Organizational Psychology - Research Paper Example

 Behavior of individuals within formal organizations counts a lot toward the success or failure of businesses (Jex & Britt, 2008). This behavior has a profound impact upon the daily lives of consumers, in that everything they use depends upon the coordinated effort of employees of a business – effort that becomes successful if they possess the right kind of behavioral patterns or, in other words, psychological patterns. This organizational psychology goes unnoticed most of the times, according to Jex and Britt (2008); it is noticed only when the businesses are either too successful or too poor. Organizational psychology understands the behavior of individuals in an organizational setting through scientific procedures, generating knowledge that is beneficial to organizations to improve their functionality. This paper intends to discuss some significant aspects of organizational psychology. The thesis statement of this paper is that organizational psychology plays an important role in recruitment process and organizational socialization. First of all, we describe how organizational psychology can be applied to the recruitment process, and both are viewed from an organizational and applicant’s perspective. From the organizational perspective, organizational psychology starts its application right from the stage when applicants are being attracted toward job positions. This refers to advertising and marketing. Organizations can reduce the number of incompatible applicants by providing details about the job in the job posting, like number of hours to work, educational qualifications, and skills and experience required. Such advertisements detail the job posting, which is beneficial in the sense that the job seekers find it easy to sort out the jobs of their level. Organizational psychology demands that the employers, before advertising the job posting, first get down to think what kind of an employee they require. It depends on the type of the business. An entertainment business may need a friendly employee, while a property business may need a more professional and serious one. Hence, organizational psychological principles help organizations to identify the skills required and enable them to offer such a workplace to employees where they feel more committed to their jobs. After the advertising, organizational psychology helps the interviews to prepare well structured and to-the-point interviews, through which they are able to judge the applicants in the shortest time frame possible. Offering attractive employment benefits is another important part of organizational psychology, which leads to significant employee motivation. From the applicant’s perspective, the organizational psychology is important when he or she seeks out job listings. The method of recruitment process has a great impact upon the applicant’s choice and opinion about the organization. When he or she is interviewed professionally, with respect and with care, he or she feels more satisfied with the job. The interview not only helps the organization select the individuals, but also enables the individuals make a final decision about the organization. Also, when applicants know that the interviewer is knowledgeable about the job posting, they feel attracted toward the position. Workers feel more job satisfaction in an environment where employees share common beliefs, values, and standards (Jex & Britt, 2008). Jex and Britt (2008) write that, just like the organizations, the applicants are also trying to make a favorable impact upon the organizations, and they are all the time comparing different choices and making judgments about different organizations. They evaluate potential employers, just like the employers evaluate potential applicants. So, we see that organizational psychological principles guide the recruitment process not only for the organizations but also for the applicants. Let’s now discuss the application of organizational principles in organizational socialization. Kinicki and Kreitner (1999) define organizational socialization as “the process by which a person learns the values, norms, and required behaviors which permit him to participate as member of the organization” (p.51). Through the use of this process, organizations entrench their organizational cultures in the behaviors of their employees (Saks & Gruman, 2011). Organizations promote their standards, norms, values, and beliefs, turning outsiders into well-known insiders (Kinicky & Kretner, 1999, p.51). Through the use of the organizational psychology, the employers devise ways to connect the new employees with the older ones through techniques like electronic communication (Hanisch, 2008, p.6). Hanisch writes that “employees communicate through email, company websites, chat groups, and blogs. Job applicants also use these resources to learn about the organization…” Other important sources of socialization information are the supervisors and coworkers. Mentoring is a very beneficial part of socialization, in which an old employee is paired up with a new employee so that the latter benefits from the advice and suggestions of the former. The mentor, who is a former employee, informs the new employee about the functioning of the organization and what it expects of its employees in terms of success and progress. If mentoring is efficient, the new employees become familiar with the new environment quiet fast. Coaching is another technique which includes regular meetings between the managers and employees to discuss required skills. Counseling is done to sort out employees’ personal problems that are keeping the employees from showing their best. Teaching involves giving employees knowledge about communicative, inter-personal, problem-solving, and professional skills. Applying organizational psychological principles to promote the organizational culture, all of these techniques are important aspects of the socialization process. Maurer and Lippstreu (2008) committed a research in 2008, which determined the relationship between employees’ development/socialization and employees’ commitment to the organization. They stated that organizational support for the employee development affected employee socialization, depending on employees’ learning and performance goal orientations. They used a two-wave internet survey sampling method to survey 651 employees from the US workforce. They found that when the employers of the organization supported their employees in learning new skills and competencies, the employees showed greater commitment to the organization. To conclude, we have seen that organizational psychological principles are an important part of the recruitment process and organizational socialization. Organizational psychology is very helpful during the whole recruitment process, since it makes sure that the selected applicants possess the required skills, and that the organization also fits the applicants’ proficiency level. Moreover, it also helps in promoting organizational values and standards through socialization. Organizational psychological principles support mentoring, coaching, counseling, teaching, and providing employees with a collaborative platform through which they can learn about the organizational culture. References Hanisch, K.A. (2008). Industrial and organizational psychology. Wadsworth Psychology Module. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from http://www.cengage.com/custom/enrichment_modules/data/Intro_IO_Module_049559489X%20_GENERAL_site.pdf Jex, S.M., & Britt, T.W. (2008). Organizational psychology: A scientist-practitioner approach (2nd ed.). USA: John Wiley and Sons. Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (1999). The organizational psychological process. Organizational Behavior 3E. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Maurer, T.J., & Lippstreu, M. (2008). Who will be committed to an organization that provides support for employee development? Journal of Management Development, 27(3), 328-347. DOI: 10.1108/02621710810858632 Saks, A.M., & Gruman, J.A. (2011). Organizational socialization and positive organizational behavior: implications for theory, research, and practice. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 28(1), 14–26. DOI: 10.1002/cjas.169 Read More