VETTER E learning course (EN)

Psychology is an area of science aimed to study the mind and behaviour. However, its definition is so broad, as it includes different areas of study. Many people relate psychology with mental health, as it is one of its branches. Regarding society, psychology can help us understand our influence on and links with other people.

Considering its interdisciplinary aspect, we have to remark that psychology is essential to the workplace. There is a term used in this field: “psychological safety”, and it is crucial for high performance in teams: “it enables sharing of ideas, admitting and learning from mistakes, highlighting risks, and challenging (and improving) the way we do things. Psychological safety is the primary foundation for the team performance as well as organizational agility and change.”  Psychology helps businesses at different levels, to motivate, train, support or even to designing products, build better workspaces and foster healthy behaviour.  

This aspects of psychology at work can be included within the social psychology, which studies people’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs intentions and goals constructed within a social context and, therefore, looks at human behaviour as influenced by other people and the conditions under which social behaviour and feelings occur. 

The elements examined by social psychology are the following: the self-concept, social cognition, attribution theory, social influence, group processes, prejudice and discrimination, interpersonal processes, aggression, attitudes and stereotypes.

One of the most important principles of social psychology is influencing attitudes. People's attitudes can change depending on other factors, so general attitudes can't predict specific behaviour. Industrial-organizational psychologists focus on workplace harmony and productivity. “Some can apply their knowledge to marketing strategies. They analyse customers' preferences to improve company performance. They can even predict how a marketing strategy will be received by consumers. By studying human behaviour, psychology is relevant to every aspect of business. There are a number of major branches of psychology. The field of social psychology and the business world are closely related to each other.” If company that uses psychologists to improve employee morale and motivation, it is likely to benefit more in the long run. 

In order to analyse the impact of psychology at the workplace we are going to go through the following topics: Social Perception in Work Settings, Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction and Conflict in Work Settings.

• Social Perception in Work Settings: it deals with how others are perceived. As we know, in any work setup there are individuals who are in constant interaction with each other. Here, it is relevant to analyse the perception. There are two main perceptual biases: selective perception and halo effect.  The first one can be detrimental in the process of selection and performance appraisal, so this bias needs to be known and avoided. With regard to the halo effect, an employee who is not punctual may be perceived as lazy, when in reality they may be the contrary. Attribution also needs to be focused on when we discuss about social perception. According to this, the individual behaviours can be as a result of internal or external factors. Internal factors denote factors that are under control of the individual and the external factors denote the factors that are not under the control of the individual. The model further states three types of information that is considered while making attributions. Distinctiveness: if the behaviour is not common, the distinctiveness is high, and vice versa. Consensus: if the behaviour is displayed by others as well, the consensus is high. Consistency: if the behaviour pattern is same over a period of time, the consistency is. Behaviour of an individual is attributed to internal causes if they display high distinctiveness, high consensus and low consistency. But behaviour of an individual is attributed to external factors if they display low distinctiveness, low consensus and high consistency. 

• Work motivation and job satisfaction: These two components to a great extent determine the work performance of the employees. A possible definition would be “the process of arousing and sustaining goal directed behaviour”. 

• Work motivation: related to work activities. Motivation can be broadly classified in to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation can be explained as a motivation in which the individual internally feels that they need to work in certain direction. Extrinsic motivation denotes motivation that is as result of external factors. For example, an employee can be motivated to achieve his/ her target as result of pressure from his immediate superior. 

• Job satisfaction:  a possible definition can be “a person’s attitude toward his or her overall job as well as toward various aspects of the job; it is a predisposition to respond to one’s work environment in a favourable or unfavourable manner”. Thus, in an organisation an employee may display high or low job satisfaction based on their attitude towards their job and its aspects.  There are two main approaches to measuring job satisfaction: The global approach: This approach focuses on the overall job satisfaction and there is one general question asked to the employees about how satisfied they feel with their job keeping in mind the all the aspects. The facet approach: This approach takes in to consideration various aspects and facets of the job. Thus, the attitude and feelings of the employees with reference to various facets of the job like nature of the task, supervision, benefits, opportunities and so on are focused on. There are various determinants of job satisfaction: Characteristics of the job, Social and organisational factors, Personal characteristics.

• Conflict in work settings: Conflicts in an organisational set up can negatively impact the organisation, so they need to be avoided or managed adequately. When we discuss about conflicts, we do not mean disagreement. Conflict can be explained in terms of perceptions of incompatibility related to interests and they can arise between individuals or groups and can be due to various causes: Organisational causes: Such conflicts find their origin in the organisational structure and process. Interpersonal factors: These include lack of effective combination, biased attributions, negative attitude, inequality and so on. However, various strategies can be used to manage these conflicts: Bargaining: Bargaining includes making exchange offers and even counter offers. Superordinate goals: Superordinate goals can be explained as that are perceived as significant and found to be appealing by both the conflicting parties. Incompatibility response strategy: This strategy could mainly be used to deal with any aggression that accompanies the conflict. 

Apart from the social psychology that has to be taken into account at work, we have to highlight the importance of maintaining a good self-mental health, which also contributes to a safe environment. Specialists of psychology tend to raise awareness of this, as work is a significant part of everyone’s lives, we spend much of our time working. In order to maintain a good mental health, we need to ensure that we follow these steps: 

• Talk about your feelings

• Keep active

• Eat well

• Drink sensibly

• Keep in touch

• Ask for help

• Take a break

• Do something you’re good at

• Accept who you are

• Care for others