Midterm

Industrial Psychology

Focuses on job analysis, training, selection, and performance measurement/appraisal.

Organizational Psychology

Deals with motivation, work attitudes, leadership, and organizational structure, culture, and processes.

Scientific Management

Method of breaking tasks into smaller parts for optimization, founded by Fredrick Taylor and Frank & Lillian Gillbreth.

One major event in the Pre WW1 period:

Scientific Management

Who is the mother of management?

Lillian Gillbreth

Hawthorne Studies

Research that found productivity increased due to the novelty of changes in lighting, not the lighting itself.

One major event in the WW1 — Pre WW2 period:

Hawthorne Studies

Aviation Psychology Program

Used during WWII to select pilots and led to the standardization of cockpit design.

One major event in the WW2 period:

Aviation Psychology Program

Division 14 of the APA

• Formed in the 1945

• Now known as SIOP

• Focuses on I/O psychology

One major event in the 1940s — 1960s period:

Division 14 of APA was created

Civil Rights Act

Legislation in the 1960s requiring organizations to justify hiring choices without discrimination based on SNoRRC.

SNoRRC

Sex, National origin, Race, Religion, Color

One major event in the 1960s — 1980s period:

Civil Rights Act

One major event in the 1980s — 2000s period:

Focus shifted to organizational change, primarily making change more comfortable and adapting to technology.

Workforce Diversity

Changes in the 2000s-2020s included increased diversity in sex, age, ethnicity, and education.

One major event in the 2000s — 2020 period:

Major changes in the workforce, the work itself, and the organizations

Recent changes in the workforce

• Sex

• Age

• Ethnicity

• Education

Recent changes in the work itself

• Technology based changes

• Remote and hybrid jobs

• Artifical intellgence

• More teamwork

Recent changes in the organizations

• Global comeption

• Outsourcing

• Smaller

• Flatter

Major changes in the 2020 — present period:

• Better technology

• Forced adpatability

• Emphasis on mental health

• More frequent career changes

Research Methods

Different approaches in I/O psychology include experimental, observational, survey, interview, case study, meta-analysis, and archival research.

Observation Methods

Include naturalistic, systematic, and participant observer techniques

Pros and cons of observation methods:

• Pros: generalizable, more variables, more options and data

• Cons: lack of control, research bias, reactivity, ethics, access

Self-Report Techniques

Include interviews and surveys

Pros and cons of self-report techniques:

• Pros: cheap, quick, reusable, anonymous, large scale

• Cons: boas, bad questions, honesty, not specific

Pros and cons of case studies:

• Pros: in depth

• Cons: hard to generalize, can’t replicate, time consuming

Experimental Methods

Include true experiments, quasi-experiments, and pre-experiments.

Elements of an experiment:

• there is a control group and random assignment

• manipulation of the independent variable

• measurment of the dependent variable

Pros and cons of an experiment:

• Pro: potentially find cause and effect

• Con: ethics and hard to truly randomize

Elements of a pre-experiment:

There is no control group and no random assignment

Pros and cons of a pre-experiment:

• Pro: helpful in exploration

• Con: can’t find true cause and effect

Elements of a quasi-experiment:

There is a control group but no random assignment

Pros and cons of a quasi-experiment:

• Pro: don’t have to worry about randomization (more feasible)

• Con: can’t find true cause and effect

WEIRD testing

A flawed kind of test group consisting of primarily Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic people.

Reliability Types

Include test-retest, parallel forms, inter-rater, and internal consistency.

Test-retest reliability

Stability of the test over time

Parallel forms reliability

Equivalence of two test forms

Inter-rater reliability

Equivalence of two raters

Internal cosistency reliability

Consistecy among test items

Types of Internal cosistency reliability

• Split half reliability: split the test in half to see if one-half is equivalent to the othee

• Inter-item reliability (Cronbach’s alpha): examining the correlations among all test items to determine consistency (Rule of thumb for reliability level: .70)

Validity Types

Include construct, content, and criterion validity, assessing how well a test measures what it intends to.

Construct validity

the extent to which a test measures the underlying construct it was intended to measure

Content validity

degree to which a test/predictor covers a representative sample of the quality being assessed

Criterion validity

degree to which a test is a good predictor of attitudes, behavior, or performance

Internal Validity

Refers to the ability to draw causal inferences, with threats including history and selection bias.

We can control for these threats with mature groups, reliable testing, randomization, incentivaztion, and seperation.

External Validity

Refers to the generalizability of results, with threats including setting and participant differences.

We can control for these threats with controlled setting and randomized particpants.

Ethical Issues in Research

Include issues of competence, human relations, privacy, and confidentiality, ensuring fair treatment of participants.

Descriptive Statistics

Mean, median, mode, and standard deviation are basic statistical measures used to summarize data.

Mean

Add all values and divide by number of values

Median

The middle value when sorted numerically

Mode

Value that appears the most

Standard Deviation

On average, how far each value is from the mean

Hey diddle, diddle…

The median’s the middle. You and and divide for the mean. The mode is the one that appears the most and the range is the diff-er-ence between.

Correlation Interpretation

Ranges from -1 (strong negative) to 1 (strong positive), indicating the strength and direction of relationships between variables.

