Psyc 3310: Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Spring 2004

Instructor: Sylvia J. Hysong, Ph.D.

 E-mail: via WebCT

Office: Heyne Hall, 129-B

 Phone: x38519

Office Hours: by appointment

 Prerequisites: Psyc 1300

Course Web Site: http://www.uh.edu/webct

FAQ/Info Web Site (no login required): http://www.uh.edu/~shysong    

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, you should:

1.      Know what I/O psychologists do and how they do it

2.      Understand what is required in selecting, training, and evaluating employees

3.      Know the psychological theories involved in leadership, job satisfaction, employee motivation, and organizational behavior and how they apply to real organizational situations.

As I/O psychologists are both scientists and practitioners, this course contains both theoretical and applied elements.

Course Materials:

1.      Spector, P.E. (2003). Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Research and Practice, 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

  1. Ott, J.S. et al. (2003). Classic Readings in Organizational Behavior, 3rd  ed.  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
  2. Readings on WebCT course site.

Course Description:

This course is designed to introduce you to the field of industrial/organizational psychology. The emphasis is on the psychological principles and how they apply in a work context. Topics will include legal issues in employment, selection of employees, performance appraisal, training, leadership, motivation, and group behavior. In order to have a productive learning experience, it is essential that you thoroughly read all the materials assigned for that week before watching the lectures. This is the only way to solidly engage the material.

Course Grading:

Because different people learn in different ways, your performance will be evaluated by several means:

1.      Exams (30% each). There will be two open book, open note exams, and a final exam. They will cover classroom discussions as well as material covered in the book and the readings. The final exam will not be comprehensive. Your lowest exam grade will be dropped. All exams will be administered via WebCT.

  1. Short Papers (30%). There will be two, 6-page papers (details on the course web site).  These are to be submitted in HTML format (most word processors can save in HTML or “as Web Page”) via the assignment drop box on WebCT.  Each paper is worth 50 points -- at the end of the semester, your total accumulated points will be worth 30% of your final grade.
  2. Class Participation (10%). Weekly thought/discussion questions will be posted on the discussion board. You are required to post replies to these weekly questions, and are encouraged to respond to other students’ responses that may attract your attention.
  3. Extra credit assignments. You have the opportunity to add up to 3 percentage points to your grade by doing extra work. There are two different assignments:
    1. Summarize journal articles related to I/O psychology. For each article you summarize, you may earn up to 5 points. Every five points earns you one percentage point toward your final grade.
    2. Participate in selected psychology experiments.  The psychology department is constantly conducting research on a variety of topics, and is always looking for research participants.  Participation is harmless, usually consisting of filling out a survey of some kind.  Every hour of participation earns you one percentage point toward your final grade – however, only experiments where you can submit proof of participation electronically will be accepted.

Journal articles will be due mid-semester, the experiments will be due at the end. More details on this assignment are available on the course web site.

 Late policy: If you have a planned absence (e.g., business trip out of town) that coincides with one of the deadlines or exams, please talk to me well in advance so that we can make alternate arrangements.  Make-up exams will be given only to students who have made advance arrangements, or have a written medical excuse.  No late papers will be accepted. 

Course Schedule

* Dates marked with an asterisk denote exact dates as opposed to “week of” (e.g., Exam 1 is on 2/16, rather than the week of 2/16)

Week of

Topic

Assignment

Tape

1/17

Orientation meeting

 

 

1/26

Introduction and Overview

Spector, Ch. 1

1

2/2

Research Methods

Spector, Ch. 2

2-3

2/9

Job Analysis

Spector, Ch. 3;

Morgeson & Campion, 1997

4-5

2/16

Selection

Spector, Ch. 5-6;

Mueller and Hysong, 2003

Schmidt & Hunter, 1998

 

6-7

2/20*

EXAM I

 (Note this is a Friday)

 

2/23

Training

Spector, Ch. 7

Salas & Cannon-Bowers, 2001

8-9

3/1

Performance Appraisal

Spector, Ch. 4

Longnecker, 1989

Jawahar & Williams, 1997

10-11

3/8

Productive and Counterproductive Behavior

Spector, Ch. 10

Barrick & Mount, 1993

 

12-13

3/15

SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS

(tapes 14-15 will air this week and repeat next week)

 

3/22*

PAPER 1 DUE 10 PM

 

