B.Tech.

(SEM III ) ODD SEMESTER EXAMINATION 2010-11

INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Time: 2 hours Total Marks: 50

Note: Attempt all questions, each question carries equal marks. Marks are written on the right of the questions.

Q.1. (a) What do you mean by Industrial Psychology, and what are the scope of Industrial Psychologist?

Ans. Psychology is the scientific study of Human behavior. Behavior is the function of Personality and Environment. It can be expressed as

B = f (P, E)

Here B is for behavior, P denotes to Person and E to Environment

Which means behavior is the function of person and environment. Behavior is based on S-O-R paradigm.

Input Process Output

Stimulus : It is input which is present in environment.

Organism : Human being who receives input or stimulus from environment.

Response : Response is an output of human being or reaction to the stimulus

Industrial psychology is an applied part of psychology. When S-O-R paradigm or model has been applied in industry, it becomes as :

InputHumanMaterialFinancial

Information

ProcessProcessing

Unit forproduct

OutputProducts/

Profits/Losses& Employee’s

behaviors

Industrial Psychology is a branch of Psychology. Psychology is the study of human behaviour and industrial psychology is the study of human behaviour in industrial settings. Industrial Psychology also known as Industrial-Organizations (I-O) psychology, work psychology, organizational psychology, occupational psychology, personnel psychology and talent assessment.

Industrial-organizational psychologists apply psychological principles and research methods to the workplace in the interest of improving productivity and the quality of worklife. They are also involved in research on management and marketing problems. They screen, train, and counsel applicants for jobs, as well as perform organizational development and analysis. An industrial psychologist might work with management to reorganize the work setting in order to improve productivity or quality of life in the workplace. Industrial psychologists frequently act as consultants, brought in by management to solve a particular problem.

Industrial psychology is an applied psychology, which studies the behavior of human being who is working in industry, business, service and research organizations. It applies the psychological principles to minimize the worker problems and maintain the welfare of the workers.

Scope of Industrial Psychologist

Industrial Psychology concerns the application of psychological concepts to the work environment. Industrial Psychologist often performed consulting work for companies. Some functions and goals of Industrial Psychologist are as listed:

Increase worker productivity Design safe work environments Train new employees Help organize the company's management structure Job Analysis Realization of potentiality of Employee Individual Differences Problem solver

Industrial Psychology and Worker Productivity

One of the main goals of Industrial Psychology is to improve worker productivity. Industrial psychologists research workplaces to find ways to increase worker satisfaction and boost productivity. Industrial psychologists design and implement workplace procedures in order to improve employee efficiency. They also consult with employees to find practical ways to improve working conditions in the hope that content employees will be more productive.

Industrial Psychology and Workplace Safety

Another function of Industrial Psychology is to design safe workplaces. Industrial psychologists study the company's operating procedures, equipment used and types of work performed to determine ways to make employees safer. Professionals in Industrial Psychology can recommend new equipment such as ergonomic chairs or updated machinery if needed.

Industrial Psychology Principles for New Employee Training and Orientation

Industrial psychologists are often in charge of creating orientation and training programs for new employees. They apply concepts of Industrial Psychology to create programs that teach new workers about a company's operating procedures and business philosophies in ways that make employees feel welcome and valued.

Industrial Psychology and Management Structure Organization

Those who work in Industrial Psychology often participate in organizing a company's management structure. Industrial psychologists can direct companies to reduce unnecessary redundancy and increase accountability. They can create organizational structures that clearly define the job duties and responsibilities for each position.

Industrial Psychology and Job Analysis

The problems of Fitting men to job requires that we know how to analyze abilities. To make the proper fit, the job must be analyzed if the abilities required for a particular job are too complex, the psychologist may cooperate with the engineer in reorganizing the work so that the job is redesigned.

Realization of Potentiality of Employee:

The Psychology is interested in maximizing the realization of potential for accomplishment and personal satisfaction. Thus it was a responsibility to all employees. The application of Psychology to industry must concern itself with these problems.

Industrial Psychology and Individual Differences:

The opportunities for using knowledge of Psychology to improve job satisfaction, labor relations, safety, leadership, social responsibility the subject matter of individual differences has been applied to industry.

Industrial Psychology and Problem Solving:

In the age of globalization, importance of industrial psychology is to deal with frustration, conflict, stresses and strains of workers and employees. Psychologists help the worker as well as employees to uncover their repressed and suppressed feelings and solved their problems.

Q.1. (b) What do you mean by Hawthorne Studies? Describe in detail with its implications.

Ans. Elton Mayo initiated Hawthorne study in 1927 at the Hawthorne (Chicago) plant of the Western Electric Company. This study had the effect of reducing the importance of fatigue as an industrial problem by showing the greater importance of human relations in that situation. Hawthorne studies investigate the relationship between work place conditions and worker productivity.

Hawthorne study measured the impact of different working conditions (such as levels of lighting, payment systems and hours of work) on output. The Hawthorne study comprised of following major parts:

(i) Experiment on Illumination;

(ii) Relay assembly test-room study;

(iii) Bank wiring observation room study;

(iv) Mass Interviewing Program;

(v) Personnel Counseling.

