Applied Psychology

Applied Psychology

• it’s the use of psychological principles and theories to solve practical problems

Organizational psychology

• studies organizations to create structures and cultures that will improve performance

Industrial psychology

• studies jobs to identify the necessary skills needed for success

Personnel psychology

• using psychology to facilitate testing, selection, placement, and promotion at work

Job analysis

• a detailed description of the skills, knowledge, and activities required by a particular job

Tasked orientated analysis

• identifying the duties and tasks required to do a job

Worker orientated job analysis

• identifying knowledge, expertise, and personality required to do a job

Critical incidents

• are situations which a competent employee must be able to cope with, critical incidents also reveal behaviours that are import for success on a job

Biodata

• collecting biographical date on job candidates (e.g., work experience, schooling, extracurricular interests)

• looking at someone’s past behaviours gives you an indication of their future behaviour

Interviews

• Formal or informal questioning of job applicants to learn about their qualifications and personality

Structured Interviews

• conducting each interview in consistent standardized ways

• e.g., standardized questions - the questions that you should should be based on your job analysis

Aptitude tests

• measure a person’s potential to learn tasks and skills used in various occupations

• some common tests measure clerical, verbal, artistic, legal, and medical aptitude

• aptitude tests are not IQ tests

Personality tests

• big 5 model of personality (OCEAN)

• Openness to Experience

• Conscientiousness

• Extroverted

• Agreeableness

• Neuroticism

  • can be used to screen for people who are more likely to be satisfied and successful at work

  • certain types of jobs fit people who are high on specific personality dimensions

Assessment Centers

• they do in-depth evaluations of job candidates

• they are used to hire for management and executive positions

• use several different evaluation techniques (triangulation) to find the best candidates

• situational judgement test put people in realistic and difficult work situations to see how they behave

Job satisfaction

• the degree to which someone feels positively towards their place of work

why is job satisfaction important

• better employee performance

• lower absenteeism

• lower turnover

• happier customers

• more organizational citizenship behaviour

4 things that make work satisfying

• the work itself

• coworkers and bosses

• compensation

• career opportunities

flextime

• start and end times are flexible

flexplace

• telecommuting, work is done outside the workplace

job enrichment

• building achievement, recognition, responsibility, and advancement into the work

4 ways to increase job enrichment

• show employees why their work matters

• reduce supervision

• use small teams

• increase ownership over tasks

theory x

• workers must be goaded into being productive because they are only motivated by extrinsic factors like money

• this assumes that workers must be guided into being productive bc they have few motivations

• improving work efficiency, maximum output at lowest cost

• task orientation

• based on Fredrick Taylor’s Scientific Management approach

theory y

• worker enjoy work and accept responsibility; workers are motivate by challenging work

• person orientation rather than task orientation

• maximize psychological efficiency

• originates from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

transformation leadership

leaders who transform employees to exceed expectation and look beyond self-interest to help the organization to better compete

idealized influence

serving as a role model for followers

inspirational motivation

the ability to inspire and motivate followers

• change the meaning of work

• provide vision

intellectual stimulation

the leader challengers followers to be innovative and creative, appeals to intellectual ability

individualized consideration

demonstrate genuine concern for the needs and feelings of followers