PSYCHOLOGY IN THE
WORKPLACE SUMMARY
Psychology in Society Minor
2020-2021
,Table of Contents
General introduction .............................................................................................................................. 2
Reading: Chapter 1) What is Industrial and Organizational Psychology? ........................................... 2
Reading: Chapter 2) Methods and Statistics in I-O Psychology .......................................................... 8
Individual Differences and Assessment ............................................................................................... 17
Reading: Chapter 3) Individual Differences and Assessment ........................................................... 17
Job performance................................................................................................................................... 31
Reading: Chapter 4) Job Analysis and Performance ......................................................................... 31
Reading: Chapter 5) Performance Measurement ............................................................................. 38
Staffing, fairness, & organizational justice .......................................................................................... 46
Reading: Chapter 6) Staffing Decisions ............................................................................................. 46
Reading: Chapter 11) Fairness and Diversity in the Workplace (only 11.1 & 11.2) .......................... 52
Training and development ................................................................................................................... 57
Reading: Chapter 7) Training and development ............................................................................... 57
Motivation to work .............................................................................................................................. 65
Reading: Chapter 8) The Motivation to Work................................................................................... 65
Attitudes, emotions and work ............................................................................................................. 73
Reading: Chapter 9) Attitudes, Emotions and Work......................................................................... 73
Stress and worker well-being .............................................................................................................. 79
Reading: Chapter 10) Stress and Worker Well-Being ....................................................................... 79
Leadership ............................................................................................................................................ 88
Reading: Chapter 12) Leadership ...................................................................................................... 88
Diversity and Teamwork ...................................................................................................................... 97
Reading: Chapter 11) Fairness and Diversity in the Workplace (only 11.3) ..................................... 97
Reading: Chapter 13) Teams in Organization ................................................................................... 99
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,General introduction
Reading: Chapter 1) What is Industrial and Organizational Psychology?
1.1. The importance of I-O Psychology
The importance of work in people’s lives
• People spend most of their time working. In fact, for many it is a greater devotion of time and
energy than to any other single waking human activity.
• The experience of work goes well beyond the simple exchange of time for money → work is a
defining characteristic of the way people gauge their value to society, their family, and
themselves.
• Psychology has often ignored how workers actually “conceptualize their daily experiences – the
goals and concerns they bring to the workplace”.
• Good work is work that exhibits a high level of expertise, and it entails regular concerns with the
implications and applications of an individual’s work for the wider world.
o “GoodWork Project” is a project that is directed toward identifying and, if possible,
creating good work.
o Good work is tougher to do than it might seem → pressure to keep costs low and profits
high, to do more in less time, and to fulfil numerous life roles (parent, spouse, friend,
student, worker) can all make cutting corners tempting.
▪ This “corner cutting” leads to compromised work → work that is not illegal, or
unethical, but that still undermines the core values of a trade or a profession.
• The interesting aspect of “good” and “bad” work is that the individual worker and the employer
together have the power to define good work or to transform good work into bad and vice versa.
• The study of work by I-O psychologists and students is potentially “good work” because it enables
you to develop and use skills, and to use them for the benefit of someone other than simply
yourself. I-O psychologists have also broadened their focus of study to consider the experience of
work.
• I-O psychology often incorporates cultural shifts and changes.
• Authenticity refers to that which is real, genuine, not artificial.
o In a world where virtual reality is becoming increasingly prevalent, authenticity is “what
consumers really want”.
• In I-O psychology we might extent the definition of authenticity to a more philosophical level: an
emotionally appropriate, significant, purposive, and responsible mode of human life.
o Viewing authenticity in this way, we can see authenticity reflected in the search for “good
work” and inspirational leadership.
How does I-O Psychology contribute to society?
• I-O psychology is a synonym for Industrial and Organizational psychology → the application of
psychological principles, theory, and research to the work setting.
o The domain of I-O psychology stretches well beyond the physical boundaries of the
workplace because many of the factors that influence work behaviour are not always
found in the work setting (e.g., family responsibilities, cultural influences, non-work
events, etc.)
• I-O psychology concentrates on the reciprocal impact of work on life and life on work.
