Industrial_Organization_Reaction_Paper

What are the highlights of your experience in application of “Industrial Organization Psychology” in the workplace' The highlights of my experiences and lessons learned in I.O psychology are not just about theoretical ideas and concepts, but moreover important facts and information concerning on how to apply and create systematic, efficient, commendable methods in the workplace reality. We can’t always be sure that specific concepts/theories will always fit and solve problems/circumstances that occur at our work. What we can be sure of is that, the fusion of lessons and theories that we have obtained at I.O can be used to create flexible methods and planned operations that are relevant and appropriate for the circumstances that will arise at the workplace. An example of “applying” these concepts is when during the HR talk, the classroom was turned into a workplace and we eventually knew that there was I.O concepts needed to be applied in the activities. Like in the real workplace, concepts like leadership, job motivation, job satisfaction, and training, organizing and developing were needed. It was only up students on how they were able to apply the knowledge they learned from our lecture in I.O psychology. There were two groups; each has its own 5 members, 1 operations manager and supervisor. Based on what I have observed, the groups were given specific tasks and strict quality compliance for every activity (3 activities). If the group’s product didn’t meet the specific requirements, they would eventually fail in one part of the activity or rather lose to the other group. Team participation and planning was really needed, by every member and more importantly they should build a trust relationship with one another. If one member fails to complete a task, it would result into a “domino effect” resulting to the failure of other members. In addition the role of the operations manager and supervisor is to make sure the team members get along well in their coordination for completing the product, the leaders will need to apply motivational and leadership skills. Motivation/self-motivation and Leadership goes hand in hand in my opinion, one cannot progress nor be applied without the other. The acting managers and supervisors in each group applied their leadership skills and motivated each member to do their best in each task, evidently it worked. Members will able to work more effectively since they are being motivated and praised for their “job well done” and in addition members will have a person who they can trust and guide them in accomplishing the goal. The most challenging part of the said activity (in my opinion) was the switching of leaders, thus each member had to adjust and accept the change that had taken place. Once the change has occurred, every member needed to adjust, build trust and relationship to their new leader, this however was easily established at the classroom, but if you would think in a more complicated manner, reality is “change” can be taken by the members of the organization in a positive way and negative way. It could either lead to productivity or less productivity. In I.O psychology we learned that there should always be sufficient means and processes in informing the employees of the changes being made by the higher management. There should always be feedbacks from the employees, for the reason that it helps you monitor whether the change being conducted by your organization has become an effective tool in maxing out the performance of your employees, or rather becoming a hindrance to their growth. In my opinion, “change” within the organization can cause two errors, the “system error” and the “human/employee error”. The “system error “can cause your employees to commit errors, a review or feedbacks from your employees will enable you to pinpoint such “system errors”. The “employee error” that will occur after a certain change in the organization has been implemented can be solved by providing, training and development seminars by the HR personnel in order the help employees adjust to change. In addition to the I.O psych concepts I’ve mentioned, there are other more concepts that should be applied in the organization and to the behavior of individuals. These are commitment to excellence, global/local competence, skill growth, and good relationship with fellow co-workers. There should always be a room for improvement. Employees should not stop of being good at something; they should continue updating and honing their skills. They should also pass/teach those learned experiences to their trainees and other co-workers so that their performances might increase as well. The competency level of each employee must always be present, for it increases the company’s quality assured output/product. Though “Performance “is one of the key elements needed by a certain employee to progress their work, I would say the building a good relationship with your other co-employees, bosses and subordinates comes first or top priority. The reason is that, in I.O psychology we greatly emphasize on the human behavior that is always present in a human working environment. Thus establishing good relationship with your co-workers provides a stress free environment. We can now say that even though your current job pays you a high salary, but considering your officemates don’t get along with one another and you become stressed daily (Ex. Boss yelling, officemates yelling and no cooperation etc.), you would rather transfer in a company that has a pay/salary quite lower but has a good working environment. In addition “Job satisfaction” plays an important role to the needs of an employee; we can’t always say that at an employee is always satisfied with his work because of his impressive