Psychology in the Workplace
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There will be 2 assesments.
Why do people work?
For money? Would people still work if they did not need the money? If you became an instant millionaire.. would you still work?
Work Values
Intrinsic Values
▪ Interesting work ▪ Challenging work ▪ Learning new things ▪ Making important contributions ▪ Responsibility and autonomy ▪ Being creative
Extrinsic Values
▪ Pay ▪ Social contacts ▪ Status in wider community
Organizations can serve different work values
What is I-O psychology?
I-O psychology applies psychological principles, theory, and research to the work setting (p. 4-5)
Scientists who derive principles of individual, group, and organizational behavior through research. They are employed at (semi-)public organizations (e.g., universities, TNO) and private organizations. 21 What is I-O Psychology? Consultants and staff psychologists who develop scientific knowledge and apply it to the solution of problems at work. They are employed in (semi-) public and private organizations and consulting companies.
Teachers who train in the research and application of I-O psychology.
Consultants and staff psychologists who develop scientific knowledge and apply it to the solution of problems at work. They are employed in (semi-) public and private organizations and consulting companies.
Industrial-organizational psychology helps develop strategies that build better organizations
An I-O Psychologist can help organizations with:
1. Staffing and workforce development (Personnel or Industrial Psychology)
2. Enhancing motivation, team effectiveness, and organizational development (Organizational Psychology)
3. Work design and workplace climate issues (Human Engineering)
Common issues:
-employment discrimination
-psychosocial or physical health
-concept of ‘work-life balance’
-the ‘new world of work’
Special issues:
-sports
-humanitarian
-conflict areas
- special assessment
Scientist-Practitioner Model : Using scientific tools and research in the practice of I-O psychology (vs. relying on “best practices” or experience)
•Selection and placement
•Training and development
•Organizational development
•Performance measurement
•Quality of worklife
•Engineering psychology
The bottom line in any organization is performance.
26 What is I-O Psychology? Performance (job performance, creativity), motivation, leadership, and well-being are the key dependent variables in the I-O research program at the RuG
Changes in the Workplace since 1980
▪ Personal computing
▪ Telecommuting & virtual teams
▪ Videoconferencing
▪ Service vs. manufacturing
▪ Teams vs. the individual
▪ Little stability
▪ Family-friendly workplaces
▪ Global workplace
▪ Greater diversity
Why study I-O psychology?
Knowledge about I-O psychology pays off for your own professional career, regardless of profession.
▪ I-O psychology applies theories, models, and principles from all areas of psychology.
▪ Studying I-O psychology improves your understanding of how individuals and groups act, think, and feel in organizations.
▪ Our lay theories and beliefs about I-O psychology may be false, or may be correct only under a narrow set of circumstances.
Think about the similarities and differences about theories.
The Hawthorne Experiments (1927-1933):
The purpose was to investigate how characteristics of the work setting, i.e., intensity of illumination, rest breaks, and work hours, affect worker fatigue and performance.
Hawthorne-effect
The hypothesis: Light intensity affects worker productivity.
The discovery: The presence of the researchers was affecting the results because the employees enjoyed receiving attention and being the subject of study.
Main implications of the Hawthorne effect
■ Psychological and social factors are important in explaining employees’ job performance ---> Human Relations Movement
■ Afterwards, the scientific value of the Hawthorne studies has been criticized. However, the studies are still considered the major impetus behind the emphasis on understanding and dealing with human resources.
Why conduct I-O psychology research?
▪ Don’t think of theories in terms of “right” or “wrong”.
▪ Think of theories as either “helpful” or “not helpful”.
▪ Theories, models, or approaches complement each other.
▪ There is NO one “right” or “only” solution for (I-O) problems.
The contingency approach:
The effectiveness of any person, trait, or strategy often depends on the situation.
I-O psychologists specify situation-type variables (contingency factors, conditions, or moderators) that permit certain traits and behaviors to be effective within a given organizational context.
Fiedler (1968) was the first who explained leader behavior from a contingency perspective. Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership: Argues that the effectiveness of leader style depends on the kind of situation the leader is dealing with.
Fiendler’s contingency theory:
Effectiveness depends on the interaction of leader style and three situational characteristics:
■ Fiedler identified two distinct leader styles: relationshiporiented versus task-oriented.
■ Situational characteristics (contingency factors):
1. Leader-member relations (good versus poor).
2. Task structure (structured versus unstructured).
3. Position power (strong versus weak).
"This image has been removed by the WorldSupporter staff for suspected copyright infringement"
Contingency factors, conditions or moderators.
"This image has been removed by the WorldSupporter staff for suspected copyright infringement"
• Which leader style is most effective?
• Why are people motivated to join an organization?
• Why do people feel good or bad about their jobs?
• Why do people feel good or bad about being part of an organization?
• Why do some people perform well and others don’t?
• Why do some people stay with the same organization for 30 years whereas others seem to be constantly dissatisfied and change jobs every two years?
• Why do some employees care more about leader fairness than others?
