Business Psychology

Table of Contents
Task 1: Understand the different perspectives in occupational psychology..3
Task 2: Understand the role of psychology in the assessment of
individual differences in the workplace...6
Task 3: Be able to knowledge of impact of change in business....10
Task 4: Understand the impact of culture and climate on performance.1
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Task 1: Understand the different perspectives in occupational psychology
a) Major theoretical approaches
Behaviourist Theory
Behaviourism is primarily concerned with observable behaviour, as opposed to internal events
like thinking and emotion. bservable !i.e. e"ternal# behaviour can be ob$ectively and
scientifically measured. %nternal events, such as thinking should be e"plained through
behavioural terms !or eliminated altogether#.&
(http://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html)

%n order for 'wan()ooper to be successful in the changes occurred the company should take in
consideration the behaviourism approach which is focusing on the behaviour of the employees in
order to choose the best for the company*s business. +or e"ample the manager of the company if
is using the behaviourism approach may assist the companies employees a certain department in
which the employees can be more effective as a worker even when there will be changes among
their colleagues.
Cognitive approach
)ognitive approach it deals with various mental processes such as problem solving and
memory and contradicts the behaviourist model which doesn*t take in consideration the mental
processes.
+or 'wan()ooper to evaluate employee*s productivity and try to develop workable strategies to
improve worker and company performance, must implement psychological tools, such as
cognitive strategies. ,he company owners as well as managers are adapting the cognitive
educational strategy to learn about new $obs and to provide help to workers in order to achieve
the ob$ectives.
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Huanistic !pproach
,he humanistic approach e"plicitly states that people have free will, which sets it apart from
other approaches !with the possible e"ception of some cognitivists#. %t could be suggested,
however, that their position on free will is incoherent, since at the same time as insisting on
people*s ability to choose their actions, they e"plain how our behaviour is determined by our
treatment at the hands of others and an innate set of needs.
'wan )ooper after the changes create a good working environment in which all the employees
collaborate and get involved in the company ob$ective. ,he company managers took a good
working approach to their workers which many were women.
b) "cientific approach
,he scientific process is now based on the hypothetico-deductive model was proposed by
.arl Popper !1/-0#. Popper suggested that theories1laws about the world should come first and
these should be used to generate e"pectations1hypotheses which can be falsified by observations
and e"periment. Psychology took so long to emerge as a scientific discipline because it needed
time to consolidate. 2nderstanding behaviour, thoughts and feelings is not easy, which may
e"plain why it was largely ignored between ancient 3reek times and the 14th century.
'cientific approaches followed by 'wan )ooper give a great importance of people and they
create a system of relationships between the employees.5ccording to this approaches employees
can be motivated with something else than $ust financial gains .,hey must get a recognition from
the managers, because they are human beings and they must be treated like humans not like some
machines. 6eaders must try to understand them and their feelings because the company works not
only through the formal relationship but also through informal relations. ,herefore, leaders works
to encouraging the formal and informal relations.,hey give their employees the security of the
$ob and a high degree of satisfaction.
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c) "trenghts and #eaknessess of $ualitative and $uantitative approaches
7uantitative approaches
&trengths
Provides precise, 8uantitative, numerical data
9ata analysis is relatively less time consuming !using statistical software#
,he research results are relatively independent of the researcher !e.g., statistical
significance#
%t may have higher credibility with many people in power !e.g., administrators,
politicians,people who fund programs#&
(eaknesses
,he researcher*s theories that are used might not reflect local
constituencies*understandings
.nowledge produced might be too abstract and general for direct application to
specificlocal situations, conte"ts, and individuals

7uantitative approaches such as 8uestionnaires and surveys may help the company to imporve
their work.%t help the company to ask people about their opinion and help the company to find
more about what customers whant.
7ualitative :esearch
&trengths
,he researcher can use the primarily 8ualitative method of grounded theory to inductively
generate a tentative but e"planatory theory about a phenomenon
9ata are usually collected in naturalistic settings in 8ualitative research
7ualitative approaches are especially responsive to local situations, conditions, and
stakeholders* needs
(eaknesses
%t is difficult to make 8uantitative predictions.
%t is more difficult to test hypotheses and theories with large participant pools.
