© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved Slide 1 Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions 17

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Slide 1

Psychology Applied to Business and Other

Professions

17


Slide 2

Psychology and Work

• Industrial-organizational psychologists – Seek to improve human benefits of work

• Increase job production• Increase job satisfaction• Employee selection• Methods of training and management

– Hired, employed in personnel departments

Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions


Slide 3

Employee Selection and Evaluation

• Psychological measures used in– Selection and hiring new employees

• Interviews• Paper-and-pencil tests• Performance tests• Job performance ratings• Evaluating simulated job performance

– Finding right person improves morale and productivity; decreases turnover and absenteeism



Slide 4

Psychological Measures

• Interviews – Personality, spoken language, personal factors– Unstructured and structured questions used

• Tests of– Intelligence (desired 115 IQ?)– Specific abilities, skills, and job knowledge– Performance – Ratings of job performance (scales, check lists)



Slide 5

70 85 115 130 14555 100

34.13%34.13%

2.14% 2.14%

13.59%13.59%

Attorney

MechanicFactory worker

Chemist

Sales manager

Secretary

Accountant

Sales

Machinist

Range of intelligence scores of the

middle half of applicants for

various occupations


Slide 6

Tests of Specific Skills

7

B

5

C

E D

A

B

D

C

E

A


Slide 7

Sample items from multiple-step rating scale

Job Knowledge

Quantity of work

Dependability

Unsatisfactory

Unsatisfactory

Below average

Below average

Average Above average

Average

AverageBelow average

Above average

Outstanding

Above average

Outstanding

OutstandingUnsatisfactory

Thorough knowledge

Unsatisfactory Below average Average Knows job well

Needs virtually no supervision; completely reliable

Requires constant supervision to ensure that directions are followed

Requires considerable supervision; does not always follow directions

Requires average to normal supervision

Can usually be depended upon to complete assignments

Consistently exceeds job requirements

Consistently below job requirements

Frequently below job requirements

Meets job requirements

Frequently exceeds job requirements


Slide 8

Employee Selection

• Assessment centers– Evaluations by staff or team outside company

environment – very popular method • Upper managers, psychologists, or outside

consultants– Use of traditional interviews and tests

• Simulated management task– in-basket technique

– Evaluation of organizational citizenship



Slide 9

Validity of Job Selection Measures• Overall, good selections save money, time

– IQ tests – best predictor of performance

• Useful for new employees and complex jobs

• Not useful for selecting for simpler jobs – need performance tests more than IQ tests

• IQ related to speed of learning new skills; experience tends to equalize job learning

– Performance tests and assessment centers are valid measures



Slide 10

Job Selection– Conscientiousness is important in selection

• Fairness in employee selection– Gender bias in U.S.

• Two-thirds of positions filled by males have – Individual high financial rewards– Power over others

• Jobs involving helping others mostly held by women. Why?

– Men and women want different job types– Less likely to hire woman in power job



Slide 11

Job Selection• Race-ethnic bias

– Powerful, highly paid jobs tend to go to men, and tend to be filled by majority culture men

– Huge disparities among U.S. ethnic group occupational achievement

– Prejudice is declining but remains a job barrier– Impact of IQ tests: African Americans and

Hispanics tend to score lower than whites• Tests content criticized as culture-biased



Slide 12

Job Selection

• Solutions to biased selection– More emphasis on job knowledge and skill tests

for experienced employees– IQ tests for prediction on new employees and

complex jobs– Tests with more validity; elimination or less

validity of tests increases bias



Slide 13

Job Satisfaction, Happiness, and Productivity

• Goals of I/O psychologists– Happiness and satisfaction of employees– Increase productivity– Both accomplished by

• Match right person to right job• Improve working conditions



Slide 14

Job Satisfaction, Happiness, and Productivity

• Research results– Satisfied employees

• More productive• Miss less work• Have fewer accidents on the job• Less likely to resign• Customers more satisfied when in contact• Increase company profits



Slide 15

Job performance

Job experienceIntellectual

ability

Conscientiousness

Knowledge of job

Knowing skills and information needed to

perform a job tends to lead to better job performance


Slide 16

Management Strategies

• Improving employee satisfaction– Improving management style:

• Considerate (warm, friendly)• Communicative (good feedback)• Structuring (organizing, directing work) –

manager effectiveness linked to being highly considerate



Slide 17


• Improving employee satisfaction– Improving managerial organization:

• Participative style – teams of employees at all levels involved in decision process

• Management by objectives – management sets goals and deadline, employees decide how accomplished and who does what



Slide 18


• Improving employee satisfaction– Improving physical conditions:

• Influence of physical conditions: lights, noise, temperature) on satisfaction and production (decision making and errors)

