CHAPTER 15
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
CHAPTER OUTLINE I.
AN OVERVIEW OF INDUSTRIAL/ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY What do industrial/organizational psychologists do? A.
II.
Industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes in the workplace. Industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists are both researchers and practitioners with two main goals: 1. Promote effective job performance by employees. 2. Improve the health, safety, and well-being of employees. B. I/O psychology emerged in the early 1900s when psychologists began to apply laboratory findings about learning, memory, and motivation to the problems of the workplace. C. I/O psychologists hold graduate degrees in their specialty and work as professors, business consultants, technical specialists, or researchers in the public sector. ASSESSING PEOPLE, JOBS, AND JOB PERFORMANCE How do industrial/organizational psychologists match employees to jobs? A.
B.
C.
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics I/O assessments are often used to describe human attributes necessary for doing jobs successfully. These attributes are known as KSAOs. 1. Knowledge refers to what the person already knows. 2. Skill refers to how good a person is at doing a particular task. 3. Ability refers to a person’s potential for learning a skill. 4. Other personal characteristics are anything else about a person. Job Analysis 1. Job analysis is the collection of information about particular jobs and job requirements. It guides decisions about whom to hire and what kind of training is needed. 2. There are two major approaches to job analysis. The approach taken and the level of detail included depend on how the report will be used. Many times both approaches are included. a) The job-oriented approach describes the tasks involved in doing a job. b) The person-oriented approach describes the KSAOs needed to do those job tasks. 3. The most common method of job analysis is to ask employees to fill out questionnaires about what they do in the workplace. The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) contains 189 items that can describe almost any job in terms of particular characteristics, such as the degree to which a job involves communicating with people, lifting heavy objects, etc. 4. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is a computer database that contains analyses of about 1,100 groups of jobs. Measuring Employee Characteristics I/O psychologists use three main methods to measure a person’s KSAOs.
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1.
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Psychological Tests A psychological test is a systematic procedure for observing behavior in a standard situation and describing it on a number scale or system of categories. Tests have standardized series of problems or questions that have one correct answer or that require essays that must be judged by an expert. a)
2.
Standard IQ tests are used most often to measure general ability and skill. They are relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and predict performance in a wide variety of occupational tasks. b) Tests of job-relevant knowledge may be used to make sure a person has the information needed to succeed at a job task. c) Personality tests are used to measure other employee characteristics. For example, conscientiousness has been linked to job performance across many occupations. Also, integrity tests are sometimes used to identify people who have tendencies to steal or engage in other disruptive activities. Selection Interviews A selection interview is a conversation designed to determine a job applicant’s suitability for a job. There are two types of interviews: a)
D.
A structured interviewer has prepared a list of specific topics or questions to be covered in a particular order. b) In an unstructured interview, the course of the conversation is spontaneous and variable. c) Research shows that structured interviews are far more effective in making good hiring decisions. There are two main reasons why: (1) Structured interviews focus specifically on job-related knowledge and skills, whereas unstructured interviews do not. (2) Unstructured interviews make it easier for personal bias to affect ratings of the candidates. 3. Assessment Centers a) An assessment center is an extensive set of exercises designed to determine an individual’s suitability for a particular job. Typically, exercises that simulate various aspects of the job are carried on for two to three days. b) The in-basket is a typical assessment center for managers. This exercise asks a person to prioritize tasks. c) Other assessment centers measure interpersonal skills. For example, a candidate may be asked to play the role of a manager who must discipline an employee. d) Assessment centers have been found to predict performance of teachers, police offers, pilots, managers, and others. Measuring Job Performance Almost all employees of medium to large organizations receive an annual job performance appraisal, which provides an evaluation of how well they are doing in various aspects of their work. These appraisals are used to guide decisions about employee raises, bonuses, retention, promotion, and removal. Also, they provide feedback to employees on the quality and quantity of their work. 1.
Establishing Performance Criteria a) I/O psychologists’ important role in designing job performance appraisal systems is to help establish criteria that define what the organization means by “good” or “bad” performance. (1) Theoretical criteria are statements about what is meant by good or bad performance. But they do not specify how to measure it.
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(2)
E.
Actual criteria specify what should be measured to determine if the theoretical criteria have been met. b) Because a single actual criterion can be an incomplete or biased measure of a theoretical criterion, job performance appraisals should be based on several criteria. Methods of Performance Appraisal The information used in job performance appraisals can come from objective and subjective measures. 1.
Objective Measures Objective measures of job performance include counting the frequency of particular behaviors or the results of those behaviors. a) b)
2.
