Organizational Psychology

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Delving into the Realm of Organizational Psychology: Understanding Human Behavior in the Workplace

Psychology, the intricate study of the human mind and its influence on behavior, has evolved into a vast and diverse discipline, encompassing various branches that explore different aspects of human thought, emotion, and interaction. Among these branches, organizational psychology stands out as a specialized field dedicated to unraveling the complexities of human behavior within the context of organizations.

Organizational psychology, also known as industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, is a multifaceted discipline that bridges the gap between psychological principles and the practical realities of the workplace. It seeks to understand how individuals, groups, and organizations interact, with the aim of enhancing employee well-being, productivity, and overall organizational effectiveness.

To fully grasp the essence of organizational psychology, it's crucial to delve into the foundational concepts of the human mind. Sigmund Freud, a pioneer in the field of psychoanalysis, proposed a structural model of the mind, dividing it into three distinct levels:

• The Unconscious Mind: This hidden realm of the mind harbors thoughts, feelings, and memories that remain inaccessible to conscious awareness. These elements, often deemed unacceptable or unpleasant, are buried deep within the unconscious, exerting a subtle yet profound influence on our behaviors and motivations.

• The Preconscious Mind: This transitional zone lies between the unconscious and conscious minds, housing elements that can be brought into conscious awareness with minimal effort. These thoughts and memories are readily available, but they may not be actively occupying our attention at any given moment.

• The Conscious Mind: This stage of the mind represents our current awareness, encompassing the thoughts, memories, feelings, and beliefs that we are actively experiencing. It serves as the interface between our inner world and the external environment, allowing us to interact with the world around us.

Freud's tripartite model of the mind provides a valuable framework for understanding the complex interplay of conscious and unconscious forces that shape our behaviors. Organizational psychologists recognize the significance of these subconscious influences and strive to design interventions that address both the conscious and unconscious aspects of human behavior in the workplace.

Organizational psychology encompasses a wide range of topics, including:

• Selection and Assessment: Developing and implementing effective hiring practices to identify and select the most suitable candidates for specific roles.

• Organizational Design and Development: Structuring organizations in a way that promotes efficiency, collaboration, and innovation.

• Leadership and Motivation: Understanding the dynamics of leadership, motivation, and employee engagement to foster a productive and fulfilling work environment.

• Training and Development: Designing and delivering training programs that enhance employee skills, knowledge, and performance.

• Organizational Change Management: Effectively managing organizational change processes to minimize disruption and maximize positive outcomes.

• Work-Life Balance and Well-being: Promoting a healthy work-life balance and addressing factors that contribute to employee well-being, such as stress, burnout, and job satisfaction.

Organizational psychology plays a vital role in shaping the modern workplace, contributing to the success of individuals, teams, and organizations as a whole. By understanding the intricacies of human behavior, organizational psychologists can help create work environments that are not only productive but also supportive, fulfilling, and conducive to long-term growth.

Source:https://medium.com/@vsanjeewa.slava.e/the-three-levels-of-human-consciousness-65710bbc679f

Psychology & Industrial / Organizational Psychology

Organizational psychology is the study of human behavior impacts industry & organization.

Organizational psychology may be defined as “simply the application or extension of psychological facts & principles of the problems concerning human beings operating within the context of business & industry” (Blum & Naylor, 1968, p.4)

Organizational psychology may be defined as “the study of the structure of an organization and of the ways in which the people in it interact, usually undertaken in order to improve the organization” (Collins Dictionary).

“Organizational psychology is a branch of psychology that applies the principles of psychology to the workplace.” (Aamodt, 2012)

Understanding employees’ behaviors, thoughts and emotions

We need to understand the employees’ attitudes in order to develop the employee behaviors. The top management of organization should concern about conducting employee attitude surveys. This is useful to organizations can get the details about the level of job satisfaction, employee motivation, identify the leadership style and organizational communication and etc. Also, this can be used to solve the organizational problem areas. Emotions, attitudes and behaviors are interconnected.

Emotions have a huge impact on the job performance of the employees. Positive emotions (joy, delight, lively, pleasant, thrilled, compassion, fascination, surprise, humorous) affect to high level of job performance and negative emotions (shouting, screaming) affect to low level of job satisfaction.

