Psy 509 Advanced Overview of I/O Psychology

Syllabus for 2002-2003 Fall

Instructor: Assist. Prof. Reyhan Bilgiç

Office phone: 210 3185

e-mail: rey@metu.edu.tr

Course Assistant: A. Başak Ok, Msc.

Room No: 232A

Note: Office hours will be arranged!

Purpose: This course will give you a detailed view of general area of I/O psychology. The emphasis will be placed on the O part of the I/O psychology. By the end of this course, you will be able to conceptualize any aspect of work organizations, and may offer some solutions to the problems you encounter.

How will we proceed? I expect that you read and take notes of the reading assignments. Each individual will have an opportunity to discuss the topic of the week. Additionally you will briefly critique and/or summaries the readings for each week. For the second week readings, your responsibility is to examine and critique an empirical study under the light of readings titled "quasi-experiments and evaluation".

Sometimes, I will lecture 2 hours and let you discuss the topic within the last hour; other times you will conduct the class during the whole session.

Requirements:

Attendance: No excuse will be accepted for not attending the class. If you do, your contribution for that hour will not be considered even if you typed the summary paper.

Exams: There will be a mid-term and a final. The former will be in-class and cover the half of the reading material or whatever we covered until that time whereas the later will be comprehensive and take-home.

An organizational report: For this, you will examine an organization of a size of at least 50 people. This can be a group project with 2-3 individuals in each group. In this project, you will examine an organization in-depth by asking various questions related to the organizational life. At the same time you will diagnose the current motivational potential of the jobs at the organization. At the end you will come up with a report for the organization and diagnose the existing problems and find solutions for the existing problems of the organization. Before you start your project, form your group and get OK from me. The last day forming the group is 15^th of October. Preparation of the questions is 15^th of November; finish interviews by 15^th of December; and writing the paper is before the finals. I will lower your grade for the late assignments.

Literature review and research proposal: You will review a topic of interest of yours and write a research proposal in such a way that you can almost conduct the study. In the introduction part you must briefly summaries the findings and state your hypothesis based on your literature review. Actually, what I am asking is a review and a research proposal, but you do not have to work hard for the introduction part of the proposal since you have the review already.

Grading: Class contribution: 5%

Exams: 30% each

Survey project: 15%

Review of a topic and proposal

a. Literature review 12.5%

b. Research proposal: 7.5 %

__________________________

Total: 100%

This course will cover four major areas of I/O psychology: Introduction, Industrial, organizational, and finally work setting. In the first section, we will deal with definition, history, and boundaries of the field. The second part of the introduction will deal with overview of the advanced research methods such as regression, meta-analysis, and IRT. The third part of the Introduction is related to the Individual in organizations and cognitive processes. The second section will introduce the major area of industrial psychology such as selection and recruitment, performance appraisal, and learning and training. The third section of the course will deal with the social psychology of the work places. Such topics as values, motivation and productivity, leadership and group dynamics and power issues will be covered. The last part of the third section will be mostly related to structural issues and change in the organizations. The last section will deal with the physical and psychological aspects of work setting time dimension and mental health at work.

INTRODUCTION

1. History and definition of the field: This section will deal with history, ethical issues, and boundaries of the field. Problems and prospects of the field will also be discussed.

Readings:

Aamodt, M. G. (1999). Introduction to I/O Psychology. Applied Industrial and Organizational Psychology, (3^rd edition). Wadsworh: Belmont, California. (Chapter 1)

Katzell, R.A. & Austin, J.T. (1992). From then to now: The development of Industrial-Organizational psychology in the United States. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 803-835.

2. Research Methods: The students are considered to be knowledgeable in research methods at elementary level. You are also expected to know the fundamentals of the statistics. In this section, we will study experimental and quasi-experimental designs, meta-analysis, IRT, and other statistical techniques.

Readings:

Aamodt, M. G. (1999). Introduction to I/O Psychology. Applied Industrial and Organizational Psychology, (3^rd edition). Wadsworh: Belmont, California. (Chapter 1) (complete the exercises of the first chapter and hand in the completed exercises).