• We can also think of I-O psychology as a combination of knowledge and skills that can be applied
in a wide diversity of settings rather than just in the arena of traditional work.
• I-O psychologists have become increasingly interested in building sustainable and environmentally
conscious organizations.
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, o I-O psychologists can guide organizations in identifying and measuring their eco-benefits
and in promoting these benefits as another important outcome that can be considered
along with more traditional outcomes such as individual, team, and organizational
performance.
• I-O psychologists have been working to promote prosocial applications of psychology called
humanitarian work psychology: the application of I-O psychology to the humanitarian arena,
especially poverty reduction and the promotion of decent work, aligned with local stakeholders’
needs, and in partnership with global aid/development groups.
• Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) → an association to which many I-O
psychologists, both practitioners and researchers belong. Designated as Division 14 of the
American Psychological Association (APA).
o Formal definition of I-O psychology: Industrial-Organizational Psychologists recognize the
interdependence of individuals, organizations, and society, and they recognize the impact
of factors such as increasing government influences, growing consumer awareness, skill
shortages, and the changing nature of the workforce. I-O psychologists facilitate
responses to issues and problems involving people at work by serving as advisors and
catalysts for business, industry, labour, public, academic, community, and health
organizations.
• Traditionally, I-O psychology has been divided into three major concentrations:
o Personnel psychology addresses issues such as recruitment, selection, training,
performance appraisal, promotion, transfer, and termination. The approach assumes that
people are consistently different in their attributes and work behaviours and that
information about these differences can be used to predict, maintain, and increase work
performance and satisfaction.
▪ Is part of human resources management (HRM) → practices such as recruitment,
selection, retention, training, and development of people (human resources) in
order to achieve individual and organizational goals.
▪ The goal is to find or fit the best person to the job.
o Organizational psychology combines research and ideas from social psychology and
organizational behaviour and addresses the emotional and motivational side of work.
▪ In some senses, it concentrates on the reactions of people to work and the action
plans that develop as a result of those reactions.
o Human engineering (or human factors psychology) is the study of the capacities and
limitations of humans with respect to a particular environment.
▪ the goal is to develop an environment that is compatible with the characteristics
of the worker.
• The most striking characteristic of the profession of an I-O psychologist is that research is actually
used to address a concrete problem or issue. There is a clear connection between research
conducted using the tool of science and the practice of I-O psychology → this emphasis on the
application of scientific knowledge is known as the scientist-practitioner model.
• I-O psychologists have become increasingly focused on making evidence-based decisions in their
work in organizations.
How this course can help you
• can help you understand what you are experiencing in the workplace.
• Provides a good foundation for developing and/or implementing effective policies.
• You will be able to act as a resource in helping people understand the policies that are affecting
them.
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,• Welfare-to-work program is a program that requires individuals to work in return for government
subsidies.
• Telecommuting → accomplishing work tasks from a distant location using electronic
communication media.
• Virtual teams → team that has widely dispersed members working together toward a common
goal and linked through computers and other technology.
The importance of understanding the younger worker
• It is a mistake to ignore the population of young workers for several reasons:
o They represent a large portion of a population of part-time workers, and as part-time work
becomes more common, we need to know all we can about the experience of part-time
work.
o One’s first job is likely to have a substantial influence on the filters through which
subsequent work experiences are viewed.
• I-O research that has been done on younger workers suggests the following:
1. For younger adults, jobs that provide an opportunity to use current skills or develop new
skills are most satisfying
2. For younger adults who do not have the opportunity to use current skills, or develop new
skills, cynicism and lack of interest in the work can result. ‘
3. Younger workers represent a very valuable commodity or resource since their education
levels tend to be higher than their parents’, they are more sophisticated technologically,
they tend to see the world globally rather than domestically, they have no problem being
“connected” 24 hours a day, and multicultural school environments have given them an
open-mindedness that was rare in earlier generations.
• Younger adults represent a valuable resource in terms of skills and experiences they have
independent of paid work.
• If the nature of the student work was related to the student’s major, both school satisfaction and
school performance increased. In contrast, long hours and work that allowed no control on the
part of the student actually decreased academic performance.
