Ethics Issues in Organisational Psychology Practice

Question 1

What is organisational psychology?

Answer 1

Org psych is the ‘science of people at work’ i.e. working with organisations rather than individuals (fishbowl analogy)

Question 2

What is duty of care?

Answer 2

The responsibility to ensure that individual needs are met and accommodated in a fair and ethical manner. In Org psych, this means not discriminating, ensuring all applicants have equal opportunities, providing informed consent, and maintaining privacy and confidentiality. Guiding principle = DO NO HARM

Question 3

What codes/regulations apply to Org psychs?

Answer 3

APS Guidelines, Employment Law, and Organisational Guidelines (e.g. workplace code of conduct)

Question 4

What is the current Employment Law in QLD?

Answer 4

Based on the 1991 Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act, which promotes the fair treatment and equality of opportunity for all. It is against the law to discriminate against people based on factors such as family responsibilities, religion, sexuality, gender, etc

Question 5

What is the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal?

Answer 5

A group established under the Anti-Discrimination Act (1991), intended to respond to complaints/violations of the Act

Question 6

What is an assessment centre?

Answer 6

Assessment centres = grouping of tests e.g. may have interview, activity, group discussion, role-play and want to look at results across all of those tests. Assessment centre is not a place, but rather a collection of tests?

Question 7

When are pre-employment tests and medicals relevant?

Answer 7

Only if specifically job-relevant (e.g. medical exams given to pilots), and if the relevance is documented (e.g. in the job ad)

Question 8

What are some current issues in personnel selection?

Answer 8

Requirement for non-traditional tests (e.g. leadership), social media profiling, gamification, big data, ageing population, newer (inadequately validated) tests

Question 9

What is R&S?

Answer 9

Recruitment and Selection

Question 10

You are working on an employee engagement and team development project at a highly successful public sector organisation. As part of the process, you (the consultant) are conducting
group development sessions with teams within the
organisation. Although you know that participation should be voluntary, you
overhear a conversation between employees in the tea room that leads you to believe line managers at the organisation
are making the group development sessions “Mandatory”.