Workplace psychology

Workplace psychology entails applying psychological principles to the workplace in order to address problems and make improvements. Work psychology focuses on themes such as management, leadership, and workplace productivity. This study will investigate industrial and organizational psychology.

The analysis is based on the work of professor Richigan, an education scholar and lecturer. His extensive experience at Birmingham University provides a good foundation for this article. For the past five years, he has served as a senior lecturer and the director of the mathematics department in the faculty of science. I met him when our college from New York organized a benchmark about the various application of statistics in the real world. He has a growing reputation and track record in international statistical research and has been attracting recognition from international research institutes.

Job analysis

Activity

Frequency

Consequences

Importance

Delivery of new modules for programs on mathematics

Almost always

Moderate consequences

Important

Application and oversee research contracts

sometimes

Some serious consequences

Important

Supervision of students and staff carrying out research

sometimes

Some serious consequences

Important

Carrying out administration responsibilities in the department

Almost always

Some serious consequences

Important

Lecturing undergraduate and post-graduate students

Always

A lot of serious consequences

Extremely important

Individual writing, contribution to publications and presenting them in panels

always

Almost no consequence

Extremely important

Setting, administration, and marking of CATs and end semester exams

Always

A lot of serious consequences

Extremely important

Collaborating with fellow staff on identification and response to student needs and top University management

Sometimes

Almost no consequences

Almost no importance

Follow up of students issues on matters to do with their marks whenever issues arise

Almost always

Some serious consequences

important

Writing reports on lecture conditions and student progress every semester.

Always

A lot of serious consequences

Extremely important

KSAOs for the task

There are various KSAOs required in the performance of a lecturer in his/her daily tasks. Some of them may include excellent communication skills, knowledge on language, leadership skills, ability to engage someone actively, effective discipline, education on the content, well conversance with technology, ability to develop a rapport with others, problem-solving capabilities, being organized, planner, listener, etc. The above tasks require strong practice and possession of these KASOs for their accomplishments. Setting, administration, and marking of examinations involves knowledge in English, skillful understanding of mathematical concepts and be able to do the exams himself. The lecturer met all these requirements and there was clear evidence that his units were successfully taught and examined in time.

KSAO is required in lecturing students include excellent communication skills, ability to engage them actively and positively, knowledge on the standards and curriculum of the subject and the ability to create adequate and robust rapport with these students. The above will ensure that the goals set at the beginning of the course are met, and students end up adequately taught. The lecturer understood the standards and coverage of the subject he was teaching and possessed all the KSAOs needed for this task except that he was a poor communicator. Application and oversee research requires skilled research capabilities to enable the lecturer to understand whatever the students do. He also has to be able to travel long distances to facilitate the requirements of the work. Team-leadership skills and ability to train others are also required. The above will ensure that the lecturer is involved every step of the research and be available whenever field activities are needed.

Follow up on issues concerning exam marks of students require patience and humility. Good communication skills are also needed to enable them to engage the university exam administrators in fruitful communication for them to help in the task. Moreover, record keeping skills are needed to assist them in the retrieval of the records in case of loss by examination administrators.

Administration responsibilities require a good number of the above KSAOs for successful accomplishment. Head of a department must pose strong leadership skills to ensure that he/she influence other members of the staff in the implementation of various plans within the institution. He has to be an excellent listener to ensure that causes of matters arising are known and dealt with using the right channel. Lecturer as a head of the department has to be well organized to enable him to carry out departmental duties with ease. Knowledge of technology is needed to allow for computerized record keeping backed up with hard copy to enhance convenience and speed in performance. Excellent listening and planning skills are necessary for executing plans such as new curriculum introduction. As a leader of a department, the ability to solve problems is mandatory in ensuring that fractures that are arising within staff members and or among students to be resolved appropriately and long lastingly.

Individual writing, contribution to publications and presentation task require some of the above KSAOs for its proper execution. There is the need for adequate communication skill to enhance delivery of these releases verbally to the concerned audience. Content knowledge is very mandatory in writing of the publications since you can only write what you have information. Technological skills are also necessary for the delivery of presentations. Moreover, proper writing skills in report writing on the lectures and student progress are needed. Well, conversancy with language is also required.

The assessment of whether job applicants have the relevant KSAOs required is to be done using a combination of General Mental Ability with structured interview selection methods. The above will enable selection of the right candidates for the job in question. Moreover, the mixture of the two ways will improve the predictive validity of the selection process. Structured interview method involves asking some predetermined, to the point, task-related questions to the interviewees. The scores on the responses are then to be recorded using a detailed and structured procedure. There is a panel of three to four experts that are to be involved in the grilling process. On the other hand, GMA will include an assessment by subjecting the interviewees to a forty minutes pen and paper test. It will require afterward tracking of the demo graphs, score, and decisions on hiring to ensure that the minority group is not disadvantaged. The two methods will enable thorough assessment whether the candidate to qualified has the necessary KSAOs that will allow him/her perform the duties to the expectation.

