PPL1924 – Industrial Psychology- josette.

barbara-
cardona@[Link]

Examination (60%) – Multiple Choice

Presentation (40%) – Class Presentation

Presentation – starting 2nd November

2-4 students each team

8 mins each student

BE CREATIVE! - quiz

Recommended Reading – Arnold

Lecture 1: Introduction to Industrial Psychology

The main focus of Industrial Psychology is on the employee, the actual individual at work.

Industrial Psychology is about putting the individual (employee/employer) at the centre.

With the right attitude towards employees, we can motivate them and maximise their potential and
be happy and content at work not super stressed, tired and burned out and want to leave the
company.

Employees are wanted to be happy, happy to be at work, happy to be part of our organization,
motivated and give space for them to be who they want to be.

Industrial Psychology goes into utilising employee’s skills to the maximum to maximise production
and profits. This can be achieved with a strong loyal workforce, happy to work, and taking are for
them with a mutual understanding and cooperation between employee and employer.

We will explore all the factors which will help employees to be happy, to have job satisfaction, to be
motivated and want to work for you but in return giving them what they deserve in terms of pay,
work conditions etc.

Definition

Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour. It is a social science. A scientific method is used
to research. Data can be collected using quantitative (questionnaires) and analyse it through
statistics or else qualitative methods (interviews, observe, focus groups). Decisions are based on
scientific facts and calculations.

 Scientific study of behaviour and mental processes

 The science of behaviour and mental processes that seeks to describe and explain aspects of
human thought, feeling, perceptions and action

Industrial Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour at work.

Different Professions of Applied Psychology

 Industrial/Organisation/Work Psychologist
 Counselling & Clinical Psychologist
 Educational Psychologist
 Health Psychologist
 Sports Psychologist
 Forensic Psychologist

Industrial/Organisation/Work Psychology is the study of the human (employee) behaviour at work.

It is the scientific study of human behaviour and cognitive processes in relation to the working
environment and the application of psychological principles and techniques to business and
industrial problems.
Organisational Behaviour is the study of the behaviour of people within an organisational setting. It
is the study and understanding of individual and group behaviour, and patterns of structure in order
to help improve organisational performance and effectiveness.

What is an Organisation?

An organisation is an entity comprising of multiple people, can take various shapes and forms such
as an institution or a volunteer association, that has a (same) collective goal and is linked to an
external environment. (An organisation involves collective thing and effort)

Our main interest is Organisational Behaviour which is the study of the behaviour of people within
an organisational setting.

Definition: Organisational Behaviour is the study and understanding of individual and group
behaviour, and patterns of structure in order to help improve organisational performance and
effectiveness. To increase productivity and efficiency.

NB: Large or small, every organisation should operate with a defined (clear) organisational structure.

A well thought out and strategic business configuration clarifies reporting relationships and supports
good communication resulting in efficient and effective work process flow.

‘Organisations can achieve nothing without the efforts of their individual members. Whatever the
nature of an organisation’s products or services, relationships at work and interactions among its
members are at least equally important.’

To what extent do you agree that success at managing individual differences is the real key to
organisational effectiveness?

One significant aspect of organisational behaviour and the relationship between the individual and
the process of management is the concept of the psychological contract.

This is not a written document but implies a series of mutual expectations and satisfaction of needs
arising from the people organisation relationship.

It involves a process of giving and receiving by the individual and by the organisation. The
psychological contract covers a range of expectations of rights and privileges, duties and obligations,
which do not form part of a formal agreement but still have an important influence on people’s
behaviour.

How is the psychological contract formed?

Individuality

Needless to say, organisations are made up of their individual members. The individual is a central
feature of organisational behaviour, whether acting in isolation or as part of a group, in response to
expectations of the organisation, or as a result of the influences of the external environment.

Where the needs of the individual and the demands of the organisation are incompatible, this can
result in frustration and conflict.

NB: It is the task of management to integrate the individual and the organisation and to provide a
working environment that permits the satisfaction of individual needs as well as the attainment of
organisational goals.

Managing relationships at work has always been a key skill, but the speed at which organisations and
the external environment are undergoing change places increasing pressure on individuals at work.
The effective management of people requires not only an understanding of the individual employees
but also recognition of the culture of the organisation.

NB: What is expected and accepted in one organisation may not be the same in another. For
instance, creativity and individuality may be encouraged in one business but undermined by
bureaucracy in another.

A discussion of individual behaviour in organisations is therefore riddled with complexity and

contradictions. Managers are required to be competent at selecting the individuals who will be
valuable to the organisation.

They need to be observant about the individuals who are performing well and have the potential to
develop within the organisation.

