CH1 Introduction to I/O psychology
Purpose of Industrial/Organizational psychology: to enhance the dignity and performance of human
beings, and the organizations they work in, by advancing the science and knowledge of human
behaviour.
Science-practitioner model:
- I/O psychologists act as scientists when they conduct research,
- and as practitioners when they work with actual organizations to apply their research
findings in order increase effectiveness of the organization and the quality of work.
They are not clinical psychologists who happen to be in industry and do not conduct therapy
for workers.
We spend a lot of time at work so IO psychologists also increase quality of life by increasing work
satisfaction. From a societal point of view, more effective work reduces product prices and thereby
influences quality of life.
Major fields:
- Personnel psychology: concentrates on selection and evaluation of employees. Conduct job
evaluations and work in departments that develop and evaluate trainings.
- Organizational psychology: investigates behaviour of employees within context of the
organization. I.e. leadership behaviour, job satisfaction, organizational change, group
processes. Often work in the role of consultant and use surveys to identify organizations
strengths/weaknesses and employee beliefs.
- Human factors/ergonomics: concentrates on workspace design, human-machine interaction
and ergonomics.
History of I/O psychology:
- 1979 Field of psychology established.
- 1903 Scott: the theory of advertising, relating business to psychology.
- Army alpha and beta cognitive tests for WW1 soldiers.
- ~1915 Gilbreths: study of improving productivity and reducing fatigue. Minimum amount of
motions needed to perform a task.
- Expanse of scope: from personnel issues only to work environment.
- 1930 Hawthorne: series of studies at Western Electric plant, employee behaviour is heavily
influenced by the complex environment (i.e. interactions), not only by the direct work
conditions.
o Hawthorne effect: when employees change their behaviour due solely to the fact
that they receive attention or are being watched.
- 1980’s 4 changes: sophisticated statistical methods, new interest in application of cognitive
psychology, increased interest in effects on family life and leisure, renewed interest in
developing selection methods.
- 2000’s: changing economics (globalization > shift of work to lower wage countries, relative
increase of service jobs) and demographics (more diverse workforce).
,Research in I/O psychology: increases effectiveness and thereby saves money, which is the main
reason for existence of the field.
- E.g. research showed that the widely used unstructured job interview is not an effective
selection tool and not a good predictor of future performance on the job. Without research
this observation might not have been made. Common sense is often wrong.
- What to research: research question >
o prediction of answer = hypothesis, usually based on >
o systematic set of assumptions regarding cause and nature of behaviour: theory.
- Methods:
o Experiments are not always possible, in that case quasi experiment: research method
in which the experimenter either does not manipulate the independent variable or in
which subjects are not randomly assigned to conditions.
o Archival research: use of previously collected data.
o Survey: asking opinions on/attitudes towards topic.
- Sampling: a random sample leads to the best research results but is not always practical.
Instead a convenience sample can be used and then subjects are randomly assigned to
research conditions.
- Correlation coefficients do not show causal relationships. They just show how two variables
relate. The explanation for that relation can be more complex than the correlation suggests.
A third, intervening variable (confound) often accounts for the relationship (correlation)
between two variables.
CH3 (Woods & West) Individual differences at work
3 Reasons to study individual differences:
- People differ and that has an impact on their effectiveness and behaviour.
- Context (the work you do) decides impact of differences.
- This impact is not static; what was once a hindrance can be an asset in the future.
We all have implicit theories on personal differences to help us understand the people we work with.
Implicit theories are neither science, nor objective.
Aim of I/O psychology: to explain the differences we observe scientifically. 2 Focus areas:
- Personality.
- Intelligence/cognitive ability: the ability to reason, solve problems, think abstractly,
comprehend complex ideas, learn. It is a broad and general ability.
History of research into intelligence and work performance:
- Galton: intelligence is inherited and there is a normal distribution in the population.
- Meta-analysis methods delivered a breakthrough in relating cognitive ability to work.
- E.g. Hunter: before meta-analysis cognitive ability was seen as a predictor of performance in
some contexts. After analysis Hunter concluded inconsistencies were due to measurement
error and nor context. Cognitive ability predicts performance in all jobs/contexts, although
the degree varies.
o r=.5 In med/high complexity contexts, r=.23 in least complex context.
o Explanation: higher cognitive ability enables to acquire more knowledge regarding
the job and to do it faster.
