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ASSIGNMENT

Explain the aims of industrial psychology and discuss how the concept of "emotional
intelligence" is important in the work environment with examples.
ANSWER

1. What is Psychology?

Psychology can be defined as a scientific discipline that studies mental states and processes
and behaviour in humans and other animals.

According to the Sir William James who were well known American psychologist he defined
psychology as the “science of mental life” in his book of The Principles of Psychology (1890).
After grounding their research in psychology, it was provided with insightful discussions of
the topics and challenges that foretold much of the field's research agenda a century later.

Accordingly, discipline of psychology is broadly divided into two parts. That are the science
of mind, brain, and social behavior. These two have distinctive goals, training, and practices.
Some psychologists integrate the two into one part. But each part or sector approaches issues
and problems from a different angle. Although they all focus on psychological issues or
concerns, all fields share a common goal of studying and explaining human thought and
behavior.

Accordingly psychology can be divided into two major areas

I. Research: seeks to increase knowledge base
II. Practice: which is applied to solving problems in the real world through the knowledge

Psychology is such a huge topic that there are a number of unique and distinctive branches
have emerged to deal with specific subfields within the study of the mind, brain, and behavior.
Some of these subfields have been firmly established as areas of interest, because human
behavior is so varied, the number of subfields in psychology is also constantly growing and
evolving. Each field of psychology represents a specific area of study focused on a particular
topic.
The following are just some of the major branches of psychology.
• Abnormal Psychology
• Behavioral Psychology
• Biopsychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Comparative Psychology
• Counseling Psychology
• Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Experimental Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Health Psychology
• Industrial-Organizational Psychology
• Personality Psychology
• School Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Sports Psychology

Following my study related to psychology here, I discuss organizational/industrial psychology

extensively.

1.1. Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Industrial and organizational psychology is called applied research because it seeks to solve
real-world problems. I/O psychology applies psychological principles to the study of
workplace issues such as productivity and behavior. This subject studies employer attitudes,
employee behaviours, organizational processes, and leadership qualities.

According to C.S George "Industrial psychology is concerned with the entire spectrum of
human behaviour."

After considering the above definition, we can elaborate on some psychologists in this
fieldwork in areas such as human factors, ergonomics, and human-computer interaction.
Human factors psychology is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on topics such as human
error, product design, ergonomics, human capability, and human-computer interaction.

According to the C.S. Myres, he define I/O psychology aims as follows;

“The aim of industrial psychology is primarily not to obtain greater production or output but
to give the worker greater ease at his work.”

People who work in human factors are focused on improving how people interact with products
and machines both in and out of the workplace. They might help design products intended to
minimize injury or create workplaces that promote greater accuracy and improved safety.

Accordingly here are some of the specific aims in industrial-organizational psychology:

✓ Employee motivation:
This field may also use to keep workers motivated through the care of worker’s health,
economic interests of the employee. I/O psychology address motivation and topics related such
as morale, job attitudes, productivity, and job performance. While an individual may not work
as hard to achieve the goals that others have set for him or her, he or she can be very motivated
to achieve goals other than those set by a manager.

✓ Employee testing:
It helps to select candidates that are best-suited to specific job roles considering their
performance, aptitudes etc… Once a company has identified potential candidates for a position,
the candidate's knowledge, skills, and other abilities need to be evaluated and compared with
the job description. These assessments may include tests, an interview and work samples or
assignments

✓ Leadership:
One of the various obligations of Industrial-organizational psychologists is to have a look at
leadership, study the traits that make a person an amazing leader and assist groups and groups
enforce verified management techniques so one can assist them to attain their short and long-
time period goals. It is help leaders to develop better strategies or train managers to utilize
different leadership skills to manage team members more effectively through vocational
guidance and maintaining morale.

✓ Product design:
This aim involved in the development of consumer or workplace products. Specialized
knowledge and training in the behavioral sciences in the workplace require in-depth knowledge
of organizational development, attitudes, career development, decision theory, human
performance, human factors, consumer behavior, small group theory and processes, criteria
theory and development, work, and tasks

✓ Workplace diversity:
Diversity refers to all characteristics that make people or something different from one another.
These differences may be represented by visible characteristics, such as gender, race, ethnic
background, and age. However, in I/O psychology, these differences may also be represented
by nonvisible characteristics, such as education, functional background, organizational tenure,
socioeconomic background and personality.

