I/O Psychology 9.9.10

This week, we were introduced to:

• the importance of I/O psychology
• how the course can help us
• foundations of organizations
• social dynamics of organizations
• research in I/O psychology from 1963-2007
• I/O vs. OBM
• Gig- Kinko's co-worker, Ford auto worker

I/O psychology- the application of psychological principles, theory, and research to the work setting (Landy & Conte)

• factors that influence work behavior
• family responsibilities
• cultural influences
• employment-related legislation
• non-work events
• personality
• the effect of work on non-work behaviors

Reaction

Wow! What a vast and increasing field. There is so much that goes into understand the work setting. All of this is so applicable to every worker in the world. I find it really interesting to break down all of the aspects that affect how we are when we work.I'm eager to delve deeper into the topic matter, especially human factors engineering.

I felt the in-class activities motivated me to prepare for class. However, I sit next to two people who rarely or fully prepare for class and they look at me and a girl next to me (who also prepared) to catch them up. I wish there were some way to force people to be prepared for class. To me, I thought the in-class activities were enough but apparently people can bluff their way through it. It's unfair to those who do prepare. The issue is I don't know how to more strongly enforce preparation.

Analysis

It is possible to apply the Hawthore Effect to what I experienced this past summer. I truly felt more motivated to perform better at the tasks I did when my manager was there and showed me he actually paid attention to what I was doing for the department.The rest of the time, it seemed he was not interested in what his employees were doing.

Hawthore Effect- change in behavior that results from researchers paying attention to the workers; ushered in HR movement; based on Hawthorne studies performed at the Hawthorne, Illinois Western Electric plant.

I worked in a bakery this summer. It could be said that we were a large batch/mass production type of organization, as presented by Woodward.Since we were making a variety of product each day. We did have an assembly line of sorts while in production mode during the mornings. The bakers would bake the products, roll them out to cool, once things were cool enough to package, we packaged the products, labeled the products, stocked the products on the shelves.

large batch/mass production- produces large numbers of discrete units, often using assembly line operations

I needed to make money over the summer, thus it was a "job" for me. Some of the people I worked with considered it a career. They knew they wanted to work for the company "family" so they slowly worked their way up to managerial positions. I never met anyone in my department who considered working in the bakery their calling. I know some of the managers and the store director were on the "calling" track. They truly felt part of the family.

job- necessary to make money

career- opportunity to advance

calling- fulfills social need 

Reflection
I was not aware of the history of I/O psychology. It was interesting to learn about the progression from the beginning to today. Most of everything we covered was a learning experience. I have come into contact with some small portions via Psychology in Films. (thinking back to Desk Set) The one area I am still confused about is I/O vs. OBM. I think I understand that OBM is a bit more in-depth than the broad scope of I/O. But, I think everyone had a different understand of that article. It might be something worthwhile to touch on again next week.