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Summary of the book required for the course 1JV10: Work and Organizational psychology: Advanced. Book: An Introduction to Contemporary Work Psychology
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Summary Work Psychology
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An introduction to contemporary work psychologyChapter 1: Introduction
Psychology refers to people’s behaviour, motivations, thoughts and emotions related to a
particular topic. Work psychology relates to these concepts in the context of work. One
central aim is to facilitate work goals. Contemporary work psychology aims to promote
sustainable performance, maximizing work performance as well as worker health and well-
being. It is about the tasks that are carried out at work. One drawback is the narrow scope,
since it is predominantly conducted in Wester-oriented economies. This limits the ability to
generalize findings and hampers the development of adequate theory by ignoring important
issues that may be especially pertinent for vulnerable workers in less developed regions.
Organizational psychology: about context in which work activities are conducted.
Personnel psychology: about characteristics of a person conducting a particular task and
selecting or hiring new staff.
World labour force: people ≥15 that supply labour for the production of goods and services
during a specified period. Both the employed and unemployed.
Unemployment rate: share of the labour force that is without work but available for and
seeking employment.
Generally a distinction is made between three different work sectors: agriculture, industry
and services.
People do not only work for money, but it also serves other functions. Employed people tend
to be happier than unemployed people.
Relative Deprivation Model (Jahoda): apart from providing an income, having employment
provides five classes of social benefits: time structure, opportunities for social contact,
sharing a common purpose, social identity or status and regular activity. Without work people
are deprived of all five benefits, accounting for many of the adverse consequence of
unemployment for health and well-being.
Systematic thinking: simple and clear rules. How particular tasks should be conducted largely
rested on common sense, moral axioms, tradition, long-standing practices and laymen’s
psychological insights.
Scientific management / Taylorism: productivity can be optimized by concentrating on the
task itself and simplifying it to such a degree that any worker can do it. The idea rested on
two basic assumptions, namely that workers are both lazy and stupid. Taylor proposed to
counter the stupidity issue by:
1. Simplifying tasks using scientific methods: tasks are broken down into smaller and
simpler subtasks.
2. Examining the best way to conduct these tasks.
3. Training workers in the best way to conduct a task.
4. Separating the planning of tasks from their execution: supervisors think about the way
of conducting the task.
5. Selecting workers for particular tasks.
The laziness issue was addressed by introducing high levels of control and supervision and
introducing pay-for-performance systems (you work hard, you get paid more).
Human relations movement: fit the job to the worker and paying special attention to the
human side of working.
Work psychology aims to improve productivity by optimizing the organization of work, work
methods and job characteristics, but at the same time strives towards maximization of worker
health and well-being.
1
,Emotion labour: adhere to rules regarding the expression of emotion.
Knowledge worker: highly educated employee who applies theoretical and analytical
knowledge to developing new products and services.
New ways of working (NWW) or flexible work design is characterized by flexibility in the
timing of work, flexibility in the place of work and facilitation of new media technologies (e.g.
Videoconferencing).
Two major trends are mainly responsible for ongoing changes in organizations:
- Globalization/commerce without borders: changes the markets and environments in
which organizations operate.
- ICT: redefines how, where and when work is performed.
Intensification of work: increasing work hours and work pressure, the need for lifelong
learning and the ability and willingness to continuously change the type of work one does.
They call for some reorientation and new perspectives on job demands.
Task analysis: any process that identifies and examines the tasks that must be performed by
employees. It assists achieving higher performance and safety standards. Study of what an
employee is required to do, in terms of actions and/or processes, to achieve a system goal.
Aim is to lead to a more efficient and effective integration of the human factor into system
designs and operations via task (re)design in order to optimize human performance and
safety.
Behaviour description approach: focus on the actual employees’ behaviour display in
executing the task.
Behaviour requirements approach: focus on the actual behaviour the employees should
display to perform the task in a successful way.
Ability requirements approach: tasks are analysed in terms of employees’ abilities,
knowledge, skills and personal characteristics.
Task characteristics approach: focus is to analyse the objective characteristics of a task
independent from the behaviour that is or should be displayed.
Task analysis techniques (instruments or protocols with which data can be collected and
described in a systematic way) can be divided in:
1. Data-collection techniques: interviews, observations, records etc.
2. Task-representation techniques: use graphic descriptions (e.g. flow chart).
3. Task-simulation techniques: use computer modelling and computer-aided design
programmes, which have 2 types:
a. Mock-ups: try to simulate the dynamic aspects of tasks in work environment
simulation models.
b. Workspace designs: used for ergonomically laying out work environments.