Study 1. Experiment on Illumination

Purpose. To study the effect of illumination on productivity.

Method. Two groups were selected from among the employees. One group was placed in the room where lighting or illumination remained constant. The other group was placed in other room where lighting or illumination varied periodically.

Findings. The productivity of both the groups increased steadily. There was no effect of illumination on productivity.

The confusing finding or result led to the second study, i.e. Relay Assembly Test Room Study.

Study 2. Relay Assembly Test Room Study

The second phase of this study was made in a study of relay assemblers at the Hawthorne plant.

Purpose. To study the effect of fatigue on productivity.

Method. The Relay assembly room experiments were conducted by a team of Harvard Business School. These are considered to be the actual beginning of the Hawthorne Studies since the Illumination Studies failed to come out with any conclusion. A group of women were selected for study who had been assembling relays so long that their production was no longer improving with practice. Various changes like change in the number of hours in a work week, number of hours in a work day, number of breaks, free social interaction among group members or freedom to form informal groups, friendly and informal supervision.

Findings. The findings took the researchers by surprise, since irrespective of the changes made, there was an overall increase in productivity. This became known as the “Hawthorne Effect”. They realized that since the subjects’ were given a great deal of freedom, they had formed an informal group. The researchers thus discovered the concept of informal organization. They found that workplaces were social environments and that there were factors other than just economic self-interest. An important conclusion drawn was that every aspect of an industrial work environment had a social value.

Study 3. Bank Wiring Room StudyPurpose. The purpose of this study was to make observational analysis of the informal work group.

Method. The method used in this study was similar to the relay room experiment. The bank wirers were placed in a separate test room. The workers in the Bank wiring Observation Room Study consisted of three groups: nine wiremen, three solder men and two inspectors. The bank wiring room study involved no experimental changes once the study had started.

Findings. In the bank wiring room there was continual increases in productivity that occurred in the relay assembly test room study.

Study 4. Mass Interviewing Program

The interviewing program was launched in the inspection branch, in which about 1600 workers were employed. Three men and two women supervisors were chosen to conduct the interviews: they were told that the purpose was to gain information about employee attitudes, not to spy on supervisors or anyone else. A large number of workers were interviewed by the researchers to understand their attitudes and opinions on the factors influencing productivity. In other words, the researchers interviewed a large number of workers with regard to their opinions on work, working conditions and supervision. It was found that the opportunity to talk freely about things are important to workers, has a positive effect on their productivity. The findings confirmed the importance of social factors at work in the total work environment.

Study 5. Personnel Counseling

The Counseling program had two objectives :

(i) To find out the problems of workers.(ii) To improve interpersonal relationship among workers.

With these objectives, the decision was made that officials from the personal department would be assigned to various departments and would be free to talk with employees. The program led to improvement in three fields:

(a) Personal adjustments(b) Supervisor-Employee relations(c) Employee-management relations

In several cases there were obvious improvements in personal adjustments. Employee showed changes in personality and freedom from anxiety and other forms of behavior that might be diagnosed as psychoneurotic. Thus, the personnel counselors were helpful in making the supervisors see their problems with less emotion and more understanding. Finally, the reports helped management to a better understanding of employee behavior and sentiment so that policies could be formulated that would result in less friction between management and workers.

Implications of the Hawthorne Studies

(i) Focus on human relations. Hawthorne studies provide insights that contributed to a better understanding of human behavior in industry and inspired psychologists to increase their focus on human relations in the work place.

(ii) Attitudes of an Employee. In the relay room, production continually increased throughout the test period and relay assemblers were positive. The rise in production and growth of favorable attitudes have been attributed to the team spirit and concept of participation.

(i) It implies that when morale is high, nothing else matters as long as work is organized properly.

(ii) Boost worker productivity. The study sought to identify those aspects of a job that were most likely to boost worker productivity. At the study’s onset, it was thought that economic factors would have the greatest influence on productivity. The results were surprising: productivity increased, but for reasons unrelated to economics. Ultimately, researchers concluded that job performance improved because more attention was being paid to the workers.

(iii) Importance to group. The Bank wiring observation room experiments led to the observation that Group acceptance appeared to be more important to the worker than money. The participant lack of trust in the objectives of the project made them restrict the production of the group members by preventing them from producing beyond a certain number of units, ignoring the additional monetary benefits promised to them.

(iv) Communication: Two sided communication is necessary because it carries necessary information downward for the proper functioning of the organization and transmits upward the feelings and sentiments of people who work in the organization.

(v) Informal Leadership: There is an emergence of informal leadership, which sets and enforces group norms. Informal leader helps the workers to function as a social group and the formal leader is rendered ineffective unless he conforms to the norms of the group of which he is supposed to be in charge.

Q.2 (a) What is Maslow’s Theory of Motivation? How is Job Satisfaction influencing Job Behavior?Ans. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Hierarchy of need theory was propounded by Abraham Maslow. Maslow identified five levels of need.

