Social Psychology Final Exam Review Guide Chapters 13 14 Chapter 13 Business Industrial Organizational Psychology is the study of human behavior in business and other organizational settings Hawthorne studies Power plant in the 1920s Hired consultants and researchers to see if the lighting in an industrial setting would have an effect on productivity Split into two groups and increased the amount of light in one productivity increased in both groups Decreased lighting and productivity still increased in both groups This study demonstrated what came to be known as the Hawthorne effect or the finding that workers who were given special attention increased their productivity regardless of what actual changes were made in the work setting Helped psychologists understand the effect of social influence on the workplace measures Personnel Selection Typical Traditional Conventional Job Interview Black and Hispanic applicants receive interview ratings only slightly lower on average than those obtained by their white counterparts Demonstrates subjective evaluations of performance over objective One possible source of bias that is difficult to regulate is physical appearance people tend to favor others who are attractive Although these interviews often result in the right selection of new employees they sometimes lack predictive validity measuring what you set out to measure o Faking Applicants presenting themselves in dishonest but favorable way Ex Exaggerating ingratiation laughing when things aren t funny image protection leaving out weaknesses saying they had a larger role than they did o Interviewers preconceived notions BIASES can have an adverse effect on you form stereotypes before even meeting you in person based on what is written in paper on your resume Ex No experience unqualified not always true political affiliation attractive people are more qualified gender tattoos clothing Alternatives to Traditional Interviews Polygraphs o Lie detector tests that measure physiological arousal o Enhances the ability to identify prospective employees who are honest o Others argue its an invasion of privacy and results are not accurate o Laws have passed that restrict the use of polygraphs in job interviews unless the job revolves around public safety or national security Standardized Tests o Intellectual cognitive abilities effective but highly debated should not be used in isolation of some other kind of measurement ex Qualification exams Intelligence is not fully captured by standardized tests o Personality testing measure leadership productivity helpfulness absenteeism and theft People who are conscientious tend to be more achievement oriented dependable orderly and cautious however tests aren t always predictive o Job specific knowledge skills critical majority of testing should revolve around this type of test ex Teachers o Street smarts common sense ex Police officers counselors o Integrity tests questionnaires designed to test a job applicant s honesty and character Asking direct questions regarding drug use shoplifting petty theft and other behaviors Applicants however can fake these tests with coaching Overt purpose is obvious to the test taker Covert items measure broad personality characteristics that are not clearly related to the workplace MOST are covert hard to fake Integrity scores are proven to be predictive of job performance and counterproductive behaviors Structured Interviews interview where each job applicant is asked a standard set of questions and evaluated on the same criteria o Can be better than conventional interviews such as in recruiting sales agents o Removes bias and more difficult to fake o Company utilizes assessment centers structured setting where job applicants are exhaustively tested and judged by multiple evaluators Multiple applicants and multiple evaluators assessing with a diversity of methods role play group discussion written tests etc Very effective but also very costly and is first to go in budget Personnel Selection is a two way street cuts o Generally people prefer concrete job specific tests and conventional interviews as the most fair and dislike impersonal structured interviews and standardized tests of intelligence personality and honesty o Prefer face to face versus computerized Skype Affirmative Action giving special consideration to women and members of underrepresented minority groups in recruitment hiring admissions and promotion decisions Highly debated social psychology issues Opposition stems from the principle of merit not with racial prejudices Affects those the policy is designed to help those who feel excluded by it the organizations that implement it and the interactions among these three groups More support in policies influencing the hiring and training of new employees less support in policies that affect promotions and layoffs for existing employees Three negative effects o Excludes those who are qualified simply because of their non membership in a group o Less able to attribute success on the job to their own abilities and efforts harboring doubts about competence o Preferential selection is seen as a form of assistance feeling of stigmatization by what they assume to be the negative perceptions of others People don t always feel stigmatized depends on structure and purpose of implementation people need to know they were selected based on merit Culture and Organizational Diversity Researchers now look at the workplace through a broader lens than before Affirmative action programs have increased the number of women and minorities Worldwide trend towards globalization Each individual worker has a multidimensional identity cultural mosaic workplace must represent and accommodate many ethnic and geographical groups Workplace diversity must be empirically studied Diversity can enhance or breed conflict in the workplace If people dislike each other they will not work well together however diversity also allows for a larger pool of resources to draw from in group out group effect Debate over if it is better to acknowledge group differences in the workplace by celebrating multiculturalism or ignore these differences in an effort to encourage a uniform colorblind environment often times celebrating it is more effective The more multicultural dominant white employees were in their diversity beliefs the more engaged their minority workers felt Performance Appraisals A performance appraisal is the process of evaluating an employee