NB: They also need to be able to value individual difference and be sensitive to contrasting needs.
Finally, managers need to know themselves and understand their uniqueness and the impact their
personality has on others.
Lecture 2: Work Analysis

A happy worker is a worker that works a well-paid job in a happy environment and satisfies the
customers.

A good job is defined as a job doing what you love and practice your skills.

We will describe a wide variety of systematic procedures for examining, documenting, and drawing
inferences about work activities, worker attributes and work context.

The focus is on understanding and improving the performance and wellbeing of employees.

All of us have observed differences in the performance of group members at work. Some perform at
a very high level, whereas others perform less effectively. Let us analyse this question through job
design models

Descriptive vs Prescriptive Theories or Models

Descriptive theories explain how existing organisations work. A good descriptive theory will provide
an accurate picture of how organisations are structured and how they operate.

Whilst Prescriptive theories indicate how organisations should operate. Proper application of a good
prescriptive theory will lead to an effective and efficient organisation.

However, let us not split hairs. In practice, the distinction between descriptive and prescriptive
theories may not be totally clear. Elements of both may appear in a given theory.

Two distinct models for Job Design

 The Job Characteristics Model (JCM)

 The Vitamin Model

The Job Characteristics Model (JCM)

 In nutshell Job Characteristics Model is a theory of work design and provides “a set of
implementing principles for enriching jobs in organisational settings
 Hackman and Oldham’s (1976) developed this model against a backdrop in the 1960s and
1970s of stable employment and mass manufacture in developed economies.

The JCM is, mainly, concerned with developing jobs that are motivating, satisfying and performed
well. This model concentrates on five key features or characteristics of work:

 Skill variety (SV)

 Task identity (TI)
 Task significance (TS)
 Autonomy (AU)
 Feedback from the job (FB)
Skill variety (SV)

Jobs with more skill variety require workers to use a wide range of skills. For example, a carpenter
who designs and produces his own furniture using a range of tools and carpentry techniques has
more skill variety than a warehouse worker who simply has to load boxes or goods onto lorries.

Task Identity (TI)

Jobs with task identity allow the worker to produce or deliver an identifiable, complete outcome. For
example, a surgeon has more task identity than an auditing team who final outcome may not be his
or her responsibility.

Task Significance (TS) – it is larger or smaller due to the surrounding environment

More significant jobs have an impact on other people, both inside and outside the organization. For
example, jobs related to medical care or education have more task significance than jobs in retail
and food outlets.

Autonomy (AU)

Jobs with more autonomy allow the worker to make decisions concerning how to perform tasks,
when and where to perform tasks, and even how success in performing work tasks is evaluated. For
example, architects and construction engineers will usually have a great deal of autonomy than the
construction workers.

The latter are constrained by the design and project management schedules decided by architects
and construction engineers.

Feedback from the job (FB)

Jobs that provide feedback give an indication of how well the worker is performing. For example, a
computer programmer who compiles her own code gets feedback from the job when the program
compiles or fails to compile even whist on testing. In contrast, a car mechanic gets lower feedback
direct from the job and the feedback does not occur close to task completion.

These five job characteristics produce three critical psychological states:

1. Experienced meaningfulness of work

2. Experienced responsibility for the outcomes of work
3. Knowledge of the results of work activities

This tendency for high levels of job characteristics to lead to positive outcomes can be formulated by
the motivating potential score (MPS).
Motivating Potential Score (MPS)

In summary, jobs that are high in motivating potential must be also high on at least one of the three
factors that lead to experienced meaningfulness, and also must be high on both Autonomy and
Feedback.

If a job has a high MPS, the JCM predicts that motivation, performance and job satisfaction will be
positively affected and the likelihood of negative outcomes, such as absenteeism and turnover, will
be reduced.

The Vitamin Model

An organisation is just like a living organism. It needs to be nourished with the right sustenance. Just
like any organism, its need different vitamins to support their growth and well-being.

Motivated by mass unemployment in the 1980s, Peter Warr, an organisational psychologist

developed a model termed as the Vitamin Model. It is very useful to describe the most common job
characteristics that impact employee well-being and development.

These characteristics include:

 Supportive supervision
 Opportunity for personal control (autonomy)
 Opportunity for interpersonal contact
 Externally generated goals (job demand, task demands, role responsibility)
 Availability of financial reward
 Variety (task/job variety)
 Opportunity for skill use
 Environmental clarity (the use of policy and consistent procedures)
 Valued social position (task significance, meaningfulness of job)
 Physical security
You can think the job characteristics as ‘psychological work vitamins’. They are like different kinds of
vitamins for nourishment, that employees need to be fully productive at work.

Your basic assumption is that all these characteristics are all positive so should be encouraged.
Right?

Yet Warr’s findings indicates that some job characteristics can be harmful if present at levels that are
too high or too low.