Self-Actualization

Self-Esteem

Belongingnces Needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs.

1. Physiological needs. The physiological needs, is the basic level in the hierarchy. It is also known as basic need. The need of hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex are some examples, According to the theory, once these basic needs are satisfied, they no longer motivate. For example, a starving person will strive to obtain a food that is within reach. However, after eating food, the person will not strive to obtain another one and will be motivated only by the next higher level of needs.

2. Safety needs. The second level of needs is safety need, which is equivalent to security need. Maslow stressed emotional as well as physical safety. The whole organism may become a safety-seeking mechanism.

3. Belongingness need. This level of need corresponds to the affection and affiliation needs. A more appropriate word describing this level would be “social”, which is important for motivators. These include need for love, for acceptance and for giving and receiving friendship.

4. Esteem need. The esteem level represents the higher needs of humans. The need for power, achievement, and status can be considered part of this level. Maslow carefully pointed out that the esteem level contains both self-esteem and esteem from others. It is a need for knowledge or cognitive need.

5. Self-actualization. This level represents the culmination of all the lower, intermediate, and higher needs of humans. People who have become self actualized are self-fulfilled and have realized all their potential. It is the need for realizing one’s own potentialities and for continual self development. In effect, self-actualization is the person’s motivation to transform perception of self into reality.

Effect of Job Satisfaction on Work Behavior

Job satisfaction influences work behavior. Job satisfaction is an integral component of industrial relations. Job satisfaction has relation with various aspects of work behavior such as accidents, absenteeism, turnover and productivity. Several studies have revealed varying degrees of relationship between job satisfaction and work behavior.

Research on the relationship between job satisfaction and accidents generally shows that satisfied employees cause fewer accidents. Research reveals that employees of disturbed organizations (poor industrial relations) were less satisfied.

Satisfied employees are more productive. Herzberg et. al., analyzed the results of twenty six studies focusing on the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity. Fourteen of these studies revealed that workers with positive job attitudes were more productive than those with negative attitudes. Rajgopal (1965) analyzed the relationship between the two variables among workers in six textile mills. The results showed high productive mill workers were more satisfied with their job.

Satisfaction and Productivity. Are satisfied workers more productive than their less satisfied counterparts? This “satisfaction-performance controversy” has raged over the years. Although most people assume a positive relationship, the preponderance of research evidence indicates that there is no strong linkage between satisfaction and productivity. For example, a comprehensive meta-analysis of the research literature found only a ·17 best-estimate correlation between job satisfaction and productivity. Satisfied workers will not necessarily be the highest producers. There are many possible moderating variables, the most important of which seems to be reward. If people receive rewards they feel satisfied and this is likely to result in greater performance effort? Lawler and Porter have developed a model which suggest that productivity leads to satisfaction as shown in the following figure:

PerformanceRewards : Intrinsic extrinsic

Perception of Equity in

the Rewards Satisfaction

Fig.: Model of performance leading to job satisfaction.

Performance leads to rewards, and if these are perceived to be equitable employee satisfaction is the result.

The assumption which seems most realistic is that satisfaction and productivity are in a circular relationship in which each affects the other. Using this model, it can be said that high satisfaction indicates a predisposition to be productive if effective leadership is provided.

Q.2 (b). How is Organizational Culture created? What do you mean by group dynamics?

Ans. Organizational culture is a pattern of basic assumption that are taught to new personnel as the correct way to perceive, think and act on a day-do-day basis.According to Robbins “Organizational Culture is a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the Organization from other organizations.”

The above definition recognize the importance of shared norms and values that guide organizational participants behaviour. Beliefs, values, Philosophies, traditions all contribute to culture. Hiring policies, management style, work climate of an organization reflect culture. The beliefs and personality of chief executive officers are instrumental in shaping an organization’s culture. Companies with strong organizational of cultures are successful and have dedicated employees. Motorola, McDonald and Proctor & Gamble are examples of such companies.

How does Culture begins?

Culture is created by shared experience, but it is the leader who initiates this process by imposing his or her beliefs, values and assumptions at the outset. Cultures basically spring from three sources (1) the beliefs, values and assumptions of founders of organizations (2) the learning experiences of group members as their organization involves and (3) new beliefs, values and assumptions brought in by new members and leaders. Each of these sources plays an important role and the most important role for cultural beginning is the impact of founders. Founders have a major effect on external adaptation and internal integration problems. Founder has their one nation, based on their own cultural history and personality, of how to fulfill the idea. The founders of an organization traditionally have a major impact on that organization's early culture. They have a vision of what the organization should be.

Example: The culture of Hyundai, the giant Korean is a reflection of its founder Chung Ju Yung. Hyundai’s fierce, competitive style and its disciplined, authoritarian nature are the same characteristics often used to describe Chung.

