PSY 210 exam 2

(Introducing I-O)

Scientist-practitioner model

Scientists theory and research

•  Understand individual, group and organizational behavior through research

•  Focus on generating knowledge

Practice

• Apply I/O Psychology to organizations, externally or internally

•  Consumer of and applier of knowledge 

(Introducing I-O)

Industrial Psychology 

• Recruitment, selection, training, performance, appraisal, promotion, transfer, termination

(Introducing I-O)

Organizational Psychology

• Attitudes, fairness, motivation, stress, leadership, teams, broader aspects of organizational and work design

(Introducing I-O)

Army Alpha

• intelligence tests for the US army

• written test designed for literate recruits

• multiple choice

• large group testing

(Introducing I-O)

Army Beta

• written test designed for recruits who couldn’t read or speak English

• non-verbal test

• pictures

• decided where you should be places in the military

(Introducing I-O)

Why were these testing methods considered innovative during their time?

• given to large numbers of recruits efficiently

• the test could be given to individuals with different language skills and literacy levels

(Introducing I-O)

Scientific Management

• A movement based on principles developed by Frederick W. Taylor,(Need to know his name) who suggested that there was one best and most efficient way to perform various jobs; also known as “Taylorism.”

(Introducing I-O)

Time and motion studies

• Frank & Lillian Gilbreth

• ­Studies that broke every action into its constituent parts, times those movements with a stopwatch, and developed more efficient movements to increase productivity.

(Introducing I-O)

Hawthorne Studies

• 1930’s set of studies by Harvard researchers at Western Electric Company

• ­Interested in the relationship between lighting with employee morale and efficiency

• ­Hawthorne Effect: the alteration of behavior by subjects due to awareness of being observed

(Introducing I-O)

Human Relations Movement

•  conceptual shift toward increased focus on employee emotion and motivation

(Employee Selection)

Employee Selection Goal

• Identify the individuals amongst a pool of applicant who would be most likely to succeed in a given job role

(Employee Selection)

Recruitment

• Raise awareness of opening to reach applicants

• ­Company websites, job boards, social networking (e.g. LinkedIn), targeted ad placement, employee referrals. 

Generate organizational attention

(Employee Selection)

Recruitment

• organizational attention

• applicants’ overall evaluation of the appeal of working at that organization in that role. (High pay, benefits) (generate organizational attraction) 

(Employee Selection)

Job analysis

• systematic study of a job or role to determine the activities, responsibilities, and attributes needed to perform required tasks successfully.­(resource that already exist or your own)

• ­Informs what qualities and characteristics employers should look for amongst their pool of applicants (i.e., KSAO’s)

(Employee Selection)

What are KSAO’S?

• knowledge

• skill

• ability

• “other” characteristics

(Employee Selection)

KASO’s

• Knowledge

Collection of discrete, related facts and information about a particular domain

(Employee Selection)

KASO’s

• Skill

• ­Practiced act

• Specific and clearly related to the job

(Employee Selection)

KASO’s

• Ability

• ­Stable capacity to engage in a specific behavior

• General 

• Stable capacity to engage in the behavior 

(Employee Selection)

KASO’s

• “Other” characteristics

• ­Personality, interests, etc. 

(Employee Selection)

Applicant assessment methods 

•  Common Assessment Methods

• ­Interviews (structured vs. unstructured)

• ­Cognitive ability tests (generally, strongest predictor of job performance)

• ­Personality tests (can do vs. will do)

• ­Work samples (example: a little sample on what it would look like for you to perform in this specific task/job)

(Employee Selection)

Structure interviews 

• Better (more predictive of actual performance because you have clear criteria and less bias)

• Very clear set of questions in a particular order

• Clear standard benchmarks on what was a good answer and what was a bad answer 

(Employee Selection)

Unstructured interviews 

• Not a systematic set of questions you're asking to each applicant 

• Not very applicant may get asked the same question 

• Questions may not be linked to the job 

• Interviews like to have some level of autonomy 

(Employee Selection)

How might an employer evaluate whether their selection processes were effective?

