Arbeids- en organisatie psychologie: gevorderd
,Lecture 1
1. People at work
1.1 Work and organizational psychology
Work: a set of coordinated (workers do not act randomly) and goal-directed (intended to bring a
specified result) activities that are conducted, usually (but not necessarily and often not exclusively) in
exchange for something else.
Work psychology (psychological study of work activities): studies the work activities of people, that is,
the way in which people perform tasks. Persons are viewed as ‘workers’ that perform tasks from work
processes within the organization. Is about the way workers’ behaviors, motivations, thoughts,
emotions, health and well-being relate to each other, and about ways to influence these concepts.
Contemporary work psychology: promote sustainable performance: maximize work performance as
well as worker health and well-being
Organizational psychology: studies (collective) behavior from people with respect to forming and
functioning of organizations. People are involved as ‘members’. It is about the context in which work
activities are conducted (e.g. the organization, the work team, leadership, participation, organizational
culture/structure).
Personnel psychology: studies the relationship between a person and an organization, in particular the
foundation of the relationship, its development and its determination. People are viewed as individuals
or ‘employees’ of an organization. Is about the characteristics of the person conducting a particular
work task or selecting or hiring new staff
There is an inclination in work psychology to focus predominantly on high-status workers and ethnic
majorities in well-developed parts of the world.
1.2 History of work psychology
1700 – 1900 Medicine Historical roots • Traditional work medicine
Work and work • Applied work psychology
performance more
intensive and fragmentary
1910 – 1920 Psycho Taylorism (scientific • Simple work tasks that can be
technique management) performed optimally after training
Begin of modern work • Reward for performance
science • Separation of head (decisions) and
hand (task completion)’
, 1930 – 1950 Social factors Human relations • Mayo (1933): “Human problems of
From fitting the worker to industrial civilizations”
the job to fitting the job to • Hawthorne experiments
the worker (independent of the intervention
performance was initially higher)
• Maslow (1953): motivation theory
– need hierarchy
• Herzberg (1959): two factor theory
1960 Cognitive Human • The application of psycoholgical
factors factors/ergonomics principles in the work place.
• Help people to do their jobs: fair
treatment, interesting jobs,
productive employees
Trends in work and organizational psycoholgy:
• Recession, technological changes, need for flexibility, globalization, increasing laws, changing
characteristics of the workers (diversity, age)
• Redefining work: ‘the new working’ (more flexibility, continuous learning)
• More individual arbeidsvoorwaarden: work times, job crafting
1.3 Task/function analysis
Task analysis: any process that identifies and examines the (demanding) tasks that must be performed
by employees. It can be defined as the study of what an employee (or team) is required to do, in terms
of actions and/or processes, to achieve a system goal.
Work psychological task analysis: a methodology in which data will be collected, ranked and evaluated
to say something about the psychologically relevant characteristics.
- Behavior description approach: focus on actual behavior employees display in executing the task
- Behavior requirements approach: focus on actual behavior employees should display
- Ability requirements approach: tasks are analyzed in terms of employees KSAOs
- Task characteristics approach: analyze the objective characteristics of a task, independent of the
behavior that is/should be displayed or abilities that are needed.
Data collection techniques: interviews, survey questionaires, obeservations and organizational
documents and records
Task representation techniques: graphic descriptions such as flow charts and hierarchical networks
Task simulation techniques: computer modelling and computer aided design programs
Function analysis: a systematic process of the collection and interpretation of information of the
function, work conditions, and tasks. The product of knowledge and skills is easier observable than
,Lecture 1
1. People at work
1.1 Work and organizational psychology
Work: a set of coordinated (workers do not act randomly) and goal-directed (intended to bring a
specified result) activities that are conducted, usually (but not necessarily and often not exclusively) in
exchange for something else.
Work psychology (psychological study of work activities): studies the work activities of people, that is,
the way in which people perform tasks. Persons are viewed as ‘workers’ that perform tasks from work
processes within the organization. Is about the way workers’ behaviors, motivations, thoughts,
emotions, health and well-being relate to each other, and about ways to influence these concepts.
Contemporary work psychology: promote sustainable performance: maximize work performance as
well as worker health and well-being
Organizational psychology: studies (collective) behavior from people with respect to forming and
functioning of organizations. People are involved as ‘members’. It is about the context in which work
activities are conducted (e.g. the organization, the work team, leadership, participation, organizational
culture/structure).
Personnel psychology: studies the relationship between a person and an organization, in particular the
foundation of the relationship, its development and its determination. People are viewed as individuals
or ‘employees’ of an organization. Is about the characteristics of the person conducting a particular
work task or selecting or hiring new staff
There is an inclination in work psychology to focus predominantly on high-status workers and ethnic
majorities in well-developed parts of the world.
1.2 History of work psychology
1700 – 1900 Medicine Historical roots • Traditional work medicine
Work and work • Applied work psychology
performance more
intensive and fragmentary
1910 – 1920 Psycho Taylorism (scientific • Simple work tasks that can be
technique management) performed optimally after training
Begin of modern work • Reward for performance
science • Separation of head (decisions) and
hand (task completion)’
, 1930 – 1950 Social factors Human relations • Mayo (1933): “Human problems of
From fitting the worker to industrial civilizations”
the job to fitting the job to • Hawthorne experiments
the worker (independent of the intervention
performance was initially higher)
• Maslow (1953): motivation theory
– need hierarchy
• Herzberg (1959): two factor theory
1960 Cognitive Human • The application of psycoholgical
factors factors/ergonomics principles in the work place.
• Help people to do their jobs: fair
treatment, interesting jobs,
productive employees
Trends in work and organizational psycoholgy:
• Recession, technological changes, need for flexibility, globalization, increasing laws, changing
characteristics of the workers (diversity, age)
• Redefining work: ‘the new working’ (more flexibility, continuous learning)
• More individual arbeidsvoorwaarden: work times, job crafting
1.3 Task/function analysis
Task analysis: any process that identifies and examines the (demanding) tasks that must be performed
by employees. It can be defined as the study of what an employee (or team) is required to do, in terms
of actions and/or processes, to achieve a system goal.
Work psychological task analysis: a methodology in which data will be collected, ranked and evaluated
to say something about the psychologically relevant characteristics.
- Behavior description approach: focus on actual behavior employees display in executing the task
- Behavior requirements approach: focus on actual behavior employees should display
- Ability requirements approach: tasks are analyzed in terms of employees KSAOs
- Task characteristics approach: analyze the objective characteristics of a task, independent of the
behavior that is/should be displayed or abilities that are needed.
Data collection techniques: interviews, survey questionaires, obeservations and organizational
documents and records
Task representation techniques: graphic descriptions such as flow charts and hierarchical networks
Task simulation techniques: computer modelling and computer aided design programs
Function analysis: a systematic process of the collection and interpretation of information of the
function, work conditions, and tasks. The product of knowledge and skills is easier observable than
