ABA 307:INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Topic 1: NATURE AND SCOPE OF INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY (IP)

MASENO UNIVERSITY

http://ecampus.maseno.ac.ke/

NATURE AND SCOPE OF INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY (IP)

Fig 1.1: Work of industrial psychologist

Fig 1.2: Essence of Industrial Psychology

IP is also known as occupational psychology or work psychology. Industrial and organizational psychology is the study of the behavior of people in the workplace. Industrial and organizational psychology attempts to apply psychological results and methods to aid workers and organizations. Industrial and organizational psychologists use psychological testing to measure the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics of people for a variety of employment-related purposes, such as selection for hiring or promotion, training and development, or measuring employee satisfaction. Historically, the job analysis has been the traditional means by which the essential characteristics associated with any particular position are identified. It is a fairly diverse field incorporating aspects of fields such as clinical psychology, social psychology, and psychometrics as well as broader social studies such as organizational theory, law, and gender issues.
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Specialization Areas for Industrial Psychologists Many industrial and organizational psychologists specialize in aspects (e.g., psychometrics; time and motion studies; labor law; personnel selection; training) aspects (e.g., leadership selection, coaching and development; organizational design and change). Some I/O psychologists are academic (working in both business and psychology departments) or non-academic researchers, while many others are engaged in practice, holding positions such as:

executive coach diversity consultant legislative compliance officer labor relations specialist human resources specialist process improvement consultant manager: Selection and training.

Industrial psychology is the psychology of individuals in the workplace. It covers areas of workplace behavior and attitudes such as job satisfaction, leadership and the selection and evaluation of employees. An understanding of industrial psychology can help an individual to better understand and communicate with co-workers and deal with conflict. People have studied psychology and the human mind for centuries, but the specialty of industrial psychology did not appear until the early 1900s. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY Industrial psychology is a relatively recent subfield of psychology. In fact it did not become fully productive until about the late 1920's. The industrial side of industrial psychology has its historical origins in research on individual differences, assessment, and the prediction of performance. This branch of the field crystallized during World War I, in response to the need to rapidly assign new troops to duty stations. After the War the growing industrial base in the U.S. added impetus to industrial psychology. Walter Dill Scott, who was elected President of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1919, was arguably the most prominent I-O psychologist of his time, although James McKeen
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Cattell (elected APA President in 1895) and Hugo Mnsterberg (1898) was influential in the early development of the field. Organizational psychology gained prominence after World War II, influenced by the Hawthorne studies and the work of researchers Industrial psychology in companies began in the 1920s as the companies looked for ways to keep their employees happy and motivated. From 1927 to 1932, Elton Mayo of the Western Electric Co. studied job satisfaction among employees and found that the social aspects of work are just as important as the work itself. This research, known as the Hawthorne Studies, concluded that employees need to be actively involved in what goes on at their jobs to be happy. Chronology of Development of IP 1. Prior to World War I According to Dr. Patrick McCarthy's Brief Outline of the History of I/O Psychology, the father of industrial psychology is considered to be Hugo Munsterberg. Munsterberg published a book called "Psychology and Industrial Efficiency" in 1913 and addressed workplace issues such as selecting personnel and equipment and the work satisfaction of employees. Frederick W. Taylor was also considering similar ideas during this time period. He published "The Principles of Scientific Management" in 1911 that discussed how to increase productivity using training and motivation such as rest periods. 2. World War I to 1940 During World War I, according to "A Brief History of Industrial Psychology in the U.S. Air Force," Robert Yerkes developed a testing and screening process for U.S. soldiers. Meanwhile, Walter Scott was developing a system to assign recruits into certain jobs and then evaluating the performance of the soldiers. In 1917, near the end of World War I, Journal of Applied Psychology was first published. According to Dr. Patrick McCarthy's Brief Outline of the History of I/O Psychology, after the war, in 1924, the Hawthorn studies were conducted. These studies were conducted by psychologists from Harvard University at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company. The study was looking at how lighting affects worker
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efficiency. They found that efficiency increased with both increased and decreased lighting. After a period of time, and the researchers left, the efficiency level dropped off again. This is referred to as the Hawthorne Effect.