• Correlate employee performance with pre-hire scores; were you able to accurately predict who would be successful? If not, what should you do differently in future hiring processes?

(Employee Selection)

Artificial intelligence

• many large corporations use AI to shift through applications

• Resume Screening

• Video Interview scoring

• Layoff Recommendations 

(Employee Selection)

Artificial intelligence and employees

• about two-thrids of Americans say they would not want to apply for a job if AI were used to help make hiring decisions

(Oddball Interview Questions Reading)

What was the purpose of this article?

• they wanted to see if companies asked oddball interview questions would that lead to the employee to view the company as more innovative and have more style leading to organizational attraction

(Oddball Interview Questions Reading)

Person-organization fit 

• alignment and compatibility in characteristics between an individual and their environment (in this case, the organization)

• ­Fit with organization associated with greater job satisfaction, greater organizational commitment, and lower turnover intentions

(Oddball Interview Questions Reading)

Methods

• Time 1: Big Five Personality Survey

•  Time 2: Experiment exposing participants to one of four questions; perceptions of organizational personality & organizational attraction assessed after

1.  “Create an outfit that describes yourself.”

2.  ”Which one of the seven dwarves would you be?”

3. “What was the last costume you wore?”

4.  “Tell me something about yourself.”

(Oddball Interview Questions Reading)

study results

•  Asking “oddball” interview questions was associated with external perceptions of innovation and style.

• ­…but was this associated with greater organizational attraction?

• ­Negative indirect effect when controlling for innovation and style…why?

• Not the only type of perception individuals are having when asked the oddball question, there are other opportunities for there to be negative perceptions of these questions 

• No differences found based on applicant personality. 

(Oddball Interview Questions Reading)

Moderator Variable

• variable affecting the strength and direction to the relationship between two variables

(Oddball Interview Questions Reading)

What variables were hypothesized to act as mediators/moderators within this study?

???

(Social Media and Selection reading)

What are some potential benefits and risks associated with using social media within an employee selection process?

Benefits: publicly available information, additional information about the applicant

Drawbacks: limited diversity, bias, social media os out of context for the workforce

(Social Media and Selection reading)

Disparate Treatment

• intentional discrimination based on protected group membership

(Social Media and Selection reading)

Disparate Impact

• inequity in group outcomes regardless of intention

•  Both may be illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (protection based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin).

(Social Media and Selection reading)

Recommendations organizations to consider

1.   Develop a clear social media policy, including a process drawing upon predefined criteria derived from job analyses.

2.  Provide all raters of social media profiles with standardized instructions and training on how to rate applicants.

3.  Prior to collecting any ratings from social media profiles, ensure that applicants have been notified. 

(Motivation)

What is motivation?

• A psychological force that energizes, directs and sustains behavior 

(Motivation)

Three components of motivation

1. Direction

2. Intensity

3. Persistence 

(Motivation)

Direction

• Where is the effort being directed?

• Task choice 

• On-task vs. Off-task

(Motivation)

Intensity

• How much effort is being devoted to the task?

(Motivation)

Persistence

• Is effort sustained over time?

• Facing rejection or failure

• Tolerating stressors, obstacles

(Motivation)

What is Motivation not?

• NOT a trait: stable characteristics of an individual

• INSTEAD, a situationally-dependent state (not that one person is more motivated than another but they are going to be more motivated based on situation) (more motivated in one context than the other)

(Motivation)

Maslow's Need Hierarchy 

• 5 fundamental needs human have that guides there motivation 

• Basic needs are the physiological needs (water, food, air to breath) 

• Safety (housing, security) (slightly more complex than physiological needs)

• Social needs (feel apart of society and level of connectedness)

• Esteem needs (self confidence, valued, recognized)

• Top of the ladder Self-actualization (maximum level of fulfillment to develop the best person you can be)

• They are arranged in this way because according to Maslow all your lower order needs have to be fulfilled until you more up the ladder

(Motivation)

Maslow criticisms 

• Lack of empirical support 

• Sepuntial, stage-based model particularly limiting (you must only work on one need at a time)

(Motivation)

Intrinsic Motivation

•  Engaging in behavior due to genuine interest and satisfaction

(Motivation)

Extrinsic Motivation

• Engaging in behavior due to external rewards 

(Motivation)

Self-Determination theory

• Competence (individuals seek some sort of mastery in life)

• Autonomy ( individuals like to feel we have free will and make choices for ourselves)

• Relatedness ( Human desire to have some sort of interaction or human connections)

(Motivation)

Self determination theory Implications

• Work can either fulfill or deprive fundamental needs.

