TAKE HOME EXAMINATION

SEPTEMBER / 2020

ABPS3203

INDUSTRIAL & ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

NO. MATRIKULASI : 730307125428001

NO. KAD PENGENEALAN : 730307-12-5428
PROGRAM : BACHELOR OF PSYCHOLOGY
WITH HONOURS
NO. TELEFON : 012 820 6704
E-MEL : dinnadaisy@gmail.com
PUSAT PEMBELAJARAN : SABAH LEARNING CENTRE
PART A
QUESTION 1
a)
Motivation is one of the key performance elements for workers in driving them to do
their work to full potential. Motivation in learning is a vital process, especially in
predicting a worker’s experience in a training program. Workers with high motivation
in learning are able to learn better and are more motivated in completing a given task
and perform better in any training program. Ability refers to a person’s or a team’s
ability to perform a task. A worker’s motivation to learn is determined by the worker’s
psychological characteristics, which influence their desire to learn or not to learn.
Among the six characteristics, motivation is one of them that ensure the worker
interacts with a situation. It’s a state of mind where the worker determines the level of
desire, interest and energy that will translate into action. A person’s motivation
changes from situation to situation and over time. For example Danny’s motivation to
improve at his work attendance will change if he finds he’s about to get a disciplinary
letter. He’ll find he will be punctual in coming in to work. He'll then alter his intensity
by motivating himself to get up early, his direction (focusing on work and going to bed
early for example), is the driver to change his punctuality. Motivation will have
changed. In addition to individual attitudes, motivation also considers a person’s needs.
Needs are based on personality, values and relate to things that a person desires. So,
there seems to be two factors at play in motivation in an individual. One is a behavioral
aspect, the intensity + direction + persistence part that a person brings to the table,
that’s existing inside him or her. There is also a factor that people are motivated to fill
their needs, such as food, shelter, and more complex needs, too. It’s easy to see how
motivation is a very individual thing.
b)
Locus of control is the belief that things or situations can or cannot be controlled by
themselves. This variable affects the worker’s motivation in learning. For example,
workers who have a high internal locus of control believe that job rewards such as pay
and promotion are under their personal control whereas workers who have a high
external locus of control believe that life events are beyond their control. They are
more likely to depend on luck, chance or whether their bosses like them. Workers who
have a high internal locus of control are likely to be highly motivated to succeed in a
training program as they believe that the ability to master certain skills or knowledge is
within their control. In comparison workers who have a high external locus of control
are less likely to be motivated to succeed in a training program. Locus of control is
people’s perception of who has control over their lives, their environment, and external
events. People who have an internal locus of control feel that their successes and
failures are largely due to their own efforts, knowledge and choices. People with an
external locus of control feel that external factors have an undue influence on the
current situation they’re in. Locus of control is a fairly stable personality trait, though
significant external factors can influence it.
QUESTION 3
a)
Engineering psychologists utilize psychological principles to solve real-world
problems. People who work in this profession are able to help improve, and sometimes
even save, human lives. By minimizing the risks of accidents and errors, engineering
psychologists can make products, systems, and workplaces safer. Engineering
psychologists are able to make the technology we use every day more reliable, useful,
and safe. Some examples of products that they might work to design or improve
include GPS systems, mobile phones, medical equipment, military equipment, aviation
technology, traffic systems, and motor vehicles. Some of the objective tasks that an
engineering psychologist might perform in this line of work include:
i) Impetus military needs, this is by analyzing how people interact and use equipment
and technology. Engineering psychologists learn to understand that in designing
powerful weapons it's important to emphasize the limitations and strengths of the
equipment. From this then the engineering psychologists are able to design weapons
that are in line with the user’s ability in sensing, perceiving, judging and making split
second decisions. This also includes exploring ways to make technology more
accessible to people with disabilities, and creating safe products and designs intended
to minimize human errors.
ii) Designing products for ergonomic needs, where the engineering psychologists
spent great amount of time in designing daily used products such as toothbrushes, seat
buckles, chairs and others to ensure that users’ well-being are looked after when using
these daily products and ensure workplace accidents are reduce and searching for ways
to prevent accidents from happening again in the future. Examples such as General
Motors with their cars.
iii) Engineering psychologists attempt to redesign work tools and to reshape the ways
workers do their tasks. Such as reducing time in doing certain tasks or work, for
example introducing new tools to make work smoother, such as in Frederick Taylor
experimenting with different loads to determine the optimum shovel used by factory
workers. Doing so would help the company in terms of being cost effective and fully
utilize manpower efficiency.
b)
Though having machines helps in simplifying human workloads, however machines
would not be able to totally replace or take over the role of human. This said from
studies conducted though every person’s job is likely to be changed by at least 25 per
cent over the next decade, as technology increasingly permeates task performance, in
areas such as reliable monitoring, rapid calculation, the volume of information and
repetitive activities. There are areas where machines are known to be far inferior to
human operators such as the following:
i) Flexibility - Where computers can only do what they are programmed to do,
computers are not able to do critical thinking and being flexible with situations.
Therefore humans are needed to interpret datas, efficiency and productivity for
technology, including creativity, problem solving, emotion, complexity management
and close relationships with stakeholders for the workforce.
ii) Trial and Error - Machines cannot learn from the past and mistakes to rectify their
actions. Unlike humans we can communicate to understand problems and solve them,
technology cannot replicate the chance meeting within the organisation where
communications unveils common problems or builds linkages.
iii) Improvisation - Machines cannot improvise as they are unable to reason like
humans do. For examples where these skills were vital, whether in healthcare,
insurance, utilities, service providers or legal services. The challenge for organisations
is to take the best elements of both, combining the processing power of technology
with the softer skills and lateral thinking of humans.
PART B
QUESTION 1