• Design of machines, equipment, tools to fit human characteristics

• Minimizing social loafing



Slide 19

Human Diversity• Gender differences in leadership

– Traits of successful leaders studied• Drive• Honesty• Flexibility• Leadership

– Inspiring leaders: charisma, clear vision, inspiration, personalized attention paid to followers


• Motivation• Intelligence• Creativity


Slide 20

Human Diversity

• Gender differences in leadership– Overall, men and women similar in style– Transformational management

• Seek to improve, change employees• More likely used by female managers• Set clear goals• Set good example, mentor employees• Reward and empower employees



Slide 21

Psychology of the Entrepreneur

• People who turn ideas into businesses

– Engage in less counterfactual thinking

– Have excellent social skills

– Tend to be physically attractive



Slide 22

Human Factors Engineering

• Time and motion studies– Analyze movements of workers – Efficiency - find better ways to perform tasks

• Ergonomics – human factors engineering– Design of machines, instrument panels, gages

• Location, grouping design, readability • Shape related to function,

– Developed to overcome human frailties



Slide 23

Preferred arrangementAcceptable arrangement

Examples of controls and dials arranged to fit the cognitive characteristics of human operators


Slide 24

Health Psychology in the Workplace

• Stress and unhealthy patterns of behavior– Overwork, poor diet, lack of exercise– Good employee health is good business– Healthy employees

• More productive• Less absenteeism• Fewer health benefit claims• Live longer, healthier, productive lives



Slide 25

Other Applications of Psychology

• In the workplace– Developing training methods for new and

continuing education for current employees– Computer-assisted instruction in computer

simulation area– Advertising and marketing end of business

(size, color, repetition, social position linked to effectiveness of ads)

– Determining consumer preferences



Slide 26

Environmental Psychology

• Study effects of– Environment on behavior and mental processes– Human behavior on environment

• Office and workplace design: office landscape format (cubicles)

• Architectural design of living units: college dorms and corridors (dense housing)

– Layouts affect human interactions and emotions



Slide 27

Sustainability and Environmental Protection

• Three vital concerns– Overpopulation

• Human concentrations in large cities• Earth’s carrying capacity reaching its limit

– Resource depletion• Overconsumption and waste; scarce water

– Pollution and climate change• Global warming; Greenhouse effect



Slide 28

Why Environmental Destruction?

We are in denial

We have bad habits

We act like helpless bystanders

We do not believe that we are efficacious

We are guided by short-term self-interest

We refuse to let anyone lead



Slide 29

Psychology and Law

• Behavior in courts– Psychologists apply methods in courtroom– Administering justice involves people, behavior– Characteristics of defendants, plaintiffs

• Physically attractive defendants less likely to be convicted than unattractive ones

• White jury members more likely to convict African Americans than white



Slide 30

Psychology and Law

– Characteristics of defendants, plaintiffs

• Defendants with facial features typical of African Americans get longer sentences

– Monetary awards in civil courts – younger plaintiffs and male plaintiffs get larger awards than female or elderly plaintiffs (less emphasis on needs of plaintiff)

– Juries gave larger settlement awards when defendant was corporation than if individual



Slide 31

Psychology and Law

• Characteristics of jury members– More conviction prone, harsher/punitive

• White, older, better educated, higher in social status, more conservative, strong belief that authority and law be respected

– Women convict more; more punitive sentences– Men more likely believe female victim

encouraged rape– Overall, they tend to be kinder to their own



Slide 32

Capital Punishment

• Link between attitude toward death penalty and likelihood of conviction

– Cannot bar person from serving on jury due to beliefs against death penalty unless bias would result in ignoring evidence presented

– Research: pro-death penalty more likely from high status, conservative, authoritarian males



Slide 33

Psychological Factors

• Presenting evidence– Criminal trials: adversarial proceedings

• Order of presentation by attorney has effect (attorney presenting second had advantage)

• In lengthy, complex information – last items remembered best



Slide 34

Psychological Factors

• Interrogating criminals– Good cop-bad cop game; false confessions

• People with poor intellect and emotional resources maybe tricked in false confession

• Juries more likely believe taped confession if interrogators not present on tape

• Consultants err in interpreting nervous fidgeting and failed eye contact as lying

• Liars blink less often, have longer speech pauses than those telling the truth



Slide 35

Psychology and Education

• Educational psychology– Test children (especially for special needs)– Improve educational needs– Advise/consult with teachers

• Mastery learning (for slow learners) and intelligent tutoring systems (computer use)

• Direct instruction (guided learning, small amounts of information presented)



Slide 36

Psychology and Education

• Motivating the classroom – Emphasizing intrinsic importance

• Criterion-referenced testing– Not for comparing students– Determine if minimal level of knowledge met

• Mainstreaming those with special needs– Right defined in Public Law 94-142 and its

successor, IDEA (least restrictive environment)



Slide 37

The End

17Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions

Documents

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved Slide 1 Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions 17