Social Psychology in Organisations
Hoorcolleges aantekeningen
2023-2024
College 1
13-11-2023
Introductie
6 topics/ 6 lectures
- Organisational behaviour
- Power and leadership
- Teams and diversity
- Motivation
- Organisational change
- Decision making, negotiation, and communication
Laatste college is 18 december en laatste werkgroep is 20 december. Maar door onvoorziene
omstandigheden kunnen de data later worden gebruikt.
Je mag 1 werkgroep missen, maar als je er meer dan 1 mist, om welke reden dan ook, moet je alle
werkgroepen opnieuw doen in blok 4.
De artikelen die je moet voorbereiden voor de werkgroepen zijn GEEN tentamenstof.
Tentamen = 50%
- 42 multiple choice vragen (80%)
- 2 essay vragen (20%)
Werkgroepcijfer = 50%
What is organisational behaviour (OB)?
The Hawthorne effect?
This is what started organisational behaviour.
The Hawthorne effect is how your behaviour changes when someone is observing you.
Hawthorne studies
Hawthorne studies led to a focus on the role of human behaviour in organisations. Mayo’s work was
the beginning of the human relations movement.
It refers to the Hawthorne factory, in this factory they made things such as telephones. The
researchers were interested in how changes in the environment would change the productivity. The
most well-known changes were the change of brightness of the light in the work environment. They
found that changing the light, either making it brighter or dimming it, increased productivity
,compared to the control group. Then they just pretended to change the light, but actually didn’t, and
this group increased in productivity compared to the control group. So, it wasn’t the light, but the
fact that someone cared enough to try out the light made them work harder. This is what is now
called the Hawthorne effect. It was about the attention, the same goes for the placebo effect.
What is organisational behaviour?
Organisational behaviour (OB): the study of individuals and their behaviour at work. Interdisciplinary
and multi-level research. Focus on applied social psychology.
Evidence-based management (EBM): using scientific (evidence -based) knowledge as basis for
management decisions. EBM reduces judgement error in decision making.
EBM vs. organisational legitimacy
Organisational legitimacy: an organisations assumption that its actions are desirable, proper, or
appropriate based on the widespread belief that they are just and valid. A.k.a.: “we do it because
others do it, therefore it is good”.
Legitimacy and agile working
Agile working = independent of place (and time). Flexible workspaces. Working from home.
Researchers found that people don’t like flex offices, where people don’t have an assigned desk. But
besides that evidence, organisations continue to introduce it, because other organisations do it.
Evidence-based management (EBM)
Selecting the best available evidence systematic decision-making re-evaluating and adapting
Selecting the best available evidence: EBM involves using multiple sources of scientific evidence and
empirical results as a means of attaining knowledge and finding interventions and strategies. The
goal is to make decisions based on the best available evidence.
Systematic decision-making: mental biases, prejudices or lazy thinking are reduced by taking into
consideration published literature, critically appraising evidence, and selecting a strategy supported
by science.
Re-evaluating and adapting like in the social science, decisions are critically examined and accurately
evaluated using the scientific method. Constant re-evaluation and improvement of the hypothesis
determines whether the strategy is worthwhile.
Four kinds of evidence in EBM:
1. Scientific literature (empirical studies)
2. Practitioners (professional expertise)
3. Stakeholders (values and concerns)
4. Organisation (internal data)
,What is critical thinking?
How can a manager sort through all this information and decide what is relevant?
"Critical thinking calls for persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in
the light of evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends”
Critical thinking requires several skills (you can learn these):
- Logic (rely on reason, weigh evidence)
- Reflection (examine assumptions, recognize biases)
- Dual processing (consider different viewpoints, start over when necessary)
- Attention to detail (study many sources, be thorough)
- Decision making (develop contingency plans)
What is personality?
Personality has been defined as “regularities in feeling, thought and action that are characteristic of
an individual”. Your personality is relatively set, so you have to deal with the personality of people,
not try to change it.
To be or not to be (born) a leader?
24% genetic component in predicting leadership role, this is relatively a small component.
This plot represents three components, shared environment, genetic and unshared environment.
The environment and genetic component contribute equally to if someone ends up in a leadership
role.
The best way to study this is by studying identical twins versus non-identical twins.
Leadership style
, Identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to share a leadership style, regardless of which
style.
Transformational leadership style: charismatic leadership style, you inspire people
Transactional leadership style: reward and punish
Genetics is, again, a relatively small component.
From DNA to personality (important! Study the book)
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
- The Big Five
- Psychological capital
- Type A versus Type B
- Machiavellianism
- Self-monitoring
- Risk taking
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most often administered personality test in
organisational settings.
- Based on Carl Jung
- Claims to assess your ‘true’ (unconscious) personality type
o Unconscious, so you can’t cheat on this test
- Predicts behaviour
Four general personality preferences:
- Introversion (I) versus extraversion (E)
- Sensing (S) versus intuition (N)
- Thinking (T) versus feeling (F)
- Judging (J) versus perceiving (P)
Ik ben: ESFJ-T