How is Criterion important in
Industrial Psychology?
Answer:
Definition: Criterion is
defined as ‘a measurement of the goodness of a work’. That is, criterion is an evaluative standard,
which can be used to measure a person’s performance, attitudes, motives,
etc. Criterion is also defined as ‘that
which is to be predicted’ (Guion, 1965).
Industrial Psychology can be
effective as a science only and only if it has a criterion. That is, the magnitude of the contribution of
industrial psychology is completely determined by the adequacy of the criterion
measures involved. Despite the fact that
much work on the problem of criterion has been done in the measurement of human
performance and job effectiveness, the problems and needs still exist in
developing criteria in areas such as advertising, effectiveness, consumer
behaviour, leadership, job satisfaction etc.
Discuss any three requirements
that are fundamental to Criterion.
Answer:
1.
Time: That is, when can one obtain his criterion
data? At what moment in time is our criterion data not ripe?
2.
Type: that is, which measure(s) should we select out
of all the available performance measures? How reliable are our conclusions
likely to be, as a result of the criterion so selected.
3.
Level: Given that ‘time’
and ‘type’ have been considered, what performance level is likely7 going to be
accepted? What quantity of units can a worker produce before he is judged a
good worker?
List any five characteristics
of Criteria.
Answer:
- Reliable
- Realistic
- Representative
- Related to other criteria
- Acceptable to job analyst
- Predictable
- measurable
- Relevant
Identify any five methods of
Job Analysis and assess their relevance for application in Nigeria industries.
Answer:
1.
Questionnaire Method-this method is
usually used to obtain information about occupations via a mail survey. The job incumbent is asked to provide data
about himself and his job in his own word.
2.
Check List Method – The technique
requires the worker to check the task he performs from a long list of possible
task statements.
3.
Individual
Interview Method – Here ‘representative’ job incumbents are selected for
extensive interviewing usually outside or the actual job situation. The
interview is usually structured, and the results of a number of interviews are
combined into a single job analysis.
4.
Observation
Interview Method
– The observation interview actually takes place right on the job. The interviewer collects data from the
incumbent, using normal interview methods, as the incumbent performs his
work. The interviewer observes and
questions the worker in an attempt to get complete job description data.
5.
Group Interview
Method
– The group interview is similar to the individual interview except that a
number of job incumbents are interview simultaneously. Under the guidance of the interviewer, the
interviewees recall and discuss their work activities.
How can the following
environmental factors affect employee performance at work?
i. Music ii. Noise, iii. Illumination and iv. Colour
Answer:
Music – is the
introduction of music during the working hours.
Although plant broadcasting is little more than thirty five years old,
most of the sound and fury has been relatively recent. Possibly, one of the
reasons for the popularity of music is the variety of ways in which it can be
provided. On an extremely informal basis, music can be brought into a plant by
merely plugging in a radio and allowing it to blare form the beginning to the
end of the work day. However, the much
environment can sometimes be counterproductive as some workers could be carried
away with some music stars and as a result slow the space of their work.
Noise- is generally
regarded as a distractor and therefore as interfering with efficiency.
Illumination – daylight provides
the best illumination for work.
Artificial lighting which closely approximates daylight in colour and composition is next best. Artificial
light should be as free from colour as possible, light that is unbalanced
toward any colour is a detriment and not a help. Of the colured lights when equalized for
brightness and saturation, yellow causes the least discomfort. The most
important different between daylight and artificial light is diffuseness. Excessive intensity and poor diffuse can result
in considerably eye damage. One of the most common causes of visual discomfort
and fatigue is brightness in the field of vision.
Colour – An article, which
appeared in popular science monthly in 1947 dealt vividly with the use of
colour in industry. With reckless abandon it clamed that less fatigue increased
production and greater safety result from the ‘scientific use of colour in the
factory.’
Overview
Guion (1965) defines I-O
psychology as ‘the scientific study of the relationship between man and the
world of work in the process of making a living’. Blum and Naylor (1968) define it as simply
the application or extension of psychological facts and principles to the
problems concerning human beings operating within the context of business and industry.
