Occupational Psychology in Practice

1
Occupational Psychology in Practice

• Dr. Raymond Randall
• Lecturer in Occupational Psychology

2
Some Key Questions

• What is Occupational Psychology?
• What do Occupational Psychologists do?
• What evidence is there that we make a difference?
  
• What are the career paths and job opportunities
  in the field?

3
Learning Objectives

• To give you an understanding of what the
  profession of occupational psychology is
• To allow you to understand the type of research
  and practice that occupational psychologists do
• To allow an appreciation of the links between
  general psychological theory and occupational
  psychology

4
Occupational Psychology

• to promote, develop and regulate the work of
  occupational psychologists in corporate,
  academic, voluntary, public and private sector
  settings, to enhance the well-being and
  work-effectiveness of organisations and
  individuals within society. (BPS Website)
• Using, and developing, psychological theory and
  research to help organisations

5
Areas of Expertise

• Selection and assessment
• Human-machine interaction
• Design of environments and work
• Performance appraisal and career development
• Counselling and personal development
• Training
• Employee relations and motivation
• Organisational development and change

6
What is our Value?

• Knowledge of psychology and flexible application
  of theory
• A different way of investigating and
  intervening
• Solid ethical principles
• Research-based practice
• But.perceived academic-practitioner divide
  (e.g. having control groups)

7
People Performance(source Sunday Times 100
best Companies (to work for))
8
Selection Assessment

• Analysing jobs and people
• Identifying knowledge, skills, ability, and
  attitudes
• Competency-based selection
• Design of work sample tests / structure
  interviews
• Reducing the impact of test bias and human bias
  that leads to poor decisions
• Reliable, valid, fair and acceptable measures
• Developing and refining intelligence testing
  personality measurement

9
Some key findings.

• In interviews, situational, job-related questions
  show the strongest link to future job performance
• General intelligence (g or GMA) is most
  consistent predictor of future job performance
• Specific abilities predict performance beyond
  general intelligence, but are job-specific
• Assessment centres produce the best results in
  selection process (but we are not sure exactly
  why)

10
Some Key Findings II

• Situational interviews and critical reasoning
  predicted performance of candidates in UK general
  election
• Empathy and sensitivity, communication skills
  highly predictive of performance in General
  Practitioners (GPs)
• Personality characteristics predict job
  performance, but it depends on the nature of the
  work

11

• Salgado (1997) large EU study
• Agreeableness Extraversion related to
  performance in jobs with strong interpersonal
  component (e.g. management, the police)
• Low emotional stability linked to poor
  performance in most jobs
• Emotional stability particularly important for
  police, managers, professionals and skilled
  manual workers
• Conscientiousness predicts for all occupations
  studied

12
The Problem of Work Stress

• In UK, 500,000 instances of work stress per year,
  each resulting in average of 29 days absence
  3.7 billion / year
• Counselling / rehabilitation often default option
• Appraisal theories of stress emphasise role of
  perception of working conditions and personal
  resources

13
Work Stress
14
Work Stress
Social Support as a buffer
15
Evidence for the Model

• Perceptions of working conditions vary between
  individuals in the same environment
• Stress is a negative emotional experience the
  result of transactions between person and
  environment
• Appraisal / cognition emotions mediate the
  relationship between work and well-being
• Good evidence from longitudinal research linking
  work to CHD and affect

16
Tackling Work Stress

• Redesign the job
• Recommended first option
• Mixed evidence of efficacy changes in working
  conditions must be perceived for them to be
  effective
• Training
• Coping resources (e.g. acceptance and commitment)
• Rehabilitation
• Counselling
• Combination of approaches works well

17
Training

• Lots of usable psychology theory
• Power law of practice
• Knowledge of results
• Stages Declarative-procedural-tuning
• In organisations, evaluation generally poor
• Happy sheets
• What to measure and how to measure it?

18
A classification scheme of learning outcomes
(from Kraiger, Ford and Salas 1993)
Learning
Cognitive Outcomes Verbal knowledge Knowledge
organisation Cognitive strategies
Skill Based Outcomes Compilation (cognitive gt
physical) Automaticity
Affective Outcomes Attitudinal Motivational
19
Becoming an OP

• BPS accredited U/G degree in Psychology
• BPS accredited MSc
• Breadth of practice across several areas
• Depth of practice within a few areas
• Usually a minimum of 2 years practice (i.e.
  U/grad plus 3-4 years)

20
Working as an OP

• Consultancy firms
• OPP, Pearn Kandola, SHL, Kaisen, ASE, Saville
  Consulting, Test Agency, Kenexa, (etc.)
• In-house in large organisations
• Home Office, DfES, DWP, Police Forces, Military
• Ford, RBS, JP Morgan, Boots, HSBC, Ernst Young,
  KPMG, QinetiQ
• Independent consultancy
• Academic / research

21
Summary

• Occupational psychology is varied and challenging
• OPs have skills valued by organisations
• Lots of areas where psychology has been shown to
  make a difference to organisations
• Like any specialty, it takes time to train!