or work that I should have been or really want to do.
• The concept of “work-life balance”. Some countries 40-hour norm others like Japan 90
hours norm with less time for the ‘life part’
• The “New World of Work”. A lot can change in a couple of years technology wise. Doing
work at home in a virtual space becomes better than in a physical workplace, unless you
perform physical work, because physical space is so much more valuable now because of
the growing number of people
,Special issues in I-O psychology:
• Sports like teamwork and coordination. To move better in your team, shout in a way that
will facilitate cohesion
• Humanitarian like micro-credit (lend 1.000 100 euros instead of one 100.000) and U.N.
policy.
• Conflict areas like Iraqi Police Force (mass number people/refugees arriving in your
country when a mass number of people is not happy about this) and terrorism
I-O psychology goes to Mars:
Efforts to promote team cohesion among astronauts during longest-ever manned space
voyage: NASA’s planned 2030 trip to Mars. People need their own psychological space.
Usually when co-workers irritate each other, they can let off steam by spending time with
family or going for a jog.
What is I-O psychology Scientist-Practitioner model:
Using scientific tools and research in the practice of I-O psychology. Greatest
enemy/resistance = people that rely on ‘best practices’ or experiences that make them not
open to new experiences.
Common areas of concentration for I-O psychologists:
• Selection and placement
• Training and development
• Organizational development
• Performance measurement
• Quality of worklife: toxic boss or colleage has a profound impact on work, these minor
issues can turn a job into a nightmare
• Engineering psychology
The bottom line in any organization is performance.
Job performance/creativity, motivation, leadership and well-being are the key dependent
variables in the I-O research program at the RUG. It can be seen as a Capitalistic mindset with
the bottom line about money.
I-O Psychology is a multilevel science - idea who we are as individuals is inseparable from
the people around us = sense of self. The cultural self-representation is top-down influenced
by global culture, national culture, organizational culture and group culture and bottom-up
influences them also in return.
There are different kinds of groups (differ in social norms, screaming on the field different
than in airplane) – make more effective working environments for groups
Changes in the workplace since 1980: personal computing, telecommuting and virtual
teams, videoconferencing, service vs. manufacturing, teams vs. the individual, little stability,
family-friendly workplaces, global workplace and greater diversity.
Work is more social, and team focused (stronger together) than ever. Entire industries get
wiped out by technology changes. The best way to promote is to work the market and change
workplace between different businesses instead of staying with the same boss. Now more
service oriented and not industry anymore.
, Why study I-O psychology
• Knowledge about I-O psychology pays off for your own professional career, regardless of
profession
• I-O psychology applies theories, models and principles from all areas of psychology
• Studying I-O psychology improves your understanding of how individuals and groups act,
think, and feel in organizations
• The big one is the fourth: our lay theories and beliefs about I-O psychology may be false
or may be correct only under a narrow set of circumstances. a lot of lay beliefs about how
the world works and behavior works are now scientifically grounded models with
psychology. Possible lay beliefs:
1. Job satisfaction is meaningfully associated with job performance
2. Managers often agree about what the best ways of increasing organizational
effectiveness are
3. Group cohesiveness is a group property that managers should encourage.
4. Punishing is a good way to increase job performance
5. Managers’ basic task is to closely supervise and control subordinates. Micro-managers
that follow your every move are not in line with ethics
6. Brainstorming groups generate more ideas than individuals working separately. But
individual creativity should not be ignored
Hawthorne studies was the base of I-O psychology:
The purpose was to investigate how characteristics of the
work setting like intensity of illumination, rest breaks and
work hours affect worker fatigue and performance.
Hypothesis: light intensity affects worker productivity
The discovery: the presence of the researchers was
affecting the results because the employees enjoyed
receiving attention and being the subject of study.
T1-T5 is the slope with times they measured, yellow
cross is where they increased light intensity 70-110 is
some kind of performance measured. Between T1 and T2
it already improved, because humans are not simply machines. The Hawthorne-effect = “any”
factor (level of illumination, number and length of rest periods, hours of work, job design)
seems to influence employees’ behaviors or attitudes as a result of increased attention.
Affected by the presence of observers. But they did think about factors apart from money that
non-psychologists did not think of, so they made a good point.
Main implications of the Hawthorne Studies:
• Psychological and social factors are important in explaining employees’ job performance
– human relations movement
• Afterwards, the scientific value criticized. However, the studies are still considered the
major impetus behind the emphasis on understanding and dealing with human resources.
Why conduct I-O Psychology Research? – Contingency approach
1. It provides a set of tools that allows: people to understand, analyze, describe and predict
behavior in organizations. But do not think of theories in terms of right/wrong, helpful/not
helpful, they complement each other, there is no one ‘right’/’only’ solution.
, Contingency approach: effectiveness of any person, trait, or strategy often depends on the
situation. The “Calutron Girls” were very skilled in performing a task at calutron control
panels that others prior to them could not do. They made assumptions about who the right
person was for the task, but these receptionists came in handy in the specific factors of war
time. They were not allowed to know that they were monitoring dials and watching meters to
make the first atomic bomb.
I-O psychologists specify situation-type variables (contingency factors, conditions, or
moderators = different types to describe) that permit certain traits and behaviors to be
effective within a given organizational context.
Fiedler (1968) was the first who explained leader behavior from a contingency perspective.
Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership: argues that the effectiveness of leader style
depends on the kind of situation the leader is dealing with. Effectiveness depends on the
interaction of leader style and three situational characteristics:
• Fiedler identified two distinct leader styles: relationship-oriented versus task-oriented
• Situational characteristic (contingency factors)
- Leader-member relations (good versus poor)
- Task structure (structured versus unstructured)
- Position power (strong versus weak)
Leadership style = contingent to the situation, now not typically useful anymore
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller amstudent. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $4.33. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
77254 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now