•Etc…
Clinical and Health Psychology
World Health Organization: 15-30% of workers will experience a mental health problem – job stress and depressive disorders are common
Can/should we use the workplace to prevent mental health problems and provide solutions for referral and rehabilitation?
There will be 2 assesments.
Why do people work?
For money? Would people still work if they did not need the money? If you became an instant millionaire.. would you still work?
Work Values
Intrinsic Values
▪ Interesting work ▪ Challenging work ▪ Learning new things ▪ Making important contributions ▪ Responsibility and autonomy ▪ Being creative
Extrinsic Values
▪ Pay ▪ Social contacts ▪ Status in wider community
Organizations can serve different work values
What is I-O psychology?
I-O psychology applies psychological principles, theory, and research to the work setting (p. 4-5)
Scientists who derive principles of individual, group, and organizational behavior through research. They are employed at (semi-)public organizations (e.g., universities, TNO) and private organizations. 21 What is I-O Psychology? Consultants and staff psychologists who develop scientific knowledge and apply it to the solution of problems at work. They are employed in (semi-) public and private organizations and consulting companies.
Teachers who train in the research and application of I-O psychology.
Consultants and staff psychologists who develop scientific knowledge and apply it to the solution of problems at work. They are employed in (semi-) public and private organizations and consulting companies.
Industrial-organizational psychology helps develop strategies that build better organizations
An I-O Psychologist can help organizations with:
1. Staffing and workforce development (Personnel or Industrial Psychology)
2. Enhancing motivation, team effectiveness, and organizational development (Organizational Psychology)
3. Work design and workplace climate issues (Human Engineering)
Common issues:
-employment discrimination
-psychosocial or physical health
-concept of ‘work-life balance’
-the ‘new world of work’
Special issues:
-sports
-humanitarian
-conflict areas
- special assessment
Scientist-Practitioner Model : Using scientific tools and research in the practice of I-O psychology (vs. relying on “best practices” or experience)
•Selection and placement
•Training and development
•Organizational development
•Performance measurement
•Quality of worklife
•Engineering psychology
The bottom line in any organization is performance.
26 What is I-O Psychology? Performance (job performance, creativity), motivation, leadership, and well-being are the key dependent variables in the I-O research program at the RuG
Changes in the Workplace since 1980
▪ Personal computing
▪ Telecommuting & virtual teams
▪ Videoconferencing
▪ Service vs. manufacturing
▪ Teams vs. the individual
▪ Little stability
▪ Family-friendly workplaces
▪ Global workplace
▪ Greater diversity
Why study I-O psychology?
Knowledge about I-O psychology pays off for your own professional career, regardless of profession.
▪ I-O psychology applies theories, models, and principles from all areas of psychology.
▪ Studying I-O psychology improves your understanding of how individuals and groups act, think, and feel in organizations.
▪ Our lay theories and beliefs about I-O psychology may be false, or may be correct only under a narrow set of circumstances.
Think about the similarities and differences about theories.
The Hawthorne Experiments (1927-1933):
The purpose was to investigate how characteristics of the work setting, i.e., intensity of illumination, rest
Lecture 2
There will be 2 assesments.
Are Individual Differences Relevant?
To test this, lets tap into our implicit theories
• Focus on one of these occupations:
• Accountant, (serious man, nicely dressed, does not talk enthusiastic, on the computer all day working with numbers, organized)
• Event Coordinator, and (enthusiastic talking, busy with phone calls)
• Heavy Equipment Operator (not proper dressed, dirty hands
• Close you eyes, and imagine the typical ________. What are they like? Quickly, brainstorm a list of personality characteristics, abilities or other personal characteristics.
What do Individual Differences Tell Us?
• Personality
• Captures what people are like as individuals
• Ability
• Capture what people can do as individuals
Personality
• The structures and propensities inside a person that explain his or her characteristic patterns of thoughts, emotion, and behavior
• For our purposes today:
• Traits are defined as recurring regularities or trends in people’s responses to their environment
• While we could come up with thousands of traits adjectives, most of them would cluster around five general dimensions
• We call these dimensions the “Big Five”
[note: enkele afbeeldingen uit het college zijn door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht]
How Important is Personality?
• C and ES (reflected N) are positively correlated with job performances in virtually all jobs
• O,C, and A predicted discretionary pro-social and proorganizational behaviors across jobs Question: How might this knowledge be applied at work? people choose jobs that match their personalities. Some kind of jobs require some kind of personalities, so we have to filter on that.
Abilities
• The relatively stable capabilities people have to perform a particular range of different but related activities
• In contrast to skills, which are more trainable and improvable
• As with personality, about half of the variation in ability levels is due to genetics
Types of Human Abilities
• Cognitive Abilities
• Capabilities related to the acquisition and application of knowledge in problem solving
• Examples: Verbal, Quantitative, Reasoning, Spatial, Perceptual
• Emotional Intelligence
• Capabilities related to the management and the use of emotions when interacting with others
• Physical Abilities
• Capabilities related to the performance of physical work
• Examples: Strength; Stamina; Flexibility and Coordination; Psychomotor; Sensory
How Important Is Ability?