• ­Jobs that fulfill needs will be more intrinsically satisfying.

• What actions can managers/organizations take to foster each of the elements identified in SDT?

• ­Competence? (when an employee is performing well letting them know could increase competency; validation) (training opportunities; helping people become more competent)

• ­Autonomy? (constraining work environment) (letting employees have more freedom) (letting employees give feedback)

• ­Relatedness? (doing activities outside the work environment) (having structures social events and you're giving people the opportunity to make those connections)

(Motivation)

Goal-Setting Theory 

Quite easily the single most dominant theory in the field, with over a thousand articles and reviews published on the topic=c in a little over 30 years.

(Motivation)

Goal Setting theory

What types of goals lead to optimal performance?

• Specific (more specific goals are going to lead to higher levels of performance rather than general goals)

  • Vs. general (“try your best”) goals; less ambiguous

• Challenging/difficult (encourages you to push yourself)

  • ….Yet attainable

  • Vs. very easy or very difficult goals

(Motivation)

SMART goals

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time-based

(Motivation)

Smart goals

• Specific

Make your goal specific and narrow for more effective planning

(Motivation)

Smart goals

• Measurable

Make sure your goal and progress are measurable

(Motivation)

Smart goals

• Achievable

Make sure you can reasonably accomplish your goal within a certain time frame

(Motivation)

Smart goals

• relevant

Your goal should align with your values and long-term objectives

(Motivation)

Smart goals

• Time-based

Set a realistic but ambitious end fate to clarify tasks prioritization and increase motivation

(Motivational benefits of goal setting)

Causal Mechanisms of Goal-Setting

1. Diverts attention to goal-relevant activities

   • Helps use focus on what are the tasks that are needed to accomplish the goal

2. Energizes people; encourages application of greater effort

3.  Prolongs effort over time

(Motivational benefits of goal setting)

Conditions for effectiveness 

• Helpful Circumstances (helpful in seeing the benefits of goal setting) 

  1. Relevant knowledge/ability is present.

  2. Goal commitment.

  3. Opportunities for feedback. (how is an individual is progressing) 

• Hindering Circumstances (circumstances that make goal achievement harder)

  4. Tasks still involve learning.

  5.  Situational constraints (e.g., resources, obstacles).

(Motivational benefits of goal setting)

Additional Takeaways 

• Goal-setting is effective, regardless of job complexity 

• Participative vs. assigned goals 

  • Some evidence that participative goals may be more challenging than assigned goals, leading to higher performance 

  • Participative goals may lead to greater goal commitment 

• Overall, goal difficulty and commitment are primary drivers of goal-setting effectiveness 

(Motivational benefits of goal setting)

Goal conflict

circumstance in which working toward one goal interferes with the likely accomplishment of another goal.

(Motivational benefits of goal setting)

Outcome Goals

• may lead to anxiety when unsure how to proceed.

• ­Consider learning-oriented subgoals. 

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Occupational health Psychology 

• Interdisciplinary study with emphasis on understanding the physical and mental health of workers within organizations

• Psychology, public health, engineering, medicine, business, etc

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Stress

Process that links stressors and strains

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Sterrors

Source

• Physical or psychological demands to which an individual responds

• Acute vs. Chronic 

• Physical vs. psychosocial 

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Strain

Outcome (consequence of experiencing a stressor) (anxiety, reduced well-being)

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Acute stressors

• short-term stressors that occur suddenly and typically brief

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Chronic Stressors

• Long term stressors that persist over an extended period

• may not have a clear end point

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Physical Stressors

• Physical stressors are external stimuli or events that exert pressure on the body or its systems.

