Applying Organizational Psychology - Essay Example

? Applying Organizational Psychology This paper is based upon understanding the Principles of organizationalpsychology along with analyzing its application in the sectors of recruitment and socialization process. Recruitment in a workplace must be very well administered, as it’s the work force that frames the reputation of any organization. The progress and reputation of an organization are based upon the skills of its employees; hence a positive and healthy relation must be maintained. Managers, supervisors and administrators should be easily assessable for all the employees to manage conflicts. Therefore, it is necessary that such strategies should be framed that aid in the betterment of the organizational effectiveness. Applying Organizational Psychology The main focus of applying the principles of Organizational Psychology to recruitment process is to pay attention to the abilities, needs, career development process and the training of the employees. To discuss the recruitment process, the first priority is to understand the relationship between the employee and the applicant. Industrial and Organizational Psychology or work psychology contributes to an organization’s workplace environment and its performance. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the personnel psychology along with organizational psychology. “Personnel psychology concerns the relationship between the persons and the organization, in particular, the establishment of relationship, its development and its termination. The focus is on employees, i-e those with whom the organization has temporal relationship.” (Drenth & Thierry, 1998, p.1) The focus on employees has increased in the past 25years.As earlier limited exposure was given to this field. With time development and much attention is given to this department to study for organizations effectiveness. In recent years, from an organization point of view the recruitment process has been divided into four main phases: describing the requirement of the job position, publishing the job posting, receiving of applications and finally appointing and making the right decision (Mochol, Oldakowski & Heese, 2004). The recruitment process is also a branch of Human resource Management. It has the same function as recruitment process. Using Semantic Web technologies, a better and improved way of matching of job postings and application’s process is adopted. Other than these job offers from the Web and Online portals would reach more potential applicants. This will benefit both the employers and the applicants. Organizational psychology is the scientific study of organizations. It contributes greatly to the improvement and success of an organization’s workplace environment. Similarly, from the applicant’s point of view there are few things one keeps in mind while applying for any job. There are several things that led the applicant to judge the Organization. Firstly, it’s the need of any particular job for the applicant; secondly, it’s whether his or her skills and qualities are fulfilling the requirement of the position. Lastly, it’s the working environment of the organization; let’s say if someone is ill treated in any interview, consequently, even if he fulfills the requirements of the job, he would not willingly take the job offer (Jex & Britt, 2008, p 64-66). To avoid this situation new strategies for organizational effectiveness are adopted. An organization needs good and competitive workers for its success. Organizational psychology helps to identify individual candidates, create an appealing workplace and maintain a healthy relationship with its employees. This helps in maximizing the organization’s outcome, better recruitment strategies can be adopted. Along with this, organizational psychology encourages the understanding between the employees and the organization. The studies of Staw (1986) guide us that a happy worker is a productive worker. A variety of researches in the past prove that happy and productive workers are an outcome of a positive relationship between satisfaction and productivity. Staw (1986, p No 41) concluded that: “Though psychologists have acknowledged the fact that satisfaction and performance are not tightly linked, this has not stopped them from pursuing the happy/productive workers. In fact, over the last thirty years, an enormous variety of theories have attempted to show that managers can reach the promised land of high satisfaction and productivity.” In simple words, Chao et al (1994) explains that Organizational Socialization is a process which a new employee has to adapt to as an organization’s culture. It concerns with the learning and process by which an individual adjusts to a specific role in an organization. “Organization socialization describes learning on the part of the individual who is adjusting to a new or changed role within the organization.” (Chao et al, 1994, p No 730) It helps the employees in adjustment and in the learning process, of a new organization. At a practical level, it is necessary to learn the specific socialization content areas and specific job outcomes to improve socialization strategies and processes. “Organizational