SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology PDF

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology Diva Wong SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology Table of Contents SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology ............................................................................................... 1 Week 13 Introduction to Business Psychology .......

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

Diva Wong

SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

Tab Table le of Co Con nten tents ts SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology ............................................................................................... 1 Week 13 Introduction to Business Psychology ...................................................................................... 2 Week 14 Motivation & Attitudes at Work ............................................................................................. 4 Week 15 Stress & Wellbeing............................................................................................................... 11 Week 16 Selection and Assessment .................................................................................................... 16 Week 18 Changing nature of work ...................................................................................................... 21 Week 19 Groups and Teams ............................................................................................................... 27 Week 20 Equality and Diversity .......................................................................................................... 31 Week 22 Leadership & Power ............................................................................................................. 37 Week 24 Research Methods and Designs in Business Psychology ........................................................ 42

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

Diva Wong

Week 13 Introduction to Business Psychology • What is Business Psychology o Psychology in the work place o Try to ▪ Increase motivation & Productivity ▪ Increase job satisfaction & Well-being ▪ Predict employee turnover ▪ Improve employee selection ▪ Improve training and management • Origins of Business Psychology o Rise around the first and second world war o As at those times we are making sure we are as productive as possible both in the battlefront and at home o What can we change to make the job productivity to increase? o Highest chance on victory o Hawthorne effect, being watched may make you work harder o Cognitive testing, testing of IQ ▪ Linked with the military ▪ Want a robust, reliable method to know who is valuable to them, comes from business psychology • Predicted performance • IQ test o Stable across time and repetition • Contemporary Business Psychology o Fundamental areas business psychology started from, assessment and selection, changing nature of work etc. o Trying to answer ▪ How do we fit the workplace to the person? ▪ How do we fit the person to the job? • Business Psychology o Falls in the middle of all psychology o Applied nature but scientifically rigorous o Pick, choose and steal from rigorous self-discipline/sub discipline in other research • Attitudes and Motivation o Job satisfaction ▪ General evaluation of the job o Organisational Commitment o Turnover intensions o Well-being o Not many people are satisfied by their jobs o Paying more isn’t always the answer o For charity work or helping a friend, paying might decrease work effort, breaks altruistic effort • Stress and Well-Being o Work can be stressful ▪ Related to negative outcomes, subjective and objective ▪ Greater indices of depression and anxiety ▪ Loss of productivity and cost of care o How can we reduce this? ▪ Design interventions for people ▪ Get balance of work load and perceive competent

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

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Diva Wong

▪ Works for momentary stress o Can start to have a neurological effect Working in Groups o Most major decisions at work are made in groups o What are the primary difference in making decisions in groups or individual? Pitfalls and benefits? o Benefits: Brain storming o Drawbacks: lazy people can freeride Group vs individual o Individual is far more vary than group ones o Sometimes group decisions are more accurate than individual Assessment and Selection o How can we increase the probability that we get the right person for the job? o People differ ▪ Future behaviour is predictable o Some characteristics lend themselves to particular jobs o CV, interviews, situational attitude tests, personality tests Equality o Equality of opportunity attempts to ensure that everyone starts at the same point o Equality of outcome attempts to ensure that everyone finishes at the same point Leadership o Following someone who knows what they are doing, vicariously increasing own intelligent

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

Diva Wong

Week 14 Motivation & Attitudes at Work • Why is psychology important in business? o Mental health of everyone o Getting the best out of people o Working in Groups • Does motivation matter? o Is motivation important? o Important to the employer that motivation is happening o Everyone has different motivations o If motivation is suffering then job will suffer • Are people happy at work? o People in public sector are not paid much in the private sector but they are more happy o Seems it is not because of money o People do business with people. They don’t do business with ideas, things or money • Just how expensive are employees o Greatest cost for organisation is the people which is why it is so important to see how people work in business • What is an Attitude? o Attitude is a positive, negative or mixed reaction to a person, object or idea o Attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour o We have attitudes about everything o Form attitudes quickly o Only time will tell how an attitude is formed in the long run o Single-component conceptualisation = dispositional affective response, just react o Tri-component conceptualisation ▪ Go together ▪ Affective component • Feelings towards object • Reflected in physiological response • Impacted behaviour ▪ Cognitive component • Knowledge about an object • May colour our perception ▪ Behavioural component • Behaviour towards an object • May determine how we act on it o Attitude can be very determining o Great to have views but be careful of stereotypes o Mixed things going on ▪ Affective component - May be negative ▪ Cognitive component - But believe that the job has attractive elements ▪ Behavioural component – may hate job but won’t resign o Measuring Attitudes ▪ Job satisfaction ▪ Team work climate ▪ Working condition ▪ Communication o Self-report measures: Attitude Scales ▪ Use a series of questions to ask about a topic. Likert scales ▪ Pros