Kroc founder of McDonald bought the rights to franchise Mcdonald’s units and eventually bought out the brothers. At the same time, he built the franchise on four basic concepts: quality, cleanliness, service, and price. In order to ensure that each unit offers the customer the best product at the best price, franchisees are required to attend McDonald University, where they are taught how to manage their business. Here they learn the McDonald cultural values and the proper way to run the franchise. This training ensures that franchisees all over the world are operating their units in the same way. Kroc died several years ago, but the culture he left behind is still very much alive in McDonald’s franchises across the globe.

GROUP DYNAMICS

Human beings exhibit some characteristic behaviour pattern in groups. People involved in managing groups and group members themselves can benefit from studying theories and doing practical exercises which help them to better understand people’s behaviour in groups and group dynamics. Group is a collection of people who interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members and who share a common identity.

Group dynamics is the study of groups and a general term of group processes. These processes include norms, roles, relations, development, need to belong, social influence and effects on behavior. The social process by which people interact face-to-face in small groups is called group dynamics. The word dynamics comes from the Greek word meaning force, hence group dynamics refers to the study of forces operating within a group.

Group has certain characteristics:

(i) Interaction among group members: Only collection of people is not only characteristics of group, but it is necessary that group members should have interaction to each other. Thus group study the personal interrelationship among members of group.

(ii) Common goal: If people assembled and does not have any purpose, then it is considered as crowd. The main characteristic of group is that the group has common goal or the members assembled for a common purpose.

(iii) Cohesiveness: It is another characteristic of group. Cohesiveness is the degree to which group members are attracted to each other and motivated to stay in the group. For instance, some group is cohesive because the members have spent a great deal of time together, or the group’s small size facilitates high interaction, or the group has experienced threats that have brought members close together.

(iv) Status: It is socially defined position or ranking given to group members. Status is an important factor in understanding human behavior. In organization, status can clarify the relationships between group members by providing clear definition of authority and responsibility.

Q.3. (a) What changes should be incorporated to improve the work environment?

Ans. Work environment covers two categories :

(i) Physical Environment with reference to illumination, noise and atmospheric conditions. (ii)Work Schedule such as hours of work, work week, shift work and rest pauses. PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

1. Illumination. The most important physical aspect of the working environment concerns the illumination of the working space. Brown & Ghiselli (1949) told that there are two important principles of effective illumination.

(a) Intensity of illumination (b) Uniformity of illumination

(a) Intensity of Illumination. The intensity of the illumination should be sufficient for the task. High intensity of illumination results in an increase in accuracy particularly with fine work such as type setting. Brighter light

therefore results in faster and more effective work. Blackwell (renowned psychologist) has recommended certain levels of illumination for various tasks, which is given in the following table:

Table : Illumination Level for Various Task

Task Illumination Level

(in foot candle)

Operating table (Surgical) 2500

Proof reading 500

General Office work 75-150

Food preparation 70

Wrapping & Labeling 50

Loading 20

Hotel Lobby 10

From above table, it is evident that the intensity of illumination depends upon the nature of work but the intensity should always be more than 5 foot candles.

(b) Uniformity of Illumination. Uniformity of illumination shows its effects upon production. The strong tendency of the eyes to fixate the brightest part of the visual field is evidence that the visual field should be uniformly illuminated. Ferree & Rand have studied conditions of illumination during reading in relation to visual efficiency. These investigators consider the ratio of blurred to clear time as a measure of what they term visual efficiency. Day light gives the most uniform illumination, indirect artificial illumination the next most uniform, semi-indirect and the direct least uniform. The percentage loss in visual efficiency during reading found by Ferree and Rand for these four types of illuminating conditions.

Visual efficiency affected during reading under four types of Illumination, which are differing in degree of Uniformity.

Types of Illumination % lost after 2 hr. % lost after 3 hr.

Daylight 5 6

Indirect 10 9

Semi-Indirect 34 72

Direct 37 81

It has been noted that, with continuous reading, daylight produces the least loss in visual efficiency, indirect lighting produces more, semi-indirect still more, and direct produces the greatest loss.

Thus, the above mentioned studies indicate that for the high productivity in industry.

(i) Intensity of illumination would be depend on the nature of task.

(ii) Intensity should be more than 200 foot candles.

(iii) Illumination should be distributed uniformly.

(iv) Illumination should be comes from the side.

2. Ventilation. Ventilation means circulation of fresh air. It is common belief that the bad effects resulting from inadequate ventilation are due to the reduced oxygen content of the air and to the excessive amounts of carbon dioxide present in it. Breathing polluted air can have negative effect on both personal health and task performance. Substance such as dust, pollen, carbon monoxide and sulfer are common in major cities and various industrial settings. Exposure to such substances can produce an air pollution syndrome, which includes headache, fatigue, insomnia and can adversely affect performance on various tasks, especially those involving reaction time and manual dexterity (Briesacher, 1971). Numerous studies have shown that production is a function of the goodness of the ventilation.

Example—Increase in output resulting from improvement of ventilation is reported by Wyatt, Fraser and Stock. These investigators studied output in weaving mills. When the ventilation was inadequate, output decreased and breakage increased. When the problem of discomfort was solved by introducing fans, then output increased and breakage decreased.