,Models of intelligence:
- Vernon:
o Verbal intelligence.
o Spatial/mechanical intelligence.
- Catell:
o Crystallized: ability to act out knowledge that you have.
o Fluid: being able to reason and adapt (on the fly).
- Spearman:
o G: general intelligence.
o Strong overlap on different mental capability tasks due to underlying factor ‘g’.
Personality and work performance:
- Barrick and Mount: of all personality traits, conscientiousness is the best predictor in all jobs.
Emotional stability (neuroticism scale) and extraversion predict performance in some jobs.
- In general personality traits have lower correlations with performance than cognitive ability.
o If context is taken into account, the correlations are higher than cognitive ability:
relevant traits are good predictors of performance.
- Why do some traits predict performance in general?
o They are connected to Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB): these are general
prosocial traits that take different forms in different contexts, but in general are
beneficial to performance of the individual within the organization.
- Other associations between personality and performance:
o Job satisfaction, commitment, interests, teamwork, leadership behaviour.
Theory building around personality and performance:
- Personality as static predictor of work performance.
- But it can also be the other way around work influences personality:
o Trait activation Theory (TAT): work influences personality. Through:
▪ Normative change: most people develop roughly in the same way/time path,
we tend to engage in age-related social norms, these drive changes in our
personality/behaviour (e.g. increased conscientiousness with aging).
▪ Deepening/strengthening traits: traits lead to seeking out matching
environments, leading to deepening those traits.
▪ Due to unique experiences work offers: sometimes development through
work can even run counter normative developmental trends.
- Dynamic model (Woods): interaction and adaptation.
o Personality traits are in constant interaction with work activities, we influence our
environment and it influences us.
o Over time different traits influence how we perform and the progression of our
career influences how we develop our personality.
Cognitive ability and OCB are independent and have different
influences at different times.
- Performance at work increases linearly in early stages of
work due to cognitive abilities.
- In the later stages personality becomes more important.
, Emotions are important influences on work outcomes. Key distinctions:
- Affect: overarching term encompassing a broad range of feelings, incl. emotions and traits.
- Moods: general positive/negative feeling, diffuse, not focussed on a specific cause.
- Emotions: discrete constructs directed towards specific target.
- Trait affectivity/dispositional affect: intersection between personality dispositions and
emotions. Tendencies to experience positive/negative feelings. Positive affect is related to
extraversion and negative to neuroticism.
Positive affect > job satisfaction > job performance?
- Research shows a moderate relation between positive affect and performance.
- It is also linked with prosocial behaviours, OCB.
- Negative affect is linked to absence and higher turnover.
- There is a difference between felt emotions and displayed emotions:
o Emotional labour: the control over/ regulation of emotions.
o No evidence of impact of emotional labour on wellbeing.
Core self-evaluation, model of general affective style that relates negative affectivity to neuroticism:
- CSE, 4 key affective tendencies linked into one trait:
o Self esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, neuroticism
- High CSE: confident, positive, feel in control.
- Low CSE: less confidence in self, feel less capable, feel threatened.
- Effect of CSE, it influences:
o How people perceive job characteristics.
o How people see themselves (pos/neg).
o High CSE leads to striving for more intrinsically rewarding/ challenging job.
Psychological capital focuses on the importance of positivity for behaviour and wellbeing. Adopting a
positive stance promotes confidence and working towards goals.
This positive stance, psychological capital, compromises:
- Hope, resilience, optimism, self-efficacy.
CH2 Job analysis and evaluation
Work analysis: foundation for almost all HR activities.
- To identify: tasks employee performs, conditions under which they are performed,
competencies needed for those tasks.
- Guidance for: job description, selection, evaluation of performance, conduct training, job
classification (clustering of jobs based on similarities, requirements and duties), job
evaluation (determine worth), job design (determine optimal way to perform job).
Personpower planning:
- Work analysis can be used to determine worker mobility: towards which functions can a
person grow/ be promoted?
- Promotions typically occur from the position below the vacancy. That can result in the Peter
principle: promoting employees until their highest level of incompetence.
o It makes more sense to promote from positions most similar to the vacancy. E.g.
promoting a well-functioning salesperson to manager is no guarantee for success.
Organizational analysis: job analysis interviews can lead to the discovery of broader/general
problems within an organization.
