Psychology 400-025

Psychology of Work

Section 1

Fall 2007

Instructor:  Dr. Robert T. Hitlan

Office:  Baker 437
Office Phone: 273-2223
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, & Friday 10:00-10.45 and by appointment

email:  rob.hitlan@uni.edu

Course Website found at: http://www.uni.edu/~hitlan/

Class Time:       M, W, F   12:00-12:50

Location:          Sabin 317

 Text:   Muchinsky, P. M. (2006).  Psychology Applied to Work (8th Ed), Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

Course Overview: 

Industrial/Organizational or I/O psychology is concerned with various aspects of people in the workplace. Its focus is on issues surrounding employee productivity and well-being. The two part name reflects the field's duel nature, with the Industrial or "I" part concerned with human resource functions of analyzing jobs, and appraising, selecting, placing and training people. Getting people to the right job requires, first, learning the critical elements that comprise/define what a job is. It next requires understanding what to do to select the person, and the potential advantages and disadvantages of certain selection methodologies. Once hired, it is then important to assist persons to adjust to changing work environments, job conditions, and work demands. In addition, it is vital to provide employees with feedback regarding their performance and provide training/re-training when needed. These issues comprise the “I” part of I/O psychology—Industrial Psychology (a.k.a. Personnel Psychology)

The Organizational or "O" part is concerned with maximizing the contribution of the person hired into the organization. Organizational psychology strives to answer questions such as:

How should an organization be structured for maximum contribution, job satisfaction, and health for the company and employee?

Of what value/role does training play?

How should organizational effectiveness be defined? By the “bottom line”? By employee satisfaction?

How does motivation fit in? What is motivation and how do you get employees moitivated? Is there a difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

What are the benefits and/or difficulties of a diverse workforce?

Additional pertinent questions concern employee attitudes, behavior, emotions, health, motivation, and well-being, as well as the social aspects of the workplace including issues surrounding workplace climate and culture. In this course we will survey the methods, practice, research, and theories of I/O psychology. Both application and empirical findings will be emphasized throughout the course.

Objectives: 

The student who successfully completes this course should have gained knowledge about the major findings and principles of the field, as well as an understanding of what I/O psychologists do for organizations that employ them.

Grading:

Exercises (take home)                         20%

Exercises (in-class group work)          15%

Quizzes                                               65%

 Take Home Exercises: 

There will be several take-home chapter exercises designed to help students understand various concepts related to class discussion. Each question must be answered using complete sentences. Answers MUST be typed. Please include the question you are answering above your answer for that question. Support your answers with information from the text. If you do not agree with the text, explain the point of view from the text, your point of view, and support for your view (not just your opinion). Grades will be based on how well the question is answered, thoroughness, incorporation of concepts from the text and clarity.  Each is due on the date outlined in the course schedule and at the beginning of class. Late exercises will not be accepted (unless you are on official university business or have a valid and acceptable excuse, e.g., from a doctor). I reserve the right to determine what constitutes a valid excuse. There is no way to make up homework, but one homework grade -- the lowest -- will be dropped.

In class Exercises:

There exercises are primarily intended to be completed in small groups (3-4 people). One group member will be selected to write the answers for each groups question. All group members names should be printed in the upper right hand corner of the answer sheet. Each group will have approximately 15 minutes to answer their particular question and share their answer with the class. To receive credit the group answer sheet must be turned in at the end of that class period.

Quizzes:

Several quizzes will be given throughout the semester. The date for each quiz is located below in the course schedule. The format of the quizzes will be multiple choice, true/false, and short answer. All pertinent lecture material and material from the assigned text readings is fair game. Quizzes cannot be made-up unless you are on official university business or have a valid and acceptable excuse (see above). In such circumstances every attempt must be made to take the quiz early. The instructor has the final say and will determine whether the "every attempt" criterion has been met. 

 Students should not expect everything that will be covered on the quizzes to be covered in class. Rather, students should read the assignments outside of class and consider class time as a period to clarify and expand on select topics.  It is my view, as well as many others, that students who read the text should get a higher grade than those who do not. Thus, there are always a couple questions from the text book that are not covered in class at all. Besides these questions, reading the text helps students to absorb the lecture information more fully and thus improves test performance as a whole. 

