Intro to I/O Psychology PDF

Chapter 1 Intro to I/O Psychology Industrial-Organizational Psychology (PSY 32012-2)...

Chapter 1 Intro to I/O Psychology Industrial-Organizational Psychology (PSY 32012-2) The Field of I/O Psychology o Analyzes jobs to obtain a complete picture of what each employee does, often assigning o Industrial/Organizational Psychology – branch monetary values to each position of psychology that applies the principles of o Construct performance appraisal instruments psychology to the workplace to evaluate employee performance o Purpose: to enhance the dignity and o Examine various methods that can be used to performance of human beings and the train and develop employees organizations they work in, by advancing the science and knowledge of human behavior Organizational Psychology (Rucci, 2008) o I/O Psychology examines factors that affect the o Concerned with the issues of leadership, job people in an organization as opposed to the satisfaction, employee motivation, broader aspects of running an organization organizational communication, conflict o Focuses almost exclusively on issues involving management, organizational change, and group the people in the organization processes within an organization o Relies extensively on research, quantitative o Conduct surveys of employee attitudes methods, and testing techniques o Serving the role of consultant o Use empirical data and statistics rather than o Implement organization-wide programs intuition to make decisions designed to improve performance o Science-Practitioner Model – I/O professionals Human Factors/Ergonomics acts as scientist when they conduct research and as practitioners when they work with o Concentrate on workplace design, human- actual organizations; applies research findings machine interaction, ergonomics, and physical so that the work they perform with the fatigue and stress organizations will be of high quality and o Frequently works with engineers and other enhance an organization’s effectiveness technical professionals to make the workplace safer and more efficient Major Fields of I/O Psychology Brief History of I/O Psychology o Industrial Approach – focuses on determining the competencies needed to perform a job, o Walter Dill Scott – Theory of advertising; staffing the organization with employees who psychology was first applied to business have those competencies, and increasing those o Hugo Munsterberg – Psychology and Industrial competencies through trainings Efficiency o Organizational Approach – creates an o Former Economic Psychology, Business organizational structure and culture that will Psychology, Employment Psychology motivate employees to perform well, give them o Others: James Cattell, Walter Bingham, John the necessary information about their jobs, and Watson, Marion Bills, and Lillian Gilbreth provide working conditions that are safe and o During WWI, the I/O Psychologists employed result in an enjoyable and satisfying work/life Army Alpha (for literate) and Army Beta (for environment illiterate) o Thomas Edison – created a 163-item knowledge Personnel Psychology test that he administered over 900 applicants o Study and practice in such areas as analyzing o Frank and Lillian Moller Gilbreth – improved jobs, recruiting applicants, selecting the productivity and reduce fatigue by studying employees, determining salary levels, training motions used by workers employees, and evaluating employee o Hawthorne Studies – demonstrated that performance employee behavior was complex and that the o Choose existing tests or create new ones that interpersonal interactions between managers can be used to select and promote employees and employees played a tremendous role in employee behavior  Chapter 1 Intro to I/O Psychology Industrial-Organizational Psychology (PSY 32012-2) o Hawthorne Effect – employees changed their behavior and became more productive because they were being studies and received attention from their managers o 1960s: Civil rights legislation; used sensitivity trainings and t-groups for managers o 1970s: increased use of behavior-modification techniques in organization o 1980s and 1990s: increased usage of fairly sophisticated statistical techniques and methods of analysis; application of cognitive psychology; increased interest in the effects of work on family life and leisure activities o 2000s: diversified demographics; global economy affects the role of I/O Psychology o Factors that impact I/O Psychology: a. High Unemployment rates b. Movements toward flexible work schedules c. Family-friendly work policies d. Accommodation of an increasing number of employees with child-care and elder-care responsibilities e. flatter organizational structures with fewer management levels f. Population shifts from urban to suburbs g. Increasing cost of health-care benefits h. Potential changes in retirement age Educational Requirements and Types of Programs o Master’s Program o Doctoral Programs (Ph.D) Ethics in I/O Psychology o Ethical Dilemmas – ambiguous situations that require a personal judgment of what is right or wrong because there is no rules, policies, or laws guiding such decisions end