Advantages of GMA as a selection procedure:

The tests involved are more straightforward in the determination of IQs of interviewees hence making the selection process quick and time friendly. GMA tests are less costly and easy to administer. The disadvantages of this technique may include limited validity as far as the assessment is concerned. The procedure has discriminative characteristics since other races may miss in the selection and the minority group may be disadvantaged when tracking of interviewees fail to occur after the interview session.

The advantages of structured interview method are also imminent. Some of them may include efficiency due to standardization of the questions, reliability on the results since the interviewers can perform the interview again. Repetition and complete focus on an issue can also be considered hence making extraction of required information fruitful. The disadvantages of this procedure may include: the method consumes a lot of time and involves complex procedures. It limits the interviewer on what answers to give instead of leaving them to brainstorm and give answers that are best to their knowledge. Finally, the person administering the interview need to have relevant skills that will aid in opening up the conversation without which the process will remain bogus.

The above tests are often carried out in the interviewee’s university, and they usually yield excellent results in helping the institution to acquire top and best lecturers within the nation. Despite the challenges that the interviewee became frank to unravel, he concluded that the methods had made them an institution of choice especially when they adopted the combination technique of selecting lecturers. Initially, they depended on structured interviews as their preferred way of selection, but they later realized its demerits and decided to combine it with GMA. The above has made them improve their choice of preferred lecturers that have made them scale to new heights.

The performance dimensions of the above job include (1) Competency-based on communication skills, interpersonal skills, quality conformity, listening skills and leadership skills. (2) Assessment of being in line with the set goals and vision of the institution.(3) Performance and quality of graduate and post-graduates in their fields of employment.(4)Performance of students in exams and finally (5) Success in researches that the lecturer supervises. Selection of Competency as a dimension has been for analysis using graphic-rating form, BARS, and standard mixed scale.

Scale

Findings

Graphic rating scale

Excellence

BARS

Excellent in interpersonal and other skills on competency

Mixed standard scale

Good

Using graphics rating scale, the findings when the dimension of competency was subjected to the five objects Likert scale was excellence. It showed that the lecturer was possessing excellent competency skills and was almost the best in delivery. The result should not be trusted 100%. The reason is that no scale fails to present errors in performance appraisal. BARS showed that the competence of the employee is right and recommendable while standard mixed level also showed the same result as that of BARS. These scales do have errors, but from the above results, we can conclude that competency test for the employee was good and had the capability of trust since the findings from all the three scales showed almost the same results.

Pros of graphic rating scale: the scale is easy to use and quick in producing out results. The cost involved is less and less time is used in performing the appraisal assessment. The cons may include: The scale is prone to errors that may hinder its accuracy, and it only produces results to specific dimensions of performance in question without in-depth assessment to other aspects at the same time.

Advantages of using BARS

They add behavioral scale anchors to traditional ratings, these scales provide more appropriate and detailed evaluation of employee performance. The cones include Errors involved in its assessment and the fact that ambiguity in its functionality may arise due to the complexity involved. The merits of using standard mixed scale may include In-depth analysis and further information provision on the subject matter. The major demerit of this magnitude is the confusion that arises with its multiplicity approach of measurement.

The bias and errors that may arise in the university when they use rating scale may include the overrating of the lecturer’s ability and performance as far as competence is concerned. The lecturer may have over-competent ratings, but in the real sense, he/she is not. BARS may attach the present findings to previous ones. The above may yield poor results as far as competence is concerned. Using mixed scale, errors pertaining the confusion in the conclusions where the result of another discovery may be attached wrongly to the finding in question. The measurement scale in preference as far as competence is a concern is the BARS since it gives in-depth analysis.

Recommendations for enhancing employee well-being.

Based on job satisfaction, the institution’s top management should avail all materials such as marker pens for writing purposes. There should also be a way of appreciating lecturers that do well in their work and award scholarships to the ones that have interest in furthering their studies. The above will enable them to gain more experience and enhance morale in the job. On occupational health and safety, the University needs to provide health insurance policy covers to the lectures to ensure that they obtain cover against any health complication. Floors of lecture rooms and offices need to appropriately furnish with tiles that are non-slippery to avoid dangers of falling. The university already has efficient fire extinguishing system that can be used to put out fire whenever there is one.

In conclusion, workplace psychology is essential, and it aids in ensuring better performance in the institution and realization of institutional goals as far as employee performance is concerned.

Works cited

Arnold, John, and Joanne Silvester. Work psychology: Understanding human behaviour in the workplace. Pearson Education, 2005.

Serdyukova, Nataliya. “What Does Indirect Assessment Tell Us?.” Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching 8.1 (2015).

Richard, Orlando C., et al. “Cultural diversity in management, firm performance, and the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation dimensions.” Academy of management journal

47.2 (2004): 255-266.

Bakker, Arnold B., and Michael P. Leiter, eds. Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research. Psychology press, 2010.