TOPIC 1 Work Ecology

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TOPIC 1Work Ecology Human Development

• Introduction
• Concepts and Definition

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• CONCEPTS

Work
Ecology
Psychology
Human Development
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What is Work?

• Service performed by an employee at the request
  and under the control of an employer and, on the
  employer's time.
• Something that one is doing, making or
  performing, especially as an occupation or
  undertaking
• A duty or task begin the days work
• An amount of such activity either done or
  required a weeks work
• Ones place of employment should I call you at
  home or work?
• Physical or mental effort or activity directed
  toward the production or accomplishment of
  something.

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In Human Labour, Work may refer to

• "Work? one's place of employment.
• Work (project management) ? the effort applied
  to produce a deliverable or accomplish a task.
• Labour (economics)? measure of the work done by
  human beings.
• Wage labour ? a worker sells their labour and an
  employer buys it
• Manual labour ? physical work done by people
• Sex work ? employment in the sex industry

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What is Ecology?

• An ecosystem can be defined as any situation
  where there is interaction between organisms and
  their environment
• The study of the interaction between living
  organisms and their environment (physical
  social environment).

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What is Ecology?

• Terms ecology (oekologie) defined first by
  Ernst Haeckel in 1866
• The science of the relationships between
  organisms and their environments.
• Human ecology - The branch of sociology that is
  concerned with studying the relationships between
  human groups and their physical and social
  environments.

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The first principle of ecology is that

• Each living organism has an ongoing and continual
  relationship with every other element that makes
  up its environment
• Ecology is concerned with patterns of
  distribution (where organisms occur) and with
  patterns of abundance (how many organisms occur)
  in space and time.

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What is Psychology?

• Psychology- various definitions
• Simplest definition
• the science of mental health OR mental life
  (Miller, 1996)
• Mental refers to 3 phenomenon
• Behaviors
• Thoughts and
• Emotions

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psychology

• A theoretical, educational and applied science
  connecting the scientific study of mental
  operations and behavior or performance.
• The application or usage of understanding,
  knowledge and skills to a number of areas of
  human activity, involving issues concerning with
  daily activities such as education, events,
  people and their task, employment, association,
  relationship as well as the treatment of mental
  health difficulties.

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FIVE Areas in basic psychology

1. Physiological psychology
2. Cognitive psychology
3. Developmental psychology
4. Social psychology
5. Personality psychology

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PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

• The study of the physiological basis of how we
  think, connecting the physical operation of the
  brain with what we actually say and do.
• It is thus concerned with brain cells, brain
  structures and components, brain chemistry, and
  how all this leads to speech and action.
• It is also, of course, important to understand
  how we take in information from our five senses.

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Cognitive Psychology

• Focuses on our cognitive functioning i.e our
  thought processes.
• How well we remember information under various
  condition and how we weigh up information when
  making decisions.

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Developmental psychology

• Developmental psychology is the scientific study
  of progressive psychological changes that occur
  in human beings as their age (throughout adult
  life)
• eg How and when children become able to
  understand particular concepts and how they learn
  language.
• Studying the Life Span from ? Conception to
  Death
• Integrates all aspects of human development.

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Social psychology

• Concerns how our behaviours, thoughts and
  emotions are affected by other people.
• How groups of people make decisions and the
  extent to which a persons attitudes towards
  particular groups of people influence his or her
  behaviour towards them.

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PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY

• Personality psychology is a branch of psychology
  that studies personality and individual
  differences. Its areas of focus include
• Constructing a coherent picture of the individual
  and his or her major psychological processes
• Investigating individual differenceshow people
  are unique
• Investigating human naturehow people are alike

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What is Work Psychology?

• Work psychology is defined in terms of its
  ecology/context of application, and is not in
  itself one of the sub-discipline of psychology
• It is an area of applied psychology
• Work psychologists use concepts, theories and
  techniques derived from all areas of basic
  psychology.

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What is Work Psychology?

• The study on peoples behavior, thoughts and
  emotions related to their work
• Area of psychology dealing with job analysis,
  defining and measuring job performance,
  performance appraisal, tests, employment
  interviews, employee selection and training, and
  human factors.

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WORK PSYCHOLOGY?