History
The industrial side of I-O
psychology has its historical origins in research on individual differences,
assessment, and the predication of performance.
This branch of the field crystallized during Wrold War I, in response to
the need to rapidly assign new troops to duty stations. After the War the growing industrial base in
the US added impetus to I-O psychology.
Walter Dill Scott, who was elected President of the American
Psychological Association (APA) in 1919, was arguably the most prominent I-O
psychologist of his time, although James McKeen Cattell (elected APA President
in 1895) and Hugo Munsterber (1898) were influential in the early development
of the field. Organizational psychology gained prominence after World War II,
inclunced by the Hawthorne studies and the work of researchers such as Kurt
Lewin and Muzafer Sherif.
Explain the Following:
a)
Job
Evaluation
Answer:
Job
evaluation is a process of determining the relative worth of a job. It is a
process which is helpful even for framing compensation plans by the personnel
manager. Job evaluation as a process is advantageous to a company in many ways:
1.
Reduction
in inequalities in salary structure - It is found that
people and their motivation is dependent upon how well they are being paid.
Therefore the main objective of job evaluation is to have external and internal
consistency in salary structure so that inequalities in salaries are reduced.
2.
Specialization
- Because of division
of labour and thereby specialization, a large number of enterprises have got
hundred jobs and many employees to perform them. Therefore, an attempt should
be made to define a job and thereby fix salaries for it. This is possible only
through job evaluation.
3.
Helps
in selection of employees - The job evaluation
information can be helpful at the time of selection of candidates. The factors
that are determined for job evaluation can be taken into account while
selecting the employees.
4.
Harmonious
relationship between employees and manager - Through job evaluation,
harmonious and congenial relations can be maintained between employees and
management, so that all kinds of salaries controversies can be minimized.
5.
Standardization
- The process of
determining the salary differentials for different jobs become standardized
through job evaluation. This helps in bringing uniformity into salary
structure.
6.
Relevance
of new jobs - Through job
evaluation, one can understand the relative value of new jobs in a concern.
b)
Job
Analysis
Answer:
Job
analysis is
the formal process of identifying the content of a job in terms activities
involved and attributes needed to perform the work. Job analysis was
conceptualized by two of the founders of Industrial/Organizational
Psychology, Frederick
Taylor and Lillian Moller
Gilbreth in the early 20th
century.
One of the main
purposes of conducting job analysis is to prepare job description and job
specification which in turn helps to hire the right quality of workforce into
the organization. The general purpose of job analysis is to document the
requirements of a job and the work performed. Job and task analysis is
performed as a basis for later improvements, including: definition of a job
domain; describing a job; developing performance appraisals, selection systems,
promotion criteria, training needs assessment, and compensation plans.
In the fields of Human
Resources (HR) and Industrial Psychology, job analysis is often
used to gather information for use in personnel selection, training,
classification, and/or compensation.
2.
Freely discuss the
term Motivation to the best of your understanding using any two theories of
your choice.
Answer:
Motivation is the force that initiates, guides
and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It is what causes us to take action,
whether to grab a snack to reduce hunger or enroll in college to earn a degree.
The forces that lie beneath motivation can be biological, social, emotional or
cognitive in nature.
Researchers have
developed a number of different theories to explain motivation. Each individual
theory tends to be rather limited in scope. However, by looking at the key
ideas behind each theory, you can gain a better understanding of motivation as
a whole.
Instinct Theory of Motivation
According to
instinct theories, people are motivated to behave in certain ways because they
are evolutionarily programmed to do so. An example of this in the animal world
is seasonal migration. These animals do not learn to do this, it is instead an
inborn pattern of behavior.
William
James created a list of human
instincts that included such things as attachment, play, shame, anger, fear,
shyness, modesty and love. The main problem with this theory is that it did not
really explain behavior, it just described it. By the 1920s, instinct theories
were pushed aside in favor of other motivational theories, but contemporary
evolutionary psychologists still study the influence of genetics and heredity
on human behavior.
