W&O psychology hoorcollege 1 29-10-2024
• Introducing cases (Leeuwendaal) → what we’re going to do in working groups:
- Leeuwendaal
• HR consulting firm in Utrecht
• Focus on all aspects of HR/behavioral change: the development of people and their
performance in an organizational context
• Focus on public domain in the Netherlands (healthcare, government, education)
- What do we do?
→ do this for public domain (like police, gemeente, umc, vpro, university etc.)
- What is a case study?
• Simulates the work of an actual organizational consultant or psychologist
• Based on real-life scenario’s derived from actual client work
- Case studies:
• Everyone will choose one of these cases in groups: do research together, brain storm,
think of solution → then present the solution
- Some tips:
• Find the right combination of scientific and practical approach
• Put yourself in the shoes of an average employee
• Bounce your ideas of a relative/manager/friend
• Think about the long-term practicalities
,- So now what?
- Guidelines for presentation – 15 minutes:
,Now further with lecture of today:
• Humans are only species that can communicate about things
that do not exist (different from animals) → therefore with
our language able to make communities that are much bigger
than for instance elephants
• So, what do you need to know:
• We human beings are group animals → and we’re very
successful if we work together
• Working together means that we use the diversity of the team by having a way to
communicate/coordinate in orders to get things done → we being able to communicate
about things that don’t exist → therefore we human beings can make organizations that are
hundreds of thousands of people big
• Scientific research to back this up
What motivates most (in work)?
Good answer: D
→ we human beings are motivated by idea of making
progress
What motivates:
- Growth
- Relatedness
- Autonomy (humans bit strange when it comes to relationships: on one hand like to be
together and connect to other people, but within relationship also want to be ourselves)
- Point trying to make: if you look at these three elements
What we’re looking for in nature when working together with other people
• Like to grow from each other (share knowledge) → basic idea of raising children
• Like to be related to others and be part of a group of something
• And within that we want to be ourselves
- When we (group) want to punish someone → take these elements away from you → jail
• This was introduction on evolutionary psychology of us human beings, being group animals
And that it has so much impact on us in understanding our behavior
• Now start with info from the book
Chapter 1: what is Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• Brief History of I-O Psychology
1876-1930
- Very young science (started around 170 years ago)
- With Munsterburg and Cattell → first two organizational psychologist, that wanted to
understand humans in relation to their work
- Next important moment: WW I (a lot wars are catalysts for innovation) → wanted to
understand: can I predict who in this group will be a good officer?
- Later on, they looked at time and motion studies → trying to understand how people
work more effectively in their daily work
, Hawthorne effect
- First study that we found out that human beings have a need for certain attention
- Did an experiment where they asked people how they were doing → then switched
off/dimmed the lights and asked the same questions again
- What happened: turned out that when they changed the light → people became happier
When switching the light on again, people were still happy
- How possible? → Hawthorne effect
= the moment you’re assessing a human being, their behavior also changes
→ a measurement is an intervention in itself (the fact that you ask how someone’s doing,
the score already goes up)
- So, Hawthorne studies also, the beginning of understanding that human beings are not
production pieces that just need a little food and money → but actually need attention
1930-1964
- Hawthorne studies, human relations
- Human relations movement → started to understand what makes people tick during
their work (Maslov, Skinner etc.)
• Theories of motivation
• Emotional world of the worker
• Studies of job satisfaction
- WW II → again catalyst for understanding human behavior (especially interaction
between human brain and regimes)
• Hybrid working
• Problem in hybrid working is: one group likes to be all by their selves
(likes to work from home → autonomy) and other group likes growth
and relatedness
• With hybrid → you miss out on the core human beings are about:
need to be connected to each other
• Cultural difference in organizations
- If you question people → give different answers based on their culture
- So, different cultures have a different tendency to deal with the same issue
- Can measure the personality of a culture in five dimensions
Hofstede’s Theory of Cultural influence: Five Dimensions
- Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Define yourself as unique individual or as part of group?
- Power distance
• do have idea that people in higher position have right to act as such?
- Uncertainty avoidance
• How do you deal with fact that the world around you is uncertain? Can you deal with
fact that you sometimes don’t know what to do?
