Please read the directions carefully.
Professional Planning Portfolio Instructions |
Portfolio You will create a professional planning portfolio that contains a Core section—completed by all students—and either an Employment section or a Graduate School section, depending upon your post-baccalaureate plans. The final section of your portfolio will be a copy of your review paper, which has been corrected according to the feedback you received from your instructor.
The Core section will contain the following documents: · Document 2- Students will write a paper reflecting upon their educational experiences within their psychology program journey, using the UMGC Psychology Program Goals · Apply major concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical trends in psychology to prepare for graduate studies or careers in which psychological training is relevant.
· Apply basic knowledge of research methodology, statistics, measurement, guidelines, ethical standards, laws, and regulations in order to design, participate in and to evaluate research in a variety of contexts.
· Apply knowledge of human behavior to inform personal growth, communicate effectively, solve problems, make decisions and interact with individuals, communities, and organizations.
· Use critical and creative thinking, skeptical inquiry, and where possible appropriate technology and the scientific approach to solve problems related to current and emergent trends within the domains of psychology.
· Value diversity and different perspectives, tolerate ambiguity, and act ethically to communicate appropriately with various sociocultural and international populations. · Document 3 – A current, accurate, and professional-appearing resume or curriculum vitae · Document 4 – Choose one of either the employment section or graduate school section described below: 1. The Employment section will contain the following documents: · The results of a computerized job search that yielded at least three job possibilities and a brief report that explains why each of these programs is appropriate for you based on your immediate and long-term career and life goals as described in the first section of this portfolio. · A professional-appearing cover letter that can be modified for specific job applications · A template or model letter that can be used to request letters of recommendation for an employment opportunity. 1. The Graduate School section will contain the following documents: · Results of a search for appropriate graduate programs that yielded at least three possible programs and a brief report that explains why each of these programs is appropriate for you based on your immediate and long-term career and life goals as described in the first section of this portfolio. · A professional appearing personal statement that can be modified for specific graduate programs · A template or model letter that can be used to request letters of recommendation for graduate school. · Document 5 – A revised copy of your Career Review Paper from Week 3 of this course. |
Running Head:
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
1
Industrial/Organizational Psychology 7
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Christina Washek
Dr. Michelle Vallie
PSYC 495
4 April 2020
Introduction
Organizational psychology is the usage of a person’s psychological knowledge to explain their work. The aim is to improve job satisfaction among the workers and to increase their productivity while ensuring that any issues in the organization are solved by promoting a healthy working environment. The issues in the organization are addressed using facts to ensure that the decisions made are beneficial to the involved parties.
Many aspects are considered in one’s working relationship that is from the employer’s point of view, the employee, and any external factors that enable work to be done in the organization. Therefore, psychology is a crucial subject as it benefits both the organization and individuals in the environment, ensuring that there is an optimal surrounding. The environment should be clear that productivity, efficiency, and the wellbeing of the employees are supported.
Organizational psychology covers a wide spectrum, which is from the time a person starts to work in the organization up to when they retire. The purpose of this essay is to analyze organizational psychology, the history, theories, and the relationship it has with other areas, among other considerations. Also, a study is done on how human resource management is incorporated into the organizational setup.
History of Organizational psychology
It is an academic discipline, and the area of practice has become more and more useful in the working life of individuals in organizations and creating a proper work environment. This is a field that involves the identification of issues in an organization, obtaining the effects, and finding solutions for the problems using data obtained for research. The main focus is on the attitude and behavior of individuals in the workplace. Some important outcomes that are required out of an employee from psychology are; understanding the attitude of the employee and controlling their behavior.
Organizational psychology is made up of two pillars. One of the pillars is fitting a man to the job, and the other is fitting the job to a man. The first pillar implies that an individual needs to attain the skills and knowledge required for the task in the organization while the second pillar implies that the job is designed in a way that the individual assigned the task can manage it without difficulties. The job can have tolls and equipment necessary to handle the task that cannot be handled by the use of hands.
Industrial and organizational psychology comes in from the fact that there was a need to understand individual differences in an organization and assess the differences. History can be traced back to world war one when there was a need to assess the work performance of individuals before they were sent to their place of work. In the process, the army alpha test was created. After the war, the European and U.S. nations proceeded with their industrial activities and productions, where the tests started to be used more often (Collette & Miller, 2016). The human relations movement was later on established to take into consideration the emotions of workers, motivation, job satisfaction, and interviews to be held one to one.
New problems arose during World War II resulted to the advance of industrial/organizational psychology. Before new people were recruited for different technological tasks in the military, the evaluation was conducted to test the abilities of the individuals (Collette & Miller, 2016). Testing was done regarding intelligence, morale, and fatigue during their work in the taskforce. After the end of world war II, testing was conducted regarding the stability and productivity of the soldiers to know if they were fit to work in the civil workforce. It was a demand from the employers as they wanted an unstoppable workforce, and to reduce conflicts. The development of organizational psychology was due to the need to understand the workers to know why there were stoppages, unrest, and conflicts in work after they returned from war.