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%t might have lower credibility with some administrators and commissioners of programs.
%t generally takes more time to collect the data when compared to 8uantitative research.
%n contrast with 8uantitative approach the 8ualitative methods is measuring various isses such as
beliefs,perception and values.5lso this method can help the company to understand the behaviour
an the relationship between different variables.
Task 2: Understand the role of psychology in the assessent of individual
differences in the #orkplace
a) %ndividual &ifference
%ndividual differences represent the facts which make peoples different human having
different needs each and other. 5ll people know that are different in many aspects such as
psychical, desires, values, interests.
*yers Briggs +*B,-)
,he ;yers Briggs has the main purpose to e"plain the theory of psychological types in order
to understand them better and why people use them in their life.
,he theory essence is that much behaviour variations are consistent and ordinary being due to
many differences in the way people prefer to use their $udgement and perception.
*yers Briggs and its applications in general and in &wan %ooper
,he ;B,% is an instrument which can be used for employees* professional development and
organisational improvement. ;B,% result give people in training programs helpful type feedback
about themselves and how they are different from others. %n 'wan )ooper organisations ;B,% is
useful for management conflict in order to improve the employees* performance and development
but also for coach them.
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Belbin.s ,eam !oles
Belbin ,eam :ole represents a report given by certain language in helping people< employees
are forming good, productive work relation in order to develop and select a perform team and an
increasing personal effectiveness.
,o achieve the best balance, employee*s roles in 'wan )ooper team are=
One Co-ordinator > ,he leader fro the company is a respected one because it*s helping every
employee to keep its work on track which it can be e"cessively controlled.
A Plant( to stimulate the ideas, in order to solve the companies with creative and original ides. %t
can be an ignorance of the details if there is a poor communication.
A Monitor/evaluator(may lack the ability to maintain a clear and honest atmosphere between
employees by carefully thinking about the companies problems.
mplementer( the person which takes the basic ideas and put them in practice among the
company*s activities but it can be a bit slow.
Team !or"er( is the person which is a good listener, who is trying to resolve the company*s
social problems and develop a career for the team as individuals.
#esource investigator(is an optimistic person and a good networked as well e"ploring all the
ideas that it can, finding all the possibilities with energise and collaborating with others.
Completer/finisher-don*t trust other person and don*t worry very much for others but it sees all
the things to the end and is working to accomplish all the work.
'wan )ooper looks at individual differences that affect performance. ,he company first is
looking at the diversity of the natural workplace because they are e"amining various
characteristics in the workplace which may affect their environment, after they are e"ploring the
personality impact followed by values, attitudes and individual behaviour and e"amine the ways
workers built their career.
') (sychoetric instruents
/ersonality 0uestionnaire >are being used are 8uestionnaires of self(report where people
responds to various statements with no right or wrong answers. ,he area of personality is being
insight given by the completion of this 8uestionnaire. +or e"ample a 8uestionnaire can help the
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'wan )ooper candidates to describe them in various terms such as= they relation with other
people, the way they think, plan its actions, analyse and have creative ideas but also which ae
their emotions and feelings.

1erbal reasoning test2By saying verbal it means that it must be done with words. 5 verbal
reasoning test& is can be seen as a timed test which is measure people ability to reason with
various words and understand what logic has the 8uestions and passages. ,he person who
participate at such test first is reading the te"t, after is going to answer the 8uestion and then it
can move to the nest passage and so on until will finish the test. %t is a custom at the finish to
present in the right term the performance of the candidate in relation to a databases provide by the
test publisher.
c) Type of easures of individual differences
%ndividual differences are represented as a broad term and cover all the variables which make
the difference between people, form the style of decision to the cognitive ability to personality.
*otivation measures
,he measures of motivation can vary significantly in the construction of people*s targets and
can be classified in four groups having the base of what they assess.
'wan )ooper must conduct a survey of their employees. 'pecifically, ask them how much they
care about the business@ changes. 5ccording to Personnel ,oday, an employee who cares more
about the success of the business is more likely to be more motivated in his or her daily tasks.
5 survey conducted by mail or online will give them a more accurate description of employee
motivation as such surveys are less personal than a face(to(face interview.
