© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Psychology in Action, Fifth Edition by Karen Huffman, Mark Vernoy, and Judith Vernoy PowerPoint  Lecture Notes Presentation Chapter 17: Industrial/Organizational Psychology Paul J. Wellman Texas A&M University

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Lecture Overview History of I/O Psychology Human Factors Psychology Personnel Psychology Organizational Psychology

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Industrial/Organizational Psychology I/O psychology examines how individual behavior affects, and is affected by, the physical environment and the organizational structure of the workplace –Human factors psychology: how to improve machine design and function –Personnel psychology: worker recruitment, testing, and training –Organizational psychology: managerial style

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e History of I/O Psychology I/O can be traced back to the work of W.D. Scott who in 1901 argued that psychological principles could be applied to advertising F.W Taylor proposed basic principles of scientific management (1911) H. Munsterberg created a laboratory to study personnel selection and training (1913)

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Hawthorne Studies Early I/O psychologists studied worker productivity in the factory –What physical factors (e.g. lighting) govern worker productivity? 1924 study conducted at the Hawthorne factory of Western Electric failed to find that physical environment factors controlled productivity Rather, any changes made increased productivity Conclusion: Mere observation of a worker is sufficient to change their behavior (termed the Hawthorne effect)

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Human Factors Psychology The focus of human factors psychology is to improve the design and function of machines and the work environment Humans and machines form an interdependent system –Machine has displays and controls (displays allow for human perception, controls allow the human to control the machine) –Displays and controls can be fine-tuned to prevent accidents and improve performance

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Human-Machine Interaction

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Personnel Psychology Finding the right person for the job: –Job analysis: What knowledge, skills, and abilities are required to do the job? –Candidate selection: Who best matches the job analysis? Interview process –Job training: How is the person trained after hiring? Orientation is designed to clue new hires into the new organization culture

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Worker Evaluation Performance evaluation is the formal procedure used to asses the multidimensional job performance of employees –Provides feedback on job performance –Can be used to identify training and development needs –Used to make decisions on promotions, transfers, and termination

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Issues in Evaluation Evaluations can be objective (units sold) or subjective –Often cannot identify objective criteria –Subjective evaluations suffer from rater bias Halo effect is the tendency to rate a person as too high or too low based on one outstanding trait Halo effect can be countered by having multiple persons contribute to the evaluation The evaluation can be focused on rating behaviors rather than traits

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Myths of Sexual Harassment It’s a minor problem –Number of complaints are rising It’s overreported –75% of harassment may be ignored It’s an expression of sexual desire –Is actually an assertion of power

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Organizational Psychology The focus of organizational psychology is how interpersonal relations in the work setting affect productivity Managerial style makes a difference: –Theory X managers believe that employees are lazy, avoid being productive and have to be prodded to work Use quotas and commissions to motivate workers –Theory Y managers believe that employees like work and can direct themselves Do not use close supervision of employees

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Worker Motivation I/O psychology has sought answers for what motivates workers –Goal-setting theory argues that having specific and difficult goals will lead to higher performance – Equity theory suggests that workers compare their contributions and rewards to those of their fellow workers; if these are out of line, the worker adjusts output accordingly –Expectancy theory argues that worker motivation is related to expectancy of outcomes

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction leads to –Reduced resignations means lower costs to replace workers –Increased productivity means more output –Improved employee health is a benefit that accrues to the office and outside the office Holland argues that job satisfaction is a match between the personality and their occupation

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman/Vernoy/Vernoy: Psychology in Action 5e Copyright Copyright 2000 by John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY. All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner.