Social Psychology In Organization Reg no - 614376894

Q1. Using your own words explain what is meant by “organizational psychology “ and describe its
main applicatio areas. Use practical examoles where neccessaryb to elaborate your answer.

 What is an organization ?

An organization is a group of people working towards a common objective. And it is a social entity
formed by a group of people.

 What is psychology ?

According to Crooks and Stein (1988),it is “the scientific study of the behaviour and mental process
of humans and other animals.”

“ The science of mental life”,which is behaviour , thoughts,and emotions of human beings. This was
defined by Miller (1966).

 What is organizational psychology?

Organiztional psychology can be defined as “a branch of applied psychology that studies human
behaviour in an organizational and business setting.” (OUSL text book)

This is an area of applied psychology. But organizational psychology is not one of the subdisciplenes
of the basic psychology .

What an individual does, think or feel & predicting what an individual do in an organization is an
important requirement. This can be fullfilled by organizational psychology.

Organizational psychology is an important and vibrant field of inquiry which has been enjoyed a
considerable growth in recent decades throughout the industrialization.

Therefore the organizational psychology can be termed as a valuable aspect which help us to
understand people’s actions,thoughts and feelings in relation to work and consequently how yo
improve the management of people at work.

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 Social Psychology In Organization Reg no - 614376894

The specific areas of organizational psychology which were listed by the british psychological society
in 1986 are as follows.

Main application areas of organizational psychology

1. Selection and assessment.

- Selection is based on the premise that there are stble individual differences between people,
which can be identified and that these differences have an impact on how effective people
are in a particular job. (Robertson 1995)
- Usually selections are done according to the “job analysis.”
- Common sselection procedeures are,interviews, psychometric tests, references,bio data etc.
- Assessment centers are the series of assessment exercises used to assess a person’s
potential to the job.
- Example – interview ;more than one interviewer is involving here.direct questions are asked
in order to select the employee match to the job designed.

2. Training.
- Training is a learning process structured in a systematic fashion & designed to raise the
performance level of an employee. (Goldstein 1993)
- For that we need to identify the need of training, then design them and afterwards evaluate
the training.
- Example – training the new employees to carry out the day today activities smoothly.

3. Performance appraisal
- Identify the main areas of job performance and design a method to evaluate the
performance.
- Example – measure the performance of the newly joined employees after the training.

4. Organizational change.
- Analyze the systems,relationships and development with an idea of possible change,and
implement them if they need any change.
- Example – if there is a outdated computer system in the process , change it to a latest
version in order to efficient the system.

5. Ergonomics and equipment.

- Analysis and design of the work and design the equipment and environments to fit human
physical and cognitive capabilities.
- Example – if the work designed is the sewing the equipment need is the sawing machine
and the threads etc , the work environment would be a factory.

6. Career choice , development and councelling.

- Analyse the employees capabilities , interests and design the career according to that and
develop it through councelling.

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 Social Psychology In Organization Reg no - 614376894

7. Interpersonal skills.
- Identify the skills of employees such as leadership qualities , group work , interaction with
other people etc.
- Example – appoint a person with leadership qualities as a supervisor.

8. Equal opportunities.
- Maintaining equity is important and if the minority don’t get much opportunities enhance
them.

9. Occupational safety and health.

- Identify the possible cause of an injury during the work and take measures to mnimize the
occurrence of them.
- Example – take measures to avoid any accident while engage in electricity works.

10. Work design.

- In order to have satisfaction and motivation , allocate the tasks of the job.
- Example – give a target to sew a number of pieces per day in a garment.

11. Attitude surveys.

- Design , conduct and analysis of surveys in order to evaluate.
- Example – give a questionaire to assess the satisfaction of the job and conduct it and
evaluate and then take actions.

12. Well being and work.

- Identify and investigate the factors that affect to stress and the unemployment and take
preventive actions since stress affect in economically and human suffering.
- Example – through attitude surveys identify the factors lead to stress and unemployment
and take measures to prevent and manage them.

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 Social Psychology In Organization Reg no - 614376894

Q2. Explain the term “group socialization” and discuss the key stages of the process of group
socialization. Use suitable examples to elaborate your answer.

What is a group ?

Two or more people bearing an psychological relationship to one onother in a social arrangement.
Groups are bounded by the perceptual boundary of their members.

Understanding about the groups and the behaviour of the group members is very important to
manage people in an organization.

Types of groups

Formal groups – generally appear in the organizational structure and communicate through official
channels.

Informal groups – not generally appear in the organizational structure and communicate through
informal channels to satisfy social needs & other requirements etc.

Group socialization.

In order to understand how groups operate it is necessary to look about the group structure ,
process and the value system of the group.socialization is the cultural process of learning to
participate in the group life.

When examining about group process, socialization can be defined as the process by which a person
joining a group or an organization for the first time is initiated and assimilated , so that he will aquire
the values and behaviour patterns of the group.

The key stages in the process of socialization are ;

move to
Assimilation of formal and informal roles
new
New member fully fledged role
group
Initiation

candidate anticipatory , anxiety and pre learning

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 Social Psychology In Organization Reg no - 614376894

1) Anticipation
- This is the stage of considering to join the group. Anticipation means expect ,look forward to
deal with or respond to in advance. He or she is technically termed as a “candidate” or
“initiate”. This need a pre learning.
- Anticipatory socialization can be termed as the voluntary process of preparing to accept new
norms, attitudes, behaviours and values.
- This involves a period of pre-learning in order to replace the previous reference group.
- In order to be a candidate, Represent the pre expectations of individuals from about group
members. Also considers that existing groups have expectation about new group members.
- The member thinks about what will I have if I join this group before joining the group.

 Example – if the assisstant marketing manager is promoted to a marketing manager, he is

expected to behave as a manager , dress as a manager. And he should know about the
responsibilities of a manager. Now He is adjusted to the new role through pre learning and
stripping. Since now he is replaced with previous roles and status.
2) Initiation
- Initiation means the cause to begin.
- As that , the candidates are forming work groups in order to begin the process of
assimilation.
- This stage is used for the assignment of problems to the work groups which are beyond their
capabilities.
- From that the possibility of failure and rejection is high.
- In order to survive , the groups forms group structures , process and values.
-
 Example – Basically in every organization new members are having induction in order to
understand the organization. The newly joined members are assigned some tasks to do and
they are grouped in order to perform the task.the possibility of the failure and rejection is
there.
3) Assimilation
- Assimilation means be absorbed to a larger group.
- After the initiation the identified members are further developed.
- This is mostly used when a new member , tht is “initiate member” is joined.
- At this stage either new member will leave the group or stay in the group.
- It is depend on how thw assignment is handled.
- If a new member is capable of doing the assessment, he or she will be moved to a
completely trained role.
- Members accept the established group culture & began to identify the group and its
members.
- The group-ness occurs in this stage.
- This is last stage of socialization.

 Example - The completely trained or fully fledged member is absorbed to the group. The
new member adapt to the organizational culture , values in order to survive and actively
participate in the organization and identify the members of the organization.

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