PDPU - Industrial Psychology Course Taught by Nigam Dave (2007-2010)

1. Industrial
Psychology
Dr. Nigam Dave
PDPU: Gandhinagar

2. What is Psychology?
• Scientific discipline that studies
mental processes and behaviour
in humans and other animals.
• Psychology is the science of
individual or group behaviour.

3. Evolution of Psychology
Psychology
Philosophy Physiology
Sociology Biology

4. Types of Psychology
Applied
Psychology
Experimental
Psychology

5. Applied Psychology
• Clinical
• Counseling
• Industrial
• Consumer
• Environmental

6. Experimental Psychology
• Child
• Educational
• Social
• Developmental
• Physiological
• Comparative

7. Issues studied
• Learning
• Cognition
• Intelligence
• Motivation
• Emotion
• Perception
• Personality
• Mental disorders

8. Methods
• Study of animal behaviour (Human
beings consider using humans as
subjects illegal and unethical!)
• Human Research is carried out
through – observation, psychometrics,
statistical analysis

9. History of Psychology
• History of psychology goes back
to the Greek civilization. It comes
from Philosophy, Epistemology,
Metaphysics, Religion and
Oriental views.

10. Industrial Psychology
• “The scientific study of the
relationship between man and the
world at work: the study of the
adjustment people make to the places
they go, the people they meet, and the
things they do in the process of
making a living.”
Guion (1965)

11. • “The application or extension of
Psychological principles to the
problems concerning human
beings operating within the
context of business and
industry.”
Blum & Naylor,(1968)

12. • “It is the field of psychology
concerned with the development
and application of scientific
principles to the workplace.”
Silvia Hysong

13. Where does I/O Psychology
Help?
Universities
35%
Consulting
Firms
39%
Government
6%
Industry
20%

14. Areas looked after by I/O
Psychology
Personnel Psychology
Selection
Training
Assessment

15. Areas looked after by I/O
Psychology
Organizational Behaviour
Social and Group Influences
Communication
Organizational Structure
Leadership
Motivation

16. Areas looked after by I/O
Psychology
Human Factors
Human-Machine Relations
Job Designing
Optimizing Human Abilities

17. Areas looked after by I/O
Psychology
Vocational / Career Counseling
Career path
Retirement planning
Employee Assistance

18. Areas looked after by I/O
Psychology
Industrial Relations
Labour issues
Management – Union Liaison

19. History of I/O Psychology
• Wilhelm Wundt:-
• Born – August 13, 1832 (Germany)
• Died – August 31, 1920
• In 1862, Wundt conducted the first ever
course in scientific psychology.
• His lectures on Psychology were
published as ‘Lectures on the Mind of
Humans and Animals’ in 1863.
• He is regarded as the father of
Psychology.

20. • Founded the first psychological lab.
in 1876.
• He trained two psychologists who
later on contributed a lot to I/O
Psychology: Hugo Munsterberg and
James McKeen Cattell

21. Concept of Personality
based on 4 humours, supported by
Wundt

22. • Neuroticism = N = Negative
Emotions
• Extraversion = E = Positive
Emotions
• High N, High E = Choleric
• High N, Low E = Melancholic
• Low N, High E = Sanguine
• Low N, Low E = Phlegmatic

23. • Choleric – Excess of yellow bile – Person
would be a doer, leader, ambitious,
energetic and passionate
• Sanguine – Excess of blood – Person
would be light hearted, fun loving,
entertainer, spontaneous and confident
• Melancholic – Excess of black bile –
Person would be kind, considerate,
creative and sad
• Phlegmatic – Excess of Phlegm – Person
would be shy, lazy and resistant to
change.

25. Grave of Wundt

26. History of I/O Psychology
• Bryan & Harter –
• Came up with the paper describing
the study and application of
psychology to workplace activities of
Morse Code Telegraphers.
• They coined the term ‘Industrial
Psychology’.

27. • The term ‘industrial psychology’ first appeared in
a 1904 article of [William Lowe] Bryan’s APA
[presidential] address. (He was the President of
Indiana University) Ironically, it appeared in print
only as a typographical error. Bryan was quoting
a sentence he had written five years earlier in
which he spoke of the need for more research in
individual psychology. Instead, Bryan wrote
industrial psychology and did not catch his
mistake.
No cameras were
around for W.L.Bryan’s
inauguration in 1903
the moment was
captured in this
illustration
courtesy
Indiana University
archive

28. History of I/O Psychology
• Frank & Lilian Gilbreth
• Husband and wife, developed the method
of time- and- motion study explaining the
work habits and ways to increase the
efficiency and output of industrial
employees.
• Their method of time-and-motion study
was created to systematically investigate
and analyze the motions and the amount
of time needed to carry out a specific
task.

