Introduction to IO Psychology

History Industrial/Organizational Psychology ➢ The application of the methods & principles of psychology to the workplace ➢ Industrial: Older branch; management perspective ○ Area of Focus: Recruitment, selection, classification, compensation, performance appraisal, and training ➢ Organizational: Newer brand; employee focused ○ Area of Focus: Socialization, motivation, occupational stress, leadership, group performance and organizational development Work Analysis ➢ What is Work Analysis? ○ Method for describing jobs and/or the human attributes necessary to perform them ○ 3 essential characteristics: ■ Systematic procedure■ Description of the “parts” not just the “whole”■ Results in written or electronic document ➢ Collecting Work Analysis Information ○ Sources of information ■ Job incumbents ● ADV: They’re the ones actually doing the job ● DISADV: bias point of view, mistrust ■ Supervisors ● ADV: Big picture perspective, have previous experience ● DISADV: Self protective, not enough knowledge ■ Work analysts ● ADV: “objective”, not concerned about relationships, trained to think about the job ● DISADV: not in the job ○ Approaches to collecting work analysis information ■ Perform the job■ Observation■ Interviews■ Questions

➢ Primary Approaches to Work Analysis ○ Task Oriented ■ Info about the nature of the tasks/activities/duties/responsibilities performed ● The “what” ● Much like a resume, what exactly does the job entail ○ Worker-Oriented ■ Description of characteristics necessary for a person to successfully perform ■ Broken down in KSAOs ● Knowledge ● Skills - practice ● Abilities - innate ● Other (personality/interest) ➢ Linkage Matrix ○ Links task-oriented information with worker-oriented information ■ Which KSAOs are needed for which tasks?■ How relevant are the KSAOs to each task? ○ Useful for summarizing results of work analysis ➢ Uses of Work Analysis

➢ Competency Modeling ○ Competency: characteristics or quality of people that a company wants its employees to manifest ○ Competency Modeling: Process for determining the human characteristics (i.e., competencies) needed to perform successfully withinthe organization ○ Derived from and connected with: ■ Organizational mission & values Employee Selection: Predictors ➢ Reliability ○ Test-retest: Test given at time 1 should be similar to test given at time 2 ■ SAT scores - don’t generally go from 400 the first time to 1600 to second time ○ Internal-consistency ➢ Validity Work Analysis Job Evaluation Job Description Job Specification Compensation RecruitmentSelectionEfficiency & SafetyJob DesignTraining Career DevelopmentLegal IssuesPerformance AppraisalPlanningTraining

○ Look for accuracy ○ Face Validity: Looks like its measuring what is says its gonna measure Matters Does Not Matter Clarity Simplifies processEfficientReliableApplicant Reactivity Assessing KSAO of interest ○ Content Validity: If it measures what it says its going to measure ■ Statistical backing ○ Criterion-related validity ■ Score on assessment -> Job performance■ Does your job performance match the score you received on the test ➢ Intelligence Tests ○ General mental ability, “g” ■ Reliable■ Strong criterion-related validity ○ The controversy ➢ Personality Inventories ○ Big 5 personality theory ■ O penness to experience ■ C onscientiousness ■ E xtraversion ■ A greeableness ■ N euroticism ➢ Situational Judgement Test (SJT) ○ Type of multiple-choice questions ■ Answers vary in their degree of appropriateness or desirability ○ Reflects practical intelligence ○ SJT development

■ Based on real-work experiences■ Response options rank-ordered by subject matter experts (SMEs) Non-Test Assessments ➢ Interviews ○ Meeting between one or more interviewers who are collecting information or making hiring decisions and an interviewee ■ Unstructured vs. structured ○ Uses: ■ Alternative to an application form or written questionnaire■ As a sample of interpersonal behavior ➢ Types of Interview Questions ○ Past-behavior questions ■ Questions about an applicants’ past behavior ○ Situational questions ■ Future-oriented; provide hypothetical scenarios for the applicant to state what they would do in a given situation ➢ Work Samples ○ Requires demonstration of how well an individual can perform the tasks involved in a job under standardized conditions ■ Examples ● Driving test for license ● Writing samples submitted for graduate school ➢ Assessment Centers ○ Series of assessment exercises, including simulations of work tasks, that are used to assess a person’s potential for a job ■ In-basket exercise ■ Leaderless group exercise ■ Problem-solving exercise ■ Role plays■ Etc. How Predictor Info is Used

➢ Multiple cutoff approach ○ Set a cutoff score for each assessment ○ Must meet cutoff on every assessment to be hired ➢ Multiple Hurdles ○ Applicants must achieve a certain score on each predictor to be hired ➢ Regression ○ Use score from each predictor in an equation to provide numerical estimate of the criterion Putting it All Together ➢ Approaches to Selection Decision ○ Top-down selection ■ Confidence interval -> practicing a range of scores based on statistical estimates of error ■ Assessments aren’t perfect ➢ Score Banding - An Alternative ○ Fixed band ■ Individuals within a certain range of scores, or band, are regarded as having equivalent scores ■ Ex: A range of 97-100 would qualify rather than the top 3 score■ This can also allow us to select someone based on other criteria such as diversity since the scores will now be seen as equal ○ Sliding Band ■ The range of scores, or band is continually redefined relative to the highest remaining score ■ Ex: if someone got a 100 they are automatically selected so now the range or band is from 95-99 and you select an applicant from that range. ➢ Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection ○ A template for doing selection legally ○ Two legal bases for discrimination ■ Disparate treatment ● Treated differently based on identity ■ Adverse Impact

● When members of a protected class are less likely to be hired on bases of some selection procedure ● In other words you hire a larger proportion of non-protected class employees ● If the ratio of protected and non-protected is less than 80% then there is adverse impact which is dangerous ● Ex: .3/.5 = .6 which is less than .8. Meaning you hired a larger proportion of whites than blacks Race #Applied #Hired Prp. Hired Blacks 50 15 .30 Whites 100 50 .50 Training ➢ Needs Assessment ○ Organization ■ What does the organization need as a whole■ Short and long term goals of an org.■ Strategic initiative ○ Person ■ Focus on a specific person ■ What does this person need to better perform their job ■ This is important because it is very expensive to lose employees ○ Job ■ Focus on a specific job ■ Do we have the right skill sets to perform a job ➢ Set Objectives ○ Characteristics of learning objectives ■ Observable ■ Measureable ■ Specific ➢ Designing Training for Learning ○ Feedback

■ What do you need to work on? What are you doing well? ○ General Principles ■ Basic principles of the concept■ Basic tasks of a job ○ Identical Elements ■ High fidelity: very similar to the actual thing■ Ex: Labs are of high fidelity because you’re doing the things you learn about in class. It has identical elements ○ Overlearning ■ Practicing over and over again till you fully understand the concept ○ Sequencing of training ■ Done in parts and then in whole ■ Learning a dance routine in parts, learning specific steps and then learning the whole dance