Ch. 18 Applied Psychology
March-31-12
2:12 PM
Applied psychology: use of psychological principles and research methods o solve practical problems.
Industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology: field that focuses on the psychology of work and on
behavior within organizations.
-typically work in:
Studying jobs to identify underlying skills, guide efforts to select people and train for those
job (industrial part)
Study organizations to understand how to create structures and comp[any cultures that will
improve worker performance (organizational part)
Theory X leadership (Scientific management: approach to leadership that emphasizes work efficiency
-some extent, treat people as if they are machines
-have task orientation rather than person orientation
Work efficiency: max output (productivity) at lowest cost
-concerned with improving, will alter conditions that affect workers
Psychological efficiency: maintenance of good morale, labor relations, employee satisfaction, similar
aspects of work behavior
Theory Y leadership: leadership style that emphasizes human relations at work and that view people as
industrious, responsible, and interested in challenging work
-person orientation rather than task orientation
Knowledge workers: workers who add value to their company by creating and manipulating information
Ex. bankers, teachers, lawyers, computer engineers, writers, etc.
-4/5 people in work force, knowledge workers
Shared leadership (participative management): leadership approach that allows employees at all levels
to participate in decision making
-benefit: greater productivity, more involvement in work, greater job satisfaction, less job-related
stress
Management by objectives: management technique in which employees are given specific goals to
meet in their work
Ex. making a certain number of items
Self-managed team: work group that has a high degree of freedom with respect to how it achieves its
goals
-much more likely to feel they are being treated fairly
Quality circles: employee discussion group, makes suggestions for improving quality and solving
business problems
-have many limitations
Job satisfaction: degree to which a person is comfortable with or satisfied with his or her work
-comes from good fit between work and a person's interests, abilities, needs and expectations
-not entirely a matter of work conditions
Flextime: work schedule that allows flexible starting and quitting times
Compressed workweek: work schedule that allows an employee to work fewer days per week by
putting in more hours per day
Telecommute: approach to flexible work that involves working from home but using a computer to stay
connected to the office throughout the workday
-generally flexible work is an improvement
-lowers stress, increases feelings of independence, increasing productivity and job satisfaction
-flexible working arrangements should fit needs of employees
Job enrichment: making a job more personally rewarding, interesting, intrinsically motivating
-true job enrichment increases workers' knowledge
Continuously learn a broad range of skills and information related to their occupation
Organizational culture: social climate within an organization
Organizational citizenship: making positive contributions to the success of an organization in ways that
go beyond one's job description
Personnel psychology: branch of industrial/organizational psychology concerned with testing, selection,
placement, and promotion of employees
Job analysis: detailed description of the skills, knowledge, and activities required by a particular job
Critical incidents: situations that arise in a job, with which a competent worked must be able to cope
-once desirable skills and traits are identified, learn who has them
-most often used for evaluating job candidates include:
Biodata: detailed biographical information about a job applicant
-looking at past behavior is good way to predict future behavior
-there are civil liberty and privacy concerns around collection of sensitive biodata
Personal interview: formal or informal questioning of job applicants to learn their qualifications
and to gain an impression of their personalities
-subject to halo effect (interviewer extend favorable/unfavorable impressions) and similar
problems
-interviewees engage in impression management (seeking to portray positive image to
interviewer
Psychological testing
-general mental ability tests (intelligence tests) tell great deal about person chance of
success in jobs
-as well as personality and honesty tests
Vocational interest tests: paper-and-pencil tests that assesses a person's interests and
matches them to interests found among successful workers in various occupations
-Kuder occupational interest survey, Strong-Campbell interest inventory
-typically measure six major themes identified by John Holland
Aptitude test: test rates a person's potential to learn skills required by various occupations
Computerized test: test that uses a computer to present lifelike situations; test takers react
to problems posed by the situations
Assessment center: program set up within an organization to conduct in-depth evaluations
of job candidates
-primarily used to fill management and executive positions
-first applicants tested, interviewed; than:
-observed, evaluated in simulated work situations
Situational judgement tests: presenting realistic work situations to applicants in
order to observe their skills and reactions
In-basket test: testing procedure that simulates the individual decision-making
challenges that executives face
Leaderless group discussion: test of leadership that simulates group decision
making and problem solving
-considerable success in predicting performance in variety of jobs, careers, advanced
positions
Environmental psychology: formal study of how environments effect behavior