socialization is a process involving social learning of new roles, norms and values, and conflicts. Organizational Socialization unfolds over time as newcomers change to conform to the organization.” (Larson, Lakin, Bruininks & Braddock, 1998, p No 32) The process of Organizational Socialization carries on until the first year of the employee’s career. There are several strategies that are adapted after the orientation process for the employee to adjust in the working environment. Not only, the organization but the newcomer as well has to take initiatives to emphasis on socialization. Peer mentoring and competency-based staff training, are the strategies implied to contribute to organizational socialization. Peer mentoring reduces isolation and increases support among the workers, it is a strategy that links the new employee with the senior support workers. On the other hand, Competency-based staff training is a schedule of different training programs for the new workers. (Larson, Lakin, Bruininks & Braddock, 1998, p No 32-34) Organizational socialization refers to the way in which a new recruit is absorbed into an organization; this process differs according to the situation, experience and individual’s personal abilities. This process helps in bringing together the mechanism of a working place. These strategies might be developed by individuals themselves or the organization. Socialization encourages its members or employees understand each other and are able to interpret and react coherently to events. (Lalonde, 2003) The study conducted by Donaldson and Bligh (2006) has opened up new vistas for Organizational effectiveness. Psychological sciences are needed to improve the quality of work life, human performance and productivity, and organizational effectiveness. It offers enhanced quality of work life. Human welfare at work place is widely appreciated by career building agents as well. Application of positive psychological sciences has been considered in the past few years. These studies conclude that development in the positive strength of humans, compliment to the quality of work life and organizational effectiveness. Applied psychology in organization enhances the human potential, maximizes the productivity, development of organizational leaders, and creates a healthy work environment. Conclusion The application of organizational psychology is very commonly known now as the department of Human Resource Management. With the addition of this sector in almost every organization the understanding between the employees has become simple. The recruitment process and organizational psychology can be managed adequately when different strategies are adopted for a positive environment in an organization. Application of Psychological principles should encourage a healthy working environment rather than discouraging its employees to discuss over an issue. Positive psychological science helps to discover the fruitful aspects of a worker, resulting in maximized productivity of a firm. References Chao, G., Kelly, A., Wolf, S., Klien, H., & Gardner, P. (1994). Organizational socialization: its contents and consequences. 79(5), Retrieved from http://www.fisher.osu.edu/~klein_12/Chao et al JAP 1994.pdf Donaldson, S., & Bligh, M. (2006) Rewarding careers applying positive psychological science to improve quality of work life and organizational effectiveness. pp. 277-295. Retrieved from http://www.cgu.edu/include/Org_Careers.pdf Drenth, P, & Thierry, H. (1998) A handbook of work and organizational psychology: Personnel psychology (ed 2, Vol. 3, pp. 1-2) Psychology Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.pk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=usVyDGQv3sIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=applying organizational psychology&ots=naJwB0YlLt&sig=QoNg3wMcUYOJJlsTDZDWBSnguuU&redir_esc=y Jex, S., & Britt, T (2008) Organizational psychology: A scientist-practitioner approach, (ed 2, pp. 64-66) John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=ahcpsTJkBY8C&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=recruitment &source=bl&ots=STFGhflFr1&sig=KeEPhZGkMIS5YkwB7vpMgRGLH9I&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jObrUOz3A_Kb1AW6rICwCQ&sqi=2&redir_esc=y Lalonde, C. (2003). Organizational socialization and crisis context . 1-4. Retrieved from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/olkc/archive/olkc3/papers/contribution313.pdf Larson, S, Lakin, C, Bruininks, R, & Braddock, D (1998) Staff recruitment and retention: Study results and intervention strategies, AAMR. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=yR3pKS7JJDoC&pg=PA27&dq=how is organizational psychology used in the recruitment process&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CQ3sUP7xGqeW0QWi5IGIAg&redir_esc=y Mochol, M, Oldakowski, R., & Heese, H. (2004), Ontology based recruitment process. Retrieved from http://www.dbis.informatik.hu-berlin.de/fileadmin/research/papers/conferences/2004-semtech-mochol.pdf Staw, B, (1986), Organizational psychology and the pursuit of happy/productive worker, 28(4) Retrieved from http://www.ekof.bg.ac.rs/nastava/org_ponasanje_master/2010/DOPUNSKA LITERATURA/ZADOVOLJSTVO POSLOM.pdf Read More