outputs. We must still consider that there might be other needs that our employee has not yet achieved within the organization, effective monitoring, feedbacks and group participation can enhance the possibility in pinpointing the needs of your employees. If neglected the worst case scenario would be job resignations and an increase in the company’s turnover rate. Teambuilding, Org. Sport fest, victory parties and other activities that are focused in the development of your employees (not just as individuals but as team players as well) will provide you better understanding of their behaviors, namely their strengths and weaknesses. Moreover it will create a “communications bridge” between you and your employees that will eventually lead to more efficient monitoring, insights and improvements/training needed by your employees. As psychology students, I.O psychology provided us an idea or conceptual framework on how we may contribute to the success of our organization and lastly made us aware that the performance and growth of the company is heavily relied on the it’s greatest assets, the employees. In conclusion the theories and concepts contained in I.O psychology provides an insight on how to create a blueprint of solutions that are flexible and are able to adjust conforming to the needs of the workplace/organization. It also enables us to create a healthy working environment, provide better understanding on human behavior and specially needs of our employees in the organization. The idea or concept in providing “pro employee” policies/benefits that will increase employee’s job satisfaction; performance and commitment in helping the company reach its goal and success. What are your insights of HR talk in viewing: Chapter 6 – Training and Development With training and development, employees are able to improve more and develop their skills. Learning is indeed a lifelong process, and in a certain organization/company, training and development becomes a pathway for employees to become globally competent and in par with the changes in technological advancements. Another important reason why we train and develop our employees is to increase their performance, with it we can expect quality assured products and outputs created by our own employees. Development does not stop even though an employee seems to have reached its max threshold, there should always room for development and improvement for this will enable him to broaden his area of expertise and ideally share it to other trainees and subordinates that would want to increase their performance as well. Chapter 7- Leadership The main purpose and goal of having leadership skills is to mainly guide, support and motivate your employees. Based on what I have observed in the HR talk activities, the leaders were able to guide their members in achieving the task in a faster way. Leaders listened to the group’s suggestions and they eventually exchanged ideas (much Like LMX theory, and this continued until the activity ended. Since the entire task was completed (but 1 team still stood on the top) the leaders were able to utilize their leadership skills and are relevant to what they have learned in I.O psychology. One does not simply become a leader, you have to gain the respect of your team members and at the same time show them that you respect their ideas and comments as well. Having self-motivation is relevant to having leadership skills or rather being a leader. Simply put, a leader without self-motivation cannot lead at all. The reason is that a leader should always be motivated (even though he commits mistakes at times) his co-workers are relying on him to make a decision that will be beneficiary for everyone. Chapter 8 –Job Motivation/ Satisfaction Job motivation/satisfaction is indeed important in the workplace; it enables an employee perform better and be committed to his job. Job satisfaction is created by different factors within the organization; it could be the growth of the job itself (job enrichment), the good relationship with co-workers and bosses, salary, benefits and especially the satisfaction of his other (personal) needs. In the HR talk activities, I noticed that the other group’s leaders and members were giving praises to the other members such as “come on you can do it” etc. with the motivation boost, surely members will perform even better. Overall job motivation/satisfaction can help you retain valuable employees and workers. They will even perform better for the company. If this is neglected, a high turnover rate will occur in your company and you will begin losing important employees. Chapter 9 – Organization In the HR talk activity, I saw how “change” could greatly affect the standard operations within an organization. The two leaders of each groups were switched, thus I observed how other members resisted in that certain change, it could be possible that they do not trust the new leader and his capabilities. After couple of minutes the group members become accustomed to their new leader and eventually they completed the task given. What if this “change” happened in a real workplace' Or in an organization' .In my opinion there will always be a resistance to change, but it is up to the HR department/personnel to resolve this occurrences and make his employees adjust to the change or rather introduce to them its benefits. In I.O psychology, since we monitor and observe the behavior of each individual in the workplace, we are able to apply its concepts to be able to distinguish each other’s differences, weaknesses, strengths and culture. Upon knowing those characters we are able to plan an effective solution in making our employees adapt to the changes. In addition get their insights and feedbacks on how they feel the change has affected their productivity.