Workplace sociology Gerhard Ohrband 2 nd lecture History and Context for Work and Organizational Psychology / Roles and methods

Course structure Part I Introduction 1Managing diversity 2History and context for Work and Organizational Psychology / Roles and methods Part II People at work 3 Job Analysis and Design 4Personal Selection 5 Training

Course structure 6Performance Appraisal: Assessing and Developing Performance and Potential 7 Job Stress and Health Part III Human Factors at Work 8Workload and Task Allocation 9Work Environments and Performance 10The Design and Use of Work Technology 11 Safety at Work

Course structure Part IV Organizations at Work 12Leadership and management 13Work motivation 14Teams: the challenges of cooperative work 15Organizational development (OD)

Part I – Introduction 1 History and Context for Work and Organizational Psychology Outline: 1.A historical perspective 2.Research in Occupational Psychology 3. An overview of Work and Organizational Psychology

1. A historical perspective Why studying history of science? -point the way forward -where we have been -sense of orientation Karl Popper: “…the course of human history is strongly influenced by the growth of human knowledge … We cannot predict rationally or scientifically, the future growth of our scientific knowledge. We cannot, therefore, predict the future course of human history … There can be no scientific theory of historical development serving as a base for historical prediction.”

Zeitgeist studies The industrial revolution: Great Britain, 18 th century 1. social and economical reordering of society 2. technological progress Before the revolution:  no big manufacturing towns  social unit still in the village  most families owned some means to make a living

Manufacturing automation McLoughlin and Clark (1994): Three phases in manufacturing automation: 1) primary mechanization: water/steam power 2) secondary mechanization: electricity, assembly lines 3) tertiary mechanization: IT

Dates, topics and institutions  Landy (1997): American in its inception; concentrated on individual differences.  1913 Munsterberg: Psychology and Industrial Efficiency  Development and use of psychological testing in the US Army  1919 The Scott Company  1921 The Psychological Corporation  1930s several US universities and colleges offered training in industrial and organizational psychology  American Association for Applied Psychology (AAAP(  1945 APA division 14 for Industrial and Business Psychology (the APA formed in 1892)  1970 Renaimed into Division of Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Example: Occupational Psychology in Britain 1971: foundation of the Division of Occupational Psychology of the British Psychological Society Eight main knowledge areas: 1. Human-machine interaction 2. Design of environments and work, health and safety 3. Personnel selection and assessment, including test and exercise design 4. Performance appraisal and career development 5. Counselling and personal development 6. Training (identification of needs, training design and evaluation) 7. Employee relations and motivation 8. Organizational development

2. Roles and Methods Outline: 1) Psychologists at work 2) Activities 3) The Roles and activities of practitioners 4) Methods of Data Acquisition and intervention 5) Practical tasks

1. Psychologists at work  Ergonomics: Design of a nation’ s motorway system  Career Guidance  Personnel Selection: Assessment Centre  Organizational Development

2. Activities Stages of consultancy: 1. identification of needs / problems 2. analyzing needs / problems 3. formulating solutions 4. implementing solutions 5. evaluating outcomes

3. The Roles and Activities of Practitioners Roles:  Acting as an expert in the matter of knowledge about relevant human behaviour  Acting as an enabler/facilitator of the activities of the client In practice, in the delivery of a service, these roles are integrated and not separate.

4. Methods of Data Acquisition and Intervention Observation:  Open-ended  With a question in mind to focus the process  Using some form of mapping or behaviour classification scheme Interviewing:  Open-ended  Semi-structured  structured

Methods of Data Acquisition and Intervention Questionnaires:  Attitude questionnaires  Interest questionnaires  Personality questionnaires Others:  Rating scales  Tests  Simulations  Laboratory investigation

Forms and Methods of intervention  Authoritative:  Prescriptive: offering suggestions and direction, but checking for acceptability  Informative: offering information, but checking for relevance  Confronting: highlighting inconsistencies in a client (as they are perceived by the facilitator)  Facilitative:  Cathartic: accepting emotional discharge (tears, fear, anger, joy)  Catalytic: questioning, listening, summarizing  Supportive: welcoming the other as a person, promoting psychological safety

5. Practical exercise  Imagine you work in the HR department of your university and that you are going to recruit a professor of psychology / a security guard / a Study Section clerk. Elaborate in small groups - a profile of target applicants - a list of typical and critical work situations, which a participant must tackle - sketch a design of the recruiting process: Where to buy ads? Which selection tools to use (personality questionnaires, simulations etc.)?

Discussion Points 1.One early idea of what industrial psychology (as it was then termed in the UK) was about was in terms of changing the person and changing the work environment. How well does that frame fit the four illustrations of psychologists at work? 2.What will a practitioner have to do to become an effective enabler/facilitator? 3.What forms of intervention have you experienced? Which were effective in the long run?

Literature  Landy, F.J. (1997). Early influences on the development of industrial and organizational psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82,  McLoughlin, I. and Clark, J. (1994). Technological change at work, 2 nd edn. Buckingham: Open University Press.