The transformation of an old industrial psychology to the modern one happened in the 1960s. The transformation was mainly from the concentration of individual behavior to the analysis of group behavior to understand the nature of the employees. The word organizational was added in the year 1973, whereby emphasis was on the fact that when people are employed, they become subject to the common goal set by the organization and the need to accomplish it. In the UK, during the 1970s, industrial/organizational psychology was otherwise termed as occupational psychology, and in the 1990s, it was known as business psychology.
Relationship with other areas of Psychology
The difference between industrial and organizational psychology is that industrial psychology deals with the use of statistical and psycho-metric tools, together with research tools to establish a system of employing that is unbiased. Also, there is job analysis and design to ensure that the employees’ performance at the job is high, and they are well trained to ensure development. On the other hand, organizational psychology has its focus on the relationships between individuals in the organizations, and the differences between people in the organization and how it influences the development of the organization. Also, it deals with team building, leadership, development, and motivation among the employees.
Psychology is also divided into other fields, such as basic, applied, and behavioral psychology. Basic psychology deals with the study of human behavior, including memory, attitude, and personality. On the other hand, applied psychology deals with the application of the concepts and interventions whereby experiments are conducted on the effective use of the theories. Therefore, all the classifications of psychology can be related to organizational psychology because the skills are utilized in the organization for effective development.
Factors that distinguish the field of industrial/organizational psychology from other fields include population, problems, and procedures. The population does determine not only the effect of behavior in work but also the effect of industrial/organizational psychology on population. Problems go in line with behavior and the including leadership, communication, and social interactions. Another factor is procedures and techniques that are used to measure the work as a whole (Pratt & Bonaccio, 2016).
Psychological Theories
In organizational psychology, the behavior of the employees is a result of need. If their need is satisfied, then they can be motivated to perform well at work. Various theories are related to the motivation of individuals in the organization. The theories include Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham H. Maslow established the theory, and the theory is well known and in use in many organizations. The theory includes Murray’s system of needs that are organized hierarchically. Murray’s study of needs was on a broad perspective, which implies that needs drive human nature. The needs trigger the action and behavior of people. Maslow then took the list created by Murray and established it in a hierarchical manner whereby need was placed as the most important factor that drives human behavior. The hierarchy is in such a way that needs are arranged, and he concludes that need flows from one level to another; therefore, implying that one need satisfaction leads to another level of need (Arikkök, 2017). Thus, one need needs to be satisfied before another need arises, and as needs are satisfied, the level of satisfaction reduces, which leads to the development of other needs.
Maslow mentions five basic needs that need to be satisfied, which are physiological, belonging, love and safety, esteem/ respect, and the need for self- actualization. Here, the psychological needs are the lowest that need to be satisfied before the rest. On the other hand, self-actualization is at the top of the pyramid. The lower level needs need to be satisfied before moving on to the next level.
Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory
The theory was proposed by Frederick Herzberg, who was a great thinker of motivational theory. It states that two motivational factors affect their satisfaction. In the year 1959, a study was conducted using 200 engineers and accountants as subjects (Arikkök, 2017). Their experiences were analyzed at their respective jobs, which were both negative and positive. Their job attitudes were analyzed using results. A two-factor theory was established from there, which includes motivators and hygiene factors.
The theory is based on quantitative data, which makes it more recognized compared to the other theory. Motivators are the factors that affect the job performance of employees in the organization. They can be factors such as good work relationships among people and the employer. The hygiene factors include proper working environments, salary, and policies, among other factors. The two factors are the ones that determine the productivity of people. If people are paid well for their work, they will be motivated to work well and have a positive impact and development in the organization.
Research Methods
There are two different levels of research approaches that are used in industrial/organizational psychology, namely general and operational levels. The general level involves different research methods such as scientific, inductive and deductive reasoning, hypothesis testing, problem statement, study design, among others. The operational level includes the manipulation of variables, methods, measurements, sampling procedures, statistical methods, and conclusion, among others.
The research process involves two methods of data collection, which are qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative methods involve the use of rating scales, questionnaires, and they rely on tests. Also, there is the use of psychological measurements, and numerous results are obtained. Qualitative methods, on the other hand, rely on observations, events, narrative descriptions, interviews, analyzing written documents, and diagrams (Pratt & Bonaccio, 2016).
Psychologists in industrial/organizational psychology utilize statistics as a way of describing the data collected in their research. There are variables of study which can be dependent and independent. The work of the researcher is to analyze the data to see if there is any relationship between the variables using statistical methods. Some of the statistical methods used include central tendency, mean inference, multivariate analysis, regression, and sampling distribution, among other methods (Pratt & Bonaccio, 2016).
Also, the researchers must develop a hypothesis that is used for inference. There is a null and alternative hypothesis. Therefore the researcher needs to understand the different statistical methods and how to make conclusions based on the results obtained during the analysis.
Empirical Studies
(Gloss et al., 2017) in the article study to establish whether industrial/organizational psychology has some form of bias towards people who are free from poverty. It is a qualitative study that involves the analysis based on other researches. In the workplace, people who come from poor backgrounds lack skills enough to qualify for jibs because of a lack of proper education. The people with higher positions tend to earn more compared to other workers because of the levels of their jobs. The researchers utilize the data to study how poverty is involved in industrial/organizational psychology. Therefore, the welfare of the people living in the poverty level should be considered to avoid the existence of bias in the workplace.
