PSYC 142: Industrial Organizational Psych: Exam 1

industrial organizational psychology

branch of psychology that is concerned with the study of behavior in work settings and the application of psychology principles to change work behavior

dual focus of IO psych

-efficiency/productivity of organizations

-health/well-being of employees

Four key trends today in IO Psych

-the changing nature of work (becoming more complex, outsourcing, downsizing);

-expanding focus on human resources (viewing your employee as a whole person not just a worker bee);

-increasing diversity and globalization of the workforce (international growth, globalization);

-increasing relevance of IO psych in policy and practice (improving selection and training of leader, leveraging/utilizing diversity in workforce)

job analysis

the systematic study of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job and the qualities needed to perform it

job description

tasks/activities you do on the job;

what people in a particular job do

job specification

qualifications/human characteristics necessary for the job

job evaluation

assessment of the relative worth of a job in order to determine how much money that job should pay;

based upon perceived value and KSAOs

KSAOs

Knowledge

Skill

Ability

Other Personal characteristics

subject matter expert (SME)

job incumbents (person holding the current job)

or superivsors

What is the difference between skill and ability?

skill is learned and can be improved;

an ability is usually something you are born with and relatively fixed

purposes of job analysis

career development

human resource planning

project future needs

legal defense

performance appraisal

selection

training

research

sources of job analysis data

analysts

subject matter expert (SME)

records

data base (such as O*NET)

data collection approaches for job analysis

surveys

existing data (O*NET; company records)

interviews with SMEs

diary

observation (like job shadowing)

participation

specific methods of job analysis

critical incident

functional job analysis

positional analysis questionnaire (PAQ)

Job element method (KSAOs and SMEs)

functional job analysis

sequence of tasks in a job and typical interaction for person in the job

critical incident

tries to identify the most critical activities/qualities that one must have to do the job by asking about a critical incident;

standardized method - asking the same question

employee selection

1. identify things that we think are critical for success on the job

2. once you have the success criteria, look for predictors

matching process; decision depends on predictors and success criteria

hiring process

recruitment

screening

placement

recruitment

process of attracting a pool of qualified applicants

goals of recruitment

attract a large pool of qualified applicants;

provide a realistic job preview;

avoid discrimination against underrepresented groups

point of purchase

the place/location where you pay for something; usually all customers see this/pass through here;

example: in a grocery store the point of purchase is at the cashier

What recruitment method is one of the most reliable?

employee referrals

What recruitment method is the most effective?

networking

screening

the process of reviewing information about job applicants used to select workers;

includes reviewing written materials such as resumes, references, letters of rec, and employment testing such as drug tests

most common lies on resumes

education

job titles

technical skill sets

what is the problem with references?

they are not good predictors of performance;

they are not reliable (applicant chooses the reference);

they are lenient

Predictors in screening systems should be:

reliable: consistent in its results;

valid: based on a job analysis and predict work-related behavior;

reduce the chance of a legal challenge: face valid, minimize adverse impact, don't invade privacy, don't discriminate;

cost effective: in its purchase/creation, administration, and scoring

test formats for screening

group vs. individual

objective vs. open-ended

paper and pencil vs. performance

power vs. speed

personnel screening methods/tests

biodata: background and personal characteristics;

cognitive ability;

mechanical ability;

motor and sensory ability;

skills and knowledge;

personality;

honesty and integrity;

assessment centers;

drug testing;

hiring interviews

in-basket (assessment centers)

test of whether or not you understand your priorities; given a situation what would you address/who would you go to first?

structured interviews are better because...

they are: reliable, valid and not prone to legal challenge;

they are: based on job analysis, ask the same questions of each applicant, and have a standardized scoring procedure

selection

process of choosing applicants

methods of selection

regression

multiple cutoff

multiple hurdle

multiple cutoff

have to meet the minimum for multiple criteria;

example: being admitted into UCR, have to fulfill A-G requirements

multiple hurdle

have to pass one criteria before you get to the next one;

example: police academy

placement

process of assigning workers to appropriate jobs; best fit between KSAOs and job requirements

protected groups

minorities

women

performance evaluation

how well someone does on the job and how we should evaluate this; the goal is to improve performance

performance appraisal

how well someone is doing their job/the task assigned

purposes/uses of performance appraisal

personnel decision (firing, transfer, high potentials for future leaders);

employment development and feedback;

criteria for research;

documentation for legal action;

training

advantages of objective methods of performance appraisals

consistent with standards within jobs;

not biased by judgment;

easily qualified;

face validity

disadvantages of objective methods of performance appraisals

not always applicable/can't always quantify (such as teaching);

performance not always under individual's control;

too simplistic;

time consuming;

potentially costly

advantages of subjective methods of performance appraisals

easy to use

inexpensive

can assess variables that objective methods cannot (such as motivation)

disadvantages of subjective methods of performance appraisals

potentially poor interrater reliability;

prone to rater bias;

rating errors;

supervisor subversion of system--leniency as a strategy

sources of performance ratings

supervisors

self-appraisals

peers

subordinate

customers

360 feedback (evaluated by everyone)

comparative methods

rank order

paired comparison

forced distribution

adult learning

• adults need to be self directed, motivated by money and inner satisfaction, problem centered approach to learning 

on the job training

cooking classes

apprenticeship

training jobs that provides practical work experience to develop skills

vestibule

hands on simulted environment that mimics work environment

offsite training 

• audiovisual (UCR scam trainings)

• behavioral model (following people and mimicing their work behavior)

• programmed instruction (work training modules) 

evaluation programs

• reaction

• learning

• behavioral- learning by watching someone else do it like making a recipe or interacting with a customer

construct validity

the degree that the test accuratey measures what its intended to measure

criterion validity

whether the measure is related to an outcome.

• the accurarcy of a measurement instrument in determining the relationship between scores on an instrument and some outcome of its job success

ex- SAT scores because it suggests that it can predict college success

face validity

what we are intended to measure based on judgement and if the measurement is appropriate and accurate

examples of Knowledge

• traffic rules

examples of Skill

• typing speed

  • driving a car

example of Ability

• finger dexterity

  • basic intelligence

example of Other 

• a drivers license 

• a friendly personality 

• ten years of experience 

content validity

• are we testing what we want to be testing? and is it approproiate to use this measure?

casual attribution error

• misinterpretation of causes of behavior

• underestimates the external situational factors