Organizational Psychology Flashcards
Taylor (1911) believed that workers are motivated primarily by what?
Desire for economic gain
Therefore he advocated for linking financial incentives to productivity, thus giving efficient workers higher wages
Taylor’s Scientific Management proposes that to maximize organization efficiency and productivity, managers should
- use scientific methods to identify the best way to to a job
- make sure workers are scientifically selected and trained by determining skill requires for each job and selecting workers to match those skills
- have an equal division of labor; manager plans and organizes and workers implement those plans
- managers cooperate workers to ensure all work is done in ways consistent with scientific principles
Weber (1947) described a bureaucracy as an impersonal and rational way to ensure that organizations operate orderly and efficient. He said essential elements of a bureaucracy include
division of labor, well defined hierarchy of authority, formal rules and procedures, employment decisions based on competence and merit, written records of decisions and actions, separate ownership an management
Whose research contributed to the development of the human relations approach to management
Mayo (1933) at the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company; found that increased productivity was not necessarily due to increased lighting and other physical conditions, but rather the attentions that workers received as research participants
Mayo concluded that what factors were more important than physical work conditions for work motivation and productivity
Social
McGregor (1960) Theory X and Theory Y focuses on interactions between supervisors and subordinates and proposes that a supervisor’s beliefs about subordinates has what kind of effect?
self-fulfilling prophecy effect; a supervisor’s beliefs determine how the supervisor acts towards subordinates which, in turn, determines how subordinates behave
Theory X supervisors believe what about their subordinates
they are inherently lazy, dislike responsibility, resist change, and are concerned only with themselves so supervisors must be directive and controlling to ensure workers meet organizational goals
Theory Y supervisors believe what about their subordinates
that they enjoy work, are self-directed and internally motivated, and seek responsibility and that a supervisor’s role is to provide subordinates with conditions
that allow them to fulfill their own goals by achieving organization goals
McGregor’s Theory X/ Theory Y was influenced by what? Which theory produces the best outcomes for employees and organizations
Human relations approach and work of Maslow ; Theory Y
The principle of equifinality is what
a system can achieve the same goal or outcomes in multiple ways (Katz and Kahn’s Open System Theory)
The principle of multifinality is what
a system can achieve dissimilar goals or outcomes from the same initial goals
Which theory proposes that organizations are characterized by input-throughput-output cycles: organizations take in materials, information, and other resources (inputs); transform those resources to products, services, and information (throughputs), and then send out the products, services, and information (outputs). The consequences of the outputs (profits, customer feedback) are then brought back in to the process as inputs
Katz and Kahn’s Open System Theory
This theory proposes that organizations are open systems that have the characteristics of other open systems—undergo cycles of events, act in ways to maintain homeostasis, avoid negative entropy (decay and destruction of system) by acquiring new resources
Katz and Kahn’s Open System Theory
These decisions are repetitive and routine and are governed by rules, policies, and procedures often made by lower level personnel (hiring, ordering, billing)
Programmed decisions
These decisions are non-repetitive, complex, require unique or creative solutions, and rely on the decision maker’s judgment and problem solving skills (developing new products/services or responding to legal issues)
Non-programmed decisions
This model of decision making is also known as the classical model and it assumes that decision makers choose the optimal alternative after identifying and evaluating all possible alternatives in an objective, deliberate, and orderly way
The Rational model of decision making
This model of decision making recognizes that rational decision making is limited by organizational and individual factors such as time, limited access to information, and cognitive abilities of the decision maker. Therefore, people often satisfice (rather than optimize) and select a minimally acceptable alternative
The bounded rationality model
This model of decision making posits that organizational decisions are often are constrained by the organizations routines and standard operating procedures and often follow and depend in “small incremental choices made by response to short term conditions”
Organizational Process Model
Groups tend to out perform individual decision making when what?
The task is complex and group members have complementary skills
Individuals tend to outperform groups when what?
