Week 1 studying behavior in
organizations
💡 Lecture 1
The person & the workplace — De persoon en de omgeving
The founding father of Psychology: Wilhelm Wundt
The founding fathers of Organizational Psychology
Cattell was interested in individual differences
Munsterberg was interested in interaction individuals & environment
WW1
IQ test military in the past: otherwise managing a person to perform a task
would cost more than it yields.
Testing got a big boost throughout the first world war
1920s and 1930s
People working in factories ← easy work
Week 1 studying behavior in organizations 1
, Managing means steering people
First people who thought about management: engineers
You needed a human factor to work with a machine
How to make a person more productive?
Started studies in factories with stopwatch
Studies about effect of light on work productivity
Hawthorne effect: a change in behavior or attitudes that was the simple
result of increased attention
You can change behavior and peoples attitudes just by giving attention
The moon is not going to change because you look at it, people are
We have to be aware that what we watch is changed by us
Someones behavior changes when you ask someone how the person
is doing
Because of the Hawthorne effect → Human relation movement.
People are more than just parts of a factory: why are people motivated,
why are they happy etc.
Looking from a more human perspective and knowing that the people
needed attention
WW2
Started to think about interaction between e.g. airplanes & human beings
1960s
Things like diversity and dealing with equality became more important as well
Today’s environment
People are working from home and interact through technology
Week 1 studying behavior in organizations 2
, What do we know of working from home?
It saves time, space and energy
Mixed results on performance
Mixed results on well being
Individual differences
Performance is the number 1 issue in Organizational Psychology
Maximum performance: the level of performance in a given domain that
one can produce on demand for a short period if one chooses to exert
maximum effort
Typical performance: day-to-day performance
The correlation between the two is moderate → there is a reason to see
those things as different concepts
A moderator is a factor which influences the correlation between X and Y.
If you drink alcohol it will influence your driving behavior. This
correlation is influenced by antibiotics. When you take antibiotics and
you drink alcohol → the correlation between alcohol and driving
behavior becomes stronger.
Week 1 studying behavior in organizations 3
organizations
💡 Lecture 1
The person & the workplace — De persoon en de omgeving
The founding father of Psychology: Wilhelm Wundt
The founding fathers of Organizational Psychology
Cattell was interested in individual differences
Munsterberg was interested in interaction individuals & environment
WW1
IQ test military in the past: otherwise managing a person to perform a task
would cost more than it yields.
Testing got a big boost throughout the first world war
1920s and 1930s
People working in factories ← easy work
Week 1 studying behavior in organizations 1
, Managing means steering people
First people who thought about management: engineers
You needed a human factor to work with a machine
How to make a person more productive?
Started studies in factories with stopwatch
Studies about effect of light on work productivity
Hawthorne effect: a change in behavior or attitudes that was the simple
result of increased attention
You can change behavior and peoples attitudes just by giving attention
The moon is not going to change because you look at it, people are
We have to be aware that what we watch is changed by us
Someones behavior changes when you ask someone how the person
is doing
Because of the Hawthorne effect → Human relation movement.
People are more than just parts of a factory: why are people motivated,
why are they happy etc.
Looking from a more human perspective and knowing that the people
needed attention
WW2
Started to think about interaction between e.g. airplanes & human beings
1960s
Things like diversity and dealing with equality became more important as well
Today’s environment
People are working from home and interact through technology
Week 1 studying behavior in organizations 2
, What do we know of working from home?
It saves time, space and energy
Mixed results on performance
Mixed results on well being
Individual differences
Performance is the number 1 issue in Organizational Psychology
Maximum performance: the level of performance in a given domain that
one can produce on demand for a short period if one chooses to exert
maximum effort
Typical performance: day-to-day performance
The correlation between the two is moderate → there is a reason to see
those things as different concepts
A moderator is a factor which influences the correlation between X and Y.
If you drink alcohol it will influence your driving behavior. This
correlation is influenced by antibiotics. When you take antibiotics and
you drink alcohol → the correlation between alcohol and driving
behavior becomes stronger.
Week 1 studying behavior in organizations 3