Shaughnessy, J. J., Zechmeister, E. B., & Zechmeister, J. S. (2000). Quasi-experimental designs and program evaluation. Research Methods in Psychology (5^th Ed). McGraw Hill International Edition. (Chapter 10)

Kraut, A. I. (1996). Planning and conducting the survey: Keeping strategic purpose in mind. Organizational surveys: Tools for assessment and change. In A. I. Kraut (Ed.), (1^st edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. (Chapter 6)

3. Role of the cognitive process in organizations: We have seen the increase in the use of cognitive processes in many areas of psychology. It would be wise for any I/O psychologist to know how we may relate cognitive psychology to various areas. Also decision making in organisations, cognitive styles will be studied.

Readings:

Robbins, S. P. (2001). Perception and Individual Decision Making. Organizational Behavior, (6^th edition). Prentice Hall International, Inc.

Miner, J. B. (1992). Cognitive processes. Industrial-Organizational Psychology. McGraww-Hill International Editions. (Chapter 2)

Abramson, N. R. & Lane, H. W. (1993). A comparison of Canadian and Japanese cognitive styles: implications for management interaction. Journal of International Business Studies, 24(3), 575-588.

Robinson, J. B. (1997). It’s time to redefine creativity. Advertising Age, 68(32), 6-8.

Argyris, C. (1998). Managers, workers, and organizations. Society, 35(2), 343-347.

White, W. F. (1990). Divergent thinking vs. convergent thinking: A GT anomaly. Education, 111(2), 208-214.

Pickard, J. (1997). A yearning for learning. People Management, 3(5), 34-36.

d. Personality and individual differences:

Individual and Performance in Organisations. These sections will deal with personality and personal variables related to performance. But basically we will discuss relevant personality dimensions for the better fit.

Furnham, A. (1997). The Psychology of Behavior at Work: The individual in the organization. Hove East Sussex: Taylor and Francis. (Chapter 4)

Individual differences from the book Organizational behavior. (Chapter 3)

II. INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

1. Recruitment, selection and placement: This part briefly introduces the topic of staffing organizations and methods of it.
2. Appraising and feedback: This part will introduce a quick review of the performance appraisal in organizations.
3. Training and Development: This topic explores the ways of developing our employees so they will not have any problems related to their job. Various methods of training will be covered.

Readings:

Straus, S. G., Weisband, S. P., & Wilson, J. M. (1998). Human Resource Management Practices in the networked organization: Impact of Electronic Communication Systems. Trends in Organizational Behavior, Volume 5. In C. L. Cooper and D. M. Rousseau (Eds.). John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

III. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF WORK PLACES

1. Work values and attitudes: job satisfaction, involvement commitment. This topic will introduce the values and attitudes. The antecedents and consequences of such concepts will be covered. Also the measurement issues, consequences and antecedents of performance and counter productive behavior such as absenteeism, turnover will be discussed.

Readings:

George, J. M. & Jones, G. R. (1997). Experiencing work: Values, attitudes, and moods. Human Relations, 50(4), 393-416.

Jones, Jr, H. B. (1997). The Protestant Ethic: Weber’s model and the empirical literature. Human Relations, 50(7), 757-778.

Randall, D. M. & O’Driscoll, M. P. (1997). Affective versus calculative commitment: Human resource implications. The Journal of Social Psychology, 137(5), 606-617.

Benkhoff, B. (1997). Ignoring commitment is costly: New approaches establish the missing link between commitment and performance. Human Relations, 50(6), 701-725.

Testa, M. R. (2001). Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and effort in the service environment. Journal of Psychology, 135(2), 226-237.

Berry, L. M. (1998). Satisfaction with work. Psychology at work: An introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. (2^nd edition). McGraw-Hill International editions. (Chapter 9)

Steel, R. P. & Rentsch, J. R. (1997). The dispositional model of job attitudes revisited: Findings of a 10-year study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82(6), 873-879.

2. Motivation: Motivation is one of the heavily theory loaded areas of I/O psychology. It is interesting to know that most of the theories both have practical value/ and or validity: Both internal and external.

Readings:

Robbins, S. P. (2001). Basic motivation concepts. Organizational Behavior, (6^th edition). Prentice Hall International, Inc. (chapter 6)

Robbins, S. P. (2001). Motivation: From concept to applications. Organizational Behavior, (6^th edition). Prentice Hall International, Inc. (chapter 7)

Kleinbeck, U. (2000). Effects of a psychologically based management system on work motivation and productivity. Applied Psychology, 49(3), 596-612.