These measures provide a valuable link between theoretical and actual criteria. Objective measures are not appropriate for all jobs, because some things cannot be evaluated by counting things. Many times, organizations want to know the quality of the performance, not just the quantity. Subjective Measures Subjective measures are typically a supervisor’s judgments about various aspects of an employee’s work that are recorded on a graphic rating form or behavior-focused rating form. a)
Graphic rating forms list several criterion-related dimensions of job performance and provide a space for the supervisor to rate each employee’s performance on a scale (e.g., 1 to 10 or poor to excellent). Because these are judgments, factors other than performance can affect the results. (1) Most graphic ratings contain leniency error, which means that supervisors tend to use only the favorable side of the scale. (2) Many supervisors also show halo error, which means that they tend to give the same rating for all dimensions. b) Behavior-focused rating forms ask supervisors to rate employees on specific behaviors rather than general dimensions of performance. (1) These forms contain lists of critical incidents, which are particular jobrelated behaviors that illustrate different levels of performance on important job dimensions. Supervisors choose which incidents are most typical of each employee. (2) Behavior-focused rating forms better clarify what constitutes good or bad performance, but they don’t eliminate supervisor bias and error. III. RECRUITING AND SELECTING EMPLOYEES How do organizations find good employees? A.
Recruitment Processes 1. Organizations are interested in attracting the “best and the brightest.” To be competitive, they need to have effective recruitment processes. a) First, I/O psychologists determine by analyses how many people are needed in each position currently and in the future. b) Second, analyses are needed to determine demand for employees in various occupations. More active recruitment plans will be necessary to attract the best people in high-demand areas. c) Third, persuasive methods are used to attract people with the right kinds of KSAOs to apply for the available jobs. Six most common methods are: (1) newspaper ads (2) posting jobs on recruitment websites
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(3) (4) (5)
interviewing graduating college seniors collecting information from current employees about potential candidates working with employment agencies, consultants, and private “head-hunting firms” (6) accepting applications from “walk-ins” B. Selection Processes 1. Selecting the right employee for a particular job is generally a matter of finding the best fit between assessments of each candidate’s characteristics and the job’s tasks and characteristics. 2. I/O psychologists are interested in whether or not the characteristics identified as predicting job success actually do predict success. Validation studies are research projects designed to determine how well an assessment method predicts employees’ actual job performance. a) A database of research results is available to indicate which assessments are valid in predicting performance in which types of jobs. C. Legal Issues in Recruitment and Selection 1. Principles and laws have been developed to protect employees and job candidates from discrimination on the basis of characteristics that have nothing to do with job performance. U.S. laws have been developed to protect groups, called protected classes, whose members have been discriminated against in the past. 2. It is illegal in the United States to discriminate on the basis of a candidate’s age, ethnicity, gender, national origin, disability, religion, and, in some states, sexual orientation. 3. In 1978 I/O psychologists helped the U.S. government create its Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, which outlines procedures organizations must use to ensure fairness in hiring and promotion. IV. Training Employees What kind of training do employees need? I/O psychologists are directly involved in establishing the need for training, in designing training methods and content, and in evaluating the outcome of training efforts. A.
B.
Assessing Training Needs 1. A training needs assessment takes into account the organization’s job categories, its work force, and its goals. a) First, the need for training is identified by looking at job analysis reports. b) Second, personal development plans created by employees and supervisors give information about what training they would like to have. c) Finally, the goals of the organization are used to identify areas for training. Designing Training Programs I/O psychologists are mindful of the basic principles of learning and remembering of new information and skills when designing training programs. 1.
2.
Transfer of Training a) The most valuable training programs promote transfer of training, which teaches knowledge and skills that are generalizable (or transferable) to the workplace. b) Transfer of training is more likely when the link between training and application is made clear, and employees receive some experience applying the new skills or knowledge in simulated work situations. Feedback a) People learn faster when given feedback on their performance.
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b)
C.
Trainers or other trainees can give reinforcement following progress, constructive suggestions following errors or failure, and constant encouragement to continue efforts to learn. 3. Training in General Principles a) People learn better and remember more when they can put new information into a broader context. b) Training in general principles involves giving the “big picture” by teaching why particular ways of doing things are important. 4. Overlearning a) Practice makes perfect. b) Overlearning occurs when information or skills have been practiced so much that a person is not only highly competent, but able to do the skill or use the information automatically. 5. Sequencing a) Massed training, which occurs in one or two long sessions, is less expensive and less disruptive to employees’ schedules than distributed training which takes place in several shorter sessions over a longer period. b) But people retain more after distributed training than after massed training, because massed training can create boredom, inattention, and fatigue. Evaluating Training Programs Organizations need to be able to know whether a training program was worth the cost, worth doing again, or needs to be refined in some way. Evaluation can be done by conducting controlled experiments, but organizations usually rely on employees’reactions to training, what they remember about it, and changes in behavior that follow. 1.
