how does psychology take into account individual differences in the workplace
The Psychology of the Workplace
“Using what you have learnt since starting this module, illustrate how psychology takes into account individual differences at the workplace. You will need to make references to academic research and evidence.”
Introduction
Individual differences is the study in the area of work psychology which has come under major research; It can be defined as the studying the Cognitive, motivation, personality, and traits that make humans differ from one another. (Psych, 2004) In relation to work psychology is it thought that the behaviour of an individual can predict performance in the workplace; affecting many things such as motivation, commitment and job performance. The reason why many organisations are interested in the individual differences of employees they hire at the recruitment and selection stage, in order for the best participants to be selected. Therefore needs to a means of testing everybody fairly. Some organisations use psychometric testing, IQ testing to determine this. For example in a recent article (Lipsett, A. 2007). Graduates are being hired on the basis of their psychometric tests with “92% of employers considering it a useful or very useful aid to the recruitment process.”(According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters).The aim of the test is to detect and array of abilities involving intelligence, personality and interests. Organisations rely on this to be able to recruit the right people with the right set of abilities.
Psychology uses many methods to tackle the individual differences in the workplace these consist of cognitive ability testing, Emotional and practical intelligence testing and socio- cognitive approaches and personality and the role it plays within the workplace can increase motivation. In terms of Intelligence it can be defined by Alfred Binet has the using practical sense of good judgement- relying on the ability to understand (Arnold J., Silvester J., Patterson, F., Robertson, I., Cooper, C. & Burnes, B., 2005). Intelligence can be measured by using an intelligence quotient test; these were developed for educational purposes in order to detect the abilities of students. However IQ tests can be biased because there are culturally bounded, to certain ethnic groups. For example North Americans that take the IQ tests have an advantage over their non- American counterparts simply because the tests have been designed to impose the assumptions of the designers (Davis, B., Sumara D. J., Kapler R. L., 2000)
Also scores on an IQ test can change; an employee can practice certain ability tests before ever taking a real one; thus becoming good at those certain types of tests.
To expand the underlying principle of intelligence coincides with other aspects; Gardiner’s 1983 (cited in Arnold, J. 2005) theory of multiple intelligence; states that there is a general factor of intelligence; these are linguistic, spatial, Musical, logical, bodily, interpersonal, intrapersonal. With interpersonal – this involves processing information to the related ness to others; ability to understand other’s behaviours, intentions and moods and the ability to take perspective. Intrapersonal skills- which involve the ability to understand and work with ones self, being self-reflective and having a good understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. These are particularly important in the workplace. The practical implications of Gardiner’s theory are that they are widely used in the education system. Children for example participate in numerous activities at school that promote their verbal, numerical, musically skills. More relevantly in the workplace; individuals should be encouraged to use their preferred intelligence, and should be assessed through different forms of intelligence. For example companies are now evaluating employees from all perspectives (Milliman, J. F., Zawacki, R. A., Norman, C. P., Lynda, Kirksey, J., 1994).Through the use of multiple techniques of assessment, which include personality, ability, educational, interviews, peer evaluations and performance tests. The rationale behind this is that it helps focus on the potential strengths of the individual. (Garavan, T. N., Morley, M., 1998) More and more companies now are adopting the assessment centre approach US more the UK but this is rapidly growing 20% of top UK and Ireland firms by 1986 , this has now tripled, with majority of good firms doing this. (Garavan, T. et.al., 1998). To name a few example Pricewaterhouse Coopers have an elaborate graduate and non-graduate assessment program, where participants are taken through a psychometric test in order to measure key logical and reasoning skills, (Pwc, 2007) which are scored on a standardised scale. But what is the rationale behind assessment centres and why are they becoming so popular? Research suggests that interviews are becoming less effective (Garavan, T. et. al., 1998) in that they cannot simply measure all potentials of an individual, especially when comparing a candidate to that of another. Psychometric testing in particular, is an in depth tool assessing all aspects of a persons. Also companies that pay particular attention to how they are recruiting, promoting and developing their HR functions gain valuable competitive advantage; Psychometric testing is one way to guarantee that the right people are being hired to gain that competitive advantage (Garavan T. et. al., 1998). The employees benefit in that they get treated equally and fairly in which all organisations have to comply because of EU law directives; despite their differences in academia, or relevant experience. In the recruitment selection process each individual gets a fairly equal chance. However there are also criticisms to this psychometric assessment approach. Individuals, who are assessed in groups, can be influenced by how others behave in the group, so the assessment of the individual performance may not be accurate because of group dynamics, also there can be criterion contamination- employers may only react on the results given at the assessment. (Garavan T. et.al, 1998)
