The research methods employed by psychologists have helped business a
great deal. They are used in several ways:
First, psychological tests have been adopted to assess the personality and
intelligence of potential employees or for decisions about promotions. Tests
are also useful to assess the attitudes of employees, and so to try to identify
conflicts with group or organisational goals. They are also used by the
marketing departments of organisations to understand consumer attitudes
for the purposes of promoting the products that will best satisfy the customer.
Secondly, the experimental methods of psychology have been used to observe
the effect of changes in the workplace, such as in working conditions, or
changes to the benefits received by employees. A good example of this was
introduced in Chapter 1, that of the Hawthorne experiments.
Chapter 3 of this guide will introduce one of the most important
contributions that psychological approaches have made to the
understanding of organisational behaviour. This is the area of motivation.
Psychologists have done many studies of what motivates employees to
work or to work well. This is because motivation can be related to the
internal decision making processes of an employee, and so the studies are
interested in identifying the factors that influence whether an employee
decides to work to the best of their ability or not.
Examples of these theories that we will consider include those put forward
by Hertzberg, Maslow and Vroom (see Chapter 3).
Remember to check that you followed up the notes in the guide by
reading about these psychologists in the Mullins readings, and also
check your glossary is up to date.