Evaluation Criteria As many criteria as possible should be used to evaluate training programs, because the apparent value of the training can depend on which criteria were considered. a)
V.
Training-level criteria include data collected from trainees immediately after a training session, using their ratings of enjoyment, value, and effectiveness. b) Trainee learning criteria include data about what trainees actually learned from the training session, as measured by a test of the knowledge and skills covered in the training session. c) Performance-level criteria measure the degree to which the knowledge and skills learned in training transferred to the employee’s workplace behavior. EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION What motivates employees to do their best? Motivation is the reason that people behave as they do. Motivation affects the direction of people’s decisions about whether to work and what kind of job to seek. It also affects the intensity of work as seen in people’s absenteeism, tardiness, overtime work, or working beyond the call of duty. And it also is reflected in a person’s persistence at a task. A.
ERG Theory To address some problems with Maslow’s hierarchical theory of motives, Alderfer proposed Existence, Relatedness, Growth (ERG) theory, which places human needs into three categories: •
Existence needs are things necessary for survival (e.g., food and water).
•
Relatedness needs include the need for social contact.
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•
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Growth needs are those involving the development and use of a person’s capabilities.
1.
B.
Unlike Maslow’s theory, ERG theory does not suggest that the needs must be satisfied in a particular order. Instead, the strength of a person’s needs in each category is seen as changing from time to time, situation to situation. If a need in one area is fulfilled or frustrated, a person will be motivated to pursue some other needs. 2. ERG theory helps explain why employees may not be motivated to pursue job-related growth needs if other needs are unfulfilled or frustrated. Expectancy Theory Expectancy theory tries to explain how cognitive processes affect the impact of rewards on employee behavior. It assumes that employees behave in accordance with: •
what results they expect their actions to bring, and
•
how much they value those results.
1.
C.
Workplace tests of the theory show that how hard employees work and the quality of their work are strongly related to their expectancies about rewards and to the value they place on those rewards. Goal Setting Theory Goal setting theory focuses on the idea that behavior at work is affected not only by general needs and expectations, but also by worker’s intentions to achieve specific goals. 1. 2.
A basic prediction of the theory is that employees will be motivated to choose, engage in, and persist at behaviors that take them closer to their goals. This theory has been quite useful in motivating employees. The most motivating goals tend to be those that are: • chosen, or at least accepted, by employees, •
challenging, but not impossible,
•
specific enough to allow employees to keep track of their progress.
VI. JOB SATISFACTION Is pay the most important factor in job satisfaction? Job satisfaction is the degree to which people like or dislike their jobs. Like other attitudes, it is composed of beliefs about the job, feelings about the job, and work-related behavior. A.
B.
Measuring Job Satisfaction 1. A global approach assesses an employee’s general attitude toward the job, and is typically measured by a questionnaire, such as the Job in General Scale. 2. A facet approach uses questionnaires, like the Job Satisfaction Survey, to assess an employee’s attitude toward specific aspects of the job (e.g., pay, promotion, benefits, coworkers, and supervision). Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction Environmental factors, such as job requirements, how much it pays, and how it affects workers’ lives outside the workplace, as well as personal factors, such as gender, age, and ethnicity, can influence people’s job satisfaction. 1.
Job Requirements a) In general, the more complex the job is, the more job satisfaction. This may be because more complex jobs tend to be more interesting, more challenging, and more likely to create a sense of responsibility and control.
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b)
C.
D.
A complex job can create dissatisfaction if the worker does not have KSAOs to do it successfully or if the worker’s personality is at odds with it. 2. Salary a) Higher salaries alone do not lead to job satisfaction. In fact, knowing that salary and pay raise decisions are made in a fair way can be more important to job satisfaction than the amount of pay received. b) Relative deprivation can create the perception that others are unfairly receiving more benefits for the same or lesser effort. (see the social psychology chapter). 3. Work-Family Conflict a) The number of two-career couples and single-parent families is on the increase in the industrialized world, and this creates a conflict between the demands of work and family. The greater the conflict is, the lower the job satisfaction. b) Family friendly work policies help employees balance work and family responsibilities. For example, flextime allows workers to adjust work times based on family needs. 4. Gender, Age, and Ethnicity a) Few gender differences exist in job satisfaction, even on quite different jobs. b) Generally, older workers tend to be more satisfied than younger ones. c) Some studies have found lower job satisfaction among nonwhites than among whites in the United States, but other comparisons across groups doing the same job show little difference. Thinking Critically: Is Job Satisfaction Genetic? 1. What am I being asked to believe or accept? Differences in job satisfaction reflect genetic predispositions toward liking or not liking a job. 2.