Herzberg's two-factor theory
Frederick Herzberg's two-factor
theory, a.k.a. intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, concludes that certain
factors in the workplace result in job
satisfaction, but if absent, they don't lead to dissatisfaction but no
satisfaction.The factors that motivate people can change over their lifetime,
but "respect for me as a person" is one of the top motivating factors
at any stage of life.
He distinguished
between:
§ Motivators; (e.g. challenging
work, recognition, responsibility) which give positive satisfaction, and
§ Hygiene
factors;
(e.g. status, job
security, salary and fringe benefits) that do not
motivate if present, but, if absent, result in demotivation.
The name Hygiene
factors is used because, like hygiene, the presence will not make you
healthier, but absence can cause health deterioration.
The theory is
sometimes called the "Motivator-Hygiene Theory" and/or "The Dual
Structure Theory."
Herzberg's theory
has found application in such occupational fields as information systems and in
studies of user satisfaction (see Computer user satisfaction).
Alderfer's ERG theory
Alderfer, expanding
on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, created the ERG
theory. This theory posits that there are three groups of core needs —
existence, relatedness, and growth, hence the label: ERG theory. The existence
group is concerned with providing our basic material existence requirements.
They include the items that Maslow considered to be physiological and safety
needs. The second group of needs are those of relatedness- the desire we have
for maintaining important interpersonal relationships. These social and status
desires require interaction with others if they are to be satisfied, and they
align with Maslow's social need and the external component of Maslow's esteem
classification. Finally, Alderfer isolates growth needs' an intrinsic desire
for personal development. These include the intrinsic component from Maslow's
esteem category and the characteristics included under self-actualization.
Self-determination theory
Self-determination theory, developed by Edward
Deci and Richard Ryan,
focuses on the importance of intrinsic
motivation in driving human
behavior. Like Maslow's hierarchical theory and others that built on it, SDT
posits a natural tendency toward growth and development. Unlike these other
theories, however, SDT does not include any sort of "autopilot" for
achievement, but instead requires active encouragement from the environment.
The primary factors that encourage motivation and development are autonomy, competence
feedback, and relatedness.
Need theories
Need hierarchy theory
The content theory
includes the hierarchy of needs from Abraham
Maslow and the two- factor
theory from Herzberg. Maslow's theory is one of the most
widely discussed theories of motivation.
The American
motivation psychologist Abraham H. Maslow developed the Hierarchy of needs
consistent of five hierarchic classes. It shows the complexity of human
requirements. According to him, people are motivated by unsatisfied needs. The
lower level needs such as Physiological and Safety needs will have to be
satisfied before higher level needs are to be addressed. We can relate Maslow's
Hierarchy of Needs theory with employee motivation. For example, if a manager
is trying to motivate his employees by satisfying their needs; according to
Maslow, he should try to satisfy the lower level needs before he tries to
satisfy the upper level needs or the employees will not be motivated. Also he
has to remember that not everyone will be satisfied by the same needs. A good
manager will try to figure out which levels of needs are active for a certain
individual or employee. The basic requirements build the first step in his
pyramid. If there is any deficit on this level, the whole behavior of a human
will be oriented to satisfy this deficit. Subsequently we do have the second
level, which awake a need for security. Basically it is oriented on a future
need for security. After securing those two levels, the motives shift in the
social sphere, which form the third stage. Psychological requirements consist
in the fourth level, while the top of the hierarchy comprise the self-
realization So theory can be summarized as follows:
§ Human beings have
wants and desires which influence their behavior. Only unsatisfied needs
influence behavior, satisfied needs do not.
§ Since needs are
many, they are arranged in order of importance, from the basic to the complex.
§ The person advances
to the next level of needs only after the lower level need is at least
minimally satisfied.
§ The further the
progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality, humanness and psychological
health a person will show.
The needs, listed
from basic (lowest-earliest) to most complex (highest-latest) are as follows:
§ Physiology (hunger, thirst, sleep, etc.)
