 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 ◦

 The Occupational Information Network ◦ Tells you all about jobs 