Applications

Question 1

What is Industrial/Organisational (I/O)

Psychology?

Answer 1

The study of behaviour in work settings and the application of psychology principles to change work behaviour.

Question 2

OP Topics include:

Answer 2

-Recruitment and Selection
 Training
 Measurement of employee job performance
 Motivation to work
 Job satisfaction and job stress
 Group processes in the workplace
 Conditions of work

Question 3

Walter Dill Scott

Answer 3

The Beginnings (Early 20th Century)
 First to apply psychology to advertising, employee
selection, and management issues
 Wrote The Theory and Practice of Advertising (1903)
 Formed first consulting company in industrial
psychology

Question 4

Hugo Munsterburg

Answer 4

Advocated the use of psychological tests in selection

Question 5

How did WW1 and the testing movement impact the history of organisational psychology?

Answer 5

U.S. Army commissioned psychologists to
devise intelligence tests for the placement of
Army recruits. Developed two tests:
 Alpha Army: For recruits who could read and write
 Beta Army: For recruits who could not read
• After the war, the tests were adapted for
civilian use and new ones were designed for a
variety of situations

Question 6

How did The Hawthorne Studies and Motivational Issues impact the history of organisational psychology?

Answer 6

• In 1927, management wanted to boost
productivity in the Hawthorne plant of
Western Electric Company
• Put workers in test rooms and increased
illumination levels for some workers but not
others.
• Results: Productivity increased in both rooms
• Made other changes (e.g., more rest periods,
free lunch etc.)
• Results: Productivity levels always increased!

Question 7

Hawthorne Effect

Answer 7

The classic Hawthorne
studies apparently showed that worker
productivity was increased by the attention
paid to the workers (Mayo, 1933)

Question 8

Human relations movement

Answer 8

Emphasises the importance of social factors in influencing work performance.
• BUT recent research has debunked the classic
Hawthorne studies (Kompier, 2006).

Question 9

How did WW2 impact the history of organisational psychology?

Answer 9

Psychologists called to improve selection and
placement of military personnel
• The need for state-of-the-art machinery, and
the increase in complexity of that machinery,
sparked the development of human factors
psychology

Question 10

Later Developments in Organisational Psychology

Answer 10

• Explosive growth in field paralleled the growth
in U.S. business and technical enterprise
• New technologies meant that employees
needed enhanced and redesigned training
programs
• Organisational issues also assumed greater
importance (e.g., human relations skills)

Question 11

What is a Job Analysis?

Answer 11

The procedure for determining
the duties and skill requirements of a job and
the kind of person who should be hired for it.
• The information obtained is then used for
developing job descriptions (a list of what the
job entails) and job specifications (a list of a
job’s human requirements, or what kind of
people to hire for the job).

Question 12

Why Conduct a Job Analysis?

Answer 12

• The criteria from a job analysis become the basis for:
–Generation of job descriptions
–Specification of worker characteristics
–Hiring employees (e.g., test selection)
–Performance appraisal and promotion
–Job classification
–Job evaluation
–Vocational counselling
–Job design and redesign
–Ergonomic interventions
–Worker safety
–Staffing planning
–Research criteria
–Training employees
–Legal requirements*

Question 13

Main Steps in a Job Analysis Project

Answer 13

1. Identify purpose
2. Who to include*
3. What methods to choose*
4. Communicate the project
5. Collect all relevant materials
6. Analyse the job
7. Write up and integrate the data
8. Review
9. Feedback outcomes

Question 14

Sources of Job Information

Answer 14

• Subject Matter Experts (SME, i.e., person
who has direct, up-to-date experience with the
job for a long enough time to be familiar with
all of its tasks)
1. The job incumbent
2. The supervisor
3. Trained job analyst
• In general, incumbents and supervisors are the
best sources of descriptive job information, and
job analysts are better qualified for
comparisons among a set of jobs

Question 15

Methods to Collect Job Analysis Information

Answer 15

1. Review written materials
2. Standardised measures
3. Job participation
4. Interviews
5. Job diaries/Activity logs
6. Observations*
7. Survey questionnaires*
8. Focus groups*
   Multiple methods are preferred, but select the
   most appropriate for the purpose

Question 16

1. Review Written Materials

Answer 16

• E.g., previous job descriptions, O*NET
• Existing data should always be checked to
make sure that it conforms to the job as it
is currently performed and also to ensure
that it accounts for the inclusion of new
technology in the job

Question 17

2. Standardised Measures

Answer 17

• E.g., Position Analysis Questionnaire
(PAQ): A structured questionnaire that
analyses various jobs in terms of 187 job
elements that are arranged into six
categories:
 Information input
 Mental processes
 Work output
 Relationships with other persons
 Job context
 Other job characteristics

Question 18

3. Job Participation

Answer 18

• A job analyst actually performs a particular
job or job operation to get a firsthand
understanding of how the job is performed

Question 19

4. Interviews

Answer 19

• Ask SMEs about: the major duties of the
position; the education, experience and skill
required; the physical and mental demands etc.
• Accounts may be biased, so job analysts may
want to interview the job incumbent, the
incumbent’s supervisor, the incumbents’
subordinates, and other people with same job.