Is there evidence available to support the claim? One study found that hostility and other personality traits measured in adolescence were related to job satisfaction fifty years later. Another study looked at identical twins who had been raised apart. The researchers found that twins’ job satisfaction was positively correlated. This would suggest that genetic factors were at least partially responsible for the similarity.
3.
Can that evidence be interpreted another way? The twins’ work environments might have been quite similar, making their ratings of job satisfaction similar. The shared innate abilities, interests, behavioral tendencies, or appearance of the twins might have led them to similar types of jobs. Genes may not shape job satisfaction itself, but help to shape characteristics that influence access to satisfying work.
4.
What evidence would help to evaluate the alternatives? The nature of the twins’ jobs and job environments must be assessed in order to determine the influence of these nongenetic factors on the twins’ satisfaction ratings.
5.
What conclusions are most reasonable? There is no single reason why people differ in job satisfaction; it is most likely that job satisfaction is shaped by both genetic and environmental influences.
Consequences of Job Satisfaction 1. Job Performance a) Satisfied workers tend to be more motivated, to work harder, and to perform better than dissatisfied workers.
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b)
However, it could be that workers who perform better feel more satisfied with their jobs. 2. Organizational Citizenship Behavior a) Job satisfaction is positively related to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), which is a willingness to go beyond formal job requirements to help coworkers and/or the organization. b) It is not known whether job satisfaction is the cause or is caused by OCB. c) In some cases, OCB may occur because of a strategy to get a pay raise, promotion, or other personal goals. 3. Turnover a) Turnover, the loss of employees, tends to involve employees who have low job satisfaction. b) Dissatisfied employees tend to stay on the job until alternative employment is available. 4. Absenteeism a) There is a surprisingly weak relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism. b) Factors such as personal or family illness, work-family conflicts, and financial issues are far more important in determining who shows up for work. 5. Aggression and Counterproductive Work Behavior a) Low job satisfaction is one cause of workplace aggression and counterproductive work behavior (CWB), such as theft, sabotage, working slowly, or doing jobs incorrectly. b) CWB costs organizations billions each year, but much of it goes undetected. c) Stress in the workplace leads to job dissatisfaction and negative emotions, which can lead to CWB among employees who feel they have little control over stressors. VII. LINKAGES: AGGRESSION IN THE WORKPLACE A. Although most murder victims in the United States knew their assailants, strangers commit 85 percent of workplace homicides. The well-publicized cases of disgruntled employees’ killing their coworkers or supervisors make up only 15 percent of workplace homicides. 1. Most workplace aggression is instrumental aggression, meaning that the aggressor’s intent is not necessarily to injure the victim, but to achieve a goal, such as money or other valuables. The victim typically works with the public, handles money, or works alone. 2. Most cases of injury occur as a result of assaults on health care workers, sales clerks, and food servers by patients or customers. In contrast to instrumental aggression, the intent in these cases is to injure the victim. 3. When aggression occurs between employees, it is typically verbal and the byproduct of an impulsive, emotional outburst under stressful conditions. a) Employee-to-employee aggression can also reflect attempts to control the other through intimidation. VIII. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY How can workplace accidents be prevented? Occupational health psychology is concerned with psychological factors that affect the health, safety, and well-being of employees in the workplace. A.
Physical Conditions Affecting Health 1. Many physical conditions in the workplace have the potential to cause illness and injury. The U.S. government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) establishes regulations designed to minimize employees’ exposure to hazards.