§ Self-esteem/Recognition/Achievement
3.
Explain the term
“Criterion” and critically examine any five (5) characteristics that are
desirable in any good criterion
In psychometrics, criterion validity is a measure of how well one variable or
set of variables predicts an outcome based on information from other variables,
and will be achieved if a set of measures from a personality
test relate to a behavioral
criterion on which psychologists agree.[1] A typical way to achieve this is in
relation to the extent to which a score on a personality test can predict
future performance or behavior.
Another way involves correlating test scores with another established test that
also measures the same personality
characteristic.[1]
Criterion or concrete
validity is the extent to which the measures are demonstrably related to
concrete criteria in the "real" world. This type of validity is often
divided into "concurrent" and "predictive" subtypes. The
term "concurrent validity" is reserved for
demonstrations relating a measure to other concrete criteria assessed
simultaneously. "Predictive validity" refers to the degree
to which any measure can predict future or independent past events. These
variables are often represented as “intermediate” and “ultimate” criteria. For
example, let us say we are conducting a study on success in college. If we find
out there is a high correlation between student grades in high-school
math classes and their success in college (which can be measured by many
possible variables), we would say there is high criterion-related validity between
the intermediate variable (grades in high-school math classes) and the ultimate
variable (success in college). Essentially, the grades students received in
high-school math can be used to predict their success in college.
The Five
Characteristics that are desirable in any good criterion are:
In contemporary psychology,
the "Big Five"
factors (or Five Factor Model; FFM) of personality are five
broad domains or dimensions of personality that are used to describe human
personality.
The Big Five
framework of personality traits from Costa & McCrae, 1992 has emerged as a
robust model for understanding the relationship between personality and various
academic behaviors.[1] The Big Five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness,
and neuroticism(common
acronyms are OCEAN, NEOAC, or CANOE). Conscientiousness is exemplified by being
disciplined, organized, and achievement-oriented. Neuroticism refers to degree
of emotional stability, impulse control, and anxiety. Extraversion is displayed
through a higher degree of sociability, assertiveness, and talkativeness.
Openness is reflected in a strong intellectual curiosity and a preference for
novelty and variety. Finally, agreeableness refers to being helpful,
cooperative, and sympathetic towards others. The neuroticism factor is
sometimes referred by its low pole – "emotional stability". Some
disagreement remains about how to interpret the openness factor, which is
sometimes called "intellect" rather than openness to experience.
Beneath each factor, a cluster of correlated specific traits are found; for
example, extraversion includes such related qualities as gregariousness,
assertiveness, excitement seeking, warmth, activity and positive emotions.[2]
4.
Is learning
important in Industrial Psychology? Discuss
Answer:
Industrial psychology is the
study of learning human behavior on the job or in working environment to make
the organization or industry more productive and job satisfied.
Importance of industrial psychology
is concerns in today world, it is very much important because as a manager you
must need to know about, what are the needs of employees? How we make good and
effective employ for organization? And much more question arises when you
working in an industry. when a employ working in any industry the first thing
that he or she need is satisfaction in term of money, respect, facilities and
so on and so forth the industrial psychology help us to select the employees
which are good for your industry. It also tells us the payment schedule about
the employees. There thing environment there way of living are fulfil in working
environment.
Industrial psychology is not
just a study it is the way of treating the people how to act with them talk
with them facilitates them and so on to get this type of knowledge we need
industrial psychology.
As in Pakistan we all know that
the labor is the major issue to tackle with them is very difficult to train
them is the major necessity of today business environment these concepts are
come from the psychological aspects. People of today’s need more facilities
then the past they need more working skill to fight with others.
5.
How can attitude be
measured?
Answer:
attitude can be
measured in several ways. Attitudes are revealed in the behaviour of an
individual. So they can be measured by direct observation of overt behaviour of
the individual this method, needless to point out has all the defects of
observation. In addition to the difficult of experimentally creating a
stimulated situation where on the behaviour can be observed.