• These stressors can include exposure to extreme temperatures, noise, pollution, physical exertion, injury, illness, or pain.

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Psychosocial Stressors

• Psychosocial stressors are related to social, psychological, or interpersonal factors that cause emotional strain or distress.

• These stressors can arise from various sources, including work, relationships, financial difficulties, academic pressure, caregiving responsibilities, discrimination, trauma, and life transitions.

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Role Stressors

• Role ambiguity

• Occur when employees lack clear knowledge of what behavior is expected in their job (don't know what's expected of you)

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Role Stressors

• Role conflict

• Stressor that occurs when demands from different sources are incompatible (demands from different roles) (caregiving responsibilities outside their workplace)

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Role Stressors

• Role overload

• occurs when an individual is expected to fill too many roles at once 

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Demand-Control Model (Stress)

• Demands: workload or intellectual requirements of a jon

• Control: Combination of autonomy in the job and discretion for using different skills 

• High demand & low control —--> Job stress

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Strain

• Strain= outcomes of stressors

• Affective (emotional exhaustion, irritability)

• Cognitive (memory impairment, distractions)

• Physical (fatigue, immunosuppression)

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Prevention Strategies

• Primary Prevention Strategies

• Assumption: Most effective approach to stress management is to remove stressors

• Scope: Preventative

• Target: work environment, technologies, or organizational structures

• Examples: Job redesign, cognitive restructuring

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Prevention Strategies

• Secondary Prevention Strategies

• Assumption: when unable to remove stressors, best to focus on individuals reactions to stressors

• Scope: Preventative/reactive

• Traget: Indiivudal

• Examples: Relaxation training, stress management training, physical fitness, nutrition

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Prevention Strategies

• Tertiary Prevention Strategies

Assumption: Must target consequences of stress once it has occurred

Scope: Treatment

Target: Individual

Examples: Employee assistance programs, medical care

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Employee wellbeing

• the state of individuals mental, physical and general health, as well as their experiences of satisfaction in and outside of work 

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Why should organizations seek to foster well being?

• Lower medical costs 

• Increased employee morale 

• Decreased absenteeism and presenteeism 

• Absenteeism

• Presenteeism

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Why should organizations seek to foster well being?

• Absenteeism

• Employee unplanned workplace absences (sick days, mental health days)

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Why should organizations seek to foster well being?

• Presenteeism

•  Lost productivity due to suboptimal employee functioning due to suboptimal employee functioning given an illness, injury, or other condition (still going to work but not as productive as you could be because you're battling various circumstances)

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

How to foster employee wellbeing?

• How can an organization support its employees? Doing so requires attention to the details of policies and practices related to:

• Work hours and job design (restricted hours, minimal work required during off-hours)

• Organizational culture (minimize negative norms such as “no one leaves until 7pm”)

• Incentives that encourage balancing work and non-work domains (take vacation or the cash pay-out is less)

(Occupational Health & Wellbeing)

Organizational Wellness programs 

• On- or off-site services sponsored by organizations which promote good health or identify/correct health-related problems

• ­Example Aims: Weight loss, fitness engagement, smoking cessation

• ­Mechanisms: Health risk assessments, on-site fitness centers/memberships, incentives for participation

• Participation in such programs found to be associated with decreased absenteeism and increased job satisfaction (Parks & Steelman, 2008).