Question 20

5. Job Diaries/Activity Logs

Answer 20

• Job incumbents record their daily activities in a
diary
• Provides a detailed, hour-by-hour, day-by-day
account of the worker’s job.
• But can be quite time consuming for the job
incumbent and analyst

Question 21

Case Study Example

Frontline Police Officer Job Analysis

Answer 21

• Purpose: to identify the “inherent requirements”
of frontline policing
• Inherent requirements must be:
 Actually performed on the job
 Universally required of all employees in that
position
 A fundamental part of the job
• When defending a claim, employers must draw
on objective and current evidence regarding
essential aspects of the role

Question 22

Case Study Methodology

Answer 22

Job analysis
• Observations
• Survey
• Focus groups

Question 23

Job Analysis: Observations

Answer 23

Purpose
• To validate previous police job descriptions
• To enable the researchers to better understand
the nature of the job
Participants
• Almost 300 hours spent observing 36 frontline
police officers (9 female, 27 male) from rural
and metropolitan areas

Question 24

Observation strengths & weaknesses

Answer 24

Strengths
• Provides detailed information about job
• Observer can learn about culture and jargon
Considerations
• Costly and time consuming to get large
sample size
• Time sampling– amount of time and
frequency of sampling
• Observed participants may behave differently
• Observer’s may not be able to determine
what was required to undertake task
performed
• Critical/infrequent tasks not observed

Question 25

Job Analysis: Survey

Answer 25

Purpose • To address the considerations of the observations study • To survey the frequency and importance of several abilities for police officers Participants • 1000 questionnaires were distributed to 13 regions. • 268 police officers completed and returned the questionnaires (185 male, 66 female) • 13 participants excluded using validity screening questions

Question 26

Survey strengths & weaknesses

Answer 26

``` Strengths • Large, representative sample easier to obtain • Can inform about infrequent events • Anonymous Considerations • Response biases of self-report measure • Does not allow for qualitative assessment •Information obtained is limited by the questions asked. Cannot probe deeper ```

Question 27

Job Analysis: Focus Groups

Answer 27

Purpose • To obtain a more qualitative assessment of frontline officer’s own perceptions of the skills and abilities required • To qualify information gained from the questionnaire study Participants • Groups of 5-8 police officers from 5 different regions participated in the study

Question 28

Focus Groups strengths & weaknesses

Answer 28

``` Strengths • Allowed for open-ended feedback from officers • Subjective information enhanced understanding of survey findings Considerations • Small sample size • Influence of researchers or senior officers ```

Question 29

Job Analysis: Police Findings

Answer 29

• Key characteristics often include: honesty, reliability, sensitivity, communication skills, motivation, problem solving skills, and team work (e.g., Pozzulo, Bennell, & Forth, 2009)

Question 30

Job Analysis Issues

Answer 30

• Jobs change over time, so job analyses should be conducted on a periodic basis • The concept of a ‘job’ has been changing over the past few years. Organisations need to be flexible and responsive to compete in the global environment. Thus, jobs are less well defined now and tend not to have a clearly delineated set of responsibilities.

Question 31

Personnel Selection

Answer 31

``` • Selection involves matching the person to the job or organisation, and then evaluating the effectiveness of that match • Need information on:  What the job requires  What the person has to offer (KSAOs)  How well the person (or that type of person) performs in that type of work ```

Question 32

The Selection Process: Utility

Answer 32

``` 1. Company performance always depends in part on employees. 2. It is very costly to recruit and hire employees. 3. There are many legal implications of incompetent selection. 4. Can depend on selection ratio and base rate of success ```

Question 33

Selection Ratio

Answer 33

Number of job vacancies/ Number of applicants • If selection ratio ≥ 1 utility decreases • If selection ratio less then or equal to one utility increases

Question 34

Base Rate of Success

Answer 34

• Base rate: The proportion of hires considered successful before implementation of selection system • The higher the base rate the less likely a new system will be beneficial

