IO Psychology

• Selection methods include interviews, tests, biographical data forms, work samples, assessment centers, and background investigations.
• Motivation


  The force that drives an employee to perform well
• Basic abilities don't change greatly over time, changes in work behavior are thought to be affected by the amount of effort an employee applies to her work rather than applying that effort to other aspects of life such as family or hobbies
• A person's overall level of work motivation might not change, but the effort spent on various tasks at work might change
• Predisposition to being motivated

  • Some employees are more predisposed to being motivated than are others
  • Some employees come to most jobs with a tendency to be motivated, whereas others come with the tendency to be unmotivated
• Conscientiousness


  The best personality predictor of work performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and academic performance
• Stability


  Most associated with salary and setting high goals
• Extraversion


  Most highly correlated with the number of promotions received
• Consistency theory - Korman


  • Employees high in self-esteem are more motivated and will perform better than employees low in self-esteem
  • Employees try to perform at levels consistent with their self-esteem level
• Chronic self-esteem


  The positive or negative way in which a person views himself or herself as a whole
• Situational self-esteem


  The positive or negative way in which a person views him or herself in a particular situation
• Socially influenced self-esteem


  The positive or negative way in which a person views him or herself based on the expectations of others
• Self-fulfilling prophecy


  The idea that people behave in ways consistent with their self-image
• Pygmalion effect


  The idea that if people believe that something is true, they will act in a manner consistent with that belief
• Galatea effect


  When high self-expectations result in higher levels of performance
• Golem effect


  When negative expectations of an individual cause a decrease in that individual's performance
• Content theory


  Employees are motivated because of their needs
• Process theory

  Employees are motivated because of their thoughts and beliefs
• Intrinsic motivation


  Motivation in the absence of such external factors as pay, promotion, and coworkers
• Extrinsic motivation


  Motivation that arises from such non personal factors as pay, coworkers, and opportunities for advancement
• McClelland's theory of learned needs


  Employees differ in the extent to which they are motivated by the need for achievement, affiliation, and power
• Need for achievement


  Extent to which a person desires to be successful
• Need for affiliation


  Extent to which a person desires to be around other people
• Need for power


  Extent to which a person desires to be in control of other people
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs


  • Physiological needs
  • Safety needs
  • Social needs
  • Ego needs
  • Self-actualization needs
• ERG theory


  To improve Maslow's theory, Alderfer introduced the ERG theory wherein people can skip levels provided. He reduced it to three levels particularly: Existence, Relatedness, Growth
• Two-factor theory


  • According to Herzberg, job-related factors could be divided into two categories—hygiene factors and motivators
  • Hygiene factors are those job-related elements that result from but do not involve the job itself
  • Motivators are job elements that do concern actual tasks and duties
• Goal setting (Locke)


  • Method of increasing performance in which employees are given specific performance goals to aim for
  • Goals must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound
• Operant conditioning


  Rewarded behaviors will increase and punished behaviors will decrease
• Factors to consider when rewarding employees


  • Timing of the incentive
  • Contingency of the consequences
  • Type of incentive used
  • Use of individual-based versus group-based incentives
  • Use of positive incentives (rewards) versus negative incentives (punishment)
  • Fairness of the reward system (equity)
• Types of incentives


  • Variable pay
  • Travel
  • Individual incentives: Merit pay, Pay for performance
  • Group-based incentives: Profit sharing, Gainsharing, Stock options
• Expectancy theory - Vroom


  • Derived from three components: Expectancy, Instrumentality, Valence
  • It has been criticized for people not always having an internal locus of control
• Equity theory - Adams


  • Our levels of motivation and job satisfaction are related to how fairly we believe we are treated in comparison with others
  • Inputs - the elements that employees put into their jobs
  • Outputs - what employees get from their jobs
  • Input/output ratio - how much employees believe they put into their jobs to how much they believe they get from their jobs
• Job satisfaction


  The attitude an employee has toward her job
• Organizational commitment


  The extent to which an employee identifies with and is involved with an organization
• Types of organizational commitment


  • Affective commitment
  • Continuance commitment
  • Normative commitment
• Affective commitment


  The extent an employee wants to remain and cares about the organization
• Continuance commitment


  The extent to which employees believe they must remain with an organization due to the time, expense, and effort they have already put into it
• Normative commitment


  Employees feel an obligation to remain
• Factors affecting job satisfaction and commitment


  • Individual, Genetic Differences
  • Core Self-Evaluations
  • Culture
  • Intelligence
  • Environment
  • Social information processing theory