Areas of study in Organizational Psychology

Recruitment, selection & placement

Human Talent Development

Career growth

Motivation

Attitudes & Morale of teams

Individual & team performance

Wages & Salary

Employee Relations

Health & Safety practices

Major Fields of Organizational Psychology

·       Personnel psychology

·       Organizational Development

·       Vocational & Career counselling

·       Ergonomics

·       Organizational Behavior

The basic nature of emotions and moods

Moods tend to be slow to change and long lasting. Emotion is some sense, act as feedback from the environment.

	Emotion	Mood
Duration	Momentary – second to hours	Long lasting – hours to months
Origin	External	Internal
Specificity of behavioral outcomes	Narrow – Behavior follows general pattern for emotions.	Broad – Behavior predispositions are influenced by mood

Source: Yang et al. (2020)

Number of factors affecting the moods and emotions of an employee in an organization. E.g.: An employee in a bad mood may be irritated easily than one who is in a good mood. Also affected work setting. E.g.: when a supervisor scold publicly an employee for a misdeed, he generates the feeling of shame and Feelings of shame may motive further retaliation behaviors toward the supervisor. Perception of justice is also leads to emotions and moods.

Managing Workplace Emotions & Stress

Stress is the pressures we undergo in life. Dunham (1984) defines stress as a psychological state of the individual which is influenced by stressors and which is indicated by several chemical levels which can be directly measured; and stressor as an environmental factor which influences an individual’s stress level. There are two types of stress.

·       Eustress

   Positive and it is the positive aspect of stress.

·       Distress.

Distress is negative and it is the negative aspect of stress & may cause due to organizational politics, tight deadlines, and leadership misbehavior etc.

The relationship between Performance & Stress

Source:https://www.irunfar.com/stress-and-running/relationship-between-performance-and-stress

Negative Consequences of Stress

1.     High absenteeism

2.     Low retention

3.     Low level of employee job performance

4.     Increase the number of grievances

Personal stressors	·       Death of a family member ·       Change in the residential place ·       Conflict with a family member (may be with a child) ·       Financial problems
Job stressors	·       Inadequate pay ·       Too much of work ·       Sudden change in work responsibilities ·       Role ambiguity
Organizational stressors	·       Poor communication ·       Organizational policies ·       Poor supervision
Environmental stressors	·       Technological change ·       Economic uncertainties ·       Political uncertainties

Source: Opatha, H.H.D.N.P. (2010). Personal Quality. University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Organizational Strategies for Stress Management

Proper communication

Proper job design

Realistic goal setting: establish specific and attainable targets for employees with

Them participation.

Proper health and safety management: take all the possible measures in-order to

protect the employee from accidents and distress and make employees informed

fully about the measures taken.

Training and development

Source: Opatha, H.H.D.N.P. (2010). Personal Quality. University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Emotional Intelligence

Goleman (1995) popularized the concept of emotional intelligence. He defined emotional intelligence as: ‘The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and that of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves as well as others’. Armstrong & Taylor, (2017) introduced four components of emotional intelligence. There are,

Self-Management

Self-awareness

Social awareness

Social Skill

Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer define emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize and understand emotions in oneself and others. This ability also involves using emotional understanding to make decisions, solve problems, and communicate with others. According to Salovey and Mayer, there are four different levels of emotional intelligence:

Perceiving emotions

Reasoning with emotions

Understanding emotions

Managing emotions

researchers exploring emotion psychology have become increasingly interested in cognition and effect of Emotions. Research shows that employees with higher EQ usually are better at interpersonal functioning, leadership abilities and stress management.

References

Aamodt, M. (2012). Industrial/organizational psychology: An applied approach. Nelson Education.

Anderson, N., Ones, D. S., Sinangil, H. K., & Viswesvaran, C. (Eds.). (2001). Handbook of industrial, work & organizational psychology: Volume 1: Personnel psychology. Sage.

Dunham, R.B. (1984). Organizational Behavior, Illionois: IRWIN, United States of America.

Opatha, H.H.D.N.P. (2010). Personal Quality. University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Opatha, H.H.D.N.P. (2015). Organizational Behavior, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.