Professional Diploma in

The Psychology of Organisations

Lesson 2: The changing world of work

Evolution of Organisational Psychology over time

Historical moments which changed the world of work

The rise of Human Relations and HR Management

Predict the impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution

Lesson 2: Changing world of work

Lesson Objectives

The birth of ‘Industry’

• A group of companies that are related based on their primary business activities

• Manufacturers or businesses that produce particular kinds of goods or services

• Economic activity concerned with the processing of raw materials and manufacturing of goods in factories

What does ‘Industry’ mean?

Did you know?

IndustryAlso defined as ‘hard work’

Industry implies a supply of labour for a specific purpose

The Industrial Revolution• ‘Industry’ is born in Britain

• Rural societies become urban

• Mass quantity production

• Machines and factories

• Steam power is the game-changer

An industrialised workforce• Need for a ‘factory worker’

• Mechanised factory system

• Rise in population growth rate

• Rise in urbanisation

World’s first factoryThe first modern factory was a water-powered cotton spinning millDid you

know?

ChallengeDraw up a list of words (about 5 – 6) that

you think would describe the working

conditions of factory workers during the

Industrial Revolution

Conditions of work

Dangerous Long-hours

Conditions of work

Poor pay Lack of workers rights

Efficiency and productivity• Assembly lines want to improve output

levels

• Goal was profit, therefore employee productivity had to be optimised

• ‘Industrial Psychology’ comes into play

• Very little interest in worker sentiment or satisfaction

• Focus purely on streamlined job design and efficiency

• Landmark research focused on efficiency and job design

• One of the key men who set that tone was Frederick Taylor

Efficiency and productivity

Chat with Morpheus

Questions?

Taylorism

• Mechanical engineer

• Obsession with efficiency and

productivity

• Created the concept of

scientific management using

four key principles

1. Use science to identify how to work efficiently

2. Select workers and train them for efficient working

3. Closely supervise all work and incentivise obedience

4. Planning and thinking is not a job for the worker

Four key principles of

Taylorism

Taylorism isn’t popular anymore

but is it still alive and well?

Does that still apply to day?

Human Relations

Seeing employees as humans

• Employees have thoughts and feelings

• Not just resources to be productively managed

and replaced

• Shift aligned with profit mindset, not just about

being ‘nice’ to people

• Human capital becomes important

• Treat people more humanely

• Involve them in decision-making

• Improved morale achieves better productivity

A different supervision style

Human Relations emphasised:

Industrial democracy Sense of interest and motivation

Belonging, trust and growth

Hawthorne Experiment

• Elton Mayo was the founder of the Human Relations movement

• Greatly influenced by the Hawthorne experiment

• A study at the Hawthorne electrics factory

• Research to see if light affected worker productivity

• Study produced an unexpected finding

Hawthorne Experiment continued

• Study itself positively impacted worker productivity

• Uncovered that showing interest in employees motivated them to work harder

• “Hawthorn effect”

ChallengeReflect on your own work.

Do you put in more effort and do a better

job, if someone is watching you?

Or if someone shows some interest in what

you are doing?

Psychology and War• War creates greater appetite for the

ideas of Organisational Psychology

• Expertise in industrial fatigue and

the effects of hunger

• Application of scientific

management principles to

streamline military actions

• US joins the war

• Started using aptitude tests to fill key roles

• Birth of Psychometric testing

• Walter Dill Scott is a key advocator of psychometrics in the army

• Personnel classification becomes a key fixture in military management

Psychology and War

Psychometric Testing

What are Psychometrics?• Science of measuring psychological abilities,

attributes and characteristics

• Psychological measurement

• More than just the tests themselves

• Also mathematical, statistical and professional protocols that underpin tests

What can Psychometrics measure?• Intelligence

• Aptitude

• Achievement

• Creativity

• Personality

• Interest inventories

• Behavioural preferences

• Neuropsychological factors

Testing in workplaces

• Testing evolved and improved

• Variety of new techniques and standards have been introduced

• Professionalisation

• Their place in organisations is firmly cemented

80% of Fortune 500 companies make use

of psychometric testing

Organisational Psychology today

Human Resource Management

• People are seen as an input

resource

• This resource can be optimised

• The term ‘Human Resources’

(HR) was coined in the 1960’s

• Belief is that Human Capital is

important and must be managed

Some typical HR responsibilities• Managing job design, recruitment & selection

• Developing employee pay schemes and benefits programmes

• Promoting employee career development and learning

• Providing orientation programs for new hires

• Managing employee grievance issues

Why HRM matters?

• Hiring mistakes are costly

• Extend the ‘time to performance’ curve

• Perceptions of injustice amongst staff

• Skill stagnation

• Inability to deal with under-performance

• Conflict and disciplinary issues

Focus is very much on workforce management and HR practices

The 4th Industrial revolution• 1st & 2nd Industrial Revolutions powered by

steam and electricity

• 3rd IR underpinned by computing and IT

• Now a 4th IR has started, premised on:

• unparalleled access to technology

• digitisation

• artificial intelligence

• robotics

• the internet of things

What is the 4th

IR?• Sometimes called Industry 4.0

• World is made of up a variety of cyber-physical systems

• World of work will be massively impacted

Implications of the 4th IR on work• Technology advances will change the

landscape of work

• AI, robotics, internet of things

• Autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, nanotechnology and quantum computing

• Organisations will have a different need for human skill

• Businesses will create value in different way

What does this mean for Organisational Psychology?

Expansion of automation affects:• Employment prospects

• Employee well-being

• Equality

How will we value ‘human resources’ in the future?

Changing profile of required human skill:• Competence

• Experience

• Knowledge

What are the jobs of the future?

What are the necessary skills for those jobs?

More exploration of this in Module 4 of this course

No easy answers!

What have we covered in this

lesson?

• Industrial Revolution and the birth of industry

• Early theorists of the field

• Impact of war and the rise of testing

• Human Resource Management

• 4th Industrial Revolution and its impact