✓ Workplace performance:
Development of performance appraisal tools, development of structured rating processes,
training of performance raters, performance objective setting, maximizing employee
performance through compensation system development, and design of action procedures are
among the objectives. This often studies workplace behavior.

2. Emotional Intelligence

As human beings, we all have different personalities, different wants and needs, and different
ways of showing our emotions. Navigating through this all, this is where emotional intelligence
becomes important to succeed in life.

“Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, reason, and manage

emotions in oneself and others in positive ways.”
(Psychologists Salovey & Mayer)

Accordingly, it can define emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize our emotions,
understand what people telling, and realize how our emotions affect people around us. It also
involves our perception of others: when we understand how they feel, this allows us to manage
relationships more effectively.
The concept of Emotional Strength was first introduced by Abraham Maslow in the 1950s. And
thereafter as the theory, emotional intelligence is commonly defined via five attributes:

➢ Self-awareness – ability to think

Recognizing own emotions and how they affect our thoughts and behavior. We all are know
our strengths, weaknesses, and self-confidence.

➢ Self-regulations – ability to adjust

Ability to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage our emotions in healthy ways, take
initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances

➢ Self-motivation – ability to express

It is an essential part of excelling at life. If we learn to motivate ourselves then we cannot
depend on others to do it for us. We have to know how to encourage ourselves regardless of
how bad the situation is.

➢ Empathy – seeing things from others point of view

If we can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people or can inspire others
positively or negatively by using tone and language, where empathy is born.

➢ Social Skills – Inspiration of society

Ability to know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire
and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

2.1. Why is emotional intelligence so important in work

environment?

Here mainly focus on how emotional intelligence operates at work. When we examined the
relationship between emotional intelligence and effective performance can be observed how
emotional intelligence shows itself on the job.

Most large companies today have employed trained psychologists to develop what are known
as "competency models" to aid them in identifying, training, and promoting likely stars in
leadership skills. Psychologists have also developed such models for lower-level positions.

When calculating the ratio of technical skills, IQ, and emotional intelligence as ingredients of
excellent performance, emotional intelligence proves to be twice as important as the others for
jobs at all levels.
Moreover, we are shown that emotional intelligence played an increasingly important role at
the highest levels of the company, where differences in technical skills are insignificant.

Most of the researchers have confirmed that emotional intelligence can be linked to strong
performance. The findings of the late David McClelland, the renowned researcher in human
and organizational behavior, are a good example. In a 1996 study of a global food and beverage
company, McClelland found that when senior managers had a critical mass of emotional
intelligence capabilities, their divisions outperformed yearly earnings goals by 20%.

Meanwhile, division leaders without that critical mass underperformed by almost the same
amount. The above McClelland's findings, interestingly, held as true in the company's U.S.
divisions as in its divisions in Asia and Europe. It tells us a persuasive story about the
relationship between a company's success and the emotional intelligence of its leaders and
employees. And just as important, research is also demonstrating that people can, if they take
the right approach, develop their emotional intelligence.

However, we discuss below how this emotional intelligence, which has thus taken a theoretical
and experimental approach, is important in the work environment in terms of its attributes.

2.1.1. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is the first component of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness means having

a deep understanding of one`s such self-knowledge often shows itself in the hiring process.
Also, it can also be identified during performance reviews.

Self-aware people know and are comfortable talking about their limitations and strengths, and
they often demonstrate a thirst for constructive criticism. By contrast, people with low self-
awareness interpret the message that they need to improve as a threat or a sign of failure. Self-
aware people can also be recognized by their confidence. They know their abilities well and
are less likely to fail,

A person with a high sense of self-discipline will be able to work with demanding clients. He
or she will understand the client's impact on her mood and the underlying reasons for her
frustration. Self-awareness extends to a person's understanding of his/her values and goals. A
person who is very self-conscious about where he is going.
For an example:
Once may firmly refuse a job offer that is financially attractive but does not align with his
principles or long-term goals. Self-awareness can also be identified during performance
reviews. Self-aware people know and are comfortable talking about their limitations and
strengths, and they often demonstrate a thirst for constructive criticism.