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a)
Universal precautions are safety procedures that U.S. health care workers follow to guard against the spread of AIDS. 2. I/O psychologists help organizations emphasize proper safety procedures and help protect workers’ health by creating reminders to exercise caution and by consulting with organizations to minimize stressors that can lead to illness or injury. a) Psychologists have tried to reduce the stressors that cause repetitive stain injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, using two approaches: (1) Consulting with industrial designers to create tools and equipment that are less physically stressful to use. (2) Working with organizations and employees to assure that employees whose jobs require repetitive actions take breaks to rest body parts at risk for strain injuries. B. Work Schedules, Health, and Safety 1. Rotating Shift Work a) Shift changes disrupt employees’ circadian rhythms of eating, sleeping, and wakefulness, resulting in a number of unpleasant mental and physical symptoms (e.g., fatigue, irritability, reduced cognitive sharpness, and digestive stress). b) These problems may be far less troubling for workers who are assigned to night shifts long enough to get used to it. 2. Long Shifts and Long Weeks a) Many organizations are establishing longer than normal work shifts that allow more time off for employees. This can lead to greater job satisfaction and better job performance. b) However, long shifts may create health and performance problems for some workers in some jobs, such as drivers of intercity buses. c) Involuntary work week extensions have been associated with a number of health problems, particularly heart disease. The European Union has adopted regulations setting workweeks at a maximum of forty-eight hours, but there are no such regulations in the United States yet. C. Stress, Accidents, and Safety 1. Motor vehicle accidents account for nearly half of workplace fatalities, and falls and equipment accidents account for about another one-third. 2. Many factors contribute to stress-related accidents. One of the contributors is a poor climate of safety, which includes lack of safety training, too little supervisory emphasis on following safety rules, and worker’s tendency to ignore those rules. IX. WORK GROUPS AND WORK TEAMS Do groups need supervision to work well? A work group is defined as at least two people who interact with each other as they perform the same or different tasks. A work team is a special kind of group in which the members’ activities are coordinated with and depend on one another, each member has a specialized role, and members work to accomplish a common goal. A.
B.
Autonomous Work Teams 1. A growing number of organizations are establishing autonomous work teams (AWTs) that manage themselves (determine how best to accomplish their goal and work together to achieve it) and do not report to anyone for routine daily supervision. 2. AWTs have been shown to have higher job satisfaction than employees from traditional factories and at least as good productivity as or better productivity than traditional factories. In addition, AWTs are cost-effective because fewer supervisors are needed. Group Leadership
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1.
C.
What Makes a Good Leader? a) One way to study leadership is to look at many leaders (typically managers) to see if particular kinds of KSAOs are associated with those who are effective. (1) Some characteristics, such as intelligence and trustworthiness, are seen by almost everyone as necessary for good leadership. (2) Good leaders also tend to score high on agreeableness, emotional stability, extraversion, and conscientiousness. b) The value of other leadership traits can depend on social, cultural, and situational factors. 2. How Do Good Leaders Behave? a) Researchers have identified two dimensions on which leaders typically vary by looking at specific kinds of effective and ineffective leadership behaviors. (1) Consideration is the degree to which a leader shows concern for employees’ welfare, including supportive and friendly behavior. (2) Initiating structure is the degree to which a leader coordinates employee efforts by assigning tasks and clarifying expectations. b) Studies show that more grievances and much higher turnover occur among employees whose supervisors rated low on consideration than among those rated high. c) Studies also show that the highest rates of grievance and turnover occur with supervisors who were high on initiating structure but low on consideration. If supervisors were high on consideration, they could be high on initiating structure without creating grievances or turnover. 3. Leader-Member Interactions a) Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory suggests that most leaders tend to adopt different styles with two different kinds of subordinates: (1) Leaders tend to offer the most consideration and best treatment to those in the in-group (employees seen as the most trustworthy, competent, loyal, and dependable). (2) Out-group employees are seen by the leader to be less trustworthy, competent, loyal, and dependable, so their opinions and requests carry less weight with the leader. b) Studies of leader-member interactions support the existence of in-groups and outgroups, and that in-groups have higher job satisfaction and less occupational stress. Focus on Research: Can People Learn to Be Charismatic Leaders? A charismatic leader is one who inspires followers to embrace a vision of success and to make extraordinary efforts to achieve things they would not have done on their own. It has been long assumed that charismatic leadership is not something that one can learn. 1.
What was the researchers’ question? Might it be possible to train leaders to be charismatic, and if so, how would such training affect the job satisfaction and performance of those leaders’ employees?
2.
How did the researchers answer the question? Managers from branches of a large Canadian banking corporation were randomly assigned to a charisma training group or a no-training control group. Subordinates rated their managers’ charisma two weeks before training and five months after, and they also rated their own level of job satisfaction. The financial performance of the branch office was measured before and after training, too. Training was delivered in five sessions over a three-month period, learning what makes leaders charismatic, getting feedback on performance, and setting goals for further progress.
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3.
What did the researchers find? Results showed an increase in employee’s ratings of charisma for managers in training and a small decline for those in the control group. Also, employees of trained managers reported higher job satisfaction after training than did those of untrained managers. Finally, the financial performance of the trained managers’ branches increased, while the untrained managers’ decreased.
4.
What do the results mean? This study suggests that charisma involves behavior that can be learned by people with many different personality characteristics.
5.
What do we still need to know? Changes in trained managers might have been due to factors other than training, such as expectations of improvement. An additional control group might be needed to rule out this explanation. Also, it is important to know if the results will last beyond the five-month follow-up period. Finally, charisma training with leaders from different kinds of organizations and other levels of leadership are necessary.
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