Occupational psychology Flashcards
What does occupational psychology aim to do?
Improve effectiveness of organisations and the work performance within them, and also aims to improve the conditions and satisfaction of workers within organisations
What is meant by Taylorism?
How occupational psych began in the 1900s - awareness of the need to train workers to economical standards, with the main objective of improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity.
Taylor believed that jobs could be analysed using time-and-motion studies, broken down into smallest actions as they were performed by the most efficient workers, and having found the most economical way of performing a job new workers could be trained to perform to this standard
Some of the principles of Taylorism include only rewarding workers with money (belief in tangible rewards as central motivators), and setting up procedures to prevent them from any deception/shirking (he believed workers to be selfish and untrustworthy, not desirous of responsibility)
What was the role of the Health of Munitions workers committee (1915)?
Looked at factors such as worker fatigue and health and how these interacted with work performance
What did Rowntree’s first employed psychologist in 1922 believe?
Staff satisfaction could be enhanced by asking workers to join discussions on their work environment conditions - established as works council and factory psychological department
Unlike Taylor, emphasis was on considering worker’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes and job satisfaction alongside their physical condition and training needs
What did the Hawthorne electrical plant study demonstrate?
Humans don’t just operate like machines but feelings, attitudes and social relations significantly impact on productivity (physical conditions and fatigue only part of the story)
THE HAWTHORNE EFFECT - changes in working conditions do improve productivity but are not responsible alone; interest and attention shown to workers is actually the principle driving factor in boosting productivity
What were 2 limitations of the Hawthorne study?
Supervisors and 2 participants actually changed mid-way
Feedback was provided to participants regarding their performance (this is not known to have a significant effect on worker motivation)
What are the 3 different categories of occupational psychology?
Human factors - ergonomics and design of environments and work i.e. healthy and safety concerns
Personnel psychology - recruitment (selection and assessment), performance appraisals, counselling, issues of equal opportunities and training in how to facilitate work performance
Organisational psychology - Leadership, motivation, employee relations and organisational development/change
What are the 3 most important components of an organisation’s development plan?
Training needs analysis
Training design
Subsequent evaluation of training
What are the 3 levels of the training needs analysis?
Organisational analysis - training needs develop as a result of introducing new developments/changes in an organisation, or recognising that an organisation is failing in some specific area
Task analysis - determines important elements in a job and the knowledge/skills/abilities needed to complete them; breaks a behaviour down into smaller and specific elements
Person analysis - individual training needs are often identified as managers conduct a performance review with their staff and usually those needs are ones which help the individual meet organisational goals
What does the stage of training design involve?
Programmes to deliver training need to be assessed for effectiveness using clear and measurable objectives
Design needs to consider how people learn, so can be done from any of three perspectives:
Behavioural - assessing learning through measurable behaviours e.g. programmed instruction, breaking task into small units and individual follows instructions in a set order to learn how to do task
Social learning theory - behaviour modelling training where employees shown both appropriate and inappropriate work behaviours, observe the outcomes and then practise the observed task
Cognitive - trainees more likely to use trainer’s actions as information on how to get a task done rather than simply observing and copying behaviour; positive feedback is important in this approach, immediate rather than delayed, and more about actively improving behaviour than reinforcement
What is the preferred approach to training evaluation?
Experimental approach - control and experimental group, both of which have pre-test baseline measures taken, then experimental group has the training
Post-test to see if the training created a difference or not
What is meant by Need theories of motivation?
For example, Maslow’s hierarchy and suggestion that we are motivated to satisfy needs at the base of the pyramid before moving to satisfy the higher levels - this has been heavily criticised and Rowan suggested there should also be a need for competence included in the hierarchy i.e. ability to master skills
What has much empirical support been provided for in the context of need theories?
Those theories that look at very specific needs e.g. McClelland’s “Need for achievement”, arguably a personality variable which could be altered by life experiences
What are rational theories of motivation?
Assume that humans are rational beings and make calculations about their work environments and from these deduce what level of motivation is appropriate
Equity and Expectancy theories
What is meant by Equity theory?
Adams assumed people would feel discomfort when perceiving inequity (equity is a sense of fairness in the exchange of goods, services, time, and effort in working conditions) and would adjust behaviour i.e. productivity and output accordingly
For example, they might work less of they perceive others are being paid the same for less work; people are also more likely to work harder if they feel over-paid
