Organisational Psychology

Question 1

Organisational psychology definition

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Organisational psychology as a ‘concept’

Answer 2

Bryan first coined the term ‘industrial psychology’
industrial / field psychology is made up of
- experimental psychology
- individual differences psychology
- industrial engineering

Question 3

Key periods in organisational psychology

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

Key names

Answer 4

Munsterberg, Cattell and Bingham were students of Vundt, very interested in the idae of introspection (relationship between how we are responding and the environment)

Question 5

Munsterberg

Answer 5

Selection system for streetcar motor men
- built a system to eliminate ‘accident-prone’ drivers
- used a simulation

Question 6

Cattell

Answer 6

• 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)

Question 7

Taylor (Taylorism)

Answer 7

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)

Question 8

Walter Dill Scott

Answer 8

Issue: rapid production
Interested in recruitment of conscripts ad working conditions
Interested in the factors that lead to improvement (culture, motivation and productivity)

Question 9

Bingham

Answer 9

developed the applied psychology division of the APA - developing theoretical perspectives for improvement of performance

Question 10

Hawthorne Studies

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Psychomotor testing

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Leadership - A trait?

Answer 12

Are you born with a capacity for leadership (trait approach) or predispositioned to a particular style of leadership?
OR
is it taught>

Question 13

leadership: a state

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Human factors and system design

Answer 14

optimising the relationship between users and the tools and systems which they interact with

Question 15

70s

Answer 15

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

Question 16

70s goal setting theory

Answer 16

• 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)

Question 17

Contemporary focus on job analysis:

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Transformational leadership theory

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Personality: the big 5

Answer 19

openness to experience
conscientiousness
extraversion
neuroticism
agreeableness

Question 20

occupational hazards

Answer 20

head, workload, vibration, fatigue, cold, morale, noise
physical and psychological

Question 21

occupational disease (pathogenic, ergonomic, psychological)

Answer 21

asbestiosis, black lung disease, lead poisoning

carpal tunnel syndrome, tendrinitis

chronic stress, IBS, PTSD, depression, anxiety

Question 22

Occupational health psychology

Answer 22

psychological factors that contribute to occupational health and wellbeing
- workload, lack of contorl, role ambiguity, role conflict, organisational demands

Question 23

occupational accidents across australia

Answer 23

• freq of occupational fatalities has decreased due to legislation, new equipmen, etc

Question 24

consequence of occupational accidents

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Human error

Answer 25

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

Question 26

identifying errors

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Patterns of human error

Answer 27

sporadic (individual differences)

systematic (systems related)

random

Question 28

individual differences

Answer 28

accident proneness –> select workers with a low disposition for accident proneness
attitudes
risk perception

Question 29

Managing error in industrial systems through:

Answer 29

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

Question 30

occupational psychology has made a number of significant contributions such as

Answer 30

research methodology
personnel selection
enhancing mental health
human factors and user experience

Question 31

Phases of the case study

Answer 31

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