Industrial/organi The application

zational of psychological
psychology is a principles is
branch of what best
psychology that distinguishes I/O
applies the psychology from
principles of related fields
psychology in the taught in
workplace. business colleges
Purpose: to (Aamodt, 2010).
enhance the Goal: to increase
dignity and the productivity
performance of and well-being of
human beings and employees,
the organizations accomplished
1. Industrial 2. Organizational
approach – focuses approach – creates
on determining the an organizational
competencies structure and
needed to perform culture that will
a job, staffing motivate employees
the organization to perform well,
with employees who give them with the
have those necessary
competencies, and information to do
increasing those their jobs, and
competencies provide working
through training. conditions that
are safe and
Major fields of 2. Organizational
I/O psychology psychology –
1. Personnel concerned with
psychology – issues of
study and leadership, job
practice in such satisfaction,
areas as employee
analyzing jobs, motivation,
recruiting organizational
applicants, communication,
selecting conflict
employees, management,
determining organizational
3. Human brief history of
factors/ergonomics I/O psychology
– concentrate on - Considering that
workplace design, the field of
human-machine psychology has
interaction, been around for
ergonomics, and only a relatively
physical fatigue short time (since
and stress; 1879), it is not
psychologists surprising that
frequently work I/O psychology
with engineers and has a
other technical correspondingly
professionals to short history
make the workplace - It is generally
safer and more thought to have
Scott wrote the - Regardless of the
Theory of official starting
Advertising, in date, I/O
which psychology psychology was
was first applied born in the early
to business; in 1900s.
1910 when Hugo - In addition to
Munsterberg wrote Scott and
Psychology and Munsterberg,
Industrial pioneers in the
Efficiency, which field include
was first James Cattell,
published in Walter Bingham,
English in 1913; John Watson,
- I/O psychology mainly through the
made its first big Army Alpha (for
impact during WW1 recruits who could
because of the read) and Army
large number of Beta (for recruits
soldiers who had who could not
to be assigned to read) tests of
various units mental ability;
within the Armed the more
Forces; I/O intelligent
psychologists were recruits were
employed to test assigned to
recruits and then officer training,
place them in and the less
Major in the US - In 1920, Thomas
Army in WW1 and Edison created a
developed 150-item
perceptual and knowledge test
motor tests for that he
potential pilots administered to
(DiClemente & over 900
Hantula, 2000); applicants; the
I/O psychologists, test and passing
especially Henry score were so
Gantt, were difficult that
responsible for only 5% of the
increasing the applicants
efficiency with passed.
Frank Gilbreth and - The Hawthorne
Lillian Moller studies
Gilbreth, who were demonstrated that
among the first employees’
scientists to behavior was
improve complex and that
productivity and interpersonal
reduce fatigue by interactions
studying the between managers
motions used by and employees
workers. played a
- In the 1930s, tremendous role in
when findings from employees’
the Hawthorne behavior;
studies were initially designed
published, to investigate
psychologists such issues as the
became more effects of
- The 1960s were Strides in the
characterized by understanding of
the passage of many
several major organizational
pieces of civil psychology issues
rights that involved
legislation which employees’
focused the satisfaction and
attention of HR motivation; saw
professionals to the development of
developing fair many theories
selection about employees’
techniques; hence behavior in
the need for I/O organizations; BF
Modification 2. A new interest
techniques in in the application
organizations. of cognitive
- The 1980s and psychology to
1990s brought 4 industry; articles
major changes: written about
1. Increased use performance
of fairly appraisal in the
sophisticated 1970s primarily
statistical described and
techniques and tested new methods
methods of for evaluating
analysis, such as employees’
path analysis, performance.