2.1.2. Self-Regulation

Biological impulses drive our emotions. We can't get rid of them, but we can do a lot to manage
them. Self-regulation, like an ongoing inner conversation, is a component of emotional
intelligence that helps free us from the prison of our emotions.

For an example:
Imagine an executive has just seen a group of his employees present a sloppy analysis to the
company's board of directors. In the ensuing gloom, the executive may be tempted to bang a
table in a fit of rage or knock over a chair. But if he has a gift for self-regulation, he will choose
a different approach. He will choose his words carefully, admitting the team's poor performance
without rushing to judge.

Why is self-regulation important to leaders?

• First, people who control their emotions and impulses, that is, rational people, can
create an environment of trust and fairness.
• Second, self-regulation is important for competitive reasons.

2.1.3. Motivation

If there's one trait that virtually all effective workers have, it's motivation. They are determined
to exceed their own and others' expectations. The first sign of motivated people is passion for
the work itself. These people seek creative challenges, love to learn, and take great pride in a
job well done. They also display unrelenting energy to make things better.

For an example:
A cosmetics company executive was frustrated that he had to wait two weeks for sales results
from people in the field. He eventually found an automated phone system that beeped each of
his salespeople at 05.00 p.m. daily. An automated message will then prompt them to enter their
number regarding the number of calls and sales they made that day. The system has reduced
the response time of sales results from weeks to hours. This story illustrates two other common
characteristics of people determined to succeed. They continuously improve their performance
and enjoy the score. First get the performance bar. During performance reviews, highly
motivated people can ask to "stretch" their superiors.

Here, employees who combine self-awareness and intrinsic motivation will realize their limits.

2.1.4. Empathy

Of all the dimensions of emotional intelligence, empathy is the most recognizable. We've all
felt the sympathy of a sensitive teacher or friend, we've all been struck by the absence of an
insensitive coach or boss. But when it comes to business, we rarely hear people praised, let
alone rewarded, for their empathy.

For an example of empathy in action, consider what happened when two giant brokerage firms
merged, creating redundant jobs across their divisions. A division manager rallied his staff and
delivered a melancholy speech highlighting the number of people who would soon be laid off.
The director of another department gave his people a different kind of statement. From the very
beginning, he was known for his own worries and embarrassments, and he promised to keep
everyone informed and treat everyone fairly. The difference between these two managers is
empathy.

Empathy is the antidote. People with this disorder are sensitive to the intricacies of body
language; they can hear the announcement under speech. Therefore, empathy is the most
important attribute in the work environment.

2.1.5. Social Skill

The first three components of emotional intelligence are all self-management skills. The last
two factors, empathy and sociability, relate to a person's ability to manage their relationships
with others. As a component of emotional intelligence, social competence is not as simple as
one might think. It's not just about friendliness, though highly social people rarely have bad
intentions. Social competence is about friendliness with purpose: moving the organization in
the direction you want it to be, whether it's agreeing on a new marketing strategy or enthusiasm
for a new product.
For an example:
Socially qualified people know how to manage. Teams are their sympathies at work. Likewise,
they are adept persuaders, an expression of combined self-awareness, self-regulation, and
empathy. Take the case of an executive in the strategy department of a global computer
manufacturer. In 1993, he believed that the future of business lay in the Internet. Over the next
year, he found good spirits and used his social skills to assemble a virtual community that
transcended levels, divisions, and countries. He then used this de facto team to create a
corporate website, one of the first for a large company. And, on his own initiative, with no
budget or formal status, he hired the company to participate in the Internet industry's annual
conference. Calling on his allies and persuading various departments to raise funds, he recruited
more than 50 people from dozens of different entities to represent the company at the
conference. Management realized: less than a year after the conference, management had
established the basis of the company's first Internet division, and he was officially put in charge
of this department. To achieve this, executives push past conventional boundaries, forging and
cultivating relationships with people from all corners of the organization.

Conclusion

Considering the above examples through the emotional intelligence attributes it is the emphasis
that the importance of emotional intelligence in the work environment. Not only for that. It is
also important to day-to-day life and the maintenance of the good mental state of every
individual.