Distinguished
techniques like error technique (Hammond, 1848) sentence completion technique
(Karr, 1943), story and argument completion techniques (Murray and Margpm.
1945), pictorial techniques (Smith, 1954) can also be used to assess on
individuals attitudes. The basis for the use of protective techniques to
measure attitude is that attitudes can be inferred by one's unconsciousness
responses certain stimuli like photographs, cartoons, etc. This method's to all
the disadvantages of projective technique like, difficulty in administration
scoring, low inter scores, reliability etc.
The most common
method of obtaining an estimate a Person's attitude is through an attitude
scale. In this technique, the individual is asked to exams this opinion on
several controversial statements about the psychological object under consideration.
The logic behind the use of opinion to measure attitude is that they will do
about it. To the extent people's actions correlated with the expressed opinion.
We can naturally predict the former from the later, any single statement of
opinion and any single action, however, will be extremely unreliable from the
point of view of measurement. Further, though a Pearson's particular actions
cannot be predicted with high degree accuracy, one's position on an attitude
from expressed opinion is also subject to some limitations like faking of the
response by the individual, where he tends to give socially acceptable
responses there by concealing his real attitude. Nevertheless, this could be
overcome in several ways like making the questionnaire anonymous, giving
concealed statements etc. There are various methods of contracting attitudes
scale some of them are:
A.
Criterion and Leaning of Industrial Psychology
Industrial Psychology can be effective
as a science only and only if it has a criterion. That is, the magnitude of the contribution of
industrial psychology is completely determined by the adequacy of the criterion
measures involved. Despite the fact that
much work on the problem of criterion has been done in the measurement of human
performance and job effectiveness, the problems and needs still exist in
developing criteria in areas such as advertising, effectiveness, consumer
behaviour, leadership, job satisfaction. Etc.
Criterion is a measurement of goodness
of work. That is , criterion is an evaluative
standard, which can be used to measure a person’s performance, attitudes,
motives, etc. Criterion is also that
which is to be predicted.
LEANING
Leaning is relatively permanent change
in the repertoire of behaviour occurring as a result of experience. Learning can only be said to occur when a
person shows different behaviour, for instance, when he can prove the knowledge
of new facts or do something he was not able to do before. Changes in behaviour due solely to ageing or
injury person had found ways of adapting himself to his disability, this new
behaviour would then have been learned.
Our knowledge of the psychology of
learning is drawn partly from experiments with animals and humans, and partly
from general observations of the human learning process.
Using the results of animal
experiments and making due allowance for the differences between humans and
animals, a great deal has been learned about the principles of human
learning. In fact learning is generally
viewed as, any relatively long-lasting alteration in performance consequence on
specific experience. There are two
standard paradigms for the study of learning: Classical Conditioning and
Operant Conditioning.
B. WORK ENVIRONMENT
The problem of increasing production
and also making work more pleasant has been approached through the introduction
of changes in the working environment, there is a difference between this
approach and that in which increased efficiency is attained though time and
motion studies. Despite the fact that
such studies most often lead to environmental changes, the said changes are
normally related to the job, such as changing the height of a tool or the size
of a work area. That is, time and motion
studies usually result not only in environmental changes but also in changes in
an integral part of the job or task being performed.
Approaches such as increasing
efficiency through refined selection and techniques do not accommodate
environmental factors, related to job.
Changes related to noise as it affects work as well as changes in
connection with the illumination, ventilation and temperature of the work
environment, have been introduced in varying claims of success.
The introduction of music in the
office or factory was also acknowledged in the content of environmental change
for increased productivity. Increased in
production has also been associated with claims such as, the use of various
colour schemes, primarily a factory walls, benches, machines and in rest rooms.
C. INFLUENCES OF EMPLOYEES BEHAVIOUR
Various influences on the behaviour of
people at work have been concern of most managers. These can be summarised under the following
headings.
a.
Physique, making the individual more
suitable for some jobs than for others
b.
