INDTRODUCTION TO INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• It began as a branch of psychology in December 1901,when Dr. Walter Dill Scott in the U.S.A spoke on the possibilities of the application of psychological principles to the field of advertising.

• It tries to understand the human problems that have arisen as a result of tremendous expansion of industry in the last few decades.

• People are the essential ingredients in all organizations. Industrial psychology has the potentiality to contribute to the productivity of industry and business on one hand and achieving greater effectiveness and fulfilment of working on hand on the other.

• It is defined as the study of man and his behaviour with the aid of scientific methodology.

• Industrial Psychology is the science of behaviour (what we do) and mental processes (sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings).

• Scope of Industrial Psychology is an extremely broad field, encompassing many different approaches to the study of mental processes and behaviour. The Personnel Selection, Personnel development, Human Engineering, Productivity Study, Management, Accident prevention and safety measures and Labour Relations are the scope of the Industrial Psychology.

• The omnipresent tendency to resist changes of any ort and maintain a status quo has been a great hurdle in the acceptance of industrial psychology by employees and managements all over the world because practice of industrial psychology often demands radical changes in the outlooks and attitudes of both employees and the employers are also averse to changes because often they are not sure about the efficacy of the new ideas and are least inclined to take risks.

• Industrial Psychology is the application of psychological principles and facts to the behaviour of the people at work in industry and business. One important thing of this psychological principle is that basically they govern the behaviour of all the human beings in any situation in life whether in school, home or in business and industry

• The first principle of psychology is that all the activities of human beings are not random but are always brought about by some stimulating factors or conditions that make a person to behave in a certain fashion.

• In industrial situations, many such behaviours like absenteeism among workers, low figures of production, or a poorly running sales department or industrial tensions which often erupt in strikes or lockouts; are investigated with a view to determining the underlying stimulating conditions or causes or antecedent conditions.

• By understanding the causation of behaviour we can predict, change or control their behaviour or shape it in a desirable direction. Industrial Psychology aims at understanding the causation of events so that it may help us to have a better control over the situation.

• Individual differences both in physical and psychological characteristics of the individuals from the very basis of industrial psychology.

• The basic aspects in which individuals may vary broadly are: – Differences in Physical Characteristics. – Differences in intelligence – Differences in Interest.– Differences in Personality Characteristics.

• If all adults in India were given a general intelligence test, the frequency distribution of the scores would resemble the following bell- shaped curve. The normal distribution has an important characteristic. The mean, median and mode are the same score (a score of 100) because a normal distribution, is symmetrical.

• The score with the highest frequency occurs in the middle of the distribution and exactly half of the scores occur above the middle and half of the scores occur below. Most of the scores occur around the middle of the distribution or the mean. Very high and very low scores occur infrequently and are therefore considered rare.

• Learning has been defined in psychology a relatively permanent change in behaviour which occurs as a result of experience or practice.

• The characteristic of learning are:– 1.It is a change in behaviour for better or worse. If

there is no change in behaviour there is no learning.

– 2.Learning is the effect of experience or practice.– 3.The change brought about by learning may last

for sometime and may not be transitory as in the case of changes brought about by fatigue or drugs

• Perception plays an important role in our daily life and is a complex phenomenon What we see also depends on the frame of reference in which we see it. People may again differ in the rapidity with which they perceive

• In many industries tasks the larger size of visual field is a very crucial factor and obviously persons with a narrow visual field are ill equipped for such jobs. What you perceive or how you perceive is largely a matter of learning or training, but often such differences are inherent and difficult to improve by training, beyond a certain limit

• Attitude is a very important concept in psychology and must be clearly understood by industrial psychologists and students. Attitude may be best defined as learned orientation or disposition towards favourable or unfavourable manner. It is often used to explain various form of industrial behaviour.

• Opinion can be distinguished from attitude in two ways- first, an opinion is verbalized or expressed in language or in some other way while an attitude may not be. Opinions are a public affair, while attitudes are private affairs. Opinion is there for every one to see and infer.

• Prejudice is used to imply negative or unfavourable attitude towards a person or group of persons. Even production of company is influenced by unfavourable attitude of the workers. Changing and improving the attitude is the part of an industrial psychologist’s function in industry

• It is a basic psychological concept . It may be defined as a behaviour arising out of various human needs and which is directed towards certain goals that may bring satisfaction of the need. There are primary, general and acquired or learned motives or social motives.

• Personality is the some total of all the physical and mental characteristics, capacities and abilities of a person. It describes “what a person is”. Behaviour on the other hand, is what a person does. It is fairly flexible in individual. It is based on personality, but depends generally on environment.

• The phenomenon can be described with a simple equation: B = f (P,E) where B= behaviour, f= function, P= personality and E=Environment.

• We generally start off our lives with roles which are determined by providence and not by any choice of ours. These roles are imposed on us by our fate or providence or what we call circumstances. Roles, thus patterns behaviour.

• A human group has been defined by Hegrath as a system of roles and social organization as a system of human groups. The organizational roles are primarily based on the tasks to be performed at various levels and functions within the organization and form the formal organizational structure. Role performance is a continuous, dynamic process which necessarily takes place in conjunction with performance of people in the roles, and role relationship is vital for the work to be done.

• In industries several small and large groups are often at work in terms or department. Such group phenomena are: An organization is a dynamic entity and the organizational structure and environment develops through the interaction of individuals performing various operating roles in work groups. It rests on three elements namely the structure, process and attitude of people Managerial Approaches Effectiveness of an organization depends on the environment it has developed and the quality of its people and the opportunity they get to utilize their talents.

• The different approaches used are the Benevolent approach( It makes the employer, or the boss to look after his employees and decide what is good or bad for them and it is often described as authoritarian, autocratic and paternalistic or coercive), the Human Relations approach( It aims at producing maximum employee satisfaction and is based on a series of studies by industrial psychologists) and The Human Resources approach( In this the subordinate is all important).

• One offshoot of concern for human factor in industry is the concept of industrial morale. Both personal or social features involved in mental condition which we call group morale or team spirit or esprit de corps. It is a complex phenomenon resulting from working of several factors.

• It is of utmost importance in industry because at every level it has tremendous impact on the working of an organization.

• Industrial psychologists are well-versed in the various styles and aspects of leadership

• India has a long tradition in industrial psychological training and research. A section of Applied Psychology within the department of Psychology in Calcutta University was first established in 1993 and some first papers on industrial psychology were read at the Indian Science Congress held in Bombay in 1934. Nearly 380 papers have been published on the subject between 1950and 1970. Industry psychology seems to be of the few sub-fields of psychology managing the industries are increasing felt with the terrific tempo of industrial growth in our country in the last 2 or 3 decades.