Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Industrial (Personnel) PsychologyB-31890), thus influencing the job applicationprocess as we know it today. Ifyou’ve ever taken a personality test, anIQ test, or even a state-mandated academicachievement test, then Cattell’sconcept of mental testing has affectedyour life. In 1921, Cattell founded thePsychological Corporation, one of thelargest publishers of psychological tests.Today, pre-employment testing has becomea basic step for screening job applicants,helping many organizations withtheir hiring decisions.Another one of Wundt’s students,Hugo Münsterberg, is considered bymany to be the father of I/O psychology.His book, Psychology of Industrial Efficiency(1913), was the field’s first textbook.Here, Münsterberg explained thebenefits of matching the job to theworker. He believed that successfulmatches had multiple benefits, includingincreased job satisfaction, improved workquality, and higher worker productivity.Hugo Münsterberg (1863–1916) Afterearning his Ph.D. in psychology at theUniversity of Leipzig in 1887, Münsterbergestablished himself as a pioneer in appliedpsychology, extending his research to business,medical, legal, and educational settings.Invited by William James to teach atHarvard University, Münsterberg taughtthere until his death.Industrial (Personnel) PsychologyThree major goals of personnel psychologists are selecting the best applicants forjobs; training employees so that they perform their jobs effectively; and accuratelyevaluating employee performance. The first step in attaining each of these goals isto perform a job analysis.Job AnalysisWhen job descriptions are lacking or inaccurate, employers and employees mayexperience frustration as tasks are confused and positions are misunderstood oreven duplicated. Consequently, I/O psychologists are called upon to conductjob analyses that result in accurate job descriptions, benefiting everyoneinvolved. Outdated or inflated job descriptions may land organizations in legalhot water. More specifically, a job description that indicates more knowledge,skill, or ability than is actually needed to perform well in a job could violate theAmericans with Disabilities Act. For example, sewing straight seams may bedetermined more by one’s sense of touch than by perfect vision; thus, if a garmentmanufacturer required sewing machine operators to have perfect vision,then visually impaired people—some of whom may be able to sew perfectseams—would be excluded unfairly from employment. The Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission (EEOC), the Department of Labor (DOL), and theAmericans with Disabilities Act (ADA) all endorse job analysis as a precautionarymethod to avoid legal problems (EEOC, 1999).Job analysis is a technique that identifies the major responsibilities of a job,along with the human characteristics needed to fill it. Someone performing a jobanalysis may observe employees at work, interview them, or ask them to completesurveys regarding major job duties and tasks. This information is then used to createor revise job descriptions, such as the example given in Figure B.1 on the nextpage. Sometimes this information can even be used to restructure an organization.