Psychology Chapter 5: Attitudes and Motivation

Psychological Approach to Studying Work in a Changing Environment

• Studying work involves a psychological approach, crucial in understanding the changing nature of work.
• Key figures in the field are Chmiel (2008), Arnold & Randall (2016), and Howes & Muchinsky (2022).
• Relevant books and chapters are referenced.

Introduction

• A key question is what changes will occur in the next 50-100 years.
• Two answers are given: erroneous forecasts (e.g., Eastern countries) and slower changes (e.g., computer technology).
• Causes of change in work include extrapolating trends, small causes creating large effects, and countermovements.

Limiting Conditions for Changes

• Human beings are conservative, reluctant to accept new technology.
• Organizations exhibit a conservative approach, preferring established hierarchies.
• Methods to understand the future of work include the work of software designers and the scenario approach.

10 Trends of the Future of Work

• Work's unity in space and time is dissolving, impacting coordination and culture.
• Job and career concepts are evolving.
• Work's pace of innovation is accelerating.
• Work complexity is increasing, with implications for unskilled workers, social competencies, self-esteem, and intellectual work analysis.
• Personal initiative is compared to adaptability to new demands within a globalized marketplace impacting smaller and larger organizations.
• Supervisory roles are reducing/more distributed.
• Cultural diversity within the workforces is growing.

Dissolution of the Unity of Work in Space and Time

• Telework presents issues such as volunteerism, privacy concerns, commitment to collaborative work, and control.
• Implications include difficulties with face-to-face coordination, cultural conflicts, and potential miscommunication.

Change of Job and Career Concepts

• Job reductions in production and service sectors (re-engineering) are on the rise.
• Hiring numbers are declining in some sectors.
• Temporary work and project-based work are becoming more common.
• Career concepts are evolving, with lifetime employment less common, and greater focus on adaptability and employability.

Faster Rate of Innovation

• Two approaches to innovation exist; those with creativity and initiative, and whether innovation is a process or product-focused approach.
• Learning faster includes general skills, self-regulation, self-training, learning by mistake, and a learning organizational culture, balancing a curiosity vs. uncertainty avoidance approach.

Increase of Complexity of Work

• Small niches are increasing.
• Increased customer demands for customization.
• Increasing demands impact unskilled workers, with questions about wages and social competence.
• Job analysis is needed for intellectual work, impacting self-esteem and self-efficacy.

Other Topics (5-10)

• Additional slides discuss 5 - 10 topics in different areas.

3 Changes in Work World Focused on US

• Succession planning, identifying and developing talented employees
• Comparing generational differences (Generations X, Y, or Millennials) in work, with implications for recruiting
• Current and future generations will have diverse work and learning styles.

Chapter 2. Work Socialization and the Meaning of Work

• This chapter is about the socialization of the workplace and the meaning of work.

Attitudes and Behavior

• Thinking about managerial skills of supervisors
• Measuring job satisfaction.
• Attitudes encompass cognitive, affective, and behavioral components.
• The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977) explores factors that influence attitudes and behaviors.

Linking Attitudes and Behavior

• Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger, 1957) explains behaviors that may contradict attitudes
• The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977) details factors that contribute to behavior.

Job Satisfaction

• Job characteristics (personality, job characteristics) and distributive justice influence job satisfaction.

Organizational Commitment

• Organizational commitment is how an individual feels about their relationship with the organization.
• Antecedents and effects (of commitment) include workplace experiences, and personality.
• Outcomes relate to employee retention (turnover).

Other Work Attitudes

• Employee engagement represents active involvement in the job.
• Job involvement suggests how invested a person feels in the job.
• Elements of fairness (justice) include an important component in the workplace.

Attitude Change: Persuasion and Influence

• Elaboration Likelihood Model, Heuristic/Systemic Model
• Attitude strength
• Persuasion and influence

Wider Influences on Behavior at Work

• Emotion and behavior influence how people react to the workplace in terms of outcomes, stress, and more
• Perception and behavior, personal constructs theory, and interpersonal perceptual shortcuts

Decision Making

• Bounded Rationality Theory (Simon, 1972)
• Intuitive decision making is more suitable for problems where the domain knowledge is vast or deep and the task requires judgment.

Social Influences on Behavior

• Social facilitation - Your performance may be better when another persons/people are around.
• Social loafing - Reducing effort and performance when amongst others, because they are not being observed/held accountable for individual performance.
• Personal identity & social identity relates to how a person views themself and perceives a result of being part of a social group, and can impact how others/people feel about these groups in a social context.
• Conformity
• Obedience to Authority

Chapter 3. Work Design: Jobs and Roles

• Job analysis is the collection and analysis of job-related information, using different methods, to find information about the job from the point of view of human resources.
• Types of information include work activities, performance, job context, machines, job-related outcomes, and personnel requirements.
• Methods for job analysis, including quantitative and descriptive methods, include critical incident technique, repertory grid, ability requirements scale; questionnaire analysis (PAQ).