3ecision making measures
;easures of individual differences in decision making can be divided into measures of style,
approach, and competence. ,he competence of the decision making are referring to the ability or
various skills people need to take good decisions based on normative models of decision making.
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Bmployees* surveys are the best method of gaining the company performance since no one
knows better the company that the people who works inside and are involved in the system of the
company. 5sk them to give appoint on a scale to 1 to 0 of the business abilities on speed, 8uality
and effort will show 'wan )ooper the data needed to make a comparing earth the database of the
high and low performance.
Tas" - )e a'le to kno#ledge of ipact of change in 'usiness
a) *u'ler+,oss-s "tages
9r. .ubler(:oss has writing about certain stages which dying individuals tend to go through
as they are coming to term by realiCed that they will die soon.
$enial is the fist stage of .ubler(:oss&(in the business grieve people doesn*t wish or is
unable to accept that losses is taken place or will take place. ,hey are feeling that they e"perience
a bad dream that is unreal and they are waiting to wake up and the thing takes the normal course.
5fter individuals has passed the denial stage and has been accepted the loss which has been
occurred that will begin to fell 5nger at the loss and the unfairness of it. ,hey may become to fell
abandonee and angry at the person who has been lose.
De"t coming is bargaining. %n this stage individuals are begging for higher power& to unde
their loss. nce it becomes clear that 5nger and Bargaining are not going to reverse the loss,
people may then sink into a $epression a stage where individuals are confronting with the reality
loss and how they can help themselves to make changes. %ndividuals will blame themselves for
caused of contributed to the loss whether is $ustified or not.
%n the final stage individuals are entering in a stage of acceptance where they will processed
their firstly grief emotions and are able to accept the occurred change and which can be change
anymore and to become able to plan their future.
b) %ohn &otter's ( step process
)* ncrease urgency-the company must=
B"amine market and competitive realities
%dentify and discuss crisis, potential crisis, or ma$or opportunities
Provide evidence from outside the organiCation that change is necessary
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+* Build the ,uiding Team-'wan )ooper in implementing changes should=
3iving groups enough power which will make it able to lead the change
'howing commitment and enthusiasm in order to attract leader who manage the change
Bncouraged people to work as a team.
-* ,et the .ision #ight
)reate vision in order to direct the effort within the change
9eveloping strategy to achieve the vision.
/* Communicate for Buy-in
Build alignment and engagement through stories
2se every method to communicate the strategy chosen and the new vision applied
.eep communication simple and heartfelt
,eaching new behaviour following the guiding coalition.
0* 1mpo!ering Action
:emoving all the obstacles to achieve the change
;ake changes in the system or structure which work against the new vision.
2* Create short term !ins
Planning the achievement of improvement visible performance
:ewarding and recogniCing the people who are involved in life improvement.
3* $o 4ot 5et 6p
Planning in order to create an improvement visible performance
:ewarding and recogniCing the people who are involved in life improvement.
:einforcing the people behaviours which are leading the improvements.
(* Ma"e Change 7tic"
5rticulate the connections between the new behaviours and corporate success.
c) %portant stakeholders
%n order to achieve attitude change in each of its groups the company may use certain
methodologies=
Brainstorming in generating the ideas and issues within the group of stakeholders. %t can take the
form of a meeting in which al the points are recorded and later are being sorted and prioritised.
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,he focus group then it will be able to cover the particular stakeholders in order to discuss the
particular topics.
7emi-structured interviews which are being guide by stakeholder group and having an informal
checklist of various issues and which allows other issues to be pursued or identified. ,his
approach is particularly useful for cross(checking, identification of common ground,
identification of tradeoffs and identification of decision(making frameworks of stakeholders.
$iggings up e8isting data represent a vitiated and recorded material which may shed the
stakeholders light on circumstances, characteristics and interest. %t is always worth probing and
rummaging for reports and recorded information, there is almost always more of it than at first
appears, sometimes found in the most unlikely places.
Time lines can be prepared with stakeholders of the history of links and impacts of particular
policies, institutions and processes, with discussion of cause and effect of various changes.
$iagrams helps people to understand 8uickly what idea id talk about and what are the plans and
are working really well in order to simulate the discussion by literate and non(literate people. %n a
general term there are working because are focusing on attention while they discuss a problem,
represent comple" issues simply, stimulate ideas and therefore assist in decision(making.
