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Slide 1
Psychology Applied to Business and Other
Professions
17
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 2
Psychology and Work
• Industrial-organizational psychologists – Seek to improve human benefits of work
• Increase job production• Increase job satisfaction• Employee selection• Methods of training and management
– Hired, employed in personnel departments
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 3
Employee Selection and Evaluation
• Psychological measures used in– Selection and hiring new employees
• Interviews• Paper-and-pencil tests• Performance tests• Job performance ratings• Evaluating simulated job performance
– Finding right person improves morale and productivity; decreases turnover and absenteeism
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 4
Psychological Measures
• Interviews – Personality, spoken language, personal factors– Unstructured and structured questions used
• Tests of– Intelligence (desired 115 IQ?)– Specific abilities, skills, and job knowledge– Performance – Ratings of job performance (scales, check lists)
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 5
70 85 115 130 14555 100
34.13%34.13%
2.14% 2.14%
13.59%13.59%
Attorney
MechanicFactory worker
Chemist
Sales manager
Secretary
Accountant
Sales
Machinist
Range of intelligence scores of the
middle half of applicants for
various occupations
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 6
Tests of Specific Skills
7
B
5
C
E D
A
B
D
C
E
A
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Slide 7
Sample items from multiple-step rating scale
Job Knowledge
Quantity of work
Dependability
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Below average
Below average
Average Above average
Average
AverageBelow average
Above average
Outstanding
Above average
Outstanding
OutstandingUnsatisfactory
Thorough knowledge
Unsatisfactory Below average Average Knows job well
Needs virtually no supervision; completely reliable
Requires constant supervision to ensure that directions are followed
Requires considerable supervision; does not always follow directions
Requires average to normal supervision
Can usually be depended upon to complete assignments
Consistently exceeds job requirements
Consistently below job requirements
Frequently below job requirements
Meets job requirements
Frequently exceeds job requirements
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Slide 8
Employee Selection
• Assessment centers– Evaluations by staff or team outside company
environment – very popular method • Upper managers, psychologists, or outside
consultants– Use of traditional interviews and tests
• Simulated management task– in-basket technique
– Evaluation of organizational citizenship
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 9
Validity of Job Selection Measures• Overall, good selections save money, time
– IQ tests – best predictor of performance
• Useful for new employees and complex jobs
• Not useful for selecting for simpler jobs – need performance tests more than IQ tests
• IQ related to speed of learning new skills; experience tends to equalize job learning
– Performance tests and assessment centers are valid measures
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 10
Job Selection– Conscientiousness is important in selection
• Fairness in employee selection– Gender bias in U.S.
• Two-thirds of positions filled by males have – Individual high financial rewards– Power over others
• Jobs involving helping others mostly held by women. Why?
– Men and women want different job types– Less likely to hire woman in power job
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 11
Job Selection• Race-ethnic bias
– Powerful, highly paid jobs tend to go to men, and tend to be filled by majority culture men
– Huge disparities among U.S. ethnic group occupational achievement
– Prejudice is declining but remains a job barrier– Impact of IQ tests: African Americans and
Hispanics tend to score lower than whites• Tests content criticized as culture-biased
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 12
Job Selection
• Solutions to biased selection– More emphasis on job knowledge and skill tests
for experienced employees– IQ tests for prediction on new employees and
complex jobs– Tests with more validity; elimination or less
validity of tests increases bias
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 13
Job Satisfaction, Happiness, and Productivity
• Goals of I/O psychologists– Happiness and satisfaction of employees– Increase productivity– Both accomplished by
• Match right person to right job• Improve working conditions
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
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Slide 14
Job Satisfaction, Happiness, and Productivity
• Research results– Satisfied employees
• More productive• Miss less work• Have fewer accidents on the job• Less likely to resign• Customers more satisfied when in contact• Increase company profits
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
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Slide 15
Job performance
Job experienceIntellectual
ability
Conscientiousness
Knowledge of job
Knowing skills and information needed to
perform a job tends to lead to better job performance
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Slide 16
Management Strategies
• Improving employee satisfaction– Improving management style:
• Considerate (warm, friendly)• Communicative (good feedback)• Structuring (organizing, directing work) –
manager effectiveness linked to being highly considerate
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
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Slide 17
Management Strategies
• Improving employee satisfaction– Improving managerial organization:
• Participative style – teams of employees at all levels involved in decision process
• Management by objectives – management sets goals and deadline, employees decide how accomplished and who does what
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 18
Management Strategies
• Improving employee satisfaction– Improving physical conditions:
• Influence of physical conditions: lights, noise, temperature) on satisfaction and production (decision making and errors)
• Design of machines, equipment, tools to fit human characteristics
• Minimizing social loafing
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 19
Human Diversity• Gender differences in leadership
– Traits of successful leaders studied• Drive• Honesty• Flexibility• Leadership