For example, vitamin D is essential to growth and normal bodily functions. Yet in excess or in
depletion it can be quite harmful. In the same way, job characteristics that influence well-being at
work, such as hands-on supervision may be important in the early stages of a project for example,
but can also be harmful if it limits personal autonomy.

Another example is an opportunity for task variety is another example that when taken to extremes
can contribute to work overload and increased stress.

NB Warr’s Vitamin Model demonstrates the challenges researchers face in understanding the
diverse characteristics that influence well-being at work, and the interplay between these
characteristics.

In summary There are simply too many variables to consider. However, as much as there are
variations in what organisations need to promote well-being, there are also fundamentals, described
by Warr’s job characteristics that provide a solid frame for discerning and measuring the health of an
organisation.
Lecture 3: The Nature & Context of Organisations

Organisational theories describe how organisations work. Some focus on the structure of
organisations, including the various components and how they interrelate.

Others are concerned with the interpersonal aspects of organisations, including communication and
how people relate to one another.

Finally, some focus on the interaction of the interpersonal and technical sides of organisations:

In other words, how do people affect the technology of the organisation, and how does the
technology affect people?

Understanding Organisations is certainly not a new concept. If we look back at some of the great
achievements of the ancient world, it is obvious there was considerable planning and co- ordination
of people's endeavours. It would be difficult to imagine the pyramids being built without someone
managing the process!

We will explore the development of management theory which has its origins in the scientific
management theories of Fredrick W. Taylor.

Frederick W. Taylor

The first notions of formulating modern 'management theory' in the Maltese Islands can probably be
attributed to Frederick W. Taylor (1911)

Taylor identified the inefficiencies of workers because of the widely differing methods that they
employed to perform their various tasks.

In Taylor's days there were no work standards and no identified responsibilities for workers or
managers. Managers made decisions ad hoc and workers performed deliberately at a slow pace.
There was continual conflict between workers and managers.

Taylor's work or Taylorism sought to change things by defining clear guidelines for improved
production efficiency. He defined four principles of management, arguing that following them would
lead to prosperity for both managers and workers.

The principles were as follows:

 Define a science for each element of an individual's work to replace the old 'rule of thumb'
method
 Scientifically select, train, teach and develop the worker (previously the worker tended to
select their own work and train themselves as best they could)
 Heartily co-operate with the workers so as to ensure that all work is done in accordance with
the principles of the science that he was developing.
 Divide work and responsibilities almost equally was better fitted (previously most of the
work and responsibilities were thrown on the workers).
Taylor affirmed the role of managers to plan and control, and workers to perform as they were
instructed. Taylor also favoured incentive wage plans.

Bureaucratic management

Another useful approach is Bureaucratic management. In summary it is a theory set forth by Max
Weber. It contained two essential elements:

A. structuring an organisation into a hierarchy

B. having clearly defined rules to help govern an organisation and its members

….

Key elements of the Max Weber's management theory include:

 Clearly defined job roles

 A hierarchy of authority
 Standardised procedures
 Meticulous record-keeping
 Hiring employees only if they meet the specific qualifications for a job

These two approaches are part of the classical theories. As a reaction, the neoclassical group of
theories was born. It was a bold attempt at incorporating the behavioural sciences into management
thought in order to solve the problems caused by classical theory practices.

An important study during this time is the popular Hawthorne studies

Almost a century ago, researchers at a manufacturing plant in Illinois observed a principle of
employee behaviour that is as true and applicable today as it was then.

In the late 1920s, managers at Hawthorne Works - a large manufacturer operating in Illinois - asked
themselves this question:

Are our employees more productive in a well-lit environment than they are in a poorly-lit
environment?

NB This was the beginning of the quality revolution in American business, and questions that now
seem simple to us now had to be answered then.

To answer their question, managers at Hawthorne Works hired some consultants and commissioned
a study. Their findings are probably what you would expect.

Well-lit lighting increased productivity, as did a few other variables, such as having a clean
workstation, allowing employees to build and work in teams, and having regular breaks.

While these were the direct findings from the Hawthorne study, none of them were ground-
breaking. But the researchers made another key observation -one that led to an idea taught in nearly
every business textbook used in the last 80 years.

During the Hawthorne study, when researchers adjusted an independent variable, the variable that
can be manipulated to measure its impact on another dependent variable, productivity changed.

But, after a relatively short time, those productivity gains disappeared and output ended up drifting
back to the previous level. The conclusion was that changes in the work environment could impact
productivity, but those productivity gains are only short-term.

One can compare it receiving speeding fine ticket, after a few days, you will probably end up revving
it again. This is what we call The Hawthorne Effect.

The study also revealed that social factors, such as employee relationships, were an important factor
for managers to consider.

It was believed that any manager who failed to account for the social needs of his or her employees
could expect to deal with resistance and lower performance.

