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
Psychology in Action, Fifth Edition
by
Karen Huffman, Mark Vernoy, and
Judith Vernoy
© 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

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

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)
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)

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
Human-Machine Interaction

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

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

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

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

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
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
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

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.


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Psychology in Action, Fifth Edition by Karen Huffman, Mark Vernoy, and Judith Vernoy

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PowerPoint  Lecture Notes Presentation

Chapter 17: Industrial/Organizational

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

© 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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