Questions and Answers of Industrial Organizational Psychology Understanding The Workplace

Consider a work or social group of which you are a member. What are the various roles that members play? What roles have you played? What are some of the norms that are particular to this group?
In what ways can group cohesiveness facilitate goal attainment in work groups? How might cohesiveness hinder goal attainment?
List the levels of conflict that occur in work groups. Give specific examples from your own life to illustrate each.
Discuss the ways in which cohesiveness and conflict can be seen as opposite forces in work groups.
What are some of the potential positive and negative outcomes of conflict? Using a work or social group with which you have had contact, think of examples of conflict that led to negative
Consider the eight symptoms of groupthink. What steps can decision-making groups take to try to avoid each of them?
What are ways you might learn more about perspectives that are different from your own? What resources might you use to help you better understand diverse team members?
If you were to see a team member engaging in behavior that was normal to her, but that was clearly confusing or offensive to other team members, how might you address it?
How social influence affects group behavior
Group cohesion and its importance in group processes
The stages of group development
The implications for work groups of social loafing and free riding
The stages of effective decision making
How to measure work-team effectiveness and what factors affect it, including team selection and composition
The importance of group learning and the concept of shared mental models
Why groups don’t always make good decisions
What groupthink is and how it can affect organizations
How to differentiate among the various types of work teams
What self-managed work teams are, and some of the processes involved in their success
The impact of emerging trends such as the expanding use of virtual teams and multiteam systems
Say you are a high-level manager in an organization. How would you go about assembling a team for a very important work project?
What does diversity mean in the context of work teams, and how does it impact team effectiveness?
How might work groups prevent groupthink?
What makes virtual teams so effective despite the potential complexities?
How has the globalization trend impacted work teams?
What is an example of a group you’ve been a part of that was highly cohesive?What made it that way? How could some of those qualities be instilled in a workplace team?
Consider a time when you experienced social loafing in a group (in a class or at work). What were some aspects of the situation that caused social loafing to occur? What could your instructor or boss
Consider a group that you are currently a part of. In your opinion, do you find that the group follows Tuckman’s model as it has continued to develop, or does it follow the more oscillating style
Imagine you are working with a virtual group to put together a presentation on teamwork. How might you use technology to help you communicate, share ideas, and design your presentation slides? What
Consider a job you once had or a group project you worked on in a class. In order to work well with others, you likely had a shared mental model. Give some examples of what might have been part of
What the criterion problem is
How criteria are defined in I/O psychology
What the criteria for the criteria are
The difference between the ultimate criterion and the actual criterion
How to differentiate between criterion contamination and criterion deficiency
The important issues that revolve around multiple criteria
Different ways to weight criteria to arrive at a composite criterion
What dynamic criteria are and how they can affect HR functioning
The differences between objective and subjective criteria
The complex relationships between task behavior, contextual behavior, and counterproductive work behavior
Overall criteria are standards used to assess performance. In addition to grades, what are some criteria that could be used to assess the performance of college students? What might be some examples
In this chapter, I argue that many aspects of performance are dynamic. How could this notion of dynamic criteria be applied to assessing the performance of college students? Have you seen any
Research suggests that coworkers appreciate those colleagues who engage in OCBs. However, research also suggests that engaging in too many OCBs can damage task performance. What are some examples of
Imagine that you have a subordinate who has shared something negative about one of the company’s clients using social media (e.g., on Twitter or Facebook).Do you believe this behavior is a part of
Consider an employee who is not physically in the office, as in the case of remote work. How might subjective measures of task performance or contextual performance be adjusted to account for the
The various organizational theories and how they have developed
The differences between bureaucratic theory and Scientific Management
How Theory X differs from Theory Y
How open-system theory provides a useful framework for thinking about organizations
What organizational development is and why it is so important for the long-term success of organizations
The basic premises on which organizational change is based
The major principles of many organizational development interventions, as well as some benefits of each
Some of the specifics concerning organizational development interventions, such as total quality management and gainsharing
Technostructural interventions such as reengineering
How culture-change interventions and knowledge-management interventions can act to transform organizations profoundly
This chapter provides a number of different organizational structures or designs that companies might adopt (e.g., hierarchical, matrix, functional organizational designs). Choose two organizational
Consider an organization where you have worked. In what ways did that organization reflect the principles of a “learning organization”? What more could they have done to better reflect those
Positive organizational development proposes that people should spend more time focusing on using their strengths or addressing their weaknesses. What are the benefits of this perspective? Can you
As noted in the chapter, gainsharing works best when employees feel they can trust their organization to share cost savings with employees. What are some things you might look for in a workplace that
The importance of performance management
The purposes of performance appraisal
The various formats used in the evaluation of performance
The effect of rating errors on the appraisal process
How the broader context in which performance appraisal takes place has various and diverse implications for performance appraisal and organizational functioning
The role of employee development in the performance management process
The important role played by legal issues in the performance appraisal process
The complexities involved in giving and receiving performance feedback
Consider a time you received feedback from someone on your performance. Was it helpful? What did they do (or what could they have done) to help you understand how to use their feedback to improve?
How important job analysis is to HR functioning
The common terminology used in the area of job analysis
How to differentiate between task-oriented and worker-oriented job analysis techniques
How to conduct a job analysis using the Task Inventory Approach, Functional Job
Analysis, Job Element Method, Position Analysis Questionnaire, and Common-Metric Questionnaire
What’s included in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and how it has been improved through the development of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET)
What a job description and job specifications are and how they are used in human resource practices
Job analysis is used to create job descriptions. Why is it important to have a detailed and accurate job description? What are some possible outcomes of having a job description that is not based on
Find a job posting. According to this posting, what are some KSAOs required for that position? Are there any KSAOs you believe might be expected but are omitted from this ad? What might be the
As the chapter indicates, there are many sources who can serve as SMEs, such as job incumbents or supervisors. Consider a job that you, a friend, or a family member has had. What might be some
The steps involved in validating a selection battery
Effective recruitment strategies used to encourage individuals to apply for jobs
Predictive validation and concurrent validation and the differences between them
The importance of cross-validation
What validity generalization is and how important it has become to I/O psychology
The three main approaches to selection (multiple cutoff, multiple hurdle, and multiple regression) and the differences among them
The importance of the utility concept for I/O selection
The factors that affect the utility of a selection battery
Concepts such as employment at-will, adverse impact, and affirmative action
Restrictions and protections covered by certain U.S. employment laws
The different forms of sexual harassment
How the courts seem to be interpreting reasonable accommodation, essential functions of the job, and undue hardship under the Americans with Disabilities Act
Why is it impossible for a selection battery to explain 100% of the variance in job performance?
Refer back to Figure 7.2. What happens to the number of false alarms if you raise the cutoff score? What happens to the number of misses? What might be some reasons for raising a cutoff score?
Do you believe the major employment laws offer sufficient protection for all workers in the United States? Why or why not? What other groups might need protection?
In the United States, new mothers are given 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Some countries provide paid maternity leave (e.g., Portugal), paternity leave (e.g., Sweden), or longer periods of unpaid leave
The difference between stressors and strains
How coping skills help individuals handle stress
The goals of occupational health psychology and Total Worker Health
Many of the important issues that are involved in work–family conflict
The importance of family-friendly employee benefits
The particular complexities faced by dual-earner couples

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