Industrial or Organizational Psychology Issue

¶ … Industrial or organizational psychology [...] issue of leadership and issues of power in a dysfunctional organization. Leadership is one of the most important aspects of any organization, and it can be a source of stress, dissatisfaction, and job dissatisfaction, as well. How organizations choose and motivate leaders can be empowering or threatening to the organization, and using organizational psychology techniques to hire, qualify, and create leaders can be one of the most important aspects of organizational psychology put to good use in an organization.

The issues of leadership and power affect just about every aspect of any organization, and certainly affect the day-to-day job satisfaction and production of the staff of that organization. In the past, I have worked for an organization that promoted managers and leaders based not on their leadership qualities, but on their job experience or length of service with the organization, which led to people rising to leadership positions who had very few leadership skills. In a dysfunctional organization of this type, the leadership and quest for power became a source of dissatisfaction, job stress, and poor job performance, which led to a high staff turnover and general dissatisfaction with the job. I believe good organizational leadership skills and techniques could have turned this organization around, but because they did not use them, the problem continued, staff continued to leave, and as long as I worked there, the problem was never solved or even addressed. In my job, I worked directly with two supervisors and/or directors who had been promoted using the length of service as a guide, and they were two of the worst managers I have ever worked with. They had issues with power, they were dictatorial and controlling, and had no understanding of any types of psychological management techniques. They were very difficult to work with, and I eventually left to work in another department, as did almost everyone else in that department.

I would use performance appraisals and job analysis to attempt to make a change in the organization's managers, and I would advocate leadership training and motivation, as well. Job analysis is one of the most important topics in organizational psychology because it gives an overall picture of the job and the job's purpose, as well as the incumbent performing the job. I do not believe a thorough job analysis has even been performed on the jobs in the organization where I worked. I believe a thorough job analysis of all management positions would benefit the job in a number of ways, including defining the characteristics of the job and the person performing the job, and it will also help define the management characteristics necessary to perform the job.

Performance appraisals would also be important in redefining the job, because the performance appraisals would need to be redesigned to represent more of the management characteristics of the job, and what results the position was supposed to obtain as it related to management. For example, currently, the performance appraisal for the management job is the same appraisal used throughout the organization, and it uses very general questions like the person "meets or exceeds the job requirements," etc. There is nothing specific about management or management techniques, and it does not do a good job of telling managers what they need to work on and reassess in their own management performance.

A selected these topics because I believe they are the best and most thorough way to reassess the management positions in these organizations, and to help the management positions become more effective and supportive to the staff. Job analysis is vital to understand the many facets of these jobs, and to understand why managers have been promoted because of their experience rather than their management skills. Clearly, management takes a back seat to other issues in this organization, and a thorough job analysis can give answers to the questions of why this is the case. Performance appraisals are very appropriate for reorganizing the management functions of these positions because they indicate where the person has been successful and where they have not. They need to be reevaluated to contain more management information and assessment, and that will make them an effective tool in analyzing management positions in the future, as well as choosing employees who offer leadership qualities as well as expertise in the chosen area of the organization.

The job analysis offers the explanation of what management techniques this particular job entails, and also assesses other aspects of the leader's day-to-day activities. It can show that more of these daily activities pertain to management than previously thought, which can show why management and leadership skills are so important for this particular job. In the job I am discussing, my supervisor interacted with all of the employees on a daily basis, and gave them instructions on what work to accomplish that day, as well as what the overall goals were for that week. However, this manager did not "trust" employees, and was constantly checking up on them, asking them for their progress, and otherwise micro managing them. She told them how to complete tasks, rather than allowing them to come up with decisions on their own, and assessed them on the mistakes they made, rather than on their successes. She had moved up through the ranks to reach her position, and had not majored in business or management. She was "successful" in the eyes of the administration because her department turned a profit, but the department had a high employee turnover because they were dissatisfied with her management and stressed by her over-controlling nature. I believe a thorough job analysis of this job would indicated that many more management skills were necessary for success in the job, and I believe that analysis would show that the current employee did not have those skills, and either needed to develop them or be replaced with someone who did.

A performance appraisal, if it was reconstructed and assessed would give a clearer picture to the manager herself of her failings as a manager, and show her where she needed to make improvements. This was not done, and indeed management skills were not assessed on the current performance appraisal, so this is also a key factor in reorganizing and reforming this job and other management jobs in the company.

d. If you were a consultant coming into this organization, how could you apply each of these topics to address or understand the issue? Include how you would measure if you were successful in changing the situation.

If I were a consultant coming into the organization, I would apply each of these topics as soon as possible to address and understand the issue. I would do a thorough job analysis and go over it with the administration, and I would redesign the performance appraisals for managers to fully reflect the management aspects of their jobs. I would also recommend training in management techniques for all managers in the organization, but I would advocate the administration taking these classes as well, to set an example for their managers. I believe that the idea of promotion through length of service is a long-ingrained idea at this organization because it is simpler and has been effective in the past in some areas, but I believe that has become an outmoded and failure-ridden way to promote today. Some of the administration reached their positions in the same way, and so are reluctant to change and make sweeping alterations in the organization. I believe that ultimately the organization cannot survive without change, and I would advocate the job analysis and performance appraisals as two topics of organizational psychology that could truly make a difference, and in a relatively short amount of time if they were implemented as soon as possible. I think there would certainly be resistance to these ideas, so as a consultant I would have to stand my ground and fight for my choices. I believe that I would have to point to prior accomplishments, as well, so this is not an assignment I would take directly after becoming a consultant, but one that I would grow to so I could perform it to the very best of my ability.