The task is poorly structured and requires a high degree of creativity
Group decisions are often better than decisions made by an _______ individual
average (but not necessarily the most competent)
This happens when people are deeply involved in a cohesive in group and strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action
groupthink
What factors increase the risk of groupthink
When the group has a strong directive leader
When the group is isolated from outside opinions
When group has to make decisions quickly
Symptoms of groupthink include
illusions of invulnerability, superior morality, use of collective rationalization, excessive stereotyping, self-censorship, and the presence of self-appointed “mindguards” who shield group members from contradictory information
Group leaders can reduce groupthink by
remaining neutral in the beginning of a discussion, encouraging members to express their opinions, appointing a members to play devil’s advocate, bring in outside opinions
This is the tendency of groups to make more extreme (risky or cautious) decisions than an individual group member would make alone
Group polarization
This is a systematic procedure for identifying how a job is performed, the conditions under which it is performed, and the personal requirements it takes to perform the job
Job analysis
What are the functions of a job analysis
obtaining information needed to write a job description, develop or identify appropriate job performance and selection measures, determine training needs and making decisions about job design and redesign
What are methods of obtaining information for job analysis
observing employees while performing job, interview employees and supervisors about the job, having employees, supervisors, or others familiar with the job complete surveys and questionnaires, and using electronic performance monitoring
This kind of job analysis focuses on knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that are required to accomplish job tasks
worker oriented job analysis
This questionnaire is _______ oriented job analysis and addresses 6 categories of work activity: information, input, mental processes, work output, relationships with other people, job context, and other characteristics
worker oriented;
Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)
This kind of job analysis focuses on the tasks that must be accomplished to achieve desired job outcomes
Work oriented job analysis
This is a work oriented approach that involves having employees and supervisors develop a comprehensive list of job tasks, having subject matter experts rate the identified tasks in terms of frequency and importance, and then including tasks with high ratings in the job descriptions
Task analysis
This is always worker oriented and focuses on the core competencies (attributes) that are required to successfully perform all jobs or a subset of jobs within an organization. These are linked to the organization’s values, goals, and strategies (exp: staying current with the latest technological advances)
Competency modeling
This serves several functions in organizations including identifying appropriate job selection and performance measures, determining the content of training programs, and identifying future job requirements
Competency modeling
This is normally the first step in job evaluation
job analysis
This is done specifically to facilitate decisions related to compensation
job evaluation
What is comparable worth as it relates to job evaluation
Principle that workers performing jobs that require the same skills and responsibilities or of comparable value to the employer should be paid the same. This has been applied primarily to the gender gap in wages.
The point system is a commonly used method of job evaluation. What is it
Involves determining the monetary value of a job by assigning points to the jobs compensable factors (effort, skill, responsibility, working conditions), summing the points to derive a total score, and using the total score to determine appropriate compensation
This measures job performance and has several functions including providing employees with feedback about their performance, and evaluating employee performance to obtain the information needed to make decisions about raises, promotions, etc
Performance assessment
These are the most commonly used performance measures in organizations. Their advantages include allowing raters to take situational factors that affect performance into account and provide information useful for giving employees feedback about their performance. A disadvantage can be affected by rater biases and errors
Subjective measures of performance appraisal
These measures of performance usually provide quantitative information and include direct measures of productivity, number or errors, accidents, or absences. They may not be available for certain jobs and can be affected by situational factors such as inadequate resources or support
Objective measures of performance appraisal
This rating scale requires the rater to evaluate an employee by comparing the employee to other employee
Relative rating scale (a kind of subjective rating scale)
This scale requires the rater to evaluate an employee without considering the performance of other employees.
Absolute rating scale (a kind of subjective rating scale)
This type of relative rating scale compares each employee to all other employees in pairs on each dimension of job performance by indicating which employee is the best. It can alleviate some rater biases but it can also be very time consuming
paired comparison technique
This type of relative rating scale requires the rater to assign a certain number of employees to a prespecified performance category (ie a certain percentage to poor performance, a certain percentage to average, a certain percentage to above average etc.) This alleviates some rater biases, but is not fully accurate about the performance of employees
forced distribution method