(Oswald et al., 2017) explains the impact of big data and artificial intelligence use in industrial/organizational psychology and HRM. Psychology and human resource management can benefit from the use of technology in the organization to analyze data. Also, human welfare will be improved by enabling the use of technology because people will have more social time in their lives. For people to perform well in organizations, they need a work-life balance that ensures that they are not too rooted to work. People also need some time off work to work on their personal lives. Also, the health of individuals in the organization needs to be a priority because it affects their performance and productivity (Grand et al., 2018).
Occupation
I would like to enter human resource management to work as a director in the organization. A human resource director works to ensure that the personnel in the workforce and the work done runs smoothly. Also, the director ensures that programs run effectively and efficiently towards the achievement of the set objectives in an organization. Some of the duties that the director has to conduct is supervising the HR personnel, solving disputes among employees, helping with the development of employees, helping workers attain satisfaction, implementation of strategies, maintaining the records of the employees, budgeting for the organization, and seeing the needs of the employees (Human Resources, 2020). The director is like the one who runs the activities in the organization and the one who makes sure that employees are satisfied with their needs.
Some of the skills that an HRM director requires are excellent communication skills, being ethical in the workplace, having knowledge in labor regulation, a strategic thinker, interpersonal, and organizational skills. Also, one must have skills and knowledge in HR to ensure that they are fit for the task. As a human resource director, one has the ability to recruit and remove any employee that does not comply with the set rules and regulations. Therefore, for the organization to develop, the director needs to ensure that any person that is employed has the skills to conduct the activities set.
An HR director oversees the behavior of the workers in an organization. There is a need for equality and the avoidance of discrimination among workers. The people that work in the organization need to be compliant and adhere to rules. They need to coordinate work to ensure that work is well done and the goals of the organization are met. Industrial/organizational psychology deals with the behavior and wellbeing of the workers. Also, the goals of the organization are met, and the working environment is sufficient and safe for all the involved individuals. Also, motivators need to be included in the environment as well as enough salary for the employees to increase their performance and productivity.
Curricular and Extracurricular Activities
The class materials and course materials have helped me attain the knowledge needed to work in the HRM job environment. The materials have helped in the attainment of the required skills and communication skills needed for the department. These are some of the stated skills needed to work in the department. Also, learning materials have helped in understanding the psychological skills necessary in industrial/organizational psychology. Also, the knowledge attained during the industrial helped in achieving interpersonal skills. Interacting with other workers in the organization helps understand what people think of their work and their behavior.
Also, the industrial attachment helps exercise the knowledge attained in class in the field. The communication skills learned and how to achieve organizational culture and behavior in class can be put in practice. Therefore, the knowledge and skills attained are necessary for the job description and are enough to work as an HRM director in an organization to help in the development and attainment of the set goals.
Conclusion
Industrial/organizational psychology has evolved over the years and has been in use in many organizations. The support has increased; many people have grown to support the idea. It includes research and practice. Industrial/organizational psychology helps establish how individuals in the organization behave and how the functions conducted in the organization can be done with positivity and in a clear environment. It also helps in the formation and operation of HRM. For an organization to be well conducted there is a need for a strong human resource management team. The director is in charge of ensuring that the activities are well conducted. The roles and skills needed by an HR director have been discussed in the paper and how they help in organizational development. There is a need for an organizational psychology program that helps in running the organization. Ensuring that employees and the employer have a positive relationship can help the organization develop. Also, organizational culture needs to be implemented to eliminate discrimination. People with disabilities can have a special place of work, and color should not be considered. Ensuring equality and motivation helps the employees work well and attain job satisfaction. Also, maintaining a work-life balance can help make the workers perform well in the work environment and ensure high productivity.
References
Arikkök, M. (2017). Organizational Psychology. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316460246_Organizational_Psychology
Collette, T., & Miller, R. L. (2016). A short history of industrial/organizational psychology. Psychological Specialties in Historical Context, 394.
Gloss, A., Carr, S. C., Reichman, W., Abdul-Nasiru, I., & Oestereich, W. T. (2017). From handmaidens to POSH humanitarians: The case for making human capabilities the business of IO psychology. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 10(3), 329-369.
Grand, J. A., Rogelberg, S. G., Allen, T. D., Landis, R. S., Reynolds, D. H., Scott, J. C., … & Truxillo, D. M. (2018). A systems-based approach to fostering robust science in industrial-organizational psychology. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 11(1), 4-42.
(Human Resources) HR Manager job description sample: Workable. (2020, February 3). Retrieved from https://resources.workable.com/hr-manager-job-description
Oswald, F. L., Behrend, T. S., Putka, D. J., & Sinar, E. (2017). Big Data in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management: Forward Progress for Organizational Research and Practice. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 7.
Pratt, M. G., & Bonaccio, S. (2016). Qualitative research in IO psychology: Maps, myths, and moving forward. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 9(4), 693-715.