Organizational Psychology - Essay Example

Organizational Psychology Job-design theory is useful in promoting productivity and motivation in the workplace. Discuss. The strength of an organization or a business depends on how well the top management was able to design the jobs. The right person at the right place of the organization will always improve the efficiency and productivity of both the organization and the individual also. Job design theory is important in motivating the employees in the workplace. There is no point in asking an employee to work in an area where his skill sets are less. Employees will be motivated to their profession only if the allotted tasks are in line with their expertise. Rush (1971) has mentioned that the major objective of job design is to increase the employee motivation and productivity (Encarnación, n. d). Breaking of the jobs with respect to the skills of the employees is the core of job design theory. It is difficult for software professionals to excel in marketing or an accountant to excel in production management. Software professionals need the IT jobs and the accountants need the jobs related to financial matters or accounting in order to demonstrate their abilities. Job enlargement is a part of job design which can be used to increase motivation by giving employees more and varied tasks (Encarnación, n. d). Some employees may have more capabilities and skills which they may not be able to utilize because of the nature or the limited scope of their allotted jobs. Such employees may always like to have more responsibilities in order to achieve higher places in the organization. For example, some employees may be forced to work in clerical positions even if they have higher qualifications and management skills because of the lack employment opportunities in their country. Such employees will be happy to take have a managerial position and both the company and the employee will be benefited by promoting them. In some other cases, employees may get bored by the repetition of same type of work over period of time. By providing varieties in their jobs, the management can improve their efficiency and job design strategies can be utilized for that. Buchanan (1979) has pointed out that the job design is a process of specifying the contents, methods, and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job holder (Bailey, Ph.D., n. d). The job design process should always be in line with the job holder’s social and personal requirements apart from the organizational requirements, in order to motivate the employee in a proper manner. For example, Ladies should never be asked to perform jobs which may require physical hard work because of their lack of strength compared to the male candidates. Moreover, a management degree holder or a master degree holder should never be asked to perform the jobs of a sweeper or a peon. Job design process should study the credentials of the employee and the requirements of the organization before allotting the jobs. In short, job design theory helps the employer to motivate the employees by allotting responsibilities suitable for the employees based on their abilities and the organizational requirements, in order to improve the efficiency and productivity of the employees and the organization. What are the major sources of stress in the workplace and how might they be managed? Stress is one of the common factors in workplace across the world. There may not be any single organization in which no stress factors exists. Job stress, not only reduces the efficiency and productivity of the worker, but it can affect the physical and psychological health of the employee also. The success of the organization and the employee depend on how well this stress factor is managed at the workplace. High Demands, Ethical Dilemmas, Uncertain Employment, Role Ambiguities, Career Pace, Physical Working Environment Toxic relationships etc are some of the major sources of job stresses (Common Sources of Stress, n. d). Man is a social animal who cannot live independently without taking or giving assistance to others. He has certain roles in his family, in the society and in the workplace. It is difficult for him to find out time for fulfilling his commitments to all the above three segments. As the time progresses, the responsibilities of a person also increases. Effective management of these commitments and responsibilities is essential for reducing the personal stress level. It is not possible for an employee to leave his stresses related to family and society and enter the workplace with a calm and free mind. He will always bring his social and family stresses also into the workplace. In order to make the employee more attentive to his profession, organizations need to device strategies to decrease or remove all the stress factors of the employee irrespective of whether it is related to his profession, family or society. The current global financial crisis has resulted in losing of jobs for many people. Many others are still under the threat of losing their jobs. At the same time family expenses are skyrocketing and the life styles are changing. It is not possible for many people to manage their family expenses because of the lower salaries. Salaries incensement is not keeping pace with the life expenses. All these factors are contributing heavily to the job stress. Belmonte (2009) has suggested so many ways for the stress management at workplace. In his opinion, job stress can be reduced by; Taking care of yourself  (Get enough sleep, Make food choices that keep you going and make you feel good etc); Prioritizing and organizing (Create a balanced schedule, Don’t over-commit yourself, Try to leave earlier in the morning, Prioritize tasks, Break projects into small steps etc); Improving emotional intelligence (Self-awareness, Self-management, Social awareness, Relationship management etc); Breaking bad habits (Resist