Cheating: 

In short, cheating will not be tolerated. Cheating is copying work, letting someone else copy your work, and sneaking peaks at other students’ exams. Anyone caught cheating will receive a grade of "F" in the class and will be subsequently reported to the appropriate authority for further action. Although I may not always be able to tell if you copied homework from a fellow student, I can say with confidence that your course grade will suffer because you will not fully understand what to do when in a time pressure situation (e.g., taking a quiz).

Academic Ethics Policies

http://www.uni.edu/pubrel/catalog/ACAD-REG.html#withdrawl

Students at the University of Northern Iowa are required to observe the commonly-accepted standards of academic honesty and integrity. Except in those instances in which group work is specifically authorized by the instructor of the class, no work which is not solely the student's is to be submitted to a professor in the form of an examination paper, a term paper, class project, research project, or thesis project.

Cheating of any kind on examinations and/or plagiarism of papers or projects is strictly prohibited. Also unacceptable are the purchase of papers from commercial sources, using a single paper to meet the requirement of more than one class (except in instances authorized and considered appropriate by the professors of the two classes), and submission of a term paper or project completed by any individual other than the student submitting the work. Students are cautioned that plagiarism is defined as the process of stealing or passing off as one's own the ideas or words of another, or presenting as one's own an idea or product which is derived from an existing source.

It is not acceptable for the work or ideas of another scholar to be presented as a student's own or to be utilized in a paper or project without proper citation. To avoid any appearance of plagiarism or accidental plagiarism, it is important that all students become fully cognizant of the citation procedures utilized in their own discipline and in the classes which they take. The plea of ignorance regarding citation procedures or of carelessness in citation is not a compelling defense against allegations of plagiarism. A college student, by the fact that s(he) holds that status, is expected to understand the distinction between proper scholarly use of others' work and plagiarism.

A student who is found to have improperly used others' work must expect to be penalized for such action -- even if the argument is made that the action was taken with innocent intention -- and the student's instructor will normally judge such work "unacceptable." But it should be noted that the assignment of a low or failing grade for unacceptable work is not in itself a disciplinary action -- even if the assignment of such a grade results in the student's receiving an "F" in the course. Such a response by an instructor is part of the normal grading process; if a student feels that s(he) has grounds to protest a grade received through this process, the student has access to the academic grievance procedure which the university has developed to deal with all student academic grievances.

Students with Disabilities

If you need accommodations because of a disability or if you have emergency medical information to share with me. please inform me immediately.  You may see me privately after class, or at my office.  To request academic accommodations (for example, a note taker), students must contact the Office of Disability Services, 273-2676; http://www.uni.edu/counseling/ODS.html .

Extra Credit:

 Earn up to 1.5%  to be added to your final course percentage. How do I earn up to 1% extra credit you ask? Well, here is what you need to do. I want you to find a film that deals with one or more of the concepts touched on in this course (e.g., workplace aggression, selection procedures, cognitive ability, personality, discrimination, leadership) and write a 3-4 page paper about how course content is depicted in the film. That is, what are some of the points illustrated in the film and how are these related to what we have discussed in a particular chapter. DO NOT just summarize the film as this is not the assignment and you will not earn credit doing this. Rather, discuss some of the main points illustrated in the film and how are these points/issues related to what you have learned about a particular area of I/O psychology.

Pet Peeves:

 1.  Out of courtesy for both your fellow students and the instructor, make sure all electrical devises are shut off for the duration of class (e.g., pagers, cell phones, etc.)

2.  If you must come to class late, do not walk in front of the instructor but take the first available seat

3.  It is your responsibility to make sure you are on the class discussion list, not mine.

4.  If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to obtain the notes corresponding to any missed course material. Do not email me to ask what you missed. Look at the schedule and get the notes from a fellow student. In addition, some lecture materials will be available via the course website.

 5.  Other class disruptions are also frowned upon (e.g., putting on make-up during class, sarcastic remarks directed toward another student and/or the instructor)

 Tentative Class Schedule

Date                 Chapter                                    Material                    Assignments                     Notes