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

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Diva Wong

Direct, straightforward Lends itself to mass testing, cheap Easy to use

Attitude not always salient or accessible Reports easily affected by many extraneous factors e.g. mood, peer’s responses • Implicit Attitudes • Socially desirable responding Attitude and Behaviour ▪ Attitudes linked to behaviour? ▪ Possible to like job but not perform at a high level ▪ Like the job but won’t go the extra mile ▪ Dislike the job but go the extra mile • Personality ▪ Lie behind this • Social pressure (law, social norm, other people’s views) • Down to individual • Factors go in in determining behaviour • Other attitudes, limitations on person’s abilities, a person’s general activity levels, personality, values When are attitudes linked to behaviour ▪ Attitude object is well defined and salient ▪ Salient: forefront of the mind ▪ Direct attitude to person or object ▪ When attitude strength is Hight ▪ When you have a strong attitude about it ▪ When you got a lot of knowledge about the attitude ▪ When the attitude supports the important aspects of the self Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) ▪ Behaviour is viewed as directly predicted by intentions • Intention that we have directly link to behaviour • But the intention is what is influenced by attitude ▪ Whether or not you have control of behaviour, other people understand ▪ Acknowledge the complexity of attitude, behaviour link • Notes an attitude - > intention -> behaviour sequence • Acknowledges the potential influence of social expectations on behaviour (social norms) • Acknowledges the potential influence of internal constraints on behaviour (perceived control) • Create an order of events ▪ The workplace • Attitude for a promotion o Assessment of the potential consequence e.g. perks, risk • Others thoughts (partner/spouse/colleagues) • Person’s ability to apply ▪ Attitudes of employees is most important • Internal resources are more important for a firm than external factors in achieving and sustaining competitive advantage

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

Diva Wong

Organizational performance will primarily be determined by internal resources grouped into three categories o Physical resources, human resources and organisational resources • People that make the difference to any organisation, valuable and rare Why is Job satisfaction important? o One indicator of a person’s psychological well-being and mental health o Unlikely that someone who is unhappy at work will be happy in general o Obsessing about own or others job satisfaction o Generally unhappy at work o Barrier between work and no work o Whether job satisfaction can increase motivation or performance? What is job satisfaction? o Job satisfaction is a package of things and boils down to an individual’s evaluation of his/her job and work context o A collection of attitudes about specific facets of job Measures of job satisfaction o Umbrella Question o How satisfied you are with your current job? o Never take the first answer o Go in deeper about it o Maybe other aspects that they aren’t happy about o Always a story behind general satisfaction Job satisfaction factors o Job satisfaction is more than how much the person enjoys the job or tasks o Also depends on how important the job is to the person and how well it fits them long term aims o Function of many different things o Function of the person and job environment o Personal characteristics e.g. education, work experience, negative person, positive person, can affect job satisfaction o Role of disposition ▪ People with a positive disposition are more likely to look, be aware of and remember positive experiences ▪ Effect may be indirect, people find jobs of certain kinds Job environment o What does the leadership look like? ▪ Are they in touch with employees? o Factors ▪ Skill Variety • Does the work require different types of skills? ▪ Task identity • Control on the piece of work • Can the worker complete a whole piece of work? ▪ Task significance • Does it matter what I’m doing • Is the work influencing the lives of others? ▪ Autonomy • How much freedom you need to have ▪ Feedback • How it is given • How it works in organisation •

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

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• Is there correct and precise information about how the worker is performing Leadership and job satisfaction • How are leaders for • Are leaders ethical • Like the way they operate • Positive association between leader’s behaviours and job satisfaction ▪ Justice • Comparing • Is it fair environment • Fairness of rewards ▪ Organisational climate • Opinions of others in peoples work group ▪ Social support ▪ Work environment Job satisfaction and behaviour o Job dissatisfaction increases turnover, absenteeism and theft o Weak to moderate association with job performance Satisfaction and performance o General attitudes do not predict specific performance behaviours very well o Satisfaction not always predictive of job performance, can influence motivation o Strongest when employees feel like they are in control of work load Organisational commitment o Loyalty to your company o How strongly you identify with your organisation and attachment to it o Want to remain in an employee of the organisation o Belief in the values and goals of the organisation o Desire to maintain membership in the organisation o Willing to exert extra effort for company o Normative Commitment ▪ Continue to work for an organisation because you face pressure from others e.g. family, spouse friends to remain o Continuance Commitment ▪ Stay there because you can’t afford to do anything else o Affective commitment ▪ Agree to be with it because you want to be here ▪ Hard to get true answers o Measures ▪ Scales, Likert scales Factors affecting commitment o Positive experience at work ▪ Factors intrinsic to the job more important than extrinsic ▪ Especially true for the affective component o Personal disposition ▪ Certain type of people is more likely to be committed o Identification with the organisation ▪ High levels of identification are linked with greater commitment ▪ Commitment affects behaviour • Absenteeism • Customer satisfaction o Customer Pick up on own experience which impacts them • Competitive advantage ▪