2
,Chapter 2: Research methods in work psychology (47-55)
Generalizability: extent to which results from the study can be generalized to the population.
A (longitudinal) survey design typically aims to maximize generalizability.
Probability sampling requires that each member of the population has some known non-zero
probability of being sampled. Types:
- Random sampling: each member has an equal and independent probability of being
selected into the sample. It may fail to capture groups that are in the population,
especially if they are relatively small).
- Stratified sampling: population is divided into strata or groups and a random sample
will be taken within each group to ensure that the sample represents the population in
terms of group make-up.
Non-probability samples: some members of the population have no chance of being in the
sample. If the survey has probability or non-probability sampling depends on: how the
sample is selected and the population to which you want to generalize.
Non-probability or convenience sampling: use the participants that you can get.
Non-response bias occurs when people who choose to not participate in the survey differ
from those that do in some relevant matter. It is introduced by low response rates. The extent
to which a low response rate is a problem depends partially on the sampling strategy.
At least two issues are raised as concerns with surveys in work psychology:
1. Often rely on self-report measures and thus may be influenced by common method
variance.
2. Often does not allow for causal inference. Causality requires covariation, temporal
order and control for all possible confounding variables.
Two-wave panel design: longitudinal research design in which a group of employees answer
a survey comprising the same measures at each of two periods. By controlling for the
stability of measures across time, we can determine which variable precedes a change in the
other. However, three waves seems to be better to understand how variables change over
time and it leads to better causal inference.
Descriptive longitudinal research focusses on how a phenomenon changes over time.
Explanatory longitudinal research seeks to identify the cause of change process by the use
of one or more substantive predictor variables, the aim is to predict the changes over time.
Ways of maximizing existential realism:
- Qualitative approaches:
o Interview: asking people questions about their experience. Can be structured
(every question predetermined and same for everyone) or unstructured (they
can change).
o Focus groups: six to ten participant who are asked to discuss issues.
o Observation methods: aim to provide rich descriptions of the environment.
Relies on direct observation of an environment. Participant observation is very
powerful, in which the researcher becomes both a participant and observer.
- Quantitative approach
o Experience sampling: designed to collect data on everyday experiences and
events. Participants are assessed at repeated moments over the course of
time while functioning in their natural settings.
Secondary data: data collected by others, often for different purposes. Advantage is that they
are often readily available and cheaper to obtain than primary data. However, it may not be
focused on the research question, or may not measure a construct in the way that would be
desired.
3
, Chapter 3: The models that made job design
Job design is concerned with activities of workers and relates to the duties and tasks
required to perform the work and how those tasks and duties are structured and scheduled.
Marx: division of labour is a process through which owners/managers can extract the
maximum amount of ‘surplus value’ from workers. In order to make a profit,
owners/managers require industrial processes that produce goods cheaper than their price,
which entails paying workers less for the labours than the value of their labour in the
production process.
Job Characteristics Model (JCM) (Hackman and Oldham): concerned with developing jobs
that are motivating, satisfying and performed well. Concentrates on five key features of work:
- Skill variety (SV): require workers to use a range of skills.
- Task identity (TI): allow worker to produce/deliver an identifiable, complete outcome.
- Task significance (TS): impact on other people, inside and outside the organization.
- Autonomy (AU): allow worker to make decisions concerning how, when and where to
perform tasks and how success is evaluated.
- Feedback from the job (FB): give an indication of how well the worker is performing.
These five characteristics produce three critical psychological states: experienced
meaningfulness of work, experienced responsibility for the outcomes and knowledge of the
results of work activities. They make work more satisfying and therefore workers gain an
intrinsic motivation to perform well. The motivating potential of a job can be calculated with:
SV + TI +TS
motivating potential score= ∙ AU ∙ FB
3
The model only
examines a narrow
range of job
characteristics, ignores
the social elements of
work and concentrates
on the positive features
of work.
The demand-control-
support model
(DCSM) (Theorell) is
primarily concerned
with health, but it also concerns work performance. Originally it consists of job
demands, which are primarily concerned with psychological effort and decision latitude,
which is a combination of skill use and job control. Together they resolve in four major
classes of jobs:
- Passive jobs: low on job demands and on decision latitude.
- High strain jobs: high on job demands and low on decision latitude.
- Low-strain jobs: low on job demands, but high on decision latitude.
- Active jobs: high on job demands and high on decision latitude.
Now the model also incorporates workplace social support, which is characterized by helpful
interaction with supervisors and co-workers. Iso-strain jobs are low on support and job
control but high on job demands, they are particularly harmful to health. The three job
characteristics (e.g. job demands, job control and workplace social support) work in
combination to create healthy work. There are two hypotheses:
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