Job Classification Systems

• ISCO (International Standard Classification of Occupations), DOT (Dictionary of Occupational Titles) and O*NET (Occupational Information Network) provide job classification systems and/or frameworks and/or lists; including occupational groupings.

Strategic Job Modeling (SJM)

• SJM is a framework that brings together a description of work in terms of tasks and competencies from a strategic context (work requirements) and a people context (capabilities from the people side).

Competency Framework

• Competencies are behaviors that deliver desired results.
• The Great Eight Competencies are an example of this approach.

Types of Teams in Organizations

• Strategies, policy, production, services, project, action and performing teams are categorized
• Dimensions such as frequency and task type (routine to strategic).

What Do Teams Do?

• Teams enable improved performance for a task or group of related tasks.

Dimensions of Teamwork

• These dimensions, including Task significance, completeness, autonomy, opportunities for learning, and varied demands.

Why Work in Teams?

• Teams facilitate organizational strategy.
• Teams promote learning and quality management (Cohen and Bailey, 1997).
• Teams improve team's performance and outcome(s).

Benefits of Teamwork for Employees and Organizations

• Employee benefits include job satisfaction, empowerment, commitment, and involvement.
• Organizational benefits include efficiency, adaptability, reduced costs (cost-savings), and increased innovation.

What Makes an Effective Team?

• This section details the inputs, processes, and outputs of team performance, including task design, team skills, organizational support, resources, objectives, reflexivity, conflict, and outcomes (Aston Team Performance Inventory, West, Markiewicz, and Dawson, 2006)

Ability and Personality

• High-ability (intelligent) people perform well in teams.
• Teams composed of conscientious people and high-extraversion perform better.
• Belbin's Team Roles Model outlines complementary roles needed in teams.

Generic Teamwork Skills

• Teamwork skills include active listening, communication, social perceptiveness, self-monitoring, altruism, warmth, and patience.
• The importance of inter-personal skills is noted
• Steven's & Campion's knowledge, skills, and abilities framework is discussed.

Influences on Decision-Making within Teams

• Potential barriers include ignoring new information, social conformity, air time, hierarchical structure, groupthink, social loafing, and brainstorming issues.

Task Focus and Cooperative Context

• Constructive controversy within teams is explored.
• Steps within the cooperative context are noted.
• Error management in teams is recognized.
• Types of conflict are noted.

Creativity and Innovation

• Identifying stages (exploration, ideation, selection, implementation) associated with creativity development
• Team creativity is noted
• Process of problem solving
• Team dynamics and interpersonal skills are important aspects.

Reflexivity

• This section describes the phases of reflection within teams
• Stages of reflection include
  • Reflection on events.
  • Planning includes assessing problems, scaling priorities, and understanding plans.
  • Team action encompasses magnitude, novelty, radicalness, and efficiency.

Evaluation of the Teams' Outputs

• Team effectiveness, innovation, inter-team relationships, member satisfaction, and team attachment drive positive organizational outcomes.

Chapter 6. Stress and Health at Work

• This chapter covers work stress and health and the impact in the workplace.
• This describes job stress as a social problem.
• The changing nature of work, with an increase in mental and emotional demands, leads to a rise in stress in the workplace.
• The chapter explores the multiple viewpoints on job stress as a stimulus, a response, and as a mediational processing.
• Coping methods, including problem-oriented and emotion-oriented coping.

Individual Differences and Job Stress

• Genetic, acquired, and dispositional characteristics (e.g., coping styles, personality traits) contribute to job stress

Theoretical Models of Job Stress

• Various theoretical models of job stress exist, including the demand-control (Job Strain) model, the Vitamin model, and the Effort-Reward Imbalance model
• Additional models such as the job resources model, and the job demands-resources model explain how job resources and job demands relate to job stress.
• Initial stress models explored and described
• These frameworks consider job and environmental circumstances as relevant to job well-being

Interventions to Prevent or Reduce Stress

• Organizations and individuals can implement primary and secondary prevention strategies.
• Treatment and/or rehabilitation are noted to prevent stress at work.
• Methods for reducing stress are identified as an important aspect of promoting workplace wellbeing.

This quiz covers key concepts in psychology related to attitudes, cognitive dissonance, and flow theory. Test your understanding of how attitudes influence behavior in organizational settings and the importance of motivational work design. Perfect for students exploring these fundamental psychological principles.