(Employee Health and well-being reading)

Purpose

• “Enhance understanding of the potential benefits of flexibility for employee health and well-being”

• “Determine is the association between flexibility and employee wellbeing is mediated by work-family balance”

(Employee Health and well-being reading)

Method

• Surveyed employees across two years; calculated change scores in variables of interest

(Employee Health and well-being reading)

Results (H1)

•  (as perceived flexibility increases; less sickness absence) (As perceived flexibility increases; less work-related impairments) (as perceived flexibility increases; increased commitment) 

(Employee Health and well-being reading)

Results (H2)

• Not evidence to suggest is mediating the relationship between perceived flexibility and sickness absence 

• Work family balance is mediating the relationship between perceived flexibility and work-related impairment 

• Work family balance is mediating the relationship between perceived flexibility and job commitment 

• Weak analytical statistics 

• Partial support for H2 (work family balance can have a mediation in work-related impairments and job commitment but not sickness absence)

(Employee Health and well-being reading)

Flexibility 

•  Schedule flexibility

• focus on temporal components

• ­Flextime: ability to determine when work will start and stop around organizationally established “core hours”

• ­Compressed workweeks: schedule arrangements whereby workers complete work hours across fewer days

• ­Part-time work: employees working traditionally less than 30 hours/week 

(Employee Health and well-being reading)

Flexibility 

•  Location flexibility

•  focus on physical location components of work arrangements

• ­ Telework/Remote work: allows employees to work from a location other than a primary work site

(Employee Health and well-being reading)

What variable was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between workplace
flexibility and study outcomes?

(Leadership)

Defining Leadership

process of influence through which members are persuaded to exert effort on behalf of communal interests, often at the expense of more selfish pursuits

(Leadership)

Traditional Theories of Leadership 

• Trait Perspective

• Properties of traits

• ­Relatively stable over time & across situations.

• Innate & relatively immutable

• Leads to the implication to you either have it or not 

• Limiting to the extent that we only focus on the unchanging characteristics of yourself 

• What aspects of yourself is going to be related to you becoming a leader

(Leadership)

Traditional Theories of Leadership 

• Behavioral Perspective

• ­Effective leadership is…

•  A certain pattern of behavior that motivates others toward a common goal

(Leadership)

Traditional Theories of Leadership 

• Behavioral Perspective (Ohio Study)

• dentified two primary groups of behaviors in which leaders engage. 

• High or low in these two primary groups 

• Consideration: behavior indicating mutual trust, respect, and a certain warmth and rapport between the supervisor and group. (interpersonal relationships) (building quality relationships) (weekly check-ins) 

• Initiating Structure: behavior in which the supervisor organizes and defines group activities and his/her relation to the group. (task focused) (getting the work done and accomplished) 

(Leadership)

Traditional Theories of Leadership

• Situational Models of Leadership 

• Traits and behaviors matter, but effectiveness depends on the situation. 

• Emphasizes finding the right leader for the situation, or changing leader behavior to fit given situation

• Relies on what is the situation or circumstances 

(Leadership)

Leadership Development 

• the process by which individuals expand their capacity to perform effectively as leaders 

• Best practices: 

  • Most effective when begun early in one’s career.

  • Active learning methods, including role playing, are most effective in leadership development over and above classroom training.

  • Impact of training through mentorship. 

(What we know about Leadership reading)

Primary Arguments

•  Leadership matters and is important for organizational outcomes.

• ­Most employees who quit say their boss is the primary reason!

• ­Joyce et al. (2003): CEOs account for 14% of the variance in a company’s financial performance

• Harter et al. (2002): Job satisfaction is mostly satisfaction with your supervisor (and it predicts group performance).

(What we know about Leadership reading)

Primary Arguments

•   Leadership involves the successful influence of individuals and groups toward coordinated goal attainment.

• ­Relevant to understanding distinctions between:

• Identity vs. Reputation

• ­“Getting along” vs. “Getting ahead”

• ­Leader emergence(seen as leaders) vs. Leader effectiveness(effective leaders)

(What we know about Leadership reading)

Primary Arguments

•    Personality is related to leadership effectiveness

• Which traditional leadership perspective does this sound most like?

• ­Which personality variables correlate positively with both leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness?

  • Openness to experience

  • Consciousness 

  • Neuroticism 

• Which one does not correlate?

  • Agreeableness 

(What we know about Leadership reading)

• Which personality variables correlate positively with both leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness?

• Openness to experience

• Consciousness 

• Neuroticism 

(What we know about Leadership reading)

• Which one does not correlate?

• agreeableness