Industrial and Organisational Psychology: Research and Practice

Citation

Spector, P. E. (2012). Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Research and Practice (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

Chapter Summary

The sixth edition is a textbook of 14 chapters and about 460 pages, grouped by the publisher into five parts: introduction to the discipline; assessment of jobs, performance and people; selecting and training employees; the individual and the organization; and the social context of work. An appendix on applying to graduate school in industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology, references, a glossary and indexes follow the chapters. Most chapters end with a chapter summary and a "Learning by Doing" exercise, and many with an "I/O Psychology in Practice" case in which a practising psychologist helps an organization with a problem. The publisher describes the edition as incorporating the literature since the fifth, with over 170 new references, mostly from 2007 or later, new material on the development of I/O (occupational) psychology in the UK, and new or substantially updated coverage of topics such as alcohol and stress, bullying, emotional labour, humanitarian work psychology, incivility, musculoskeletal disorders, respites and violence prevention climate.

Part I: Introduction

Chapter 1: Introduction

Opens the field and the book. The publisher's contents list gives no section headings for this chapter.

Chapter 2: Research Methods in I/O Psychology

A full methods chapter. It covers research questions and important design concepts (variables, setting, generalizability, control, random assignment and selection, confounding), research designs (experiment, survey and observational), measurement (classical measurement theory, reliability and validity), statistics (descriptive, inferential, meta-analysis, mediators and moderators) and research ethics.

Part II: Assessment of Jobs, Performance, and People

Chapter 3: Job Analysis

Explains what job analysis is, contrasting job-oriented and person-oriented approaches and listing its purposes, from vocational counselling and legal issues to appraisal, selection, training and research. It covers how information is collected and who provides it, specific methods (Job Components Inventory, Functional Job Analysis, Position Analysis Questionnaire, task inventories), methods for work teams, reliability and validity, and job evaluation with comparable worth.

Chapter 4: Performance Appraisal

Asks why employees are appraised, for administrative decisions and for development and feedback, then discusses criteria (characteristics, complexity, dynamic criteria, contextual performance), objective and subjective measures, the impact of technology and legal issues.

Chapter 5: Assessment Methods for Selection and Placement

Surveys the tools used to assess people: psychological tests (ability, knowledge and skill, personality, emotional intelligence, integrity, vocational interest, drug testing), biographical information, interviews, work samples, assessment centers and electronic assessment including computer adaptive testing.

Part III: Selecting and Training Employees

Chapter 6: Selecting Employees

Covers planning human resource needs, recruiting, how organizations select (including validation studies and validity generalization), getting applicants to accept offers, the utility of scientific selection, international differences and legal selection in the United States and elsewhere.

Chapter 7: Training

Follows the training cycle from needs assessment and objectives through training design (trainee characteristics, transfer of training, work environment, methods), delivery and evaluation, with its five steps of criteria, design, measures, data collection and analysis.

Part IV: The Individual and the Organization

Chapter 8: Theories of Employee Motivation

Defines motivation and presents need theories (need hierarchy, two-factor), reinforcement, expectancy, self-efficacy, justice, goal-setting, control and action theories.

Chapter 9: Feelings About Work: Job Attitudes and Emotions

Covers the nature, assessment, antecedents and potential effects of job satisfaction, with the JDI, MSQ and JIG scales and person-job fit, followed by organizational commitment and emotions at work.

Chapter 10: Productive and Counterproductive Employee Behavior

Treats task performance (ability, motivation, personal characteristics, environment, constraints), organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive behavior: withdrawal (absence, lateness, turnover), aggression, sabotage and theft, and labor unrest.

Chapter 11: Occupational Health Psychology

Covers occupational health and safety (accidents, infectious disease, noise, musculoskeletal disorders, harmful substances, workplace violence), work schedules and occupational stress, including stressors, work-family conflict and burnout.

Part V: The Social Context of Work

Chapter 12: Work Groups and Work Teams

Distinguishes groups from teams, covers virtual teams and key concepts (roles, norms, cohesiveness, process loss, team mental models), group performance and decision-making, diversity, and interventions such as autonomous work groups, quality circles and team building.

Chapter 13: Leadership and Power in Organizations

Defines leadership and sources of power, including political skill and abuse of supervisory power, then reviews approaches to leadership from trait and behaviour approaches to Fiedler's contingency theory, path-goal, leader-member exchange, transformational leadership and the Vroom-Yetton model, with women in leadership and cross-cultural issues.