• work psychology is a study that deals with the
  performance of people at work.  It deals with how
  a particular organization functions and how a
  small group of people behave when they work

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Origins of Work Psychology

• Has 2 distinct roots within applied psychology
• Traditional
• Human relations

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Origin Traditional

• A) Fitting man to job (FMJ)
• B) Fitting the job to the man (FJM)
• The FMJ and FJM traditions essentially concern
  the relationship between individuals and their
  work.

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Origin Human Relations

• It is concerned with the complex interplay
  between individuals, groups, organizations and
  work.
• It therefore emphasizes social factors at work
  much more than FMJ and FJM.
• The importance of human relations was highlighted
  in some famous research now known as the
  Hawthorne studies.
• The study was conducted in the 1920s at a large
  factory of the Western Electric Company at
  Hawthorne, near Chicago, USA.

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Work Psychology Today

• Also known under the name of
• Industrial psychology
• Occupational psychology
• Psychology of work and organization
• Work and organizational psychology
• Vocational psychology
• Personnel Psychology/ talent assessment
• In a simpler term ? Work psychology
  encompasses both the individual and
  organizational level of analysis.

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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" (p. 817). 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" (p 4)
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The "industrial" side of I-O psychology has its
historical origins in research on individual
differences, assessment, and the prediction of
performance. This branch of the field
crystallized during World War I, in response to
the need to rapidly assign new troops to duty
stations. After the War the growing industrial
base in the U.S. added impetus to I-O psychology.
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What is Human Development?

• Human development is the process of growing to
  maturity and reaching ones full potential in
  biological terms
• This entails growth from one called zygote to an
  adult human being
• The psychological study of human development is
  called developmental psychology

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Work Ecology and Human Development

• Attempts to apply ecological and psychological
  perspectives to understand the behavior of people
  in their work ecosystem which can shape or aid
  the workers development/well-being and
  organization

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Human Development.

• In psychological terms
• HD is about mental health, self-esteem, success
  in significant relationships, happiness
• In Political-economic terms
• HD is about stability, security and relative
  prosperity
• In Social terms
• HD is about literacy, education, social
  relationships, quality of life etc
• In Moral terms
• HD is about development of conscience, moral
  awareness moral behaviors

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WHAT IS I/O PSYCHOLOGY?

• Psychology is the science of human behavior
• I/O psychology is the science of human behavior
  at work
• Dual focus
• Efficiency/productivity of organizations
• Health/well-being of employees
• Dual nature
• Application of the science of psychology to the
  workplace
• Development/discovery of scientific psychological
  principles at work

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Definition of Industrial and Organizational (I-O)
Psychology

• Blum Naylor (1968)-
• the application or extension of psychological
  facts ad principle to the problems concerning
  human beings operating within the context of
  business and industry

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DEFINITION OF INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL (I-O)
PSYCHOLOGY

• Industrial and Organizational Psychology is a
  branch of Psychology devoted to organizations and
  the workplace.
• Therefore, an I-O Psychologists contribute to an
  organizations success by
• improving the performance and well-being of its
  people.
• researches and identifies how behaviors and
  attitudes can be improved through hiring
  practices, training programs, and feedback
  systems.

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DEFINITION OF INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL (I-O)
PSYCHOLOGY

• Applied I-O Psychology ? concerned with
  utilizing knowledge gathered from scientific
  inquiry to solve real problems in the world of
  work Muchinsky (2006),
• Example problems include hiring better employees,
  reducing absenteeism, improving communication,
  and increasing job satisfaction

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SPECIFIC AREAS OF CONCERN

• Recruiting and selecting employees for jobs
• Training employees
• Assessing performance
• Defining and analyzing jobs
• Determining people feel about work
• Determining why people act as they do at work
• Effects work has on people
• Effects people have on one another
• How organizations are structured and function
• Designing work
• Designing tools and equipment
• Employee Health and Safety

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The Most Popular I/O Research Topics in Eight
Countries
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History of I/O

• Began early 1900s
• World War I first mass testing
• Between wars psychology helping business I side
• Hawthorne studies impact of social aspects O
  side
• World War II Psychology and the war effort
• Civil rights movement Job relevance
• Technological change

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Timeline of Major Events
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What is it?

• Measures the efficiency of workers and the costs
  associated with producing a unit of output.
• Productivity specifically relates output to the
  amount of production time required in producing
  each unit.
• The cost factors of the report are unit labor
  costs and compensation per hour.

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Why is it important?