Question 35

Steps in the Selection Process

Answer 35

``` I. Employee Recruitment II. Employee Screening III. Employee Selection and Placement IV. Validity Check ```

Question 36

I. Employee Recruitment

Answer 36

Process by which companies attract qualified applicants • Employee referrals and applicant-initiated contacts yield higher quality workers with lower rate of turnover than newspaper ads or employment agency placement (e.g., Saks, 1994) • Internet sites have lots of job seekers and employers, and require sifting through many potential applicants • Employees try to sell themselves to companies, but companies also try to sell themselves to employees • Characteristics of recruitment program and recruiters can influence applicants’ decisions to accept or reject job offers • Some companies “oversell” themselves which can cause new employees to become dissatisfied and unmotivated

Question 37

How does RJP relate to employee recruitment?

Answer 37

• Realistic job previews (RJP): An accurate presentation of the prospective job and organisation made to applicants • RJPs increase job commitment and satisfaction; decrease turnover (e.g., Horn et al., 1998) • RJPs allow applicants to self-select, lower unrealistically high job expectations, and may provide applicants with information that will later be useful on the job. • But, applicants are more likely to turn down a job offer when RJP presented

Question 38

II. Employee Screening

Answer 38

``` The process of reviewing information about job applicants to select workers 1. Applications and resumes 2. References 3. Employment testing 4. Assessment Centres 5. Interviews ```

Question 39

1. Applications and Resumes

Answer 39

• Purpose: to collect biographical information, which is among the best predictors of future job performance • First impressions count! (Macan & Dipboye, 1994) • Questions that are not job-related should not be on application forms • It can be difficult to evaluate and interpret this information to determine most qualified applicants

Question 40

2. References

Answer 40

• May have limited importance because:  It is unlikely that applicants will give details of someone who would say something bad  All references can be so positive that employers can’t distinguish between applicants  Litigation against employers who provide bad references has caused some employers to refuse to write them • Still widely used in postgrad schools and professional positions  Often include rating forms  Some get applicants to waive rights to see letter

Question 41

3. Employment Testing

Answer 41

``` • Most employers use standardised tests because it can be costly and time-consuming to create valid and reliable tests • Measure: a. Biodata b. Cognitive ability c. Mechanical ability d. Motor and sensory ability e. Job skills and knowledge f. Personality g. Integrity h. Other tests ```

Question 42

a. Biodata

Answer 42

Background information and personal characteristics • There are no standardised biodata instruments, and they can be difficult to develop • Can be effective for screening and placement

Question 43

b. Cognitive Ability

Answer 43

• May be tests of general intellectual ability or tests of specific cognitive skills • Typical tests include: WAIS, Wonderlick Personnel Test, Raven’s matrices • Cognitive ability is predictive of job success • Provides an indication of the individual’s learning potential and capacity to manage complexity in problem solving, decision making etc. • Validity moderated by complexity of job • These tests may have adverse impact on particular groups

Question 44

c. Mechanical Ability Tests

Answer 44

``` • Standaridsed tests have been developed to measure abilities in indentifying, recognising, and applying mechanical principles • Effective screening for positions involving operating and repairing machinery, construction, engineering ```

Question 45

d. Motor and Sensory Ability Tests

Answer 45

* Motor tests: E.g., speed tests that require manipulation of small parts to measure fine motor dexterity * Sensory tests: E.g., tests of hearing, visual acuity, and perceptual discrimination

Question 46

e. Job Skills and Knowledge Tests

Answer 46

• Work samples tests: Measure applicants’ abilities to perform brief examples of important job tasks  Pos: clearly job-related and can serve as realistic job preview  Neg: Can be expensive and time-consuming  Can be one of the best predictors of job performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998) • Job knowledge tests: Measure specific types of knowledge required to perform a job

Question 47

f. Personality

Answer 47

Before 1990s considered invalid predictors by researchers although used by practitioners • Now: Work-related personality characteristics can be reasonably good predictors of job performance, especially when the they are derived from job analysis • Some personality measures (e.g., MMPI) are used to screen out applicants who posses psychopathologies Conscientiousness predicts: Performance across jobs, Teamwork, Training Emotional stability (Neuroticism) predicts: Performance across jobs, Teamwork Extroversion predicts: Performance in specific roles e.g. sales, mgt Teamwork, Training Agreeableness predicts: Teamwork, Customer service Openness to experience Training

Question 48

What different things to personality and cognitive ability predict?