29. • Frank Gilbreth's well-known work in
improving brick-laying in the
construction trade is a good
example of his approach. From his
start in the building industry, he
observed that workers developed
their own peculiar ways of working
and that no two used the same
method. In studying bricklayers, he
noted that individuals did not always
use the same motions in the course
of their work. These observations
led him to seek one best way to
perform tasks.

30. • He developed many improvements in brick-
laying. A scaffold he invented permitted quick
adjustment of the working platform so that the
worker would be at the most convenient level at
all times. He equipped the scaffold with a shelf
for the bricks and mortar, saving the effort
formerly required by the workman to bend down
and pick up each brick. He had the bricks
stacked on wooden frames, by low-priced
laborers, with the best side and end of each brick
always in the same position, so that the
bricklayer no longer had to turn the brick around
and over to look for the best side to face
outward. The bricks and mortar were so placed
on the scaffold that the brick-layer could pick up
a brick with one hand and mortar with the other.
As a result of these and other improvements, he
reduced the number of motions made in laying a
brick from 18 to 4 1/2.

32. For more information on Gilbreth model of time and
Motion
www.telelavoro.rassegna.it/fad/socorg03/l2/fr...

33. More Information on Gilbreth –
https://engineering.purdue.edu/IE/HomepageFeatures/TheGilbrethCollection
With a motion model Letter on motion studies

34. History of I/O Psychology
• Walter Dill Scott –
• “Increasing Human Efficiency in
Business”
• He was put in charge of a group of day
labourers.
• He assumed toward them the attitude of
the athletic director and the coach
combined. He set out to develop a
winning team, one that could handle more
cubic yards of dirt in a day than any other
group on the job.

35. • Tried to find out the best possible
method of shoveling dirt.
• With stopwatch and notebook in hand,
he observed the movements of the
laborers.
• Compared the movements of the best
worker with other workers. Found that
the best worker was making fewer and
faster movements.
• Even the best worker was making
some unnecessary movements. Some
movements were slow leading to the
loss of the momentum.

36. • He standardized the movements
and model for most economical
speed for each movement.
• Offered the handsome bonus to the
worker if the worker followed his
instructions.
• Workers eager to earn bonus
started to follow the instructions
closely and did the work much more
efficiently.
http://www.enotalone.com/article/16260.html

37. History of I/O Psychology
• Fredrick Taylor –
• Born -1856, Philadelphia
• Died – 1915, Philadelphia
• He is known as the father of scientific
management.
• Taylor suggested that production
efficiency in a shop or factory could be
greatly enhanced by close observation of
the individual worker and elimination of
waste time and motion in his operation.

38. History of I/O Psychology
• Taylor’s 4 principles of Scientific
Management
1.Science over rules of thumb
2.Scientific selection and training
3.Cooperation over individualism
4.Equal division of work best suited to
management and employees
uwf.edu/psych/skass/i-o_presentation/Present1/Chapter1_INP3004.ppt -

40. Soldiering
• Working in the steel industry, Taylor had
observed the phenomenon of workers'
purposely operating well below their capacity,
that is, soldiering. He attributed soldiering to
three causes:
(1) The almost universally held belief among
workers that if they became more productive,
fewer of them would be needed and jobs
would be eliminated.
(2) Non-incentive wage systems encourage low
productivity .
(3) optimal work methods that can be determined
by scientific study of the task. Workers waste
much of their effort by relying on rule-of-thumb
methods rather than on scientific management.

41. Suggestions offered by Taylor
• To scientifically determine the
optimal way to perform a job, Taylor
performed experiments that he
called time studies, (also known as
time and motion studies). These
studies were characterized by the
use of a stopwatch to time a
worker's sequence of motions, with
the goal of determining the one best
way to perform a job.

42. • Drawbacks of Scientific
Management
While scientific management
principles improved productivity and
had a substantial impact on industry,
they also increased the monotony of
work. The core job dimensions of
skill variety, task identity, task
significance, autonomy, and
feedback all were missing from the
picture of scientific management.

