I_O Psychology 4

Question 1

What are the three levels of organizational culture?

Answer 1

Behavior and observable artifacts, values, and underlying assumptions.

Question 2

How does gender interact with attractiveness in employee suitability?

Answer 2

All else being equal, when men are judging suitability, less attractive females and more attractive males are seen as more suitable.

Question 3

How does gender interact with management style?

Answer 3

Although generally styles do not differ markedly, some research suggests that women are more focused on interpersonal relationships and task accomplishment than men, and are more likely to adopt a participatory style. Men may be more likely to be autocratic or directive.

Question 4

How does gender affect evaluation of management style?

Answer 4

A small effect is evident of women managers being evaluated less favorable, esp. if they use stereotypically male leadership styles. Men using stereotypically female styles are not evaluated less favorably.

Question 5

Describe Jewell’s work performance formula.

Answer 5

P = A x M, where P performance, A ability, and M motivation.

Question 6

What are the three types of theories of motivation?

Answer 6

Need, cognitive, and reinforcement.

Question 7

On what are need theories of motivation based?

Answer 7

People expend effort in order to fulfill needs.

Question 8

What are Maslow’s five basic needs?

Answer 8

Physiological, safety, social, esteem, self-actualization.

Question 9

What support is there for Maslow’s hierarchy in the workplace?

Answer 9

Not much. May be related to job level, but little support for there being five needs or that they emerge in the predicted order.

Question 10

What three needs did McClelland identify underlying motivation?

Answer 10

• achievement (strongly related to entrepreneurial success)
• power (related to managerial effectiveness)
• affiliation (conflict avoidance)

Question 11

What are the factors in Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory of motivation?

Answer 11

Hygiene (negatively related to dissatisfaction, unrelated to satisfaction), motivators (positively related to satisfaction but unrelated to dissatisfaction). Research does not support a sharp distinction, with both hygiene and motivators contributing to satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Question 12

What is job enrichment?

Answer 12

Application of Herzberg’s two-factor theory, focusing on adding motivators to increase job satisfaction. Research indicates job enrichment is most effective with younger, well-educated workers high in need for achievement.

Question 13

What are the five Job Characteristics in the job enrichment model of motivation?

Answer 13

• skill variety (more skills more meaning)
• task identity (job is all of work, rather than a portion of it)
• task significance (importance of job)
• autonomy (more is better)
• feedback (more is better)

Evidence supports this theory’s relevance to motivation/satisfaction and absenteeism/turnover, but not work quality. Best for those motivated by personal growth.

Question 14

On what assumption are the cognitive theories of motivation based?

Answer 14

Motivation is related to complex decision-making processes.

Question 15

What is goal-setting theory?

Answer 15

Goals both motivate and direct behavior. Most important contributor to motivation is acceptance of and commitment to goals. Attainment is maximized when goals are specific and challenging but achievable, and when accompanied by frequent progress feedback. Overall supported empirically across genders, with some individual differences.

Question 16

What is Management by Objective?

Answer 16

Specific and time-limited goal setting collaborated upon by managers and employees, followed by evaluation and new goals.

Question 17

How do individual goals work in teams?

Answer 17

Individual goals produce poorer performance in context of interdependent teams. Individual goals on top of group goals don’t seem to add to group effectiveness .

Question 18

What is equity theory?

Answer 18

Asserts workers assess work-in : reward-out ratios and compare their own with others’. When an individual’s ratio appears to be less favorable than another’s, they are motivated to make it equitable.

Question 19

Compare underpayment and overpayment in equity theory?

Answer 19

Underpayment (more work for less reward) motivates workers to decrease work quality or quantity, to re-evaluate their work as less valuable or their rewards more valuable, or to leave. Overpayment (less work for more reward) is the reverse, but affects work performance less than underpayment.

Question 20

What are the three variables in expectancy theory?

Answer 20

• expectancy beliefs (efforts will produce success)
• instrumental beliefs (success will produce given outcomes)
• valence (desirability of outcomes)

Question 21

On what are reinforcement theories of motivation based?

Answer 21

Reinforcement strengthens behavior, punishment reduces it, and behavior extinguishes without reinforcement.

Question 22

Explain Deci’s conclusions about extrinsic vs. intrinsic rewards.

Answer 22

Intrinsically rewarding behaviors, e.g., solving puzzles, that are then extrinsically reinforced are diminished. Deci argued that extrinsic reinforcement leads actors to believe they are acting in response to those reinforcers rather than intrinsic ones.

Question 23

What is incentive theory?

Answer 23

Application of operant conditioning to the workplace.

Question 24

What are some factors associated with job satisfaction?

Answer 24

Age, level of hierarchy, skill utilization, and majority race are positively correlated with job satisfaction. There is also evidence of a dispositional effect, with job satisfaction being stable within individuals across jobs and time.

Question 25

What is the relationship of pay to job satisfaction.

Answer 25

Perception of fairness is important: pay to performance, and equability to others with the same job. Pay is easily confounded with other factors such as autonomy and challenge.

Question 26

Discuss the relationship between job satisfaction and various performance measures.

Answer 26

Moderately negatively related to absenteeism and turnover. Better predictor of job longevity than physical health. Positively correlated with mental health. Weakly positively related to performance (moderated by relationship of performance to pay).

Question 27

What is organizational commitment?

Answer 27

An individual’s identification with an organization. Greatest when job opens opportunities for growth and responsibility. Negatively correlated with absenteeism and turnover. May increase resistance to change.

Question 28

What is engineering psychology?

Answer 28

Focuses on the fit between workers and their work procedures, environment, and equipment.

Question 29

What is a person-machine system.

Answer 29

A system involving both persons and machines and requiring optimal performance from each relative to the other. For example, people are more flexible but less consistent; machines are less flexible but more consistent; people are good at detecting patterns; machines can sense data outside the range of human perception.

Question 30

Name three alternatives to the 40-hour five-day work week.

Answer 30

Compressed work week, flextime, and shift work.

Question 31

What is known about the effects of a compressed work week (CWW)?

Answer 31

Evidence of positive effects on performance, job and schedule satisfaction. Mixed results on absenteeism. No apparent effect on productivity, except in fatiguing jobs, where it has a negative effect.

Question 32

What is known about the effects of flextime?

Answer 32

Evidence of positive effects on job and schedule satisfaction and absenteeism. Mixed results on performance.

Question 33

What is known about the effects of shift work?

Answer 33

Lower productivity, higher errors and injury at night within workers. Rotating shifts are worst case. Younger workers more adaptable and there may be individual differences.

Question 34

What does the current research say about Types A & B behavior?

Answer 34

Stress and its negative effects are more connected to specific behaviors or attitudes, e.g., anger and hostility, than global personality patterns.

Question 35

What is reported to be the most stressful aspect of a psychotherapist’s job?

Answer 35

Lack of therapeutic success.

Question 36

What characterizes burnout?

Answer 36

Exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, impersonalized thinking (people as objects). Higher among women, single/divorced persons, people who deal with other people and who have little opportunity for advancement.

Question 37

What percentage of accidents are accounted for by human error?

Answer 37

50%-80%

Question 38

Is there an accident prone personality type?

Answer 38

Unclear. Some traits that correlate are pessimism, low trust, depressive temperament.

Question 39

What two factors are necessary in workplace safety?

Answer 39

Positive attitude toward safety, knowledge of safety procedures.

Question 40

What approaches to workplace safety have been shown to be effective?

Answer 40

Positive theme (as opposed to scare tactics); management’s commitment to programs; incentives. Posters are not effective by themselves and are most effective when they are specific.