• Some cultures really want certainty, while others don’t even have laws
- Masculinity vs. Femininity
• Masculinity means → definitions of gender in culture should be very sharp
• Femininity opposite → walls between gender should not be so clearly defined
- Long-term vs. Short-term orientation
• Introducing cases (Leeuwendaal) → what we’re going to do in working groups:
- Leeuwendaal
• HR consulting firm in Utrecht
• Focus on all aspects of HR/behavioral change: the development of people and their
performance in an organizational context
• Focus on public domain in the Netherlands (healthcare, government, education)
- What do we do?
→ do this for public domain (like police, gemeente, umc, vpro, university etc.)
- What is a case study?
• Simulates the work of an actual organizational consultant or psychologist
• Based on real-life scenario’s derived from actual client work
- Case studies:
• Everyone will choose one of these cases in groups: do research together, brain storm,
think of solution → then present the solution
- Some tips:
• Find the right combination of scientific and practical approach
• Put yourself in the shoes of an average employee
• Bounce your ideas of a relative/manager/friend
• Think about the long-term practicalities
,- So now what?
- Guidelines for presentation – 15 minutes:
,Now further with lecture of today:
• Humans are only species that can communicate about things
that do not exist (different from animals) → therefore with
our language able to make communities that are much bigger
than for instance elephants
• So, what do you need to know:
• We human beings are group animals → and we’re very
successful if we work together
• Working together means that we use the diversity of the team by having a way to
communicate/coordinate in orders to get things done → we being able to communicate
about things that don’t exist → therefore we human beings can make organizations that are
hundreds of thousands of people big
• Scientific research to back this up
What motivates most (in work)?
Good answer: D
→ we human beings are motivated by idea of making
progress
What motivates:
- Growth
- Relatedness
- Autonomy (humans bit strange when it comes to relationships: on one hand like to be
together and connect to other people, but within relationship also want to be ourselves)
- Point trying to make: if you look at these three elements
What we’re looking for in nature when working together with other people
• Like to grow from each other (share knowledge) → basic idea of raising children
• Like to be related to others and be part of a group of something
• And within that we want to be ourselves
- When we (group) want to punish someone → take these elements away from you → jail
• This was introduction on evolutionary psychology of us human beings, being group animals
And that it has so much impact on us in understanding our behavior
• Now start with info from the book
Chapter 1: what is Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• Brief History of I-O Psychology
1876-1930
- Very young science (started around 170 years ago)
- With Munsterburg and Cattell → first two organizational psychologist, that wanted to
understand humans in relation to their work
- Next important moment: WW I (a lot wars are catalysts for innovation) → wanted to
understand: can I predict who in this group will be a good officer?
- Later on, they looked at time and motion studies → trying to understand how people
work more effectively in their daily work
, Hawthorne effect
- First study that we found out that human beings have a need for certain attention
- Did an experiment where they asked people how they were doing → then switched
off/dimmed the lights and asked the same questions again
- What happened: turned out that when they changed the light → people became happier
When switching the light on again, people were still happy
- How possible? → Hawthorne effect
= the moment you’re assessing a human being, their behavior also changes
→ a measurement is an intervention in itself (the fact that you ask how someone’s doing,
the score already goes up)
- So, Hawthorne studies also, the beginning of understanding that human beings are not
production pieces that just need a little food and money → but actually need attention
1930-1964
- Hawthorne studies, human relations
- Human relations movement → started to understand what makes people tick during
their work (Maslov, Skinner etc.)
• Theories of motivation
• Emotional world of the worker
• Studies of job satisfaction
- WW II → again catalyst for understanding human behavior (especially interaction
between human brain and regimes)
• Hybrid working
• Problem in hybrid working is: one group likes to be all by their selves
(likes to work from home → autonomy) and other group likes growth
and relatedness
• With hybrid → you miss out on the core human beings are about:
need to be connected to each other
• Cultural difference in organizations
- If you question people → give different answers based on their culture
- So, different cultures have a different tendency to deal with the same issue
- Can measure the personality of a culture in five dimensions
Hofstede’s Theory of Cultural influence: Five Dimensions
- Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Define yourself as unique individual or as part of group?
- Power distance
• do have idea that people in higher position have right to act as such?
- Uncertainty avoidance
• How do you deal with fact that the world around you is uncertain? Can you deal with
fact that you sometimes don’t know what to do?
• Some cultures really want certainty, while others don’t even have laws
- Masculinity vs. Femininity
• Masculinity means → definitions of gender in culture should be very sharp
• Femininity opposite → walls between gender should not be so clearly defined
- Long-term vs. Short-term orientation