Intelligence, which also affects
suitability for jobs and the capacity for learning
c.
Personality, which includes the
important factors of perception, motivation, and social adjustment.
d.
Physical working conditions, which
should make the immediate job environment suitable to the employee and minimise
fatigue and accidents.
e.
The working group, imposing its own
standards of conduct and output on the individual but offering some advantages
in return
f.
Style of leadership, which to be
effective should take account of the nature of the process and the type of
employee.
g.
Participation, the degree to which
employees can share in decision-making.
h.
Communications, the spread of
knowledge about policies, intentions and attitudes within the company.
Particular reference was made to the
connection between communication and the handling of change.
It has been shown, for example in the
discussion on job satisfaction and leadership, that the type of production
process is an important factor in behaviour at work. It is logical to assume, therefore, that the
action of an employee depends not only on his individual qualities and the
influence of the working group but also on the type of job he is doing and the
type of company he is in. the same
individual in a different job, or in a different company, could behave in quite
a different way.
D.
JOB ANALYSIS AND JOB EVALUATION
Job
analysis is an accurate study of the various
components of a job. It is concerned not
only with the duties and conditions of work but also with the individual
qualification of the worker. Whereas,
the industrial engineer is concerned primarily with the job aspects, the
industrial psychologist tends to emphasize the man aspects of the job. This because; jobs are performed under
different environments, temperature, postures and hazards etc.
Though different meanings are assigned
to terms jobs, job specifications and job evaluation for the purpose of
industrial psychologists, these terms may be regarded as being relatively
similar.
Job
Evaluation
The industry is often concerned with
making job evaluation rather than job analysis.
The essential difference between these
tow is that job evaluation has its function the establishment of equitable wage
and salary rates. Job evaluations may be
obtained by ranking one job as a whole against another job or by classifying
jobs according to previously determined standards. These methods attempt to evaluate the whole
job. The most common approach, however,
is to evaluate job against job by breaking each into its elements. A rating system is usually used, such as the
one devised by Kress (1939). In this
system there are four major items and each item has subdivisions. Job evaluation is achieved by assigning one
of five ranks to each of these items. Each job is rated for:
1.
Skill
a. Education
b. Experience
c. Initiative and ingenuity
2.
Effort
a. Psychological demand
b. Mental or physical demand
3.
Responsibility
a. For equipment or process
b. For material or product
c. For safety or others
d. For work of others
4.
Job Conditions
a. Working conditions
b. Unavoidable hazards
E.
ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT
Human being have attitudes that give
rise to tendencies of responding either positively or negatively to another
person, or group of people or an object, or a situation involving people, an
idea or an object. In most cases the
passion of an attitude predisposes one to react in a specific direction. Thus, knowledge of one’s attitudes sometimes
pave way for the prediction of his behaviour both in industry and in various
aspects of life.
Attitudes are learned or acquired by
an individual. In some cases, the
learning process is so subtle that the individual does not recognise the
attitude he acquired or honesty know he acquired it.
Attitudes may be rational or
irrational and the possession of one’s intelligence is in itself not a
guarantee of a bigger number of rational attitudes. The individual who posses a particular
attitude often resolve to rationalise (self-justify) his reasons for the said
attitude by selecting only the illustrations that will back it up.
The acquired determining tendency is
one’s thinking or behaviour may be the result of fact or opinion, but for the
individual who holds the attitude in question, this has no significance importance. Attitude based on opinion may be more
intense, as compared to the attitude that is based on facts.
F.
Motivation
Motivation is a positive drive that
forces a person to reach the goal. In a
workplace the manager or supervisor has to know the needs or drive of
individual and motivate according to it.
In an organization, when an employee
is doing good job or production is increased by him, he must be rewarded with
respect to his needs.
Motivation is usually a complex
process. An individual’s needs and
determined in part by certain physiological imbalances within him, in part by
his previous experiences, and in part by the interaction of these two. Industry
has tended to over simplify the worker’s motives by attaching too much
importance to financial incentives.
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