• Economic indicator.
• Aid economic policymakers in assessment of
  current economic activity and in economic
  analysis.
• Aid Bureau of Economic Analysis in compiling
  compensation measures for National Income and
  Product Accounts.
• Assessment of labor requirements.
• Studies of relationships among productivity,
  wages, prices, and employment.
• Aid in understanding sources of economic growth.

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PRODUCTIVITY

• Productivity Output per hours depends on
• Capital investment
• Technology
• Capacity utilization
• Managerial skills

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THE ORIGINS OF WORK PSYCHOLOGY

• Work psychology has at least two distinct roots.
• One resides in a pair of traditions termed
  'fitting the man sic to the job' (FMJ) and
  'fitting the job to the man sic'(FJM). The FMJ
  tradition manifests itself in employee selection,
  training and vocational guidance.

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FMJ vs FJM

• The FMJ and FJM traditions essentially concern
  the relationship between individuals and their
  work.
• The other root of work psychology can be loosely
  labelled human relations. It is concerned with
  the complex interplay between individuals,
  groups, organizations and work. It therefore
  emphasizes social factors at work much more than
  FMJ and FJM.

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The importance of human relations was highlighted
in some famous research now known as the
Hawthorne studies. These were conducted in the
1920s at a large factory of the Western Electric
Company at Hawthorne, near Chicago, USA.
Originally, they were designed to assess the
effect of level of illumination on productivity.
One group of workers (the experimental group) was
subjected to changes in illumination whilst
another (the control group) was not. The
productivity of both groups increased slowly
during this investigation only when illumination
was at a small fraction of its original level did
the productivity of the experimental group begin
to decline. These strange results suggested
that other factors apart from illumination were
determining productivity.
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Relay Assembly Test Room Study
This work was followed up with what became known
as the Relay Assembly Test Room Study. A small
group of female assembly workers was taken from
their large department, and stationed in a
separate room so that their working conditions
could be controlled effectively. Over a period of
more than a year, changes were made in the length
of the working day and working week, the length
and timing of rest pauses and other aspects of
the work context. Productivity increased after
every change, and the gains were maintained even
after all conditions returned to their original
levels.
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Why did these results occur?
Clearly, factors other than those deliberately
manipulated by the researchers were responsible.
The researchers had allowed the workers certain
privileges at work, and had taken a close
interest in the group. Hence some factor
probably to do with feeling special, or guessing
what the researchers were investigating, seemed
to be influencing the workers' behaviour. The
problem of a person's behaviour being affected by
the knowledge that they are in an experiment has
come to be called the Hawthorne effect. The more
general lessons here are (i) it is difficult to
experiment with people without altering some
conditions other than those intended, and (ii)
people's behaviour is substantially affected by
their interpretation of what is happening around
them (Adair,1984).
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• These conclusions were extended by a study of a
  group of male workers who wired up equipment in
  the Bank Wiring Room. A researcher sat in the
  corner and observed the group's activities. At
  first this generated considerable suspicion, but
  apparently after a time the men more or less
  forgot about the researcher's presence..

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• Once this happened, certain phenomena became
  apparent. First, there were social norms that
  is, shared ideas about how things should be. Most
  importantly, there was a norm about what
  constituted an appropriate level of production.
  This was high enough to keep management off the
  men's backs, but less than they were capable of.
  Workers who consistently exceeded the
  productivity norm or fell short of it were
  subjected to social pressure to conform. Another
  norm concerned supervisors behaviour.
  Supervisors were expected to be friendly and
  informal with the men one who was more formal
  and officious was strongly disapproved of.
  Finally, there were two informal groups in the
  room, with some rivalry between them. The Bank
  Wiring Room showed clearly how social
  relationships between workers were important
  determinants of work behaviour. These
  relationships were often more influential than
  either official company policy or monetary rewards

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Kajian Hawthorne

• Kajian ini merupakan kajian sistematik pertama
  yang mendedahkan pengaruh faktor manusia dalam
  situasi pekerjaan (Berkley Rouse, 1990).
• Kajian ini mendapati bahawa banyak masalah wujud
  dalam hubungan pekerja dan pengurus, bukan
  disebabkan kekurangan pengkhususan tugas atau
  upah yang mencukupi tetapi disebabkan pengaruh
  sosial dan tekanan psikologi. Apabila pencahayaan
  kumpulan ujian ditingkatkan, daya pengeluaran
  didapati bertambah sebagaimana telah dijangkakan,
  sungguhpun pertambahan itu tidak tetap. Namun
  demikian, terdapat juga kecenderungan bagi daya
  pengeluaran untuk terus bertambah sekalipun
  pencahayaannya kemudian dikurangkan.