3. World War II According to "A Brief History of Industrial Psychology in the US Air Force," during World War II further research was conducted on equipment design, the selection and training for various positions and job classification. These studies were published in the Army Air Force Aviation Psychology Program Research Reports. Then, in 1946, American Psychological Association forms Division 14 with a group of Industrial/Organizational Psychologists. This Division later became the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 4. 1950s to 1970s According to Dr. Patrick McCarthy's Brief Outline of the History of I/O Psychology, the human motivation theories presented by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow helped to further the movement and development of industrial psychology. In 1964, the workplace changed again when the Civil Rights Act made it unlawful to discriminate in the workplace based on things such as race, sex or religion. Then, in 1971, B.F. Skinner presented his motivational theories and how to use this understanding to modify workplace behavior in the book "Beyond Freedom and Dignity." 5. 1980s and 1990s According to "A Brief History of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology," the first meeting of the National Conference of Graduate Students in Industrial-Organizational Psychology was held in 1980. The first of 11 volumes of Frontiers of Industrial and Organizational Psychology was published in 1986. The 1990s brought a lot of changes and
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new areas of research in the field. According to Dr. Patrick McCarthy's Brief Outline of the History of I/O Psychology, several US Supreme Court rulings on sexual harassment in the early 1990s brought attention psychology and law in the workplace. In the late 1990s, industrial psychology place further attention on violence in the workplace.

APPLICATION OF INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY AT THE WORK PLACE

The field of industrial psychology is concerned with the following areas: performance appraisals, organizational development, assessments and leadership.

Performance Appraisals

Industrial psychology addresses how organizations appraise employee performance when deciding on raises.

Organizational Development

Organizational development is concerned with how organizations handle transitions.

Assessments

This area of industrial psychology focuses on how job applicants are evaluated for employment, as well as how current employees are evaluated for advancement opportunities.

Leadership

Industrial psychology defines leadership styles and is concerned with what makes a good leader in an organization

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Fig 1.3 The three ego states The Workers Mind, Psychological Development and the Three Ego States Eric Berne an American psychiatrist developed Transactional Analysis in the 1950s and 60s Eric Berne based much of his system on the theories of Freud and he renamed Freuds superego, ego and id using the more colloquial terms of Parent, Child and Adult. Essentially the Child ego state develops in the very first months of life. The Natural Child embodies spontaneity, enthusiasm and a sense of playfulness. The Parent ego states begin to develop in the chronological child. Depending on what the chronological childs experience is, the Nurturing Parent and or the Critical Parent ego state will gr ow. The Adult ego state, or rational state, begins to develop as the chronological child reaches 10 or so months. At this stage the child begins to test the environment (What will happen if I do this?).
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Within the workplace, it is easy to see the roles of Child, Parent and Adult at work. Many workplace conflicts can be seen as unsuccessful transactions between the three ego roles. In an ideal world we would hope that most interactions in the workplace would be Adult to Adult but as you can guess this is frequently not so. For example, if an employee has not carried out a task properly and his or her supervisor provides feedback in the Parent ego state, it is likely that this may trigger a child like response from the employee. This can easily become a typical parent child interaction and the conflict is not only not resolved but often these roles will persist in all future communications. This will often become a blame game and the child ego will not only not learn anything new but will also be unresponsive to further well intentioned but unwanted advice.

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Fig 1.4 Individual Differences

Individual Differences

According to the dictionary of education 1. Individual differences stand for the variation or deviations among individuals in regard to a sing characteristic or number of characteristics. 2. Individual differences stand for those differences which in their totality distinguish one individual from another. So we can say that individual differences is the differences among humans that distinguish or separate them from one another and makes one as a single unique individual. Types of Individual Differences There are a lot of individual differences but the most important are as follows: Differences in Interest Interest may refer as a motivating force that impels us to attend to a person, a thing, or an activity. So in educational field differences in interest means you observe some students like a particular subject, teacher, hobby or profession than other. Difference in Attitude Difference in attitude is psyche related to some thing. Few learners have positive attitude towards a specific topic, subject, and profession than other. The role of education in society is to develop positive attitude.

