PSY1011 Organisational Psychology Notes

Organisational Psychology

Prescribed Readings

  • No prescribed readings; seminar slides are examinable.

Lecturer

  • Dr. Swati Mujumdar (swati.mujumdar@monash.edu)

Acknowledgement of Country

  • Monash University acknowledges that its Australian campuses are located on the unceded lands of the people of the Kulin Nations, and pays its respects to their Elders, past and present.

Learning Objectives

  • At the end of the seminar, you should be able to:
    • Define Organisational Psychology and the work of organisational psychologists.
    • Be familiar with the process of recruitment and training.
    • Describe the various theories of employee motivation.
    • Understand job satisfaction and its various facets.
    • Understand the importance of occupational health psychology and effects of shift work on workers.

What is Organisational Psychology (Org Psych)?

  • Also known as Industrial & Organisational (I/O) Psychology.
  • Science of behaviour and mental processes in workplace settings.
  • Focus on behaviour of employees in the workplace.
  • Applying research principles to improve human behaviour in the workplace.
  • Includes interaction of people in the workplace.

Organisational Psychologists

  • Explore questions such as:
    • Why do people love or hate their job?
    • Are satisfied workers better job performers?
    • How does job stress affect job performance?
    • What makes someone an effective leader?
    • Why do employees feel some tasks as interesting and others boring?
    • How can organisations sustain employee growth and retain good employees?
  • Two main goals:
    • Promote effective job performance.
    • Improve health, safety, and wellbeing of employees.

People, Jobs & Job Performance

  • Human attributes (KSAOs):
    • Knowledge – what a person knows.
    • Skill – how good a person is at doing a particular task; includes soft skills.
    • Ability – general capacities in problem-solving, interpersonal functioning, communication, etc.
    • Other personal characteristics – attitudes, personality traits, values, beliefs, etc.
  • KSAOs are important for:
    • Job Analysis
    • Employee recruitment & selection
    • Performance review
    • Training

Job Analysis

  • Process of collecting job-related information.
  • Gathering and analysing details of a particular job.
  • Useful for creating a position description.
  • Helpful for making decisions about who to hire and training required for that job (Brannik & Levine, 2022).
  • Approaches:
    • Job-oriented approach
    • Person-oriented approach

Measuring Employee Characteristics

  • TESTS:
    • Psychological Tests:
    • Situational judgement tests (SJTs)
    • Standard intelligence tests
    • Tests of job-relevant knowledge
    • Personality-related integrity tests
  • INTERVIEWS:
    • Structured interviews
    • Unstructured interviews
  • ASSESSMENT CENTRES:
    • Put people in scenarios to see how they react
    • In-basket test for managers
  • Run by qualified individuals like psychologists, professional recruiters.

Recruitment & Selection

  • How do companies select & recruit employees?
  • Steps:
    • Job Analysis creating a PD (position description).
    • Resume/CV review.
    • Interviews (sometimes multiple rounds).
    • Assessment Centres.
    • Reference/background checks.
    • Sending out offer letter.
    • Sometimes negotiations like salary, etc.
    • Onboarding – filling out HR forms….

Legal Issues

  • Uniform guidelines on employee selection procedure
    • Equal Opportunity
    • Protected class
    • Use only test scores for selection
    • Use any other validation methods that are good predictors of job performance
    • Contract clarity
    • Nepotism

Training

  • Training needs assessment
    • Checking job analysis reports
    • Creating personal development plans
    • Goals of the organisation
  • Training programmes
    • Transfer of training: application of learnt skills
    • Feedback: Important for improving performance
    • Training in general principles: how the learnt information fits overall
    • Overlearning: can save time and improve efficiency
    • Sequencing: massed training v/s distributed training

Employee Motivation

  • Theories:
    • ERG Theory: Existence Relatedness Growth (Clayton Alderfer, 1969)
    • Expectancy Theory: expectancy and value (Vroom)
    • Goal Setting Theory: general needs and expectations and intentions

ERG Theory

  • Existence needs: Food, clothing, shelter, water necessary for survival
  • Relatedness needs: satisfying social interactions
  • Growth needs: development

Expectancy Theory

  • Effort & results
  • Instrumentality (reward)
  • Valence: how much value is placed on the reward

Goal Setting Theory

  • Goals should be chosen or accepted, challenging, but not too difficult & enable employees to keep track of their progress

Job Satisfaction

  • Includes cognitive, emotional & behavioural components
  • Factors:
    • Salary: is pay the only motivating factor in job satisfaction?
    • Work-family conflict: conflict between job and family
    • Flexible working hours
    • Job requirements: is the complexity of the job related to satisfaction?
    • Job security: some assurance about the job
    • Recognition: being appreciated for work
    • Supervisor/boss: too demanding?
    • Employee-employer relationship

Consequences of Job Satisfaction

  • Job Performance: High satisfaction = high motivation = better job performance
  • Organisation Citizenship Behaviour (OCB): going above regular duties to help colleagues
  • Turnover: High when people have other jobs
  • Absenteeism: weak correlation
  • Improved wellbeing & lower levels of stress
  • Increased productivity
  • Job Dissatisfaction
    • Aggressive behaviour
    • Counterproductive work behaviour
    • Higher turnover costs

Occupational Health Psychology

  • Physical conditions:
    • Carpel tunnel syndrome
    • Repetitive strain injuries
    • Workplace safety
  • Involves research and practice
  • Human Factors Psychology (Human Engineering)
  • Org psychologists consult with industrial designers to make equipment less stressful to use.
  • Work with companies to ensure employees doing repetitive work get enough rest time.
  • Work with employees to see that they follow rules and procedures.

Shift Work & Long Hours

  • Work that falls outside of the normal work hours or ordinary hours of work
  • Nurses, drivers, police officers, manufacturing, security….
  • Impact on health:
    • Shift work sleep disorder (SWSD): circadian rhythm disorder
    • Cardiovascular problems
    • Fatigue
    • Decreased occupational performance
    • Increase in accidents
    • Mental health concerns