Answer 48

Maximal (can do) performance best predicted by cognitive ability and typical (will do) performance best predicted by personality.

Question 49

g. Integrity Tests

Answer 49

Designed to assess an applicant’s honesty and character through questions concerning drug use, shoplifting, petty theft, etc. Although overt integrity tests are easy to ‘fake good’, covert tests are not, and the results are somewhat predictive of job performance (Alliger et al, 1996) * Integrity tests are valid predictors of: * Dishonesty * Counterproductive behaviours (e.g., chronic tardiness, taking extended work breaks, ignoring or passing off assigned work tasks)

Question 50

Other assessing tests

Answer 50

* Drug testing is on the rise | * Graphology: Analysis of handwriting

Question 51

4. Assessment Centres

Answer 51

* Structured setting in which applicants take part in multiple activities (e.g., battery of written tests, role-playing, situational exercises, in-basket test), monitored by a group of evaluators. * Typically used in large organisations for managerial positions * Can be good predictors of managerial success, but can be very costly

Question 52

5. Interviews

Answer 52

•One of the most common selection procedures •Validity varies according to how the interview is conducted: a.Traditional unstructured interviews b.Structured interviews

Question 53

a. Traditional Employment Interviews

Answer 53

* In unstructured interviews you simply ask questions that come to mind. * No formalized “scoring” for the quality of each answer. * May actually diminish the tendency to make simple stereotype judgments (e.g., about gender, race)

Question 54

Traditional Employment Interviews

Answer 54

* Physically attractive people hired more than those less physically attractive, although not by the most experienced managers * Unstructured interviews often give rise to poor selection decisions and sometimes lack predictive validity. * There can be low level of agreement between interviewers

Question 55

Factors That Can Undermine an Interview’s Usefulness

Answer 55

* Applicant self-presentation * Snap Judgments * Negative emphasis * Self-fulfilling prophecies * Misunderstanding the job * Interview skills (e.g., communication) may not relate to job * Pressure to hire * Candidate-order (contrast) error * Influence of nonverbal behavior * Telegraphing * Too much/too little talking * Similar-to-me effect * Halo effect * Other personal prejudices/biases

Question 56

b. Structured Interviews

Answer 56

* All applicants are evaluated in the same manner (same information is obtained in the same situation from all applicants, who are then compared on a common, relevant set of dimensions) * Structured interviews are better than traditional interviews

Question 57

What types of questions are asked in structured interviews?

Answer 57

• Situational questions: Asks interviewees how they would deal with specific job-related, hypothetical situations Behavioural questions: Asks interviewees to draw on past job incidents and behaviours to deal with hypothetical future work situations Job knowledge questions: Assesses interviewee knowledge about the job Background questions: Supplements information from resume and application form

Question 58

What employee screening tests are most effective? Comparative Validities for Overall Job Performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998)

Answer 58

``` Work sample tests .54 Cognitive ability tests .51 Structured interviews .51 Job knowledge tests .48 Assessment centres .37 Biodata .35 Conscientiousness .31 References .26 Unstructured interviews .14 Graphology .02 Age -.01 ```

Question 59

III. Employee Selection & Placement

Answer 59

* Employee selection: The actual process of choosing people for employment from a pool of applicants * Once employers have gathered information about job applicants, they can combine this information in various ways to make selection decisions * Usually these decisions are made subjectively, but such decisions are error prone

Question 60

How can decisions regarding employee selection be made?

Answer 60

•Decisions can be made more objectively using:  Multiple regression: A statistical decision-making model  Multiple cut-off model: Uses a minimum cutoff score for each of the various predictors of job performance  Multiple hurdle model: Requires an acceptance or rejection decision to be made at each of several stages in the screening process. Applicants who do not pass one of the hurdles are no longer considered for the job

Question 61

What is employee placement?

Answer 61

The process of assigning workers to appropriate jobs Only takes place when there are two or more positions that a new worker could fill

Question 62

What is a validity check of the employee selection process?

Answer 62

Test the selection procedures to determine if they succeeded in identifying the best workers for the job.

Question 63

Equal Employment Opportunity in Employee Selection and Placement

Answer 63

•Adverse Impact: Occurs when members of one sub-group are selected disproportionately more or less often than members of another sub-group

Question 64

Take Home Message

Answer 64

Selection requires matching the job requirements with the attributes of the applicant.  The selection process involves four stages: employee recruitment; employee screening; employee selection and placement; validity check  Employee screening techniques vary in their effectiveness  An important factor in all personnel decisions is to protect against discrimination in employment