Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Branch of psychology that studies how human behavior and psychology affect work and how people are affected by work

Industrial Psychology

Concerned with describing job requirements and assessing individuals.

Specializes and focuses on the retention of employees and hiring practices to ensure the least number of firings and the greatest number of hirings relative to the organization’s size.

• Personal Analyst

• Instructional Designer

• Professor

• Research Analyst

Organizational Psychology

Focused on how to relationships among employees affect those employees and the performance of a business.

Works with the relationship that employees develop with their organizations and conversely that their organization develops with them. In addition, studies the relationships that develop between co-workers and how that is influenced by organizational norms. 

• HR Research Specialist

• Professor

• Project Consultant

• Personal Psychologist 

• Test Developer

• Leadership Developer

• Talent Developer

Human factors

Focused on how workers interact with the tools of work and how to design those tools to optimize productivity, safety, and health. Applies to hardware, software, ergonomics, etc.

Works to improve to conditions of individuals who have faced serious disaster or who are part of an underserved population. Focuses on labor relations, enhancing public health services, effects on populations due to climate change, recession, and diseases.

• Professor

• Instructional Designer

• Research Scientist

• Counselor

• Consultant

• Program Manager

• Senior Response Officer

Occupational Health Psychology

Concerned with the overall well-being of both employees and organizations

• Occupational Therapist

• Research Scientist

• Consultant

• Human Resources Specialist

• Professor

History of Industrial/Organizational Psychology

• Started in the early 20th century - focused on advertising, management, and personnel selection

Hawthorne Effect

Increased in performance of individuals who are aware they are being observed by research or supervisors

• Original finding; any change in a variable (e.g., lighting) would have a temporary positive impact on performance

History of I/O Psych - WWI

Focus Shifted to contribute to military effort (e.g. how to assign people to roles based on cognitive ablitlies

Lillian Gilbreth

American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator

Increasing efficiency by reducing the number of motions to complete a task

Industrial Psychology: Selection

Job analysis - accurately describing the task or job

• Where do job descriptions come from?

• People identify KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)

• The US Department of Labor maintains a database of previously compiled job analyses for different positions

Selection: Analysis and testing

Once potential candidates are identified, their KSAs may be evaluated using several methods…

• Tests (intelligence test, personality tests, specific tasks, drug tests, physical tests)

• Interviews (unstructured or structured, one or many)

Do any modern issues come to mind that could influence, positively or negatively the initial selection process (screening) or testing?

Training

Can take many forms, some formal and others informal

• Tasks may be scaffolded- while new to a position, task may be simplified until the employee can demonstrate competency on the job

Mentoring

A more senior employee, supervisor, or manager guiding the work of a new employee, providing guidance on tasks as well as other professional development issues

Performance appraisals

Aka Performance Reviews

Often formal process that includes a review of how well an employee has met the goals of the job…

Bias and Protections in Hiring

Federal and state guidelines that outline rules for hiring practices meant to prevent discrimination

US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (+pregnancy), sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information

Americans with Disabilities Act

Bona fide occupational qualifications - requirements of certain occupations for which denying an individual employment would otherwise violate the law

Organizational Psychology: Social Dimensions of Work

Downsizing and merger effects

Company A and B Sales and Accounting Dept downsize and merge into one company.

Scientific Management Theory

Analyzes and synthesize workflows with the main objective of improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity

• Theory X managers - perceive employees as people who prefer to be led and told which tasks to perform and when

  • people dislike work and avoid it

  • people avoid responsibility

  • people want to be told what to do

  • goals are achieved through rules and punishments

• Theory Y - perceive employees as people who seek inner satisfaction and fulfillment from their work

  • people enjoy work and find it natural

  • people are more satisfied when given responsibility

  • people want to take part in setting their own work goals

  • goals are achieved through enticements and rewards

Transactional Leadership styles

System of rewards and punishments; focused on supervision and organizational goals

Transformational Leadership styles

Possess four attributes to varying degrees:

• Charisma (highly liked role models)

• Inspirational (optimistic about goals)

• Intellectually stimulating (encourage critical thinking and problem solving)

• Considerate

Work teams and groups

• Typical goal of a work team is to combine and bring together diverse skills, experience, and expertise

• Different factors can influence whether a group or team is actually productive

• Different types of teams:

  • Problem resolution, creative, tactical

Organizational Culture

Vision, values, hierarchies, norms, and interactions among employees

• Cultures vary across and within organizations

Human Factors: Attention

Includes vigilance and monitoring, recognizing signals in noise, mental resource, and divided attention

• How is attention maintained? What about tasks maintains attention? How to design systems to support attention?

Human Factors: Cognitive Engineering

Includes human software interactions in complex automated systems, especially the decision-making processes of workers as they are supported by the software system.

• How do workers use and obtain information provided by software?

Human Factors: Task analysis

Breaking down the elements of a task

• How can a task be performed more efficiently? How can a task be performed more safely?

Human Factors: Cognitive Task Analysis

Breaking down the element of a cognitive task

• How are decisions made?