43. • The main argument against
Taylor is his reductionist
approach to work which
dehumanizes the worker. The
allocation of work "specifying not
only what is to be done but how
it is to done and the exact time
allowed for doing it" is seen as
leaving no scope for the
individual worker to excel or
think.

44. • His methods of motivation
started and finished at monetary
incentives. While critical of the
then prevailing distinction of "us
"and "them" between the
workforce and employers he
tried to find a common ground
between the working and
managing classes.

45. History of I/O Psychology
• Hugo Münsterberg-
• Born – June 1, 1863, Poland
• Died – Dec. 16, 1916, U.S.
• He is considered to be the father of industrial
psychology.
– “Psychology and Industrial Efficiency”
– Application of psychology to sales
– Trolley car simulator
– Lie detector using HR, GSR, Free Association,
Automograph

46. History of I/O Psychology
• The Journal of Applied Psychology
appeared in 1917, along with
Applied Psychology, the first
textbook in the field, coauthored by
Harry L. Hollingworth and Albert T.
Poffenberger.

47. History of I/O Psychology
• Early emphases in applied psychology
included vocational testing, teaching
methods, evaluation of attitudes and
morale, performance under stress,
propaganda and psychological warfare,
rehabilitation, and counseling.

48. History of I/O Psychology
• Concern for the optimum utilization
of human resources contributed to
the development of industrial-
organizational psychology.

49. History of I/O Psychology
• . James Cattell
• Born – May 25, 1860
• Died – Jan. 20, 1944
• In 1921 he founded the Psychological
Corporation for the purpose of making
research in applied psychology available
to industry and business.

50. History of I/O Psychology
• Elton Mayo:-
• Born in Australia, he became the leader
of Industrial Psychology.
• Emphasized the dependence of
productivity on small group unity.
• Mayo also advocated a personnel-
counseling program that would address
the particular needs of industrial workers
unable to derive satisfaction from
employment in large organizations.

51. Summary of Mayo’s Beliefs
• Individual workers cannot be treated in
isolation but must be seen as members of a
group.
• Monetary incentives and good working
condition are less important to the individual
than the need to belong to a group.
• Informal or unofficial groups formed at work
have a strong influence on the behaviour of
those workers in a group.
• Managers must be aware of these 'social
needs‘ and cater for them to ensure that
employees collaborate with the official
organisation rather than work against it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_Mayo

52. History of I/O Psychology
Hawthorne Effect
• The study sought to identify those aspects of a
job that were most likely to boost worker
productivity.
• Hawthorne studies developed by Mayo came up
with four conclusions.
1. The aptitudes of individuals (as measured by
industrial psychologists) are imperfect
predictors of job performance. Although such
measures may give some indication of the
physical and mental potential of the individual,
the amount of work produced is strongly
influenced by social factors.
"Hawthorne research." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference
Suite . Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.

53. Contd.
2. Informal organization affects productivity.
Although previous students of industry had
looked upon workers either as isolated
individuals or as an undifferentiated mass
organized according to the formal chart of
hierarchical positions and responsibilities
established by management, the Hawthorne
researchers discovered a group life among the
workers. The studies also showed that the
relations that supervisors develop with workers
tend to influence the manner in which the
workers carry out—or fail to carry out—
directives.
"Hawthorne research." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference
Suite . Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.

54. Contd.
3. Work-group norms affect productivity. The
Hawthorne researchers were not the first to
recognize that work groups tend to arrive at
norms for what is “a fair day's work,” restricting
their production below that point even when they
are physically able to exceed the norm and
would be financially rewarded for it. However,
the Hawthorne study provided the best
systematic description and interpretation of this
phenomenon.
4. The workplace is a social system. The
Hawthorne researchers came to view the
workplace as a social system made up of
interdependent parts.
"Hawthorne research." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference
Suite . Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.

56. Elton Mayo, Professor of Industrial
Management, Harvard Business School,
1920

57. Assignment – 2
Graded Project:- Marks - 5
• Prepare a presentation on the working
methods of any particular profession. Find
out their working method. Do you think
that they make unnecessary mental or
physical work? If so, suggest your model
of how they can come up with better
results in the same time. You may select
any industry, profession. Your groups are
24. i.e. – Group No. 1 – 1001 to 1010….