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

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Work motivation Organizational citizenship behaviour o Behaviour go beyond the basic requirements of the job o Large extent discretionary o Massive benefit to the organisation o Willingness to engage in extra role behaviour, to go that extra mile o Related to organisational commitment o Higher organisational commitment, more organisational citizenship behaviour Employee turnover • Why do we care anyway? o Big deal in terms of time and cost o Employee Turnover ▪ Intentions are key: measuring them can provide the organisation with early warning signs ▪ Thinking about leaving has links to eventual turnover ▪ Get under the skin of the employee’s intention ▪ Becomes important for managers to watch their teams and know their teams ▪ Applying the theory of planned behaviour: • Attitudes towards act of leaving might influence intention to leave the company • Subjective norms – do people that are important to the employee think it’s acceptable for him/her to leave their job? • State of the employment market is an indicator of actual behavioural control ▪ Predictors • Organisational commitment – job satisfaction • Suspicion at the workplace o Employees and inertia ▪ Negative shocks at work to trigger change ▪ Positive shock, e.g. new opportunities ▪ can control to some extent the reaction if there is trust there • Organisation can intervene to avoid these • Look out for these signs • Be alert • But low commitment does not necessarily lead to people quitting their job o Negative Continuance commitment ▪ A tough job market may tie employees to the company ▪ Low cost loans, stock options, deferred bonuses may tie employees to the company o Building organisational commitment ▪ Maintain fairness, values and integrity, being truthful ▪ Job security, feel safe ▪ Organisational communication • How do leaders communicate with them? ▪ Involving employees in decisions ▪ Building trust • Psychological Contract o How we feel about employment relationship, reciprocal promises and obligation implied in that relationship o The perceptions of both parties to the employment relationship, organisation and individual of the reciprocal promises and obligations implied in that relationship • •

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

Diva Wong

The state of the psychological contract is concerned with whether the promises and obligations have been met, whether they are fair and their implications for trust o Mutuality in relationship o Is that psychological contract being met o Being fair with it o Psychological contract plays a big role in trust between employee and employer o Invisible glue that binds individuals to the organisation over time, incorporate the parties’ beliefs, values, expectations and aspirations o subjective o Views of employee can change over time but can develop and be different, need to be able to keep pace with it o Unspoken and undocumented o Implicit: employee does something based on the employers promise to them and gets something in return o Types ▪ Relational contracts • Based on trust and stability • Employee offers loyalty, conformity, commitment, trust • Organisation offers security, promotion prospects, training and develop etc. • Feel that you are investing in me • Flexibility is employee struggles • Not always possible in the face of tough economic environment and fierce global competition ▪ Transactional contracts • Based on money and performance terms • Employee offers longer hours, broader skills, tolerance of change, willing to take more responsibility • Employer gives high pay, high rewards so you want that job • More common in tough economic environment • Transactional than relational in hard economic environment • Colder negotiation ▪ Mutually understood, accepted and if everyone sticks to the deal ▪ But If the deal is broken, deal starts to fall apart o Consequences of broken contract ▪ Outrage, shock, resentment, anger ▪ Decreased • Trust • Job satisfaction • Productivity • Attendance ▪ Higher turnover ▪ Unspoken agreements that can be powerful Attitude Change o The dual process model of persuasion ▪ Central route • Concerns message content • Persuasion via the central route occurs when we think critically about a message and are swayed by the strength and quality of its argument ▪ Peripheral route • Different direction • Not as clear cut o

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

Diva Wong

• Swayed by heuristics and less inclined to focus on content Petty & Cacioppo’s • Dual Process model of persuasion • Input, message source, processing strategy, output o Other important factors ▪ Communicator credibility ▪ Communicator attractiveness ▪ Use of fear ▪ Social pressure Summary o Psychology is vitally important in business o Different components of an attitude may be applied differently when it comes to a job o Attitudes are complicated things o Attitudes can be changed and measured but have pros and cons o Job satisfaction matters o The psychological contract shapes the employer-employee relationship o Turnover costs money and no one wants to lose good employees ▪

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SP311 Introduction to Business Psychology

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Week 15 Stress & Wellbeing • Workplaces causes depression in 1 in 20 adults • Research has shown that men are more vulnerable to depression while women are more vulnerable to anxiety o Men seek for emotional support, not very keen on it o Women might have easier to speak about problems at work • Having a high stress job can double the risk of developing mental illness • Workplace stress is one of the biggest reasons of mental illness among employed young adults • Cost us too much in productivity and makes them lose money • Main complaints o Usually people don’t speak up o Fast pace to meet tight deadlines o Little control over daily schedule, over how you can do things o Lack of opportunity to make decisions • What can learn from this & how we can help companies o Important to make room that our main priority is to focus on young adults (highest risk group) o Change how things are done in companies (primary intervention) ▪ Change the role or move around desk ▪ Concrete stuff ▪ Level of stress people are feeling are less o Psychological intervention ▪ Secondary ▪ Tertiary • Work stress symptoms o Mindfulness can be used to train and used to be more aware of body when stressed o Physical o Behavioural o Related/aggravated ailments • What is work stress o Stress comes from the Latin work stringere (to draw tight) o Tension that makes us feel bad o Occurs when an individual perceives or appraises the work demands as exceeding his/her capacity and capability to cope o One thing common ▪ Idea or var...