The last two - In the 2000s,
decades of the 20th greatest influence
century, on I/O psychology
employees’ stress, is the rapid
especially stress advances in
resulting in technology; many
workplace violence tests and surveys
received are now
attention. administered
4. I/O through computers
psychologists took and the internet,
a renewed interest employers recruit
in developing and screen
methods to select applicants online,
Holding meetings Employees with
in cyberspace child-care and
rather than in elder-care
person; global responsibilities,
economy also flatter
affects the role organizational
of I/O psychology; structures with
increased emphasis fewer management
on service jobs levels, population
requiring human shifts from urban
relations skills. to suburban
- Other factors locations, and
that will impact increasing costs
I/O psychology of health-care
include movements benefits.
toward flexible
work schedules, Historical
family-friendly Perspectives … key
1. Scientific - Scientific
management management: a
2. Classical theory
bureaucracy (spearheaded by
3. Principles of Taylor, Gilbreth,
organization and Gantt) that
4. Industrial emphasizes
psychology efficiency and
productivity in
5. Human relations
organizations,
movement
with the
6. Neo-human spotlight on the
relations interaction
7. Systems approach between the
Hierarchical, with - Principles of
each position in organization: a
the hierarchy theory expounded
assigned a by practitioners,
specific role, such as Fayol
where there are (1949) and Urwick
clear rules, and (1947), that
where everything emphasizes the
done is organization’s
documented; the objective, its
concern is with division of labor
how to organize and
effectively large specialization,
numbers of authority and the
employees into an responsibility
overall structure. that comes with
it, modes of
effective
- Industrial psychology: the
application of psychology and
science to industry in order to
better understand workplace
practice; in the early 1920s, it
was established to a greater
extent in the UK than in the
USA, with notable
achievements at both the
theoretical and empirical levels
(Shimmin & Wallis, 1994).
- Human relations movement:
initiated by Elton Mayo, a
social scientist from Harvard
U; this is the view that an
organization should be
committed to justice and
humanity in its dealings with
workers.
- Neo-human relations: the
view that employees have
great potential to perform,
and they should not be
Treated as submissive,
compliant creatures; it is also
the view that there should be
greater scientific analysis of
organizational functioning;
propounded by Miles (1965).
- Systems approach: the
notion that an organization is
an open system (one that is
continually adapting to and
influencing its external
environment) composed of
Technical and social elements.
- Contingency approach: this
approach challenges the view
that there are universal
answers to organizational
questions; the structures of an
organization or leadership is
dependent upon the situation.
Research in I/O psychology –
For years, many organizations
relied on employment interview
as the main method for
Selecting employees (most still
do); but, researchers have
shown that the unstructured
employment interview is not
the best predictor of future
behavior on the job (Schmidt &
Hunter, 1998).
- The first step in conducting
research is to decide what to
research; although the majority
of I/O psychology research is
conducted to test the accuracy
of theories; once a question
has been asked, the next step
is to form a hypothesis – an
educated prediction about the
answer to a question. This
prediction is usually based on
a theory, previous research, or
logic.
- The exploratory design is
conducted about a research
problem when there are few or
no earlier studies to refer to;
the focus is on gaining insights
And familiarity for later
investigation, or undertaken
when problems are in a
preliminary stage of
investigation.
- Once a research idea has
been created, the next step is
to search the literature for
similar research; this is
important because if the
question you are interested in
answering has already been
Researched in 20 studies, it is
probably not necessary for you
to conduct a new study.
- When reviewing the
literature, you encounter four
types of periodicals:
1. Journals – consist of
articles written by
researchers directly
reporting the results of the
study.
2. Bridge publications –
designed to “bridge the
gap” between academia
And the applied world.
3. Trade magazines – contain
articles usually written by
professional writers who have
developed expertise in a given
field.
4. Magazines – are periodicals
designed to entertain as well
as inform; these are good
sources of ideas but bad
sources to use in support of a
scientific hypothesis.
Laboratory research –
- 32% of I/O psychology
research is conducted in a
laboratory (Rach, 2008);
done in a university, but
research is also conducted
in organizations.
- One disadvantage is
external validity, or
generalizability of results to
organizations in the “real
world.”
Field research –
- Away from the laboratory and
out in the “field”; gains external
validity but it loses in control of
extraneous variables that are
not of interest to the
researcher – internal validity;
also provides researchers with
an ethical dilemma –
psychologists require
participants in studies of their
own free will – a concept
called informed consent.
