Organisational Psychology Flashcards
Organisational psychology definition
The science of people at work
Apply theories and methods from psychology to the workplace, helping to solve problems and improve outcomes.
We spend about 1/3 of our lives at work - work is a tripartite of life (alongside with home and sleep)
Focusses on creating environments and strategies to prevent deteriorations in psychological health - target prevention
- demands of the job
- traumatic events
- extent of control
- level of support
- working in isolation
Helps create skills that enable people to cope with work
Organisational psychology as a ‘concept’
Bryan first coined the term ‘industrial psychology’
industrial / field psychology is made up of
- experimental psychology
- individual differences psychology
- industrial engineering
Key periods in organisational psychology
- unskilled workforce with rapid industrialisation –> principles of scientific management
- rapid production / recruitment of conscripts –> working conditions and productivity / psychological testing
- Great Depression –> hawthorne studies and interpersonal factors
- Advanced technologies / recruitment of conscripts –> human factors and ergonomics / leadership and officer selection
- expanding economies and management / motivation – > goalsetting, groups and worker motivation
- person-organisation fit, complex organisations –> personality measurement, organisations as systems
- contemporary I/O –> job analysis, leadership personality
Key names
Munsterberg, Cattell and Bingham were students of Vundt, very interested in the idae of introspection (relationship between how we are responding and the environment)
Munsterberg
Selection system for streetcar motor men
- built a system to eliminate ‘accident-prone’ drivers
- used a simulation
Cattell
- quantitative assessment of individual differences in reaction time, time estimation, memory
- founded the psychological corporation - psychometric instruments
- supported the scientist-practioner model (absence of theory however, with the expectation of data-driven approach)
Taylor (Taylorism)
Principles of Scientific management
- development of a true science of work
- scientific selection of employees
- scientific training and development of employees
- friendly cooperation between management and employees
Time and motion study: identifying gaps that create inefficiency in order to remedy these gaps
- creates efficiencies by changing the behaviour of the environment *you can change individuals or you can change behaviour
doesn’t account for psychological dimensions (i.e. the repercussions of doing the same thing over and over again)
Walter Dill Scott
Issue: rapid production
Interested in recruitment of conscripts ad working conditions
Interested in the factors that lead to improvement (culture, motivation and productivity)
Bingham
developed the applied psychology division of the APA - developing theoretical perspectives for improvement of performance
Hawthorne Studies
Issues: WWI came with the expansion of factory population, changes in the role of women in the workforce, demands for output
Ppl rostered on for 7 days a week, w 1 day off per month
Reducing hours from 75 a week to 55 a week to increase efficiency
Goal to test the relationship between work productivity and light intensity
idea is that the nature of hte psychological contract with other employers impacts efficiency
Hawthorne effect is the placebo effect - test of 12000 cardiovascular disease prone patients
Psychomotor testing
Selecting people on the basis that htey are quick learners by developing a number of tests for selection of pilots
Battery of tests were predictive of performance in initial flight training but less so for more advanced flight training
Leadership - A trait?
Are you born with a capacity for leadership (trait approach) or predispositioned to a particular style of leadership?
OR
is it taught>
leadership: a state
Based upon the principles:
- style of leadership is goverened by the demands of the situation
- leadership should be evaluated in terms of a particular situation
- leadership style is relatively unstable
It is likely that there are components of leadership which are trait based, but given the set of circumstances, that leadership style matches with a set of contextual ideals
Human factors and system design
optimising the relationship between users and the tools and systems which they interact with
70s
people were thinking about how they can achieve success more holistically
- more choice in jobs (changing occupations)
- challenge: how do we create an environment to motivate individuals? what do we need to make sure performance is maintained?
Goal setting theory
70s goal setting theory
- having a conscious specific goal in mind is the most important factor in explaining motivation (Locke)
- less concrete and tangible goals in this context
According to Ryan: intention
According to Drucker: being concrete, managing by objectives
To achieve both of these we need feedback
Goal setting implications
1. individuals must have the ability to perform the task
- material incentives may improve performance
- participatory decision making in goal setting is no more affective than assigned goals
- people hwo are confident in their ability to perform a task are more likely to be more successful (SELF EFFICACY)
Contemporary focus on job analysis:
Job analysis: the combination of the job description and the job specification
Job description:
- position, title
- duties, reproting lines
- workplace
Job specification
- education, work experience
- skills required
- roles and responsibilities
- training expectations
- personal qualities
- emotional capabilities
Transformational leadership theory
How leaders influence their followers:
- focus on charismatic or ‘transformational leaders’
Tranforms aspirations, desires and beliefs
- high job performance
- high job satisfaction
- high organisational commitment
- low intention of resigning
Personality: the big 5
openness to experience
conscientiousness
extraversion
neuroticism
agreeableness
occupational hazards
head, workload, vibration, fatigue, cold, morale, noise
physical and psychological
occupational disease (pathogenic, ergonomic, psychological)
asbestiosis, black lung disease, lead poisoning
carpal tunnel syndrome, tendrinitis
chronic stress, IBS, PTSD, depression, anxiety
Occupational health psychology
psychological factors that contribute to occupational health and wellbeing
- workload, lack of contorl, role ambiguity, role conflict, organisational demands
occupational accidents across australia
- freq of occupational fatalities has decreased due to legislation, new equipmen, etc
consequence of occupational accidents
immediate
- causalty management
- casualty transportation
- injurides during recovery
- loss of infrastructure
Short term
- recovery from injury
- management of fatalities
- psychological debriefing
- social costs
Long term
- loss of confidence
- workplace labour losses
- wuality of life costs
- compensation costs
- insurance premiums
Human error
an action that fails to meet some implicit or explicit criterion (information processing lens)
Perception (attention error) –> results in a lapse (I didn’t see)
- tend to be from a lack of experience
Decision (decision error) –> results in a mistake
Response (action error) –> slip
- shortened time periods
identifying errors
error taxonomies
- tabulation of factors according to a model that classifies error
Adv: allows compilation of data, cost effective means of highlighting areas of concern
Dis: based on a model, simplifies complex occurances, no temporal dimensions
Patterns of human error
sporadic (individual differences)
systematic (systems related)
random
individual differences
accident proneness –> select workers with a low disposition for accident proneness
attitudes
risk perception
Managing error in industrial systems through:
Selection: based on risk taking, assertiveness, skill acquisition, error identification
Training: knowledge, attitudes, skills, behavioural and cognitive competancies
Design: guards, warnings, protection devices, alarms, procedures
occupational psychology has made a number of significant contributions such as
research methodology
personnel selection
enhancing mental health
human factors and user experience
Phases of the case study
Diagnosis phase: using staff surveys, interviews, summarising this data
Problem formulation: use theory such as the job demands and resouces model
Intervention phase: such as coaching, development, resilience training, role negotiation, communication skills, team identity
