Organisational Psychology Flashcards
What is organisational psychology?
the scientific study of behaviour in the workplace - evidence based approached to understand the factors that affect an organisation and its members such as job satisfaction and work perfomrnace
What are the three levels of focus for organisational behaviour?
- Individual level - what an individual brings to the workplace (personality, attitudes, motivation)
- Group level - assessing how groups work together and the factors that influence this (group composition, inter and intra group behaviour, conflict, leadership)
- Organisational Level - culture and climate of an organisation and the way/why things are done (culture structure, change and development)
\What is the aim of an Organisational psychologist? What are the 2 features they measure?
To enhance the organisations performance and employee satisification
2 features:
1. Job satisification
2. Work/organisation performance
Reliable vs Valid
Reliable: same or very similar results would be obtained on a second occasion
Valid: a theory or measure that does what it is assumed to do
Describe the 3 different organisations:
Not for profit: provide services for the community and do not oporate to make a profit of members
Government: governement appointed group funded by the government
Commercial: buisiness that sells goods or service for the purpose of making a profit
what are 2 different tools that can be used to assess employee performance/satisfaction
- Trackers (objective)
- 360 review and upward appraisal (subjective)
Describe the 4 data collections:
Objective data: what is observed. Can be verified by other researches, increasing validility and reliability of data
Subjective data: collected and obtained via personal observations
Qualitative: often expressed with words or sentences, and describes the quaility of behaviour
Quantitative: represented through numbers and can be presented through graphs which can be more easily interpreted
What is the 360 review?
Gets feedback from a range of sources (peers, customers, colleagues, managers), and can be used to measure group or individual performance
Advantages and disadvantages of the 360 review
Advantages: more comprehensive assesment from multiple sources, provides voice, useful for rewarding and improving employee performance
Disadvantages: complex and time consuming, subject to bias, potentially disruptive of relationships amongst those involved in the appraisal process
What is motivation?
Is the force that determines your direction, intensity and persistence of a behaviour
What is maslows heirachy of needs in the context of organisational theory?
is a motivational theory that consists of levels that need to be met to ensure that an individual is motivated to come to work
How can motivation impact job performance?
is what causes you to act and is a factor that influences decision making, behaviour and performance within the workplace
Define and describe each level of Maslows heirachy of needs in the context of organisational psychology
- Psychological - pay, pleasent working conditions
- Safety - safe working conditions, company benefits, job security
- Social - Cohesive work group, friendly supervision, professional associations
- Esteem - Social recognition, job title, high status job, feedback for the job itself
- Self-actualisation - challenging job, oppurtunities for creativity, achievment in work, advancemnts in the organisation
Define Vroom’s theory of expectancy
- A cognitive theory of motivation, suggesting that employees are rational decision makers who will put efforts into activities that lead to rewards that they are seeking
- relates to peoples thoughts and beliefs about a situation
What are the 4 stages of Vrooms theory?
- Expectancy - Effort: Will my effort lead to a good performance?
- Instrumentality - Performance: Will my performance lead good outcomes?
- Valance - Rewards: Do I find the outcomes desirable?
- If expectancy, instrumentality and valance are high then motivation is high (Effort x performance x reward = motivation)