Summary
• Work is important because it occupies much of our time, provides us with a livelihood, and defines
how we feel about ourselves. “Good work” enables workers to develop and use skills to benefit
others.
• I-O psychology applies psychological principles, theory, and research to the workplace and to all
aspects of life that are touched by work. SIOP is the primary professional membership organization
for I-O psychologists.
• In this course you will gain knowledge about the workplace, work-related issues, and the ways
that work has changed over recent decades.
1.2. The past, present, and future of I-O psychology
The past: A brief history of I-O psychology
• To know where we are now and where we are going as a field, it helps to know how we got here.
• When we look at history from a broad perspective, it is possible to make some good guesses about
the future. And knowing the discipline’s history helps us understand the context in which research
and application were conducted, which in turn helps us appreciate the value of that research
today.
• 1876-1930
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, o The roots of I-O psychology trace back nearly to the beginning of psychology as a science.
o Wilhelm Wundt founded one of the first psychological laboratories in 1878 in Leipzig,
Germany.
o Hugo Munsterberg was one of the first to measure abilities in workers and tie those
abilities to performance.
o James McKeen Cattell was the first to realize the importance of differences among
individuals as a way of predicting their behaviour.
o Stanford-Binet test → a well-known intelligence test designed for testing one individual
at a time. Originally developed by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in 1905, the Binet-
Simon test was updated starting in 1916 by Lewis Terman and colleagues at Stanford
University, which led to the test’s current name.
o Scientific Management → a movement based on principles developed by Frederick W.
Taylor, who suggested that there was one best and mot efficient way to perform various
jobs.
▪ Scientific Management was based on the principles of time and motion studies
→ studies that broke every action down into its constituent parts; timed those
movements with a stopwatch, and developed new and more efficient movements
that would reduce fatigue and increase productivity.
• 1930-1964
o Elton Mayo studied the emotions of workers. He was particularly interested in the
possibility that work “caused” workers to act in pathological ways.
▪ Revery obsession → Mayo proposed that this mental state resulted from the
mind-numbing, repetitive, and difficult work that characterized U.S. factories in
the early 20th century, causing factory workers to be unhappy, prone to resist
management attempts to increase productivity, and sympathetic to labour
unions.
o Hawthorne studies → research done at the Hawthorne, Illinois, plant of the Western
Electric Company that began as attempts to increase productivity by manipulating
lighting, rest breaks, and work hours. This research showed the important role that
workers’ attitudes played in productivity.
▪ The “Hawthorne effect” → the change in behaviour that results from researchers
paying attention to the workers.
▪ Until the Hawthorne studies, it had been generally accepted that the only
significant motivator of effort was money and that the environment, rather than
person, was of primary importance.
o Human Relations Movement → the results of the Hawthorne studies ushered in this
movement, which focused on work attitudes and the newly discovered emotional world
of the worker.
o Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 → federal legislation that prohibits employment
discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin, which define
what are known as protected groups. Prohibits not only intentional discrimination but also
practices that have the unintentional effect of discriminating against individuals because
of their race, colour, national origin, religion, or sex.
The present: The demographics of I-O psychologists
• American Psychological Association (APA) is the major professional organization for psychologists
of all kinds in the United States, founded in 1892.
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, o The Association for Psychological Science (APS) was formed to serve the needs of the
more experimental and theoretical areas of psychology.
• I-O psychologists work in a wide variety of employment settings.
• Major shift in amount of women as I-O psychologists, and in ethnicity.
• Different terms in different countries to describe a psychologist who studies work behaviour → I-
O, industrial and organizational, organizational, work and organizational, or simply work
psychologist.
The future: The challenges to I-O psychology in the 21st century
• There are many opportunities for I-O psychology to contribute to employers, workers, and the
broader society in which we live. To make these contributions, I-O psychology needs to meet four
challenges:
o I-O psychology needs to be relevant: we need to study the problems of today, not those
of yesterday.
o I-O psychology needs to be useful: I-O psychologists must always be thinking of ways to
put research into practice.
o I-O psychology needs to think bigger: even though I-O psychologists do not have the tools
necessary to address large global issues, they should be represented at the “table” where
such issues are being debated.
o I-O psychology needs to be grounded in the scientific method: careful and systematic
observation, the development of hypotheses that can be tested, the public collection and
analysis of data, and a logical connection between the data and the interpretations of
these data are the bases for our “reputation” in research and practice.