- In laboratory studies,
informed consent is seldom
an issue because potential
subjects are:
1. Aware of the nature and
purpose of a study.
2. Informed the right to
decline participation or
withdraw from
participation.
3. Conveyed the risks and
benefits of participating.
4. Understand the limits of
Confidentiality.
5. Told who they can contact
with questions (Salkind, 2006).
-- on the basis of ethical
guidelines, informed consent
can be waived only when the
research involves minimum
risk to the participants; the
waiver will not adversely affect
the rights of the participants,
and the research could not be
carried out without the waiver.
-- when studies involve
negative consequences for a
subject, informed consent can
be waived only if the
importance of the study
outweighs the negative
consequences.
-- universities have institutional
review boards (IRBs) to
monitor research to ensure
ethical treatment of research
participants --- one area is
Confidentiality --- because
data collected in research
can be of a sensitive nature,
researchers ensure
confidentiality by using
subject ID numbers/code
names rather than real
names, and avoiding
discussion of individual
participants (Ilgen & Bell,
2001).
Research methods to be
used
A. Experiments: most
powerful of all research
methods because it is the
only one that can determine
cause and effect
relationships --- whether one
variable produces or causes
another variable to change.
Characteristics that define an
experiment:
1. Manipulation of one or
more independent
variables
2. Random assignment of
subjects to experimental
and control conditions
- If either of these
characteristics is missing, a
research cannot be called an
experiment; it is called a quasi-
experiment.
B. Quasi-experiment: research
shares similarities with
traditional experimental design
or randomized controlled trial,
but specifically lacks the
element of random assignment
to treatment or control; it is
often used to evaluate the
results of a new program
implemented by an
organization.
C. Archival research: involves
using previously collected data
Or records to answer a
research question; has many
features, such as not being
obtrusive or expensive, but
also has some drawbacks:
1. Records on files are not
always accurate and are
not always kept up-to-
date.
2. Type of data needed may
not be in the archives
because the data were
never recorded in the first
place (Schult, Hoffman, &
Reiter-Palmon, 2005).
D. Surveys --- employs asking
people their opinions on some
topics; can be conducted by
mail, personal interviews,
phone, fax, email, internet, or
magazines.
E. Meta-analysis --- statistical
method of reaching
conclusions based on previous
research; prior to meta-
analysis, a researcher
interested in reviewing the
literature on a topic would read
all of the available researches,
and then make a rather
Subjective conclusion based
on the previous articles.
- With meta-analysis, the
researcher goes through each
article, determine the effect
size for each article, and find
the statistical average of effect
sizes across all articles; a
meta-analysis results in one
number, called the mean effect
size, which indicates the
effectiveness of some variable.
- Correlation coefficients (r) are
used as the effect size when
researchers are interested in
the relationship between two
variables, and the majority of
studies use correlation as their
statistical tool.
- A difference score (d) is used
as the effect size when
researchers are looking at the
difference between two
groups; effect sizes (d) less
Than .40 are considered to be
small; those between .40 and
.80 are moderate; and those
higher than .80 are considered
large (Cohen, 1988).
- These numbers are “rules of
thumb”; the actual practical
significance of an effect size
depends on many factors; the
average effect size for an
organizational intervention is
.44 (Guzzo, Jette, & Katzell,
1985).
Ethics in I/O psychology
- Ethical dilemmas are
ambiguous situations that
require personal judgment of
what is right or wrong
because there are no rules,
policies, or laws guiding
such decisions.
- Individuals often rely on their
morals and personal values,
which often lead to different
decisions by different people
in similar situations in life.
Types of ethical dilemmas 2. Type B dilemma – also
often encountered in life: called rationalizing dilemma
1. Type A dilemma – there – the difference between
is high level of right and wrong is much
uncertainty as to what is clearer; usually, individuals
right or wrong; there know what is right but
appears to be no best choose the solution that is
solution, and there are most advantageous to
both positive and themselves.
negative consequences
to a decision. END 