Introduction to I/O Personnel Psychology ◦ Interviews ◦ Training & Development ◦ Performance Appraisal Organizational Psychology ◦ Engagement & Satisfaction ◦ Leadership Human Factors Employment Opportunities O*Net
Individual attitude towards work ◦ Job vs. career vs. calling Flow (Csikszentmihalyi) ◦ Complete immersion in work while blocking everything else out ◦ Stems from intrinsic rewards of the work ◦ Full engagement of skill ◦ Positively relates to self-esteem, competence, & well-being
Definition: ◦ all about applying psychology to work ◦ Focus is optimization of performance, work- employee relationship, & organization-employee relationship Subfields of I/O ◦ Personnel Psychology ◦ Organizational Psychology ◦ Human Factors (Engineering Psychology)
Selection & Placement of Employees ◦ I/O Psychologist duties: Develop & validate selection tools Analyze job content Determine best employee fit in the organization All about strengths-based selection ◦ Methods utilized to ID applicants’ strengths: Ability tests (e.g., cognitive abilities tests) Personality tests (i.e., think Big 5) Behavioral observations (e.g., assessment centers) Interviews (our focus for today)
The Wonderlic, a cognitive abilities test is used in the NFL (Wonderlic & the NFL)
Goal: Predict future performance Best predictor of performance is g via CAT Interview options: ◦ Formal vs. Informal ◦ Structured vs. Unstructured Informal interviews ◦ Not valid ◦ Weaker predictor than aptitude tests, work samples, job knowledge tests, & past performance
What’s the issue with informal interviews? ◦ Interviewer Illusion Interviewers are often over-confident in their abilities Interviewers are biased due to lack of exposure to what did not work in the past Interviewers assume people will behave as they say & do in the interview while on the job Interviewers can be biased by their own mood & preconceptions So if the informal, unstructured interview doesn’t work, what does?
The solution = Formal, structured interviews ◦ 4x the predictive ability of unstructured ◦ Characterized by: Job relevant questions Scripted questions Set rating scales Training for interviewers (including taking notes & avoidance of follow-up questions)
Train & Develop Employees ◦ I/O Psychologist duties: Follow the ADDIE model – Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate
Performance Appraisal ◦ I/O Psychologist duties: Develop performance criteria (typ via job analysis) Assess individual performance Assess organizational performance ◦ Methods used in Performance Appraisal: Checklists (sup checks-off behaviors of employee) Graphic Rating Scales (e.g., 5-pt, indicate productivity) Behavior Rating Scales (e.g., indicate the beh of emp) 360-Degree Feedback (our focus)
360-Degree Feedback: ◦ Rate yourself, supervisor, & coworkers ◦ Your supervisor rates you ◦ Your coworkers rate you Issues in perf appraisal: ◦ Halo Errors ( e.g., they’re a nice person, = good rating ) ◦ Leniency & Severity (i.e., overly easy or hard on all ) ◦ Recency Errors ( i.e., rating based on recent behavior )
Organization development ◦ I/O Psychologist duties: Analyze org structure Assess employee satisfaction & productivity Facilitate & direct needed org change Assess employee worklife quality ◦ I/O Psychologist duties: Identify ways to increase job satisfaction & individual productivity Job redesign
Investigate achievement motivation ◦ What makes a good employee a good employee? ◦ High intelligence (i.e., g) is not enough ◦ More successful ppl: ambitious, energetic & persistent ◦ “discipline outdoes talent” (Duckworth & Seligman) Bc performance is not just a function of intelligence, I/O psychologists seek ways to motivate workers.
Satisfaction with work = Satisfaction with life Less job stress = health Job sat positively correlated with performance Employee engagement is related to job sat ◦ Definition ◦ Increased engagement links to more org commitment, less turnover, higher productivity, & increased profits
What makes a manager a good manager? ◦ 1. helps employees ID & develop their strengths ◦ 2. achieve good fit b/w employees & their position ◦ 3. care about employees’ reactions to work ◦ 4. reinforce positive behaviors (think behaviorism) Great mgrs help employees set specific and challenging goals ◦ Management by objectives ◦ Feedback is crucial
What is the best leadership style? ◦ It depends!!! Leadership Styles: ◦ Task leadership (i.e., goal-orientation) ◦ Social leadership (i.e., participative) Most good leaders are a blend of the two. ◦ Described as charismatic; inspire others to follow ◦ AKA transformational leadership (> in women)
AKA Engineering Psychology I/O Psychologist duties: ◦ Design efficient work environments ◦ Facilitate ideal person-technology interactions Actual research being conducted in HF ◦
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