Organisational Psych

Question 1

Define organisational psychology

Answer 1

The scientific study of behaviour in the workplace

Question 2

Explain the three areas of focus in organisational psychology; with examples of what each group can entail for organisational psychologists

Answer 2

• Individual Level – personality, attitudes and motivation.
• Group Level – group composition, conflict and leadership.
• Organisational Level – culture structure, change and development.

Question 3

Three different types of organisations

Answer 3

Government, commercial and not-for-profit

Question 4

Two key factors that organisational psychologists measure

Answer 4

Organisational performance/engagement, employee satisfaction

Question 5

Explain the 360 degree and upward apraisal model

Answer 5

Feedback to be gathered from a range of sources – including peers,
customers/clients, suppliers as well as managers.
This is particularly useful for jobs that focus heavily on person-to-person interactions (teachers,
customer service etc).

Question 6

Advantages of 360 degree model

Answer 6

More comprehensive assessment from multiple
sources – useful for rewarding and improving the
employee performance.

Question 7

Disadvantages of 360 degree model

Answer 7

• Being more complex and time consuming.
• Still subject to rater bias.
• Potentially disruptive of interpersonal relationships
  amongst those involved in the appraisal process.

Question 8

Motivation definition

Answer 8

A force determining the direction, intensity and persistence of behaviour.

Question 9

Stages of Maslow’s Heirarchy

Answer 9

Physiological (food and clothing)
Safety (job security)
Belonging needs (relationships)
Esteem
Self-actualization

Question 10

Four types of measures that can be used to assess performance

Answer 10

• Measuring individual employee and team performances with trackers.
• Performance appraisals and ratings.
• 360 degree and upward appraisal.
• Critical Incident Method of Analysing Performance (CIT)

Question 10

What is Vroom’s Theory of Expectancy?

Answer 10

effort + performance + rewards = motivation

Question 11

Assistance with finding the right job is called…

Answer 11

Vocational guidance
(interviews, personality tests)

Question 12

6 Facets of Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice

Answer 12

• Artistic
• Investigative
• Realistic
• Social
• Enterprising
• Conventional

Question 13

Holland - Artistic

Answer 13

Creating, writing, performance, individuality, expression

Question 14

Holland - Investigative

Answer 14

Scientific inquiry, experiments, research, analysis

Question 15

Holland - Realistic

Answer 15

Building, practical, hands-on

Question 16

Holland - Social

Answer 16

• Caring for others, communication, helping, teaching

Question 17

Holland - Enterprising

Answer 17

Business, sales, marketing,politics, leadership, decision making

Question 18

Holland - Conventional

Answer 18

Organisation, accounting,data, numbers, procedures

Question 19

What is Jurgensen’s job preferences study

Answer 19

A study that got participants to rank the facets of a job that are most-least important to them

Question 20

5 factors for optimising teamwork

Answer 20

• collaboration over competition
• complementary skills
• collective identify
• communication and cohesion
  group norms over rules

Question 21

Name 3 of Belbin’s team roles

Answer 21

Resource Investigator, Teamworker and Co-ordinator (the Social roles);
Plant, Monitor Evaluator and Specialist (the Thinking roles),
Shaper, Implementer and Completer Finisher (the Action or Task roles)

Question 22

5 factors that can effect team performance

Answer 22

• conflict resolution
• bullying
• group think
• norms of interaction
• recipricol engagement

Question 23

Conflict resolution styles

Answer 23

Competing
Avoiding
Collaborating
Accomodating
Compromising

Question 24

Define organisational culture

Answer 24

the languages, values, attitudes, beliefs and shared expectations and customs of an organisation

Question 25

3 Facets of Schein’s Concept of Organisational Culture

Answer 25

Visible artifacts
Espoused Values
Basic Assumptions

Question 26

Climate vs Culture?

Answer 26

Climate – explains what and how things are done in an organisation.

Culture – explains why things are done in an organisation.

Question 27

Validity….

Answer 27

does it measure what it intended to measure?

Question 28

Reliability…

Answer 28

Accuracy; can you get similar results every time?