• Cognitive ability predicts job performance in vitually all jobs
• Emotional intelligence predicts performance only when jobs involve a high degree
.....read moreLecture 3
Why should we care about job performance?
Performance is the bottom line in any organization.
Effective Performance Productivity
What is job performance?
Multi-dimensional approach to performance
Job performance includes:
Over periods of time:
Immediately:
Actual performance, all of it, and nothing else
Understanding performance
[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht]
Lecture 5
Training and development
Managing ability in organizations
1.Employee selection
Identify tasks to be accomplished Identify abilities needed to accomplish tasks Develop accurate measures of abilities Select the individuals who meet the requirements
2. Placement (P-E fit)
Match workers to jobs to capitalize on their abilities
3.Training
The systematic acquisition of skills, concepts, or attitudes that results in improved performance in another environment
Training: Systematic acquisition of skills, concepts, or attitudes resulting in improved performance in another environment
Training increases probability of learning, and learning increases probability of better job performance.
Training Needs Analysis
! 3-step process to develop systematic understanding of where training is needed (organizational), what needs to be trained (task), & who will be trained (person)
In general, organizations benefit from investing in learning and development programs:
! Improve the bottom-line performance of the organization by giving employees the skills needed to perform well.
! Reduce external recruiting costs by preparing current employees for greater tasks or leadership roles.
! Increase employee retention by visibly demonstrating to employees an investment in their career development and growth.
Grim example: Need for assertiveness training
[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht]
Impact of trainee characteristics, e.g.:
1. Ability Mental ability (“g”) Metacognitive skills (understanding one’s cognitions)
2. Self-monitoring
3. Self-theory (perceptions about self)
4. Achievement goals (performance/mastery)
5. Feedback seeking behavior: Self-enhancement vs. selfimprovement
[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht]
Learning: Social Comparison Theory
Festinger (1954): There is a “drive” within individuals to gain accurate self-evaluations to (i) reduce uncertainty about the self and (ii) learn how to define the self.
Theoretical advances (1970’s – 1980’s):
• Self-evaluation: If motivation is accuracy, then choose a comparison target similar to oneself • Self-enhancement: If motivation is to increase positive self-regard, one might Interpret, distort, or ignore information when making self-evaluation
• Upward and downward social comparison: Choosing a comparison target of people better/worse off. - opposing effects for self-improvement - opposing effects for self-regard
Vicarious Learning: Learning that occurs when one person (the learner) learns a behavior by watching another person (the model) perform the behavior (e.g., “watch and learn”, imitation, social contagion)
Learning: Contagion Effects
Goals, motives, values, and beliefs are socially contagious Achievement motivation (and apathy) is socially contagious Burnout spreads among teachers & medical professionals. Media exposure facilitates “mass shooting contagion”
In 2013, scientists at Facebook showed massivescale emotional contagion by manipulating news feeds to include more positive (vs. negative) posts from friends.
Benchmarking: Putting Social Comparison
.....read moreLecture 6 Nanxi Yan
Motivation to Work
What Does It Mean to Be a Good Performer?
Task Performance (+)
Ø Job-specific, unique to one’s job Ø
Citizenship behavior (+)
Ø Job-general
Ø Directed towards individuals
Ø Directed towards the organization
Counterproductive behavior (-)
Ø Job-general
Ø Targeted to other individuals or the organization
Ø Can be minor or major
Where Does Job Performance Come From?
! Assuming people have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and personality to perform the job, what else….?
• Commitment (Next Lecture)
• Motivation
Motivation: a brief history
[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht]
tivation pertains to control
Human beings generally want to be effective – at exerting control and establishing what is true and real (Bandura, 1977; Higgins, 2011)
Motivation can be automatic and non-conscious (Chartrand & Bargh, 1996)
[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht]
Motivation: A set of forces that originates both within and outside an employee, and determines the direction, intensity, and persistence of work effort.
[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht]
Job performace = (motivation x ability) – situational constraints
Motivation theories
• Self-Determination Theory
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory
• McClelland’s Learned Needs Theory
• Social Justice Theories (e.g., Equity Theory)
• Reinforcement Theory and Behavior Modification
• Social Learning Theory
• Goal Setting Theory
• VIE (Expectancy) Theory
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
[note: deze afbeelding uit het college is door de WorldSupporter redactie verwijderd wegens vermoedelijke inbreuk op het auteursrecht]
! Employer needs to know at what need level individual worker is operating
! Group of workers may all be functioning at different need levels
! Fits person-as-machine
.....read moreJoHo can really use your help! Check out the various student jobs here that match your studies, improve your competencies, strengthen your CV and contribute to a more tolerant world
JoHo kan jouw hulp goed gebruiken! Check hier de diverse studentenbanen die aansluiten bij je studie, je competenties verbeteren, je cv versterken en een bijdrage leveren aan een tolerantere wereld
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