Effect of Heat on Performance

The effects of heat on the performance of people performing heavy physical activities have been rather well documented. Exposure to temperatures people find uncomfortably warm or uncomfortably cool can reduce performance on a wide range of tasks, especially ones requiring considerable cognitive effort—recording and decoding signals, fine eye—hand coordination, and vigilance tasks in which a person must stay alert to detect changes in events or displays (e.g., Bell et al., 1990). Large individual differences exist with respect to preferred ranges, but many persons dressed in normal indoor clothing report feeling most comfortable at a temperature between 20 and 25 celsius. Men tend to prefer slightly lower temperatures than women (Grivel & Candas, 1991). The ranges of temperature also vary with the kind of activities being performed. The more strenuous work activities are, the lower the preferred temperature (Ramsey & Kwon, 1988).

3. Noise. The noise of extreme intensity not only can be irritating but also can lead to actual physical pain and permanent ear damage. Generally noise levels above 100 decibles (db) should be so considered, and employee should be protected from such noise by ear plugs or ear muffs.

Effect of noise. The evidence from noise studies indicates that noise does not causes deterioration in work performance. In fact, Broadbent (1957) stated that a reviews of available reports showed no experiments in which there were statistically significant effects of noise at noise levels less than 90 decibels, although there have been some studies of noise levels at about 90 decibels that showed significant decrements.

Cohen (1968) suggest that some simple, repetitive types of tasks are relatively insensitive to the effects of noise, but that performance on vigilance (that is, monitoring) tasks may be adversely affected. Further, there are some researches which indicates that noise may caused degradation in such tasks as complex mental tasks, tasks that call for skill and speed and tasks that demand a high level of perceptual capacity.

Prolonged exposure to high levels of noise (approx. 85 decibels or higher, depending on length of exposure) can produce permanent damage to our hearing, so this is a serious matter in the design of any work setting. In addition, noise well below the levels that produce hearing loss can interfere with performance on many kinds of tasks, especially those requiring a high degree of cognitive effort (Sanders & McCormick, 1993). Such effects appear to be especially pronounced when noise is unpredictable—when it occurs irregularly,. A very clear illustration of the detrimental impact of noise is provided by a study conducted by Nagar and Pandey (1987). These researchers

exposed male participants to two different level of noise or no noise while the participants to two cognitive task : reading a story and answering questions about it, and unscrambling word puzzles. Results indicated that the higher the level of noise, the worse participants performance was.

Control of noise. The control of noise is very much an engineering problem. It can include the following approaches :

(i) Reduction of noise at the source (such as by proper machine design) enclosing the noise,

(ii) the use of baffles and soundproofing materials,

(iii) the use of ear protection devices.

(iv) Where aspects of the physical environment are harmful to health, such as the presence of noise and vibration, or exposure to high temperature, there is a normal requirement to minimize the risks to employees.

(v) It is the responsibility of the employer to assess risk to workplace health and safety, and to manage those risks appropriately.

WORK SCHEDULE

An important condition of work from the worker’s point of view is that of the work schedule. Work schedules have various aspects, including the total number of hours, worked per week, distribution of hours, shift of work and rest pauses.

1. Hours of Work. During material crisis, such as war, it has been common practice to lengthen the work day to as much as 14 or even 16 hr in anticipation of greater production of manufactured goods to satisfy increased demands. The total hours worked by people on their jobs is a major issue.

The pattern of hours worked in terms of their distribution throughout the week is a factor in determining productivity. The forty-four hour week has now become fairly standard. A survey made by the U.S. Department of Labor (1944) in 12 metal-working plants found that the 40-hour week and the 8-hour day yield the highest output for each hour worked. More than 40 or 48 hours a week result in additional output, but with constantly decreasing efficiency and with increasing absenteeism as the hour were stepped up.

2. Five-Day Work Week. For many industrial operations an 8-hr-day, 5 day-week schedule appears to be the best. The optimal daily or weekly work period varies with the nature of the work, with the type of working conditions and with the type of worker. In 2005, 33% of organizations surveyed by the society for Human Resource Management offered five-day work weeks (Burke, 2005). Numerous studies suggest that five-day work week bring a moderate reduction in absenteeism. A small increase in productivity, a large increase in job satisfaction. Regarding employees health, Williamson, Gower, and Clark (1994) found that employees who worked 12-hour shift were healthier than those working 8-hour shift. There were no difference in productivity or turnover. Duchon, Keran, and Smith (1994) found even more positive results with underground mine workers. Mine workers changing from an 8-12 hour shift reported higher satisfaction, improved sleep and no negative health or performance changes.

3. Shift Work. Having evolved in a world with a twenty four hour, day night schedule, the human being has developed at temporal program called circadian rhythm. Individuals attitudes toward shift work probably are influenced in part by how much their circadian rhythms adjust to such a schedule, but their perceptions of various features of shift work also influence their overall attitudes toward it.