3. Leadership in organizations: Some people think that leadership in organizations is a relevant topic while others may not think so. For them leadership is a process. There are many theories of leadership and many readings. There are also numerous reviews about leadership. The one we have is the best one from this you will learn about leadership.

Readings

Aamodt, M. G. (1999). Leadership. Applied Industrial and Organizational Psychology, (3^rd edition). Wadsworh: Belmont, California. (Chapter 12)

Berry, L. M. (1998). Leadership at work. Psychology at work: An introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. (2^nd edition). McGraw-Hill International editions. (Chapter 10)

Group dynamics and influence of behavior in groups: This topic will look at the influence of group on individual behavior. How teams are formed, how individual's productivity is affected by the presence of others, stages of group forming among the topics to be discussed. Conflict, conflict resolution, and negotiation.

Readings:

Robbins, S. P. (2001). Foundations of group behavior. Organizational Behavior, (6^th edition). Prentice Hall International, Inc. (chapter 8)

Robbins, S. P. (2001). Understanding work teams. Organizational Behavior, (6^th edition). Prentice Hall International, Inc. (chapter 9)

Robbins, S. P. (2001). Conflict and Negotiation. Organizational Behavior, (6^th edition). Prentice Hall International, Inc. (chapter 8)

Organizational theory, structure, corporate culture and organizational Change:

This seems to be a long title, but each key word will be dealt with accordingly. The view we will take here is mostly macro. We will be able to relate to the individuals in organizations.

Berry, L. M. (1998). Designing effective work organizations. Psychology at work: An introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. (2^nd edition). McGraw-Hill International editions.

Senior, B. (2000). Organizational change and development. Introduction to work and organizational psychology: A European perspective. In N. Chimel (Ed.). Blackwell Publishers. (Chapter 15)

Mullins, L. J. (1999). Organization structure and design. Management and organizational behavior. (5^th edition). Prentice Hall. (Chapter 15)

Mullins, L. J. (1999). Patterns of structure and work organization. Management and organizational behavior. (5^th edition). Prentice Hall. (Chapter 16)

Robbins, S. P. (2001). Work design and technology. Organizational Behavior, (6^th edition). Prentice Hall International, Inc. (chapter 13)

Furnham, A. (1997). Corporate culture and climate. The Psychology of Behavior at Work: The individual in the organization. Hove East Sussex: Taylor and Francis. (Chapter 13)

Larson, E. L., Early, E., Clooan, P., Sugrue, S., & Parides, M. (2000). An organizational climate intervention associated with increased hand washing and decreased nosocomial infections. Behavioral Medicine, 26(1), 14-23.

Berry, L. M. (1998). Designing effective work organizations. Psychology at work: An introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. (2^nd edition). McGraw-Hill International editions. (Chapter 9)

IV. PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF WORK ENVİRONMENT:

1. Physical and social setting: This area explores the physical surroundings at work and

related stimuli. The topics such as noise heat, vibration, office arrangement will be dealt with.

Berry, L. M. (1998). Designing the work environment. Psychology at work: An introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. (2^nd edition). McGraw-Hill International editions. (Chapter 15)

Stress at work: One of the responsibilities of employers is to create healthy environments at work, and this concept includes not only the physical but also psychological factors at work place.

Berry, L. M. (1998). Stress and its effects on work. Psychology at work: An introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. (2^nd edition). McGraw-Hill International editions. (Chapter 13)

b. Safety:

Zohar, D. (2000). A group-level model of safety climate: testing the effect of group climate microaccidents in manufacturing jobs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(4), 587-596.

Chimel, N. (2000). Safety at work. Introduction to work and organizational psychology: A European perspective. In N. Chimel (Ed.). Blackwell Publishers. (Chapter 11)

d. Mental Illness:

Berry, L. M. (1998). Employee health problems and organizational intervention. Psychology at work: An introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. (2^nd edition). McGraw-Hill International editions. (Chapter 14)

V. MISCELLENAOUS TOPICS:

Lawthom, R. Against all odds: managing diversity. Introduction to work and organizational psychology: A European perspective. In N. Chimel (Ed.). Blackwell Publishers. (Chapter 16)

Griffin, R. W., Kelly-O’Leary, A., & Collins, J. (1998). Dysfunctional work behaviors in organizations. Trends in Organizational Behavior, Volume 5. In C. I. Cooper & D. M. Rousseau. John-Wiley Sons Ltd. (Chapter 4)