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Difference in Values Values are the things that are given importance by an individual. Some learners value materialist life style other moral or religious life style etc. So education must mould the mind of young generation to have a balance values between materialism and spiritualism. Habits It is clearly observable that some students markedly differ from other students in study habits. Some students are studious and study all the subjects with interest but other may not. Some study in isolation and some in group. Difference in Psychomotor Skills Psychomotor Skill is related to some skill acquisition. Some students differ in this area also. Some students like football, other cricket, etc. Some students easily learn operating a machine and some may not. A wise teacher should diagnose students psychomotor skills abilities and encourage them in that direction. Difference in Self Concept Difference in Self Concept is the totality of attitudes, judgment, and values of an individual relating to his behavior, abilities, and qualities. So some students have positive self concept than boost their confidence level and perform better against those who have negative self image. CAUSES OR BASIS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES The followings are the main bases which play vital role in individual differences: 1. Hereditary (Nature) Individuals have various endowments, abilities, and capacities provided by hereditary. Which decide the path of progress and development of an individual.

Hereditary also put limits upon individuals growth and development in various d imensions.
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Hereditary also contributes to sex, intelligence, and other specific abilities.

2. Environment (Nurture) Environment also plays key role in individual differences. No person from birth to death gets the same environment. Individual differences occur on the basis of simulation received by individual from his or her internal and external environment. This may include family set up, peer group, economic statues, education etc. It is debatable that whether nature or nurture play vital or stronger role in development of an individual in specific direction. Both are strong contenders in order to distinguish one individual from other. Application of the Knowledge on Individual Differences

The study and understanding of Individual differences help in the understanding of : Why some people embrace change and others are fearful of it Why some employees will be productive only if they are closely supervised, while others will be productive if they are not new tasks more effectively than others Understanding of Individual differences also helps the organization or the HR Manager to manage the ASA Cycle.

Why some workers learn

Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Cycle Each phase of the ASA cycle is significantly influenced by the individual differences of each person Different people are ATTRACTED to different careers and organizations as a function of their own: abilities interests personalities Organizations SELECT employees on the basis of the organizations needs (skills and abilities) individual attributes such as values and personality

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ATTRITION occurs when: individuals discover they do not like being part of the organization and elect to resign, or the organization determines an individual is not succeeding and elects to terminate

Effective managerial practice requires that individual behavior differences be recognized, and when feasible, taken into consideration while carrying out the job of managing organizational behavior, the basis for understanding work behavior.

To understand individual differences a manager must: Observe and recognize the differences and study relationships between variables that influence behavior

Individual Differences Influencing Work Behavior: Ability and Skills, Perception ,Attitudes, Hereditary and Diversity Factors, Personality

Diversity Factors Primary Dimensions (stable) Ethnicity Gender Physical attributes Race Sexual / affectional orientation

Secondary Dimensions (changeable) Educational background Marital status Religious beliefs Health
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Work experience Generational diversity Disability Diversity

Disability Diversity: A disabled person is someone who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his major life activities. As managers we may be asked to : Make existing facilities accessible, restructure jobs, modify work schedules, reassign employees

Abilities and Skills Ability a persons talent to perform a mental or physical task Skill a learned talent that a person has acquired to perform a task Key Abilities Mental Ability Emotional Intelligence Tacit Knowledge

WORK ATTITTUDES Attitude a mental state of readiness learned and organized through experience exerting a specific response to people, objects, and situations with which it is related Attitudes are usually viewed as favorable or unfavorable evaluative tendencies towards a person, thing, event or process. Attitudes are determinates of behavior because they are linked with perception, personality, feelings, and motivation. This implies that the manager should understand that attitudes are learned. Attitudes define ones predispositions toward given aspects of the world.
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They provide the emotional basis of ones interpersonal relations and identification with others. They are organized and are close to the core of personality

Work environment factors affecting behavior Manager style Technology Noise Peers Reward system Compensation plan Career opportunities

The Three Components of Attitudes:

Cognition: What individuals know about themselves and their environment Implies a conscious process of acquiring knowledge Evaluative beliefs favorable or unfavorable impressions that a person holds toward an object or person. Cognitive Dissonance A discrepancy between attitudes and behaviors or a mental state of anxiety occurring when there is a conflict among an individuals various cognitions after a decision has been made is called Cognitive Dissonance

Affect: The emotional component of an attitude often learned from parents, teachers, peer group members etc. The part of an attitude that is associated with feeling a certain way about a person, group, or situation

Behaviour-

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Fig 1.5 Positive attitude at work