Employees needed to find some intrinsic value in their jobs, which they certainly were not getting
from the job that was highly standardised.

Rather than placing employees into job roles, where they completed one specific task all day with
little to no interaction with co-workers, employees could be structured in such a way that they
would frequently share tasks, information, and knowledge with one another.

The belief was that once employees were placed into this alternate structure, their needs for
socialisation would be fulfilled, and thus they would be more productive.
This social element is the core idea of the human relations movement (Elton Mayo and Fritz J.
Roethlisberger)

An approach to management based on the idea that employees are motivated not only by financial
reward but also by a range of social factors.

This can include appraisals, instil a sense of belonging, feelings of achievement and pride in one's
work.

In his works Elton Mayo completely contradicts the traditional views of Taylorismstressed the
following:

[Link] power of natural groups, in which social aspects take precedence over functional
organisational structures.

[Link] need for reciprocal communication, in which communication is two way, from worker to chief
executive, as well as vice versa.

[Link] development of high quality leadership to communicate goals and to ensure effective and
coherent decision making

Today it has become a concern of many organisations to improve the job-oriented interpersonal
skills of employees. The teaching of these skills to employees is referred to as "soft and skills"
training.

Organisations need their employees to be able to successfully communicate and convey information,
to be able to interpret others' emotions, to be open to others' feelings, and to be able to solve
conflicts and arrive at resolutions.

By acquiring these skills, the employees, those in management positions, and the customer can
maintain more compatible relationship.

THE SYSTEMS APPROACH

More recently, attention has been focused on the analysis of organisations as ‘systems’ with a
number of interrelated sub-systems. The classical approach emphasised the technical requirements
of the organisation and its needs –‘organisations without people’; whilst the human relations
approaches emphasised the psychological and social aspects, and the consideration of human needs
–‘people without organisations’.

The systems approach seeks to reconcile these two earlier approaches and the work of the formal
and the informal writers. Attention is focused on the total work organisation and the
interrelationships of structure and behaviour, and the range of variables within the organisation.
This approach can be contrasted with a view of the organisation as separate parts.

The systems approach encourages managers to view the organisation both as a whole and as part of
a larger environment.

NB The main idea is that any part of an organisation’s activities affects all other parts.

NB This is NOT a theory of management –but rather another way of conceptualizing and studying
organisations

Systems theory is not new and has been used in the natural and physical sciences for a number of
years. One of the founders of this approach was the biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy.

Organisational management systems consist of many internal subsystems that need to be

continually aligned with each other.

As the organisation grow, they develop more and more complex subsystems that must coordinate
with each other in the process of transforming inputs to outputs.

These interdependencies can easily become so complex that a minor event in one subsystem may
amplify into serious unintended consequences elsewhere in the organisation.

The Contingency Approach

The classical approach suggested one best form of structure and placed emphasis on general sets off
principles while the human relations approach gave little attention at all to structure.

In contrast the contingency approach showed renewed concern with the importance of structure as
a significant influence on organisational performance.
It highlights possible means of differentiating among alternative forms of organisation structures and
systems of management. There is not one optimum state. One size does not fit all.

For example, the structure of the organisation and its ‘success’ are dependent, that is contingent
upon, the nature of tasks with which it is designed to deal and the nature of environmental
influences.

So, the most appropriate structure and system of management is therefore dependent upon the
contingencies of the situation for each particular organisation.

NB The contingency approach implies that organisation theory should not seek to suggest one best
way to structure or manage organisations but should provide insights into the situational and
contextual factors which influences management decisions.

Gareth Morganin his book Images of Organisation describes the main ideas underlying contingency
theory in a nutshell:

 Organisations are open systems that need careful management to satisfy and balance
internal needs and to adapt to environmental circumstances
 There is no one best way of organising. The appropriate form depends on the kind of task
or environment one is dealing with.
 Management must be concerned, above all else, with achieving alignments and good fits
 Different types of organisations are needed in different types of environments
Presentation 1: How to be a good communicator at the workplace

What makes a good employee?

 Some people believe that employers are only interested in technical skills.
 They must also learn to adapt to the people around them.
 Be a great person as much as an employee.
 Lead to advancement opportunities in your career.

Qualities of a good employee

 Professionalism
 Positive Attitude
 Teamwork
 Willingness To Learn
 Creativity
 Being Confident
 Excellent Communication Skills
 Work Experience
 Reliable

Verbal and nonverbal

Ways of

Feedback

Active listening

Presentation 2:

Assertiveness important aspects

Presentation 10 – 30/11/2021

Organisational Culture

Team 10: Mattea Zahra, Alyss Zammit

10mins = 1 slide per minute (1/2-minute video from YouTube acceptable)

Send presentation On Monday before presentation day