Job Analysis Purpose

Evaluates job requirements and roles using KSAOs (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Other).

KSAOs

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Others

Subject Matter Experts (SME)

Individuals with specialized knowledge used in job analysis to provide insights.

Job Oriented

Approaches to job analysis that focus on describing the various tasks that are performed on the job.

Worker Oriented

Approaches to job analysis that examine broad human behaviors involved in work activities.

Job Evaluation

As an outcome of job analysis, a technique that attempts to determine the value or worth of particular jobs to organizations so that salaries can be set accordingly.

Internal Equity

Jobs of greater value are better compensated than those of lesser value within the company. This can be measured by a point system and compensable factors.

External Equity

Jobs within the company are similarly compensated as jobs outside the company.

Compensable Factors

Dimensions or factors that are used to rate jobs, indicating that employees are compensated based on these factors. Examples include effort, skill, responsibility, and working conditions.

Gender Wage Gap

Women get paid approximately 18% less than men, but when mothers are excluded from the sample, this gap almsot entirely dissapears.

Ultimate Criterion

A theoretical construct encompassing all performance aspects that define success on the job.

Actual Criteron

Our best real-world representative of the ultimate criterion, which we develop to reflect or overlap with the ultimate criterion as much as possible.

Criterion Relevance

The extent to which the actual criterion measure is related to the ultimate criterion.

Criterion Contamination

A condition in which things measured by the actual criterion are not part of the ultimate criterion.

Criterion Deficiency

A condition in which dimensions in the ultimate measure are not part of or are not captured by the actual measure.

Criteria for Criteria

Reliability, Sensitivity, Practicality, Fairness, and Relevance

Reliability

The extent to which the actual criterion measure is stable or consistent

Sensitivity

The extent to which the actual criterion measure can discriminate among effective and ineffective employees

Practicality

The degree to which the actual criterion can and will be used by those whose job it is to use it for making important decisions

Fairness

The extent to which the actual criterion measure is perceived by employees to be just and reasonable

Types of Performance Criteria

Objective, Subjective, Multiple, and Composite

Objective Criteria

Performance measures that are based on counting rather than on subjective judgments or evaluations; sometimes called hard or nonjudgmental criteria.

Subjective Criteria

Performance measures that are based on the judgments or evaluations of others rather than on objective measures such as counting; sometimes called soft or judgmental criteria.

Mulitple Criteria

Using several distinct measures to evaluate performance.

Composite Criteria

A weighted combination of multiple criteria that results in a single index of performance.

Performance Appraisal

Systematic review and evaluation of job performance.

Uses of Performance Appraisal

Personnel decisions (promoted, fired, demoted, or laid off) and developmental purposes (employees informed of strengths and weaknesses)

Performance Management

A system of individual performance improvement that typically includes (1) objective goal setting, (2) continuous coaching and feedback, (3) performance appraisal, and (4) development planning.

Difference Between Performance Management and Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal is a review of job performance, which is only a small part of performance management, which includes coaching, planning, and goal setting based off of performance appraisal

Types of Performance Appraisal

Graphic Rating Scales, BARS, Checklists, and Employee Comparison Methods

Graphic Rating Scales

A numbered scale in which the rater is asked to judge how much of each particular trait the ratee possesses or where on this dimension the ratee falls with respect to organizational expectations.

Pros and Cons of Graphic Rating Scales

Easy to develop and easy to use BUT lack of precision in dimensions and lack of precision in anchors

BARS

A performance appraisal format that uses behavioral descriptors for evaluation.

Pros and Cons of BARS

Precise and well-defined scales (good for coaching) and well received by raters and ratees BUT time and money

Checklists

Raters are asked to read a large number of behavioral statements and to check off each behavior that the employee exhibits.

Pros and Cons of Checklists

Easy to develop and easy to use BUT rater errors such as halo, leniency, and severity are quite frequent

Employee Comparison Methods

Evaluation of ratees with respect to how they measure up to or compare with other employees.

Pros and Cons of Employee Comparison Methods

Precise rankings are possible and useful for making administrative rewards on a limited basis BUT time intensive and not well received by raters (paired comparison) or ratees (forced distribution)

Steps of the Cognitive Process

Observe behavior, encode information about behavior, store information, retireive information, intergrate information

Erros in the Cognitive Process

Miss important behaviors, encode information incorrectly, store wrong or irrelevant information, retireve wrong or irrelevant information, make wrong decisions based on incorrect or imcomplete information

Types of errors

Halo, Leniency, Central Tendency, Severity

Halo

The rating error that results from either (1) a rater’s tendency to use his or her global evaluation of a ratee in making dimension-specific ratings for that ratee or (2) a rater’s unwillingness to discriminate between independent dimensions of a ratee’s performance.

Leniency

• The rating error that results when (1) the mean of one’s ratings across ratees is higher than the mean of all ratees across all raters or (2) the mean of one’s ratings is higher than the midpoint of the scale.

Central Tendency

The tendency to use only the midpoint of the scale in rating one’s employees.

Severity

The tendency to use only the low end of the scale or to give consistently lower ratings to one’s employees than other raters do.