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Summary Organizational Psychology
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Full Summary Organizational Psychology Psychology Course Radboud University Nijmegen
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Organizational Psychology SummaryWeek 1: Introduction and Theories of Management
• Organization: a collection of people who work together and coordinate their actions
in order to achieve individual and organizational goals
• depending on how we perceive organizations, our solutions to the problem will differ
→ that is why it is important for people to be aware of their perception
• Components of organizations (Mintzberg) (Fly)
o strategic apex: top management
o middle line: middle management
o operating core: work floor
o technostructure: assists the core to their job (IT,
training, planning)
o support staff: cleaners, reception
o Ideology: values of organization
• Organizational behavior: examining the factors that
influence how individuals and groups act in organizations and
how organizations respond to their environment
• Overview of Organizational Theory
o Classical approach: bureaucracy, scientific management, Fordism
▪ Objective: to improve organizational structure to increase efficiency
▪ normative: how it should be (not how it can be)
▪ Big names: (remember names)
• Mooney & Reiley (4 principles)
o principle of coordination → act together, exercising
authority, need for discipline
o “scalar principle” → vertical division, hierarchy
(mintzberg)
o functional principle → horizontal division (same level,
different functions)
o the difference between line (core business (mintsberg))
and staff (no say in core business)
• Taylor
o principles:
▪ responsibility for the organization of work from
the employee (for doing) to the manager (for
thinking)
▪ use of scientific methods in order to determine the
most efficient way of working (time)
▪ scientific selection, training and development of
employees (should be strong to carry)
▪ monitoring job performance
o employees as “machines”
o idea: people are motivated by financial gain
1
, o criticism:
▪ strong division of labor (deskilling) (mcdonalds)
▪ little/no support for employees to exercise control
over their work
o however:
▪ contribution to knowledge
▪ higher earnings/less physical stress (minder
bukken)
o own thing in life that could be more efficient
according to scientific management: when moving
back home from Nijmegen we didn’t sort the stuff and we
just grabbed boxes and loaded them in the car. we could
have divided it more, that my mom put the stuff in the
boxes and that I put them in the car, or that we got a cart
and put multiple boxes on it so that I didn’t have to walk
so many times to the car
• Ford(ism)
o “any customer can have a car painted any color that
he wants so long as it is black”
o inspired by Taylor
o mass production (assembly line)
o standardized products
o low costs
o strong division of labor
▪ here even making a wheel was divided into a lot
of smaller tasks)
o standard salary (enough to be able to buy products)
o paternalistic (education, homes, healthcare)
• Weber (Bureaucracy)
o specialization (of function, not employee), division of
labor
▪ advantage: efficiency will increase through
specialization
o hierarchy
▪ advantage: a clear chain of command will develop
from the highest to lowest level of an organization
o formal selection
▪ advantage: employees will be hired and promoted
based on merit and expertise → benefits both
them and employer
▪ Bureaucracy
• advantages:
o career orientation: the hiring of “career” professionals
will ensure the performance of assigned duties without
regard for extraneous pressures (so not bc of obligations)
o system of rules and regulations: efficiency will increase
as formal rules and other controls relating to employee
performance are enforced
o impersonality: when rules and other controls are applied
impersonally and uniformly, involvement with
2
, personalities and personal preferences is avoided.
Subordinates are therefore protected from arbitrary
actions of their superiors. (objective)
• disadvantages:
o rules and other controls may become “ends” rather than
“means” (don’t understand reasons for rules)
o lack of appreciation or concern for changed conditions
(no adaptation to environment)
o delegation of authority to lower levels may encourage
emphasis on subunit rather than overall goals → subunit
conflict and decreased effectiveness (interferes with
goals of organizations)
o “working to the rules” (people work to boundaries)
• governmental agencies; healthcare; duo
▪ objections to classical approach
• ignores psychological and social processes of employees:
o limits psychological growth of employee:
▪ boredom (need for variety)
▪ limited development and use of skills
▪ limited participation
▪ limited freedom to determine your own working
methods
• inflexibility
o rules must be followed obediently
o ignores the external environment of organization
▪ traditional approach to motivation and control
o human relations approach
▪ focus on employee as individual
▪ analyzing what motivates employees
▪ Mayo: Hawthorne experiments
• worker output + satisfaction related to social factors (treatment’
leadership)
▪ attention to:
• informal structure within organizations
• leadership, motivation, communication
• needs of employees
• groups within organization
▪ idea: employees aren’t just motivated by money
3
, ▪ objections to human relations approach
• scientific quality: the methodological value of Hawthorne studies
• satisfied employee → productive employee?
• ignores organization and context of organization
• “people without organizations”
o systems approach (classical + human relations)
▪ organizations as open systems:
• open means: organization is affected by environment and effects
the environment
• attention to organization as a whole and relationship between
structure and behavior
• coherence and mutual influence between parts of organization
(formal and informal organization)
• interaction with organizations environment
▪ challenges for organizations:
• 1. changing social and cultural environment
• 2. changing global environment
• 3. developments in information technology
• 4. shifting working relationships
▪ organizations as sociotechnical system: (Trist)
• synchronization between structure, technology and human side
of organization → joint optimization
• self-managing/responsible groups, autonomy
• “whole tasks”
• meaningfulness of tasks
4
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