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• Dalam satu set uji kaji yang baru, sekumpulan
  kecil pekerja telah diletakkan di dlm bilik yg
  berasingan dan beberapa pembolehubah ditukar.
• Upah ditambah, tempoh waktu rehat yang berbeza
  lamanya diperkenalkan, masa bekerja dalam sehari
  dan seminggu lamanya diperkenalkan.
• Para penyelidik yang bertindak sebagai penyelia
  juga membenarkan kumpulan2 itu memilih sendiri
  waktu rehat dan boleh mengeluarkan pendapat
  berhubung dengan apa-apa perubahan lain yang
  dijangkakan.
• Sekali lagi hasilnya didapati meningkat mengikut
  masa tetapi ia juga naik dan turun secara tidak
  tetap.

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• Kajian yg telah dijalankan oleh Elton Mayor ini
  telah membawa sumbangan yang besar dan baru dalam
  dunia pengurusan.
• Menurut Cooper (1980), hasil uji kaji Hawthorne
  telah menyumbangkan kepada revolusi baru dalam
  ideologi organisasi dan pengurusan melalui dua
  cara iaitu mencabar pendekatan fizikal _at_
  kejuruteraan untuk meningkatkan motivasi dan
  menjadikan tekanan pertama dalam pendekatan
  struktur dan hierarki pada organisasi.
• Dalam ertikata lain tiada cara saintifik atau
  cara terbaik untuk memotivasikan pekerja supaya
  lebih produktif melainkan dengan memberikan
  autoriti kepada pekerja untuk menguruskan
  organisasi.

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• Ekoran daripada ujikaji Hawthorne, corak latihan
  pengurusan dalam organisasi tertentu telah mula
  diubah.
• Daripada kemahiran teknik kepada kemahiran
  pengurusan manusia.
• Kajian Mayo ini telah melahirkan satu minat baru
  mengenai dinamik kumpulan di kalangan pengurusan
  dan manfaat kumpulan sebagai tambahan kepada
  tumpuan mereka yg dahulu terhadap pekerja secara
  individu.

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• Kajian Hawthorne dimulakan sebagai satu percubaan
  untuk menyelidiki kaitan antara takat pencahayaan
  di tempat kerja dan daya pengeluaran para
  pekerja.
• Para penyelidik Western Electric telah
  membahagikan pekerja kepada kumpulan ujian yang
  sengaja dikenakan perubahan-perubahan pencahayaan
  dan kumpulan kawalan yang pencahayaannya sentiasa
  dalam keadaan tetap

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Layers of influence model

Source Dahlgren G and Whitehead M (1991), In
Acheson (1998).
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The human development indices at the forefront
of HD measurement development

• The HDI (Human Development Index)
• - a summary measure of human development
• The GDI (Gender-related Development Index)
• - the HDI adjusted for gender inequality
• The GEM (Gender Empowerment Measure)
• - Measures gender equality in economic and
  political
• participation and decision making
• The HPI (Human Poverty Index)
• - Captures the level of human poverty
• Others

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Why the HDI?

• The fundamental conceptual shift
• Human development is both an outcome and a
  process of enlarging peoples choices to lead
  lives they value
• Economic growth is only a means, though an
  important one, for human development.
• Human development accounting breath vs focus

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Problems in Performance

• External Influence
• Management Influence
• Individual weaknesses

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External Influence

• Family problems
• Social norms
• Labour market situation
• Government actions/procedures
• Work organization policy
• Working environment

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Management Influence

• Management weaknesses
• Unmotivated working environment
• Personality problem
• Job task not suitable
• Lack of training
• Unable to determine task level

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Individual weaknesses

• Lack of motivation
• Lazy
• Personality clash
• Not satisfied with job/tasks given
• Kaki ponteng
• Did not understand job specification.

• Substance abuser
• Ill
• Mentally ill

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Conclusion

• The nexus between ecology work human
  development?
• Selection of works?
• Organization/industry
• Government/Private Company
• Criterias for
• Benefit for individual? Money/Status/ Living