– Inspiring leaders: charisma, clear vision, inspiration, personalized attention paid to followers
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
• Motivation• Intelligence• Creativity
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Slide 20
Human Diversity
• Gender differences in leadership– Overall, men and women similar in style– Transformational management
• Seek to improve, change employees• More likely used by female managers• Set clear goals• Set good example, mentor employees• Reward and empower employees
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 21
Psychology of the Entrepreneur
• People who turn ideas into businesses
– Engage in less counterfactual thinking
– Have excellent social skills
– Tend to be physically attractive
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
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Slide 22
Human Factors Engineering
• Time and motion studies– Analyze movements of workers – Efficiency - find better ways to perform tasks
• Ergonomics – human factors engineering– Design of machines, instrument panels, gages
• Location, grouping design, readability • Shape related to function,
– Developed to overcome human frailties
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
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Slide 23
Preferred arrangementAcceptable arrangement
Examples of controls and dials arranged to fit the cognitive characteristics of human operators
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Slide 24
Health Psychology in the Workplace
• Stress and unhealthy patterns of behavior– Overwork, poor diet, lack of exercise– Good employee health is good business– Healthy employees
• More productive• Less absenteeism• Fewer health benefit claims• Live longer, healthier, productive lives
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 25
Other Applications of Psychology
• In the workplace– Developing training methods for new and
continuing education for current employees– Computer-assisted instruction in computer
simulation area– Advertising and marketing end of business
(size, color, repetition, social position linked to effectiveness of ads)
– Determining consumer preferences
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 26
Environmental Psychology
• Study effects of– Environment on behavior and mental processes– Human behavior on environment
• Office and workplace design: office landscape format (cubicles)
• Architectural design of living units: college dorms and corridors (dense housing)
– Layouts affect human interactions and emotions
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 27
Sustainability and Environmental Protection
• Three vital concerns– Overpopulation
• Human concentrations in large cities• Earth’s carrying capacity reaching its limit
– Resource depletion• Overconsumption and waste; scarce water
– Pollution and climate change• Global warming; Greenhouse effect
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 28
Why Environmental Destruction?
We are in denial
We have bad habits
We act like helpless bystanders
We do not believe that we are efficacious
We are guided by short-term self-interest
We refuse to let anyone lead
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 29
Psychology and Law
• Behavior in courts– Psychologists apply methods in courtroom– Administering justice involves people, behavior– Characteristics of defendants, plaintiffs
• Physically attractive defendants less likely to be convicted than unattractive ones
• White jury members more likely to convict African Americans than white
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 30
Psychology and Law
– Characteristics of defendants, plaintiffs
• Defendants with facial features typical of African Americans get longer sentences
– Monetary awards in civil courts – younger plaintiffs and male plaintiffs get larger awards than female or elderly plaintiffs (less emphasis on needs of plaintiff)
– Juries gave larger settlement awards when defendant was corporation than if individual
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 31
Psychology and Law
• Characteristics of jury members– More conviction prone, harsher/punitive
• White, older, better educated, higher in social status, more conservative, strong belief that authority and law be respected
– Women convict more; more punitive sentences– Men more likely believe female victim
encouraged rape– Overall, they tend to be kinder to their own
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
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Slide 32
Capital Punishment
• Link between attitude toward death penalty and likelihood of conviction
– Cannot bar person from serving on jury due to beliefs against death penalty unless bias would result in ignoring evidence presented
– Research: pro-death penalty more likely from high status, conservative, authoritarian males
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 33
Psychological Factors
• Presenting evidence– Criminal trials: adversarial proceedings
• Order of presentation by attorney has effect (attorney presenting second had advantage)
• In lengthy, complex information – last items remembered best
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
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Slide 34
Psychological Factors
• Interrogating criminals– Good cop-bad cop game; false confessions
• People with poor intellect and emotional resources maybe tricked in false confession
• Juries more likely believe taped confession if interrogators not present on tape
• Consultants err in interpreting nervous fidgeting and failed eye contact as lying
• Liars blink less often, have longer speech pauses than those telling the truth
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 35
Psychology and Education
• Educational psychology– Test children (especially for special needs)– Improve educational needs– Advise/consult with teachers
• Mastery learning (for slow learners) and intelligent tutoring systems (computer use)
• Direct instruction (guided learning, small amounts of information presented)
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 36
Psychology and Education
• Motivating the classroom – Emphasizing intrinsic importance
• Criterion-referenced testing– Not for comparing students– Determine if minimal level of knowledge met
• Mainstreaming those with special needs– Right defined in Public Law 94-142 and its
successor, IDEA (least restrictive environment)
Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 37
The End
17Psychology Applied to Business and Other Professions
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