Job analysis process is to determine the specific skill needed to perform a job, and in
doing KSA the human resource is able to identify better employee selections that are
required for the job. Here are four methods that human resources would use in terms of
job analysis.
i) Interviews
The use of interviews for job analysis involves a detailed meeting with the person,
performing the job (subject matter expert or sme). the smes who are involved in the job
analysis process must be told the reasons for conducting the job analysis in the first
place.
ii) Questionnaires
Questionnaires are also commonly used in job analysis. In unstructured questionnaires,
questions asked are usually open-ended. SMEs are asked to answer the questions in
their own words. When structured questionnaires are used, SMEs need to provide
details such as descriptions of tasks, operations and working conditions. Structured
questionnaires are usually in multiple-choice format. A widely used structured
questionnaire is the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ).

iii) Direct Observations

A third approach to job analysis involves direct observations since human behaviour
tends to change if they know they are being observed. Most of the direct observations
are done through electronic performance monitoring systems. For example, financial
institutions (banks) use the Queue Management System (QMS) to monitor running
time and speed.

iv) Critical Incident Technique

Another method, known as the critical incident technique, identifies incidents or
behaviours that are necessary for successful work performance. The incidents or
behaviours are indicated by the SMEs. While one critical incident may not be very
useful, hundreds of critical incidents or behaviours can be valuable to the HR
practitioner to identify the desirable work behaviours critical to successful work
performance.
QUESTION 2

Contingency Theory which was developed by Fred Fiedler in 1978 suggests the
effectiveness of a leadership style between the leader’s personal characteristics and the
situation. This theory puts forth the idea that effective leadership hinges not only on
the style used by the leader, but also on the control held over the situation. In order to
succeed, there must be strong leader-member relations. Leaders must also present tasks
clearly and with goals and procedures outlined. They need to possess the ability to
hand out punishments and rewards, as well. According to Fiedler theory, organizations
attempting to achieve group effectiveness through leadership must assess the leader
according to an underlying trait, assess the situation faced by the leader, and construct
a proper match between the two.
This particular theory only fits situations where groups are closely supervised and not
team-based. It also uses a least preferred co-worker (LPC) scale to help determine the
type of worker the leader least likes working with. This theory emphasizes the leader’s
disposition as the main trait that defines the ability to lead. For example, Fiedler states
that leaders with high LPC scores are relationship oriented, they need to develop and
maintain close interpersonal relationships. They tend to evaluate their least-preferred
coworkers in fairly favorable terms. Task accomplishment is a secondary need to this
type of leader and becomes important only after the need for relationships is
reasonably well satisfied. In contrast, leaders with low LPC scores tend to evaluate the
individuals with whom they least like to work fairly negatively. They are task-oriented
people, and only after tasks have been accomplished are low-LPC leaders likely to
work on establishing good social and interpersonal relations.
Some situations favor leaders more than others do. To Fiedler, situational
favorableness is the degree to which leaders have control and influence and therefore
feel that they can determine the outcomes of a group interaction. For example, if a
leader is popular and directs a highly structured task, having the power to enforce
discipline or reward, then he or she has a high degree of control over the situation and
it is favourable. On the other extreme, if an unpopular social club president has no
formal goal, no power to require attendance of the members, he or she is considered as
having a low degree of control over the situation and it is unfavourable. In
contingency theory, person-oriented leadership style will work better in the first
example while a task-oriented leadership style will work well in the latter. Although
the research findings seem to be promising, most of the research done in this field is in
a lab setting, hence the validity of its usefulness remains in question.
According to this theory leaders are categorised into person-oriented or task-oriented
leaders, and then here the effectiveness of the leader's style is gauged, depending on
the degree of the control the leaders have over the situation. The degree of control a
leader has is dependent on three factors
i) The leader-follower relationship - the degree of the group’s acceptance of the leader,
their ability to work well together, and members’ level of loyalty to the leader
ii) The leader’s authority and power - a leader’s direct ability to influence group
members. The situation is most favorable for a leader when the relationship between
the leader and group members is good, when the task is highly structured, and when
the leader’s position of power is strong.
iii) The degree of task structure - the degree to which the task specifies a detailed,
unambiguous goal and how to achieve it.