Chapter 1 IO

•  The Field of I/O Psychology

  o Industrial/Organizational Psychology – branch of psychology that applies the principles of psychology to the workplace

  o Purpose: to enhance the dignity and performance of human beings and the organizations they work in, by advancing the science and knowledge of human behavior (Rucci, 2008)
• Main Difference between IO Psychology and Business Fields

  o I/O Psychology examines factors that affect the people in an organization as opposed to the broader aspects of running an organization

  o IO focuses almost exclusively on issues involving the people in the organization

  o IO relies extensively on research, quantitative methods, and testing techniques

  o Use empirical data and statistics rather than intuition to make decisions
• o Scienctist-Practitioner Model  - factors that help differentiate IO psychology from other branches of psychology

  – I/O professionals acts as scientist when they conduct research and as practitioners when they work with actual organizations;

  • applies research findings so that the work they perform with the organizations will be of high quality and enhance an organization’s effectiveness
• l From societal perspective, IO psychologists can also improve the quality of life by increasing employee effectiveness, which reduces the cost of goods sold by improving product quality which reduces repair and replacement costs by improving organizational efficiency, which can result in inefficient activities

  IO psychologists positively impacts the lives of others
• Major Fields of I/O Psychology

  Industrial Approach – focuses on determining the competencies needed to perform a job, staffing the organization with employees who have those competencies, and increasing those competencies through training
• o Organizational Approach – creates an organizational structure and culture that will motivate employees to perform well, give them the necessary information about their jobs, and provide working conditions that are safe and result in an enjoyable and satisfying work/life environment
• Personnel Psychology concentrates on the selection and evaluation of employees.
• Personnel Psychology involves the study and practice in areas such as analyzing jobs, recruiting applicants, selecting employees, determining salary levels, training employees, and evaluating employee performance.
• Personnel Psychology analyzes jobs to obtain a complete picture of what each employee does, often assigning monetary values to each position.
• Personnel Psychology constructs performance appraisal instruments to evaluate employee performance.
• Personnel Psychology examines various methods that can be used to train and develop employees.
• Personnel Psychologists usually work in a training department of an organization and are involved in activities such as identifying the organization's training needs, developing training programs, and evaluating training success.
• Organizational Psychology

  o Investigates behavior of employees with context of an organization

  o Concerned with the issues of leadership, job satisfaction,  employee motivation, organizational communication, conflict management, organizational change, and group processes within an organization

  o Conduct surveys of employee attitudes

  o Serving the role of consultant

  o Implement organization-wide programs designed to improve performance
•  Human Factors/Ergonomics

  o Concentrate on workplace design, human- machine interaction, ergonomics, and physical fatigue and stress

  o Frequently works with engineers and other technical professionals to make the workplace safer and more efficient
•  Brief History of I/O Psychology

  o Walter Dill Scott (1903) – Theory of advertising; psychology was first applied to business
• o Hugo Munsterberg (1910) – Psychology and Industrial Efficiency

  IO Psychology was born in the early 1900s
• o Pioneers in the Field: James Cattell, Walter Bingham, John Watson, Marion Bills, and Lillian Gilbreth

  o  - common terms were “economic psychology” “business psychology and “employment psychology”
• o Industrial Psychology - seldom used

  o During WWI, the I/O Psychologists employed Army Alpha (for literate) and Army Beta (for illiterate)
• o Thomas Edison - importance of selecting the right employees

  – In 1920, created a 163-item knowledge test  that he administered over 900 applicants
• o Frank and Lillian Moller Gilbreth – improved the productivity and reduce fatigue by studying motions used by workers
• In 1930s IO psychology had been involved in personnel issues such as selection and placement of employees
• o Hawthorne Studies - Western Electric plant in Hawthorne Illinois

  o – demonstrated that employee behavior was complex and that the interpersonal interactions between managers and employees played a tremendous role in  employee behavior
• o Hawthorne Effect - employees changed their behavior and became more productive because they were being studies and received attention from their managers
• o 1960s: Civil rights legislation; used sensitivity trainings and t-groups for managers

  o 1970s: increased use of behavior-modification techniques in organization

  o 1980s and 1990s: increased usage of fairly sophisticated statistical techniques and methods of analysis; application of cognitive psychology; increased interest in the effects of work on family life and leisure activities

  o 2000s: diversified demographics; global economy affects the role of I/O Psychology

   
• Factors that are currently impacting I/O Psychology:

  o High Unemployment rates

  o Movements toward flexible work schedules

  o Family-friendly work policies

  o Accommodation of an increasing number of employees with child-care and elder-care responsibilities

  o flatter organizational structures with fewer management levels

  o Population shifts from urban to suburbs

  o Increasing cost of health-care benefits

  o Potential changes in retirement age
• Research in IO Psychology

  Research is important so that IO psychologists can make the best decisions

  l Answering Questions and Making Decisions

  research ultimately saves organizations money

  • These monetary savings can result from many factors, including increased employee satisfaction, increased productivity, and fewer accidents
• l Research and Everyday Life

  • Understanding research helps you to critically listen and analyze results of these studies to make more intelligent decisions

   
• l Common Sense is Often Wrong

  • Common sense is not so common and is often wrong

  -Common sense said that women employees could not perform as well as men, In other words, many of our common sense policies have been and continue to be wrong
• l Hypothesis - An educated prediction about the answer

  l Theory - set of assumptions regarding the cause and nature of behavior

        - previous research or logic
• Literature Reviews

  Journals - collection of articles describing the methods and results of new research
• l Bridge Publications - designed to “bridge the gap” between academia and the applied world

  • written by professors 
• l Trade Magazines - written by professional writers
• l Magazines - designed to entertain as well as to inform
• Location of the Study

  l Laboratory Research - in a laboratory

          - External Validity - research results can be expected to hold true outside the specific setting in which they were obtained

         -  Generalizability - like external validity
• l Field Research - natural setting

  Informed Consent - subjects participate in their own free will

  • subjects give permission

   

  -Institutional Review Borads - pay close attention to confidentiality

         - ensure ethical treatment of research
• l Experiments - most powerful of all research methods because it is the only one that can determine cause and effect of relationships
• 2 Characteristics define an experiment

  1. Manipulation of one or more independent variables

  2. Random assignment of subjects to experimental and control conditions
• Independent Variable - researcher intentionally manipulates one or more aspects of the question of interest
• Dependent Variable - measures the changes that occur as a result of that manipulation
• Experimental Group - group of subject that receives the experimental treatment of interest to the experimenter