perfectionism, Clean up your act, Flip your negative thinking etc ) (Belmonte, 2009). It is not possible to manage the stress in one or two ways. It requires careful planning and a conscious effort from the person and the entities associated with him like the family, society and workplace for reducing the stress. Yoga and relaxation techniques will help the person up to certain extent in reducing or managing the stress In short, reduction of job stress is equally beneficial both to the employee and the employer. Using examples of your choice discuss how groups may not always produce better decisions than individuals Group work or teamwork is encouraged by the modern organizations in order to improve the productivity and efficiency of the organization and the employees. There is a general belief that the employee errors and weaknesses can be reduced up to certain extent while performing as a group as group activity always proceeds after a discussion within the group. These discussions will help the group members to identify the pros and cons of an action and they can fine tune their activities based on the outcomes or decisions of this discussions. Even though group decisions have certain benefits, it doesn’t mean that it is perfect or free of any weaknesses. It is quite possible that in a team, the team members mostly try to follow the opinions of the team leader. As the team leader is the supreme commandant, the team members might be forced to accept his opinion, even if they have certain concerns about it. Group leader can make or break a group member and hence most of the group members keep silence or will not question the decisions of the team leader. Frisch (2008) has pointed out that reaching collective decisions based on individual preferences is an imperfect science (Frisch, 2008). In group meetings, the opinions of the majority will be accepted as the base for decision making on critical matters. It is quite possible that even within the groups, there may be different polarisations or alliances for executing the self interests and the group decisions may be influenced by the strength of this polarizations or alliances. Thus the opinions of the majority need not be the right one always. If the leader was not capable enough to identify these polarisations or alliances, he will be forced to accept and implement wrong decisions. The article Team reward (2009) has argued that the functioning as part of a team may compel an individual to conform to oppressive group norms (Team reward, 2009). An individual may always have different styles and methods in which he is more comfortable in executing a task. But the demands of the group may prevent him from adopting these methods for the completion of the task. In other worlds a group member may be forced to adopt different strategies in which he may not have much ideas or knowledge. He might be forced to work against his will and opinion while functioning as part of a group which will reduce his interest in work. The freedom of independent work is limited in a group which may result in low output of the worker. Use examples of your choice to explain the usefulness or otherwise of psychology in the workplace. Every aspect of human life is controlled or driven by the psychic activities. It is not possible to even think about a body without a mind. We know that mentally disordered persons always behave irrationally and it is evident that psychological health is an important fact in giving proper directions to the human life irrespective of family life, social life or professional life. The emotional intelligence or mental strengths of different people are different. Some people are very sensitive and some rash words from the manager may destroy their emotional equilibrium. Such people will lose their concentration or attention in the work and their performances might be further decreased. On the other hand, some other people might be crooked and some rash words are necessary for such people to perform well. The manager should identify these psychological differences of the employees and device strategies for each and every employee for deriving the maximum productivity out of them. Rewards and punishments are some of the means used by the managers for motivating the worker. For some people rewards might be a motivating factor whereas for some others punishments might be more suitable for motivation. For example, some workers are referred as workaholic. Such workers need more responsibilities and they hate remaining idle. It is better for the organization to identify such workers and give more responsibilities to them along with rewards. On the other hand, some other workers hate work. They need some external force to act properly. In other words they need some punishments or rash words for initializing their work. In short, the psychology of the workers needs to be identified well by the managers in order to manage them effectively. References 1. Bailey Margaret L., Ph.D., (n. d), Job Design, Retrieved on 22 January 2010 from http://www.cedu.niu.edu/~bailey/ftf564/jobdes.pdf 2. Belmonte Joelle (2009), Stress at Work How to Reduce and Manage Job and Workplace Stress, Retrieved on 22 January 2010 from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/work_stress_management.htm 3. Common Sources of Stress, (n. d), Retrieved on 22 January 2010 from http://www.christian-life-coaching.org/sources-of-stress.html 4. Encarnación Roberto, (n. d), Job Design, Retrieved on 22 January 2010 from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ARossett/pie/Interventions/jobdesign_2.htm 5. Frisch Bob (2008), When Teams Can’t Decide, Harvard Business Review, Retrieved on 22 January 2010 from http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2008/11/when-teams- cant-decide/ar/1 6. Team reward, (2009), CIPD, Retrieved on 22 January 2010 from http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/pay/general/tmreward.htm Read More