Individual attitudes toward shift work probably are influenced in part by how much their circadian rhythms adjust to such as schedule, but their perceptions of various features of shift work presumably also influence their overall attitudes toward it. It is clear from the studies cited, as well as others, that there are rather noticeable toward

shift work, these presumable reflecting different value systems as well as one’s status in life (such as whether the person is married or not). These differences seem to suggest that when shift work is necessary, individuals should be given their preference for shift as far as this is feasible. In one company the employees with the longest seniority were given their choice of shifts.

Effect of shift work. The shift work influenced people’s work-related behaviour.

(i) Mott and others reported that there was some evidence indicating that errors tend to be a bit higher and output a bit lower on shift work, especially on the night shift.

(ii) Shift work affects male workers, who generally pattern their schedules around leisure activities; women tend to adjust their schedules to domestic concerns (Chambers, 1986).

(iii) Disruptions of circadian rhythms, the 24-hour cycles of physiological functions maintained by every person.

(iv) Kaliterna, et. al. (1995) suggests that continued exposure to night shifts causes digestive, appetite and sleeping problems.

(v) Garbarino (2004) found that Italian police working shifts had more sleep disorders than non shift workers and that the greater the number of years spent working shifts, the worse the sleep disorders.

Minimization of the effect of night shift. To minimize the effect of night shift on employee’s performance, rotating shifts (in which an employee rotates through all three shifts.) should be adopted. A survey of various companies using shifts found that 66% used rotating shifts (Circadian Technologies, 2003).

4. Rest Pauses. Rest breaks during scheduled work sessions are becoming rather common practice providing time to have coffee, soft drinks, tea and other refreshments. The effect of rest pause do not reduce output but increase output.

The effectiveness of rest pauses is a function of the time at which they are introduced and to their length. The evidence indicates that they should be introduced when output is at maximum, just before production begins to fall. Rest pauses introduced either earlier or later are not as effective in maintaining high level of productivity. The optimal time between rest pauses varies from one job to another and will have to be determined separately for each.

When the work is purely automatic rest pauses are less effective than when the work involves considerable concentration.

Although there are few hard facts about the effects of rest periods, the bits and pieces of evidence suggest that rest periods typically do not reduce output even though there is less time worked and in fact sometimes increase output. For example, the effects of rest pauses in a typical production job were analyzed in a very early study in Great Britain by farmer and Bevington (1922). Figure 12.2 shows the production of a group of employees before and after the introduction of schedules of rest periods.

Some work is so irregular that an individual has occasional or frequent periods of inactivity. When work activity does not provide such breaks, however, it is rather widely granted that people should have some breaks during work periods. The question arises whether they should be scheduled or taken at the discretion of the employee. In this connection, however, McGehee and Owen (1940) found that in one office, the introduction of two short rest pauses during the day reduced unauthorized rest periods and increased the speed of work.

Miscellaneous Factors. A Cafeteria is installed in a plant because of necessity. A factory at same distance from restaurants or other eating places will have a cafeteria in order to attract and hold employees.

The snack bar or its equivalent in a series of automatic drink and sandwich dispensers is common in most factories. A rest pause spent in a canteen is more favoured than the regular rest pause. It promotes social activity.

Conclusion: If physical environment and working schedules are good, there is high productivity and poor work environment leads to low productivity

Q.3 (b) What do you mean by Basic Selection Model? What do you mean by Cross Validation of Selection Tests?

Ans. BASIC SELECTION MODEL

The purpose of selection process is to take full advantage of measuring individual differences in order to select those persons who possess the greatest amount of attributes important for success on the job.

In above figure each of the steps shown is important in developing a proper selection procedure.

Step 1 : Examination of the Job(s) having Vacancies

This step consists of job analysis. A through knowledge and understanding of a job is important and must precede the use of any test in the selection and placement of workers.

Step 2 : Selection of Criterion and Predictor

Criterion means choosing indicators. Criterion measures the extent of how good or successful a worker is and choosing a particular measure that can be used to predict how successful worker will be on the job. Thus, criterion is an evaluative standard, which can be used to measure a person’s performance.

Step 3 : Measurement of Performance

Once the criterion and the predictor have been selected it is necessary to obtain measure on both from a sample of workers on the job. This can be done either by giving the predictor to present employees and simultaneously obtaining criterion measures, or by giving the predictor to new hires and waiting a specified time before obtaining the criterion measures (thus allowing enough time for the new hires to establish themselves as successful or unsuccessful)Step 4 : Relating Predictor to Criterion

The fourth step in the selection process involves determining whether a true and meaningful relationship exist between the employee scores on the predictor and the criterion, i.e. assessing the validity of a predictor (This is a stateside process which involves the use and understanding of correlation methods and significance tests).Step 5 : Deciding upon the Utility of the Selection device

Making the final decision as to whether to use the predictor to select new job hires depends not only upon the size of the relationship found and its significance, but also upon many other conditions, the number of applicants, number of job openings, proportion of present employees considered successful.Step 6 : Re-evaluation

The fact that the predictive situation is dynamic or ever changing. What makes for good selection today may not be at all appropriate tomorrow, applicants change, job change and employment conditions change. Thus, any good selection program should be revaluated periodically.