 

3/22

Motivation

Spector, Ch. 8;

Ott, #10: “The Hawthorne Experiments”

Ott, #13: “The Human Side of Enterprise”

 

14-15

3/29

Job Satisfaction

Spector, Ch. 9

Judge et al., 2002

16-17

4/5*

EXAM II

 

 

4/5

Leadership

Spector, Ch. 13;

Ott,   #4: “The Contingency Model”

Ott, #33:  The Bases of Social Power”

 

18-19

4/12

Employee Health and Safety

Spector, Ch. 11

20-21

4/19

Work Groups and Work Teams

Spector, Ch. 12;

Ott, #19: “Origins of Group Dynamics”

Ott, #28: “Groupthink:  The Desperate Drive for Consensus at any Cost”

 

22-23

4/26

Organizational Development

Spector, Ch. 14

Ott, #21: “Cultural Diversity in Organizations:  Intergroup Conflict”

Ott, #38: “Group Decision and Social Change”

 

24-25

4/30*

PAPER 2 DUE 10 PM

 

 

5/3

Guest I/O Psychologists

 

No reading asssignment

26

5/7

Final Exam

 

 

 

Reserve Readings

Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1993). Autonomy as a moderator of the relationships between the Big Five personality dimensions and job performance.. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 111-118.

Jawahar, I. M; Williams, Charles R. (1997). Where all the children are above average: The performance appraisal purpose effect. Personnel Psychology, 50, 905-925.

Judge, T.A.; Heller, D; Mount, M.K. (2002) Five-factor model of personality and job satisfaction: A meta-analysis.   Journal of Applied Psychology. 87(3) 530-541

Longenecker, C. O., Sims, H. P., Jr., & Gioia, D. A. (1987 Aug.). Behind the mask: The politics of employee appraisal. Academy of Management Executive, 1, 183-193.

Morgeson, F.P; Campion, M.A. (1997). Social and cognitive sources of potential inaccuracy in job analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 627-655.

Mueller, S.M. & Hysong, S.J. (2003).  Internet Interviews: An Assessment of Validity and Applicant Reactions.  Paper presented at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management.  Seattle, WA:  August 1-6, 2003.

Salas E, Cannon-Bowers JA . (2001) The science of training: A decade of progress.  Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 471-499

Schmidt, F.L.& Hunter, J.E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 262-274.

Course Web Site/WebCT

This course requires the use of the WebCT on-line course environment. All course activities, including assignment submission and test administration, will happen via WebCT. Please visit the course home page at http://www.uh.edu/webct as soon as you obtain a login ID and password (see below). There you will find a copy of this syllabus, the external readings, information about assignments, extra credit, and exams, and links to writing and psychological sources. You will also find e-mail, discussion, and chat resources.

 

WebCT Essentials

This page provides information for how to get up and running on WebCT quickly – also meant as a handy reference for knowing where to go for help when you’re stuck.

 

I encourage you to go through the WebCT tutorial on the UH WebCT web site at http://www.uh.edu/webct/help/tutorial.html to get more comfortable with WebCT.  And as always, the friendly folks at the IT help desk are there to help you, and can most likely help you better than I can on most technical issues.  They are there for your benefit – avail yourself of their help.

Logging In (courtesy of the WebCT support team):

Students have three options to get their WebCT username:

1) Online at http://www.uh.edu/webct - Student Information - Get your username - Enter student ID number.

2) In person in Room 56 in the basement of the MD Anderson Library on the main campus, Monday-Friday, 8 am to 8 pm.

3) By phone at 713-743-1411 Monday-Friday, 8 am to 8 pm.

A student’s initial password is his/her birthdate in the format MMDDYYYY. WebCT usernames and passwords are case sensitive. Students should change their password the first time they log on to WebCT.

Once students have their username, they will log on to WebCT courses by going to http://www.uh.edu/webct , clicking Log On, and entering their login information when prompted.

Tech Support

Support for students using WebCT will be available in four ways:

1) Online at http://www.uh.edu/webct - Check out the online tutorial available under Get Help.

2) In person in Room 56 in the basement of the MD Anderson Library on the main campus, Monday-Friday, 8 am to 8 pm.

3) By phone at 713-743-1411 Monday-Friday, 8 am to 8 pm.

4) By sending email to support@uh.edu.