Summary
• I-O psychology began with studies of industrial efficiency and individual differences. The latter led
to mental ability tests. The Hawthorne studies prompted the study of workers’ emotions. Human
engineering came to prominence during the Second World War. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 required employers to justify testing and other policies in terms of equal opportunity.
• I-O psychology in the 21st century needs to be relevant, useful, broadly focused, and grounded in
scientific method.
• To call yourself an I-O psychologist, you need to earn a graduate degree and, in many jurisdictions,
obtain a license. SIOP provides information about licensing requirements.
• To be admitted to a graduate program, it is advantageous to do well in statistics and methods
courses, obtain strong letters of recommendation, and gain experience as a research assistant or
as an intern with a management or I-O consulting firm.
1.3. Multicultural and cross-cultural issues in I-O psychology
The multicultural nature of life in the 21st century
• Nowadays there is much more diversity. A nationality is simply a geographic reality → it’s the
country of birth. It has importance because it carries important psychological material.
• Psychologists are concerned with the behavioural implications of nationality.
o Culture → a system in which individuals share meanings and common ways of viewing
events and objects. Culture distinguishes people more than nationality.
• In I-O psychology, some of the most obvious cultural differences we need to address are related
to nationalities. The definition of culture emphasizes the sharing of meanings and interpretations.
This highlights the opportunity for people to bring different meanings and interpretations to an
event or an object. This is why recognition of culture’s influence is so important for I-O psychology.
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, o As the world of work brings together people of many different nationalities (and cultures),
the opportunities for misunderstandings and ineffective or counterproductive human
resource applications grow as the number of different cultures grows.
o Although two individuals share the fact that they are managers and work in an urban
environment, they differ can differ in gender and national origin; thus, they may hold
different values regarding certain behaviours and might be expected to behave differently
in certain situations.
• Global economy → it is no longer possible for any country, regardless of size, to exist without
economic connections with other countries. There have always been “connections” between
countries, but now they are much wider, more complex, and more intense.
o Causes people to work in different countries, and switching between countries over time.
o This sense of global connectedness makes jobs even les secure than they might have been.
• For I-O psychologists, the importance of this connectedness is that it brings many different
cultures into contact with one another at the workplace, particularly when the workplace is a
virtual one.
• The challenge then becomes one of developing systems that will be compatible with so many
different ways of viewing objects, or events, that is, compatible with so many different cultures.
• The Dynamic of Top-Down-Bottom-Up processes across levels of cultures
o The broadest level is the global culture → because Western societies dominate the global
economy, the global culture is large a Western one characterized by the freedom of
choice, individual rights, and competition.
o This does not mean that national cultures do not also have an influence in the manner by
which work gets done in individual domestic locations. This is the second level.
o The third level (or layer) is that of the organizational culture, then the work group (group
culture), and finally the core is the extent to which the individual identifies with these
various cultures.
• Domestic cultures (or subcultures) are defined by age, gender, race, disability, geographic region,
education, or even leisure pursuits. Many of these cultures or subcultures overlap and interact
with each other, resulting in even greater complexity.
• It’s important to understand not only the fact that cultures do differ systematically but also how
they may differ.
• “West versus the Rest” mentality is the tendency for researchers to develop theories relevant to
U.S. situations, with less concern given to their applicability in other countries.
• Although both the I-O psychology and HRM fields are beginning to recognize the importance of a
multicultural foundation for understanding work behaviour, the recognition has come mostly in
the form of applications devoid of theory. A case in point has been the problem of expatriates:
managers or professionals assigned to work in a location outside of his or her home country. Some
expatriates fail because they cannot or will not adapt to the culture of the new location.
Some theories of cultural influence
• By understanding why principles or strategies might not apply in a culture, we are actually
understanding the meaning and importance of that cultural variable.
• Collectivist culture → a culture that values the group more than the individual.
• Individualist culture → a culture that values the individual more than the group.
• Hofstede’s Theory
o Geert Hofstede developed a theory that proposes five basic elements on which cultures
can be distinguished.
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