CROSS VALIDATION OF SELECTION TEST

Cross validation is a procedure for further evaluating the validity of a test by administering it a second time to a new sample of individuals selected from the same population as the first time. Cross-Validation is a statistical method of evaluating and comparing learning algorithms by dividing data into two segments: one used to learn or train a model and the other used to validate the model. In typical cross-validation, the training and validation sets must cross-over in successive rounds such that each data point has a chance of being validated against. The basic form of cross-validation is k-fold cross-validation. Other forms of cross-validation are special cases of k-fold cross-validation or involve repeated rounds of k-fold cross-validation. In k-fold cross-validation the data is first partitioned into k equally (or nearly equally) sized segments or folds. Subsequently k iterations of training and validation are performed such that within each iteration a different fold of the data is held-out for validation while the remaining k _ 1 folds are used for learning. Cross-validation is used to evaluate or compare learning algorithms as follows: in each iteration, one or more learning algorithms use k _1 folds of data to learn one or more models, and subsequently the learned models are asked to make predictions about the data in the validation fold. The performance of each learning algorithm on each fold can be tracked using some predetermined performance metric like accuracy. Upon completion, k samples of the performance metric will be available for each algorithm. Different methodologies such as averaging can be used to obtain an aggregate measure from these sample, or these samples can be used in a statistical hypothesis test to show that one algorithm is superior to another.

Mosier has discussed a number of types of cross validation that can be conducted depending upon the design of the study and whether one is concerned about generalizing only to a new sample or if broader generalizations concerning the prediction equation are desired (for example, to different sexes, different criteria, etc.)

Q.4. (a) What are errors in Performance Appraisal? What do you mean by Rating and Ranking Systems?

Ans. The following errors are found during the time of performance appraisal :

(a) Errors of Leniency

Every rater tends to carry around his own built in set of standards or frame of reference whch he uses in making performance appraisal. Some rators might be easy or lemient, while others may be classed as being hard or severe in their judgements or ratings. When a rater is severe he is said to be making an error of negative leniency, while the easy rators make the error of positive leniency.

Methods to reduce the Leniency Error

There are several ways in which rating systems can be designed to help avoid the liniency error.

1. The first method is to define clearly the categories or anchor points used on the scale. For example, if we were requesting supervisors to rank their subordinates on total proficiency. We could use either of the two scales shown below :

Scale A has no anchor or reference points which the rater can use as a guide, he must establish his own. The risk is that different raters will define the points differently. With scale B a number of the points have been defined for the rater, with the probability of reducing the problem.

2. Another method of reducing leniency error is to employ the forced distribution technique. This is a procedure which requires the rater to place a certain proportion of his responses into different categories.

Figure : Forced distribution

The Halo Effect

The halo error is a tendency to let assessment of an individual on one trait influence our evaluation of that person on other specific traits. Symonds has suggested that it is likely to occur with the following traits ;

—traits not easily observed

—Unfamiliar traits

—traits not easily defined

—traits involving interpersonal reactions

Logical Rating Errors

A logical errors involves a rater who tends to give a person a high score on one specific traits simply because he facts the individual possesses a lot of specific trait and he feels the two traits are logically related. When a rater tends to overestimate the true relationship between traits, he probably commits this rating error.

Contrast and Similarity Errors

The contrast errors refer to a general tendency on the part of a rater to judge others in a manner opposite from the way in which he perceives himself. If he perceives himself as being very honest, his tendency would be to rate others slightly lower than normal on the honesty dimension. The opposite of contrast error, which is also known as similarity error. In this the rater rate other people in the same way he perceives himself. For example, if the rater feels himself very honest, he attributes high honesty to all other individuals as well. To avoid this error, the rater should be trained to rate others and not themselves.

Central Tendency Errors

Some judges or raters are very reluctant to make extreme judgments about other individuals this reluctance results in their tendency not to use the extreme scale scores on the rating instrument, and results in a substantial change of shape in the distribution of scores for that rater.

The better way to avoid this error is by using the forced distribution system.

Proximity Errors

It is also referred as an order effect. The surrounding items have on the rating one gives a person on a particular item. For example, if the preceding item was a trait on which the individual was given a very favourable rating, the rater may tend to let the favorable response set carry over to the next item on the list.

Ranking Method. In group rank ordering the supervisor places employees into a particular classification such as “top one-fifth” and “second one-fifth”. If a supervisor has ten employees, only two could be in the top fifth, and two must be assigned to the bottom fifth.

In individual ranking the supervisor lists employees from highest to lowest. The difference between the top two employees is assumed equivalent to the difference between the bottom two employees. It permits comparison of all employees in any single rating group regardless of the type of work. Subjectivity of the appraiser may enter into his judgment. The objectiveness in this method can be reduced by asking the appraiser to rank employees on certain desirable traits. Another difficulty with this method is that it does not indicate the degree of difference between the first man and the second man and so on.

