Work and Organisational Psychology Lecture Notes PDF

1 Lecture 1-2 Organization and context of its functioning Work and Organizational Psychology - an applied division of psychology concerned with the study of human behaviour related to work, organizations and productivity (Cascio, 2001). W/O psychologists are involved in research on employees and t...

1 Lecture 1-2 Organization and context of its functioning Work and Organizational Psychology - an applied division of psychology concerned with the study of human behaviour related to work, organizations and productivity (Cascio, 2001). W/O psychologists are involved in research on employees and the application of psychological principles of that research to the workplace to help to optimize an organization’s success (Schultz and Schultz, 2014). Organization from a managerial and psychological perspective  2 Management Skills ​ Technical Skills – the ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. All jobs require some specialized expertise, and many people develop their technical skills on the job. ​ Human Skills – the ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people, both individually and in groups. ​ Conceptual Skills – the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations. Human (interpersonal) skills are important because: ​ Understanding behavior of people in organizations helps determine manager effectiveness. ​ Leadership and communication skills are critical as a person progresses in his or her career. ​ Better interpersonal skills result in lower turnover of quality employees and higher quality applications for recruitment. ​ ‘Good places to work’ have better financial performance. Author of this is L. Katz's and it's called Three Types of Management Skills. More than that, there is hierarchy of this skills, that have this order: Top level - Conceptual Skills; Middle level - Human (interpersonal) skills; Lower level - Technical Skills. The beginnings of the Organizational Psychology Hugo Münsterberg - experimental psychologist, interested in the design of work and personnel selection (1913) Walter Dill Scott - interested in studying salespersons and the psychology of advertising (70’), the first professor in Industrial Psychology Frederick W. Taylor – father of: ​ scientific management - a method of using scientific principles to improve the efficiency and productivity of jobs ​ time-and-motion studies - procedures in which work tasks are broken down into simple component movements and the movements timed to develop a more efficient method for performing the tasks  3 Elton Mayo - studied the effects of the physical work environment on worker productivity, eg.: ​ optimal level of lighting for performing the tasks ​ the length and timing of work breaks ⬆️ All changes resulted in a steady increase in worker output Hawthorne effect - changes in behavior occurring as a function of participants’ knowledge that they are being observed and their expectations concerning their role as research participants. Human relations movement - a movement that emphasizes the importance of social factors in influencing work performance (based on the studies of Mayo) W/O Psychology today and tomorrow One of the fastest growing areas of psychology 4 key trends: The changing nature of work Expanding focus on human Increasing diversity and Increasing relevance of I/O resources globalization of the psychology in policy and workforce practice ​ Downsizing ​ Talent management ​ Functioning of work ​ Making work ​ Outsourcing ​ Individual teams conditions „better" ​ Remote working development ​ Global marketplace ​ Selecting and ​ Use of AI ​ Work-Life balance focus developing leaders ​ Reducing discrimination Twenty-first century challenges for psychology Twenty-first century challenges for psychology  4 Telepsychology - What we traditionally agreed to as we formed alliances and contracts with clients in the past will require rethinking, as will our traditional professional standards. When we agree to work with clients via telemetry, the nature and terms of how we relate change significantly from those in traditional vis-a`-vis relationships. Some important questions: ​ Will we agree to conduct all assessment, consultation, or therapy relationships entirely via telemetry? ​ Will we offer only a limited range of electronically mediated services? ​ Will we offer real-time electronic access 24/7/365? ​ What contracts or agreements for providing services will we make with our clients? ​ What competencies will we need in order to offer services remotely? ​ What new factors will constrain confidentiality protections? ​ Will our fees and reimbursement policies differ from those for office-based services? Ethical responsibilities Ethical responsibilities both to individuals and to society at large. Individual client and confidentiality limits Should psychologists report cases of abuse to the authorities? Couples, Families, and Groups of Clients Some parties may experience feelings of harm resulting from participation in multiple-client psychological interventions. Eg. Two employees seek help of a psychologist to mediate a conflict. Request for a psychologist’s services originated with a third party. The rule: helping and not harming the client. But who is the „client”? Eg. A psychologist is asked to evaluate the suitability for employment Eg. A coach is asked to work with two competing employees. „Invisible Third Parties” Psychologists may help advise as experts behind the scenes (eg. recruitment and selection process, court). The person under study may never know that he/she has been studied, profiled or subjected to behavioral analysis The person may experience harm as the result of the psychologist’s work.  5 Witnessing the Demise of Psychiatry Will psychiatry disappear as a medical specialty? Value of psychology: scientific foundations in assessment, psychotherapy, and other nonmedical interventions. Prescribing psychologists? ​ The demand of the marketplace - more lucrative to prescribe than to talk? ​ Commercial pharmaceutical sponsorship. ​ Self Medication hazards. Mini case-study „The best salesperson” Vanness Johns, Sales Director at International Widget Industries (IWI), has a serious problem. She just found out that her top salesperson, Bob Pollock, had stolen from the company. Pollock faked sales and expense reports by entering the same orders into the system several times. Therefore, he received higher commissions and bonuses than other employees. The accounting department has only recently discovered the activities of Pollock. The President of IWI commissioned Johns to take care of the situation. Johns does not know how to act as she does not want to lose a top salesman and thinks that there may be extenuating circumstances that explain Pollock's behavior. She knows that Pollock’s wife has been in the middle of a of chemotherapy and the procedure has been very expensive. The family’s insurance did not cover the costs of the procedure. The question is, what should Johns do?