Positive Attitude Leads to

Resilience Bouncing back from adversities is uicker and easier if you view failure as a learning experience and look for new approaches, rather than blaming yourself or others and thinking that the task is too hard or the world is unfair. Optimism Success, longevity and happiness are all by-products of optimism. With an optimistic attitude, you will see yourself as being able to influence the world and will carry a flame of hope that enables you to take risks and accept failure. Confidence Confidence stems from optimism. If you are confident, you believe in your own abilities and think you have the ability to impact your environment. Your confidence remains steady during setbacks, because you see them merely as challenges, and are ready to take new risks. Focus If you are focussed, you are committed to tasks, take responsibility for them and are able to align your goals with the companys goals. Creativity Positive attitudes are at the heart of innovation, because it takes a risk to try something different. Without confidence and hope, you would not attempt a new idea
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Emotional intelligence Once you have the attitude, you will find your emotional intelligence moving into overdrive. This will enable you to better manage and express your emotions and understand others. Achievement drives The attitude of achievement, i.e. the will to get results, enables you to set challenging goals, take calculated risks and learn how to improve performance. Conflict resolution - If you pause and think, you can probably think of dozens of examples of where differing attitudes have caused problems or conflict in your personal and professional relationships. Conflict arises because we expect everyone to have the same attitude as ourselves. But, with a positive attitude you can build your empathy and can more readily see how other people think and feel. Motivation Surveys show that most peoples motivation in their job comes from stimulation and challenge the chance to learn. Bringing an optimistic attitude to the workplace will create a culture of innovation. The creativity and stimulation of ideas will keep you and your workforce motivated and keen to learn.

Fig 1.6 character of an Ideal Employee

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People Perception In social psychology, the term person perception refers to the different mental processes that we use to form impressions of other people. This includes not just how we form these impressions, but the different conclusions we make about other people based upon our impressions. Consider how often you make these kind of judgments everyday. When you meet with a new co-worker, you immediately begin to develop an initial impression of this person. When you visit the grocery store after work, you might draw conclusions about the cashier who checks you out, even though you know very little about this person. Information Used to Form Impressions of Others Obviously, person perception can be a very subjective process that can be impacted by a number of variables. Factors that can influence the impressions you form of other people include the characteristics of the person you are observing, the context of the situation and your own personal characteristics. People often form impressions of others very quickly with only minimal information. We frequently base our impressions on the roles and social norms we expect from people. For example, you might form an impression of a city bus driver based on how you would anticipate that a person in that role to behave, considering individual personality characteristics only after you have formed this initial impression. Physical cues can also play an important role. If you see a woman dressed in a professional-looking suit, you might immediately assume that she works in a formal setting, perhaps at a law firm or bank. Salience of the information we perceive is also important. Generally, we tend to focus on the most obvious points rather than noting background information. The more novel or obvious a factor is, the more likely we are to focus on it.

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Social Categorization One of the mental shortcuts that we use in person perception is known as social categorization. In the social categorization process, we mentally categorize people into different groups based on common characteristics. Sometimes this process occurs consciously, but for the most part social categorizations happens automatically and unconsciously. Some of the most common grouping people use include age, gender, occupation and race. As with many mental shortcuts, social categorization has both positive and negative aspects. One of the strengths of social categorization is that it allows people to make judgments very quickly. Realistically, you simply do not have time to get to know each and every person you come into contact with on an individual, personal basis. Using social categorization allows you to make decisions and establish expectations of how people will behave in certain situations very quickly, which allows you to focus on other things. The problems with this technique include the fact that it can lead to errors and as well as stereotyping. Consider this example: Imagine that you are getting on a bus, but there are only two seats available. One seat is next to a petite, silver-haired, elderly woman, the other seat is next to a burly, grim-faced man. Based on your immediate impression, you sit next to the elderly woman, who unfortunately turns out to be quite skilled at picking pockets. Because of social categorization, you immediately judged the woman as harmless and the man as threatening, leading to the loss of your wallet. While social categorization can be useful at times, it can also lead to these kinds of misjudgments. Implicit Personality Theories An implicit personality theory is a collection of beliefs and assumptions that we have about how certain traits are linked to other characteristics and behaviors. Once we know something about a cardinal trait, we assume that the person also exhibits other traits that are commonly linked to that key characteristic. For example, if you learn that a new co-worker is very happy, you might immediately assume that she is also friendly, kind and generous. As with social categorization, implicit personality theories help people make judgments quickly, but they can also contribute to stereotyping and errors.
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