Tas" / Understand the ipact of culture and cliate on perforance
a) Type of culture
,he original 'wan()ooper has traditional culture which is one with rigid and tight procedures,
policies and constraints.,hey have high formality and the way they operate is organised and all
that lead them to accomplish better their ob$ectives.,hey have organiCational charts& due to
which they understand the changes and what are their responsibilities in every situation.,here is a
strict command that is present all the times and there is an organised process which decisions are
taken.,his organiCation with formality at all times is valued and strict discipline is essential for an
effective work.
%n contrast the new owners follow a democratic culture which promotes the sharing of
responsibility, the e"ercise of delegation and continual consultation, leader effectively delegate
tasks to subordinates and give them full control and responsibility for those tasks.
'wan )ooper autocratic leadership created an impersonal places to work who has a high
power cultures.Bmployees are valuated by their performance and every $ob title has his regulation
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and little creativity is allowed.,itles for positions are prevalent, and everyone is e"pected to
behave according to company policy.+ormality at all times is valued and strict discipline is
essential for effectiveness.
But also 'wan )ooper has a good working environment which means that workers are being
encouraged to asume the working responsibility and challenging activities.,he work is good
because the employees between workers is positive and is an important fact for them when they
are participating in a decision(making process leaing them to finding creative solutions to all its
problems and serving better to the company ob$ective.
n the other hand the new owners democratic leadership created an environment with high
morale, employees are motivated to offer creative solutions to all problems and they create an
good atmosphere.
') The cliate
Before the changes people in workplace people were talking about teamwork but not all
understand what she means and how they can built a strong relationship to become effective.%n
the organiCation the team is an entity specialiCed in the area that its assigned to her.,he
responsibility of the team is guide the organiCation to success according to their knowledge in the
defined area.,hese chained of teams the teachers within the organiCation&.
5fter the changes in 'wan )ooper democratic organisation the team works to create the
defined company culture necessary for the success of the organiCation,the employees work as a
team,there is communication between them and cooperation because they all share the same
ob$ectives but in hierarchical organiCation created by Filliams,people don*t work anymore in
team,they perpetuate self interest.
Fhen individuals are speaking about team in their languadge some times is affecting their
ability to make interactions with another groups.
c) ,ecoendation for iproving perforance:
,he company must make sure that its employees understand the business system( in order
for that to happen the system should be described in an e"plicit manner related to the
company*s ob$ectives because the companied who are clearly formulate their goals for
their system are reducing the ambiguity and confusion of their process.
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,he company must do an appraisal skills training for its managers(in order to have an
effectively appraisal it must be concluded that for the company is essential to have the
ability to appraise the subordinates skills. ,he training given by the company in order to
help managers to develop their specific skills and confidence in their ability to efficiently
evaluate others. ,hese skills should include= setting the goals, communicate the standards
of performance, observed the performance of subordinates, coach and provide feedback
and conduct an appraisal review
%ncrease the willing of managers in order to conduct efficient appraisal(Primary causes of
appraisal ineffectiveness fall s8uarely on the manager*s shoulder. ffer refresher
trainings, or training on the skills mentioned in the previous bullet. %n short, arm or
prepare managers to best carry out effective appraisals.
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#191#14C17
9ematteo, G.'.< Bby, 6.,. H 'undstrom, B. !1//A#. ,eam(based rewards= )urrent empirical
evidence and directions for future research. !esearch in 4rgani5ational Behavior, 2E,A-(141
3uCCo, :.5. H 'hea, 3.P. !1//2#. 3roup Performance and intergroup relations in organiCations.
6andbook of industrial and organi5ational psychology !Iol. -, pp. 24/>-1-#
https=11www.google.co.uk1searchJ
newwindowK1H8KrecommandationLforLimprovingLtheLperformanceHo8KrecommandationLfor
LimprovingLtheLperformance
http=11psychology.about.com1od1behavioralpsychology1f1behaviorism.htm
http=11www.simplypsychology.org1humanistic.html
http=11www.myersbriggs.org1my(mbti(personality(type1
http=11www.belbin.com1rte.aspJidKA
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