PSY 3510 Exam 3 Study Guide

Corporate Downsizing

Individual response: affects mid-level managers/professional staff & blue colllar workers

Terminated personnel are most directly affected (little time to search for new job, Marienthal case study)

Psychological effects: headaches, stomach problems, HBP

• Learned helplessness, lower self-wowrth, inc in depression, feelings of betrayal, demoralization & cynicism

Survivng personnel has reduced trust & commitment b/c of violation of psychological contract (demotion, job-sharing, part-time/reduced hrs)

Organization may hire temporary workers (commonly young, female, minority); anti-social behavior

Psychology of Mergers & Acquisitions

Organizational merger - joining of 2 organizatons of equal status/power

Acquisition: procurement of property by another organization (dominance/hostile takeover)

Phases

• Precombination: focus on financial issues: worth, taxes, return

• Combination

• Postcombination: potential culture clash, decline of employee morale & customer satisfaction

75% of mergers fail

Reactions to acquisitions are similar to bereavement (grief process)

Antisocial Behavior in the Workplace

Types
Frequency and severity of violence are escalating
Starting point to understanding violence is aggression
Three types of strategies in dealing with violence in the workplace

Environmental Influences on Mental Health

Nine determinants (how the environment affects mental health)

The Concept of Mental Health

No single definition – meaning comes from its determinants (Warr)
Five Major Components

Work Stress

No agreed-upon definition - good stress v. bad stress

Eustress

Distress

A Model of Stress

Organizational antecedents to stress
Stressors in organizational life (lead to ill health)
Other stressors related to ill health

Perception and cognition

1. The (stress) appraisal process
2. Response to stress
3. Consequences of stress

Properties Of The Person As Stress Moderators

Properties Of The Situation As Stress Moderators

Prevention and intervention

Work/family conflict

Understanding this conflict is a major role of I/O psychology
- Three topics that are research targets:
- Three conceptual models offered to explain work-family relationships:
- Other findings:
- Ways to reduce work-home conflict
- Elder care is a growing concern

Dual-career families

Work schedules

- Shift Work
- Flexible work hours
- Compressed workweek

Alcoholism And Drug Abuse In The Workplace

Substance abuse: includes alcohol, illegal and prescription drugs
- Performance impairment:
- Issues of life-style and culture
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Addressing the problem of drug abuse: Two approaches:
- Staggering financial costs of $70 billion (based on four factors)

The Psychological Effects Of Unemployment

Unemployment is psychologically devastating
Research as to consequences of employment:
1. Jahoda: Intended and unintended
- Five latent consequences of employment
2. Financial problems as the main cause (Fryer and Payne)
3. Job-seeking has a negative affect on mental health (Wanberg)
4. Strong link between employment and mental health (Warr)

Child Labor And Exploitation

Most common in developing countries

Work Motivation

Defined with components of:
Direction
Intensity
Duration

Five critical concepts in motivation

1. Behavior (action)
2. Performance (some evaluation/appraisal of the behavior)
3. Ability (First determinant of behavior, relatively stable: what you can do))
4. Situational constraints (Second determinant, beyond individual’s control)
5. Motivation (The third determinant of behavior: what you will do)

1. Need hierarchy theory: Abraham Maslow:

First Maslow identifies the needs
Maslow then discusses how the needs relate to each other:
Implications for work:
Evaluation of the theory

2. Equity theory (J. S. Adams)

Four parts: (drawn from the principles of social comparison)
Motivation described (it has a social rather than a biological origin)
Empirical tests of the theory
Evaluation of the theory

3. Expectancy theory (Vroom)

Statement of the theory
Cognitive theory: person is rational decision maker who perceives relationship
between effort expended and job performance
Five parts:
Force score is a predictor of how motivated a person is (how much effort
Empirical tests of the theory
Evaluation of the theory

4. Reinforcement Theory (B. F. Skinner)

Operant conditioning; behaviorism
Statement of the theory
Three key variables
Motivate by manipulating one of four types of response reward connections
Empirical tests of the theory
Evaluation of the theory

5. Goal-setting theory (Locke and Latham)

Statement of the theory
Cognitive theory: people behave rationally
Relationship among goals, intentions, and task performance: more
difficult goals lead to higher performance
Goals (have two purposes)
Goals are intended behaviors the person is consciously trying to attain
Theory’s emphasis is on the direction of behavior

Evaluation of the theory

6. Self-regulation Theory (e.g. Self-efficacy theory and control theory)

Commonality is: people play an active role in self-monitoring,
seeking & responding to feedback, & forming ideas as to success of
future actions
Statement of the theory
Family of theories with the core concept of goals
Evaluation of the theory
General pattern of results is very positive
Research provides rich conceptual basis to understanding how individual
becomes motivated to pursue a goal, and why they persevere
Self-efficacy adds utility to some of the other theories explains how
cognitive processes become activated in behavior; e.g. that people:

7. Work design theory (Hackman & Oldham)

Locus of control is within environment, not individuals
Proper design of jobs facilitates motivation
This process is called job enrichment
Four part model
Evaluation of the theory

Overview and synthesis of work motivation theories

Major Topics in Leadership Research

Theoretical approaches to leadership