Rating Scale: A rating scale is a set of categories designed to elicit information about a quantitative or a qualitative attribute. In the social sciences, common examples are the Likert scale and 1-10 rating scales in which a person selects the number which is considered to reflect the perceived quality of a product. A rating scale is an instrument that requires the rater to assign the rated object that have numerals assigned to them.

Types of Rating Scales: All the rating scales can be classified into one of the following four classifications:-

1. Some data are measured at the nominal level. That is, any numbers used are mere labels : they express no mathematical properties. Examples are SKU inventory codes and UPC bar codes.

2. Some data are measured at the ordinal level. Numbers indicate the relative position of items, but not the magnitude of difference. One example is a Likert scale:

Statement: I could not live without my computer.Response options:

1. Strongly disagree2. Disagree3. Agree4. Strongly agree

3. Some data are measured at the interval level. Numbers indicate the magnitude of difference between items, but there is no absolute zero point. Examples are attitude scales and opinion scales.

4. Some data are measured at the ratio level. Numbers indicate magnitude of difference and there is a fixed zero point. Ratios can be calculated. Examples include age, income, price, costs, sales revenue, sales volume and market share.

More than one rating scale is required to measure an attitude or perception due to the requirement for statistical comparisons between the categories in the polytomous Rasch model for ordered categories (Andrich, 1978). In terms of Classical test theory, more than one question is required to obtain an index of internal reliability such as Cronbach's alpha (Cronbach, 1951), which is a basic criterion for assessing the effectiveness of a rating scale and, more generally, a psychometric instrument.

Q.4. (b). What are the kinds of training and what do you mean by Team training.

Ans Training is a process that develops and improves skills related to performance. Training is an organized procedure by which people learn knowledge and skill for a definite purpose. The purpose of training is to bridge the gap between job requirements and present competence of an employee.

The trainer should be the immediate supervisor when he is qualified. A subordinate can be expected to put more importance on training if it is carried out by the supervisor.

Types of training :

A number of different types of training have emerged in industrial situations. Tiffin and McCormick (1958) classify training into the following seven categories :

1. Orientation training—to acquaint new employees with the company.

2. Vestibule training—simulated on the job training.

3. On the job training—actual practice on the job.

4. Apprentice training—formal apprenticeship for a craft.

5. Technical training—training in technical aspects of job.

6. Supervisory training—training in management.

7. Other training—any unusual situation not included in the above such as refresher training (revive and refresh knowledge), promotional training (existing employee are provided training before their promotion).

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Q.5. Write short notes on any one:

(a) Manpower Planning (b) Vestibule Training

Ans. Man Power Planning

The most important activity of psychologists in industry is employee selection and placement. Selection is the process in which good workers distinguish from poor workers with the help of test and other devices of selection. The selection and placement are important phases or area of manpower planning.

Selection is the picking up a good workers from the total number of available workers at any give time.

Placement is right person for right job. Hiring of N men to fill N job. (Put the right person to right job)

(b) V e s t i b u l e T r a i n i n g : A vestibule is a large entrance or reception room or area. Vestibule Training is

a term for near-the-job training, as it offers access to something new (learning). A form of training in which new

employees learn the job in a setting that approximates as closely as is practicable to the actual working environment.

An example is the training of airline pilots in a simulated cockpit. This type of training is generally used when the

use of actual equipment by untrained employees would be too risky or when the actual work setting would be un

conducive to learning (e.g. because of noise levels).

In the early 1800s, factory schools were created, due to the industrial revolution, in which workers were trained in classrooms within the factory walls. The apprentice system was inadequate due to the number of learners that had to be trained as the machines of the Industrial Revolution increased the ability of the factory to produce goods. The factory owners needed trained workers quickly because there was a large demand for the produced goods.

It is a classroom training that is often imported with the help of the equipment and machines, which are identical with those in use in the place of work. This technique enables the trainees to concentrate on learning new skill rather than on performing on actual job. This type of training is efficient to train semi-skilled personnel, particularly when many employees have to be trained for the same kind of work at the same time. Often used to train – bank tellers, inspectors, machine operators, typists etc. In this, training is generally given in the form of lectures, conferences, case studies, role-play etc.

Towards the end of the 1800s, a method that combined the benefits of the classroom with the benefits of on-the-job training, called vestibule training, became a popular form of training. The classroom was located as close as conditions allowed to the department for which the workers were being trained. It was furnished with the same machines as used in production. There were normally six to ten workers per trainer, who were skilled workers or supervisors from the company.

There are many advantages of vestibule training. It is very much useful for the semi-skilled, skilled and executives. With the help of this training process, at a time so many trainees can be trained like trained clerks, bank tellers, machine operators, inspectors ,testers, etc.

The workers are trained as if on the job, but it does not interfere with the more vital task of production. Transfer of skills and knowledge to the workplace is not required since the classroom is a model of the working environment. Classes are small so that the learners received immediate feedback and ask questions more easily than in a large classroom. Its main disadvantage is that it is quite expensive as it duplicates the production line and has a small learner to trainer ratio.