Chapter 14: Organizational Development and Theory

Closes with organizational development (employee acceptance of change, management by objectives, survey feedback, team building, T-groups and effectiveness of OD) and four organizational theories: bureaucracy, Theory X/Theory Y, open system theory and sociotechnical systems theory.

Key Concepts

Parts I and II (Chapters 1–5)

• Reliability and validity: the measurement concepts Chapter 2 introduces and later chapters apply.
• Job analysis: the systematic description of jobs, by job-oriented or person-oriented methods.
• Criteria and contextual performance: the standards against which performance is appraised.
• Assessment methods: tests, interviews, work samples and assessment centers.

Parts III and IV (Chapters 6–11)

• Validity generalization and utility: how selection devices are validated and what they are worth.
• Transfer of training: whether learning carries into the work environment.
• Work motivation theories: need, expectancy, justice and goal-setting accounts.
• Job satisfaction and organizational commitment: the book's principal job attitudes.
• Counterproductive work behavior and occupational stress: the negative side of behaviour and well-being at work.

Part V (Chapters 12–14)

• Team processes: roles, norms, cohesiveness and process loss.
• Leadership theories: trait, behaviour, contingency, path-goal, LMX, transformational and Vroom-Yetton accounts.
• Organizational development and theory: change interventions and four theories of organization.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Full coverage of the field in a predictable sequence. The five parts move from research methods through assessment, selection and training, to motivation, attitudes, behaviour and health, and finally groups, leadership and organizations, so the book can serve as a main text for a complete course.
• Learning aids in every chapter. The "Learning by Doing" exercises range from interviews to observation, "Research in Detail" boxes present a study relevant to the chapter, "International Research" examples show work done in other countries, and "I/O Psychology in Practice" cases show applied work.
• A global perspective. The publisher highlights information about I/O outside the United States and new material on I/O in the UK.
• Recent topics and a career appendix. The edition adds current topics such as bullying, incivility and emotional labour, and the appendix guides students who may wish to apply to I/O graduate programmes.

Limitations

• Organizational theory is brief. The final chapter covers organizational development and four organizational theories; there are no chapters on organizational culture, sensemaking or change management as separate subjects, so students needing these must turn to other books in the course.
• A textbook's survey depth. Fourteen chapters in about 460 pages mean each topic receives a summary treatment, and readers wanting depth on one area, such as leadership or the methods of organizational research, will need specialist books.
• Dating. The edition is from 2012, with most new references from 2007 or later. The same textbook has since appeared in later editions, which are the better choice where current research matters.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the organizational psychology list, Spector is a broad textbook of I/O psychology. For a first, gentler or more international entry, Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology is a European textbook in which each chapter is framed around a practical question employees or managers ask, and the OpenStax Organizational Behavior is a free, openly licensed introduction to how individuals and groups behave at work. Adrian Furnham's Psychology of Behaviour at Work concentrates on individual psychological factors, and Fineman, Gabriel and Sims's Organizing and Organizations is an accessible introduction combining theory and examples.

Specialist books build on parts of Spector: Edgar Schein's Organizational Culture and Leadership on culture and leaders, John Hayes's The Theory and Practice of Change Management and Dawson and Andriopoulos's Managing Change, Creativity and Innovation on change, Karl Weick's two books on sensemaking, Gareth Morgan's Images of Organization on metaphors for organizations, Haslam's two books on the social identity approach, and Bryman's Doing Research in Organisations on conducting research in organizational settings.

How to Use This Book

The book is for undergraduates taking a first or second course in I/O psychology, and for anyone entering human resources or organizational consulting. Some basic psychology helps, but Chapter 2 introduces the research and statistics needed.

A practical plan:

• Core: Part I (Chapter 2 in particular), then Chapters 3 to 6 on jobs, appraisal, assessment and selection, and Chapters 8 to 10 on motivation, attitudes and behaviour.
• Applied choices: Chapter 7 on training, Chapter 11 on occupational health, and Chapters 12 and 13 on teams and leadership, chosen according to the course.
• Optional: Chapter 14 as a bridge to organizational theory; the appendix if graduate study in I/O is a possibility.
• Using the features: Do the "Learning by Doing" exercise at the end of each chapter, read the "I/O Psychology in Practice" case before the chapter summary, and test yourself on the key measures and theories named in each chapter.