I/O Psychology and the Union

Labor unions are an organized association of employees who come together who would all like to better the relationship with their employer. They have power to impact things such as wages, job training and other work related issues. So why would employees want to start and organize a union? Well, one reason employees would want to start a union it’s usually because employees are dissatisfied with something in their job and they would like to fix it. The ‘things’ they would like to fix could range from something as basic as wages and to job security (Hunter 1).

Labor unions are a gathering of people for a united cause. People within a labor union fight for common goals such as better pay and fair working conditions. In most cases when a union attacks a certain aspect it is so they can all acquire the same out come, such as raising the minimum wage to twelve dollars an hour for all. The primary reason unions were created was because workers weren’t always treated appropriately throughout history. Industrial leaders would make maximum profit by making their employees work twelve to fifteen hour workdays for seven days a week and they would only earn pennies for each hour of work. The conditions in which employees conducted work was unsafe and unhealthy yet no one could complain because they could not afford to lose their job. This is when labor unions were introduced, at first they started off small only pertaining to a specific geological area in regards to a specific craft such as shoe making in Philadelphia. The smaller unions are known as locals, an employee affiliated with the union is then appointed as a liaison between their fellow workers and the corporation making them the shop steward. However, people realized they held power in numbers and ultimately national unions were established such as the, Knights of Labor.

I/O PSYCHOLOGY IN THE MOVIE OFFICE SPACE Introduction Most movies are a reflection of society and the type of interpersonal interactions that shape human lives, although they are typically revamped to fit a certain genre. In the movie Office Space, the satirical twist is on the human experience of the work environment. It is a comical depiction of how coworkers interact with each other and how they endure stressful job-related situations that we can all relate to. There are psychological concepts represented in this movie from various fields of psychology.

A Union is a group of workers who wanted something better from their company or facility, they are called strikers. Unions benefit workers in many ways, they help get workers' rights. Unions  are formed because their working conditions are irritable. They all needed and wanted a change; Labor Unions were created to help the workers with work-related difficulties such as low pay, unsafe or unsanitary working conditions, long hours, and other situations. .

The minimum scores provided a good basis to screen out Pierro from our hiring process (Appendix H). He did not receive the minimum score on any of our selection tools, thus we spent our time comparing and contrasting the two candidates that did make the minimum requirements, Kelemu and Zahra. If we had disregarded the cognitive ability test and the interview and just went off of the reliable and valid reference sheet, Zahra would actually have been awarded the FOH Manager position as she got the higher score from Cherwinski. At the time though, we made our decisions based off of the final scores of our selection tools whether or not they were valid or reliable. For that reason, Kelemu was chosen for the position of FOH Manager.

Unionism is the concept that traditionally business, especially big businesses are inherently going to exploit their employees. Therefore, in order to protect themselves, the workers form organizations called unions, in which all laborers who work at a certain craft, or in a certain industry band together. By this process of “joining forces”, the unions gain power in numbers. Unions traditionally try to protect employee interests by negotiating with employers for wages and benefits, working hours, and better working conditions.

A union is an organised group of workers whose aim is to protect their members and improve their employment conditions. The Australian Bureau of Statistics found that in August 2012, 20% of full time employees and 14% of part time employees were members of unions. Although this data shows a decrease in union membership over the last decade or so, the unions are still a very important part of the workplace.

1.3,NAD, UNIT13, Evaluate different approaches that may be used to ensure the selection of the best individuals for work in health and social care.

The goal of selection programs are to capitalize on individual differences in order to select the applicants who possess the greatest amount of particular characteristics that have been assess to be the most important for job success (Cascio & Aquinis, 2011). This goal can be met by utilizing a classical approach to personnel selection. The classical approach to personnel selection starts with the job analysis. From the job analysis sensitive, relevant and reliable criteria are selected on a basis of importance to describe the job specifications that represent knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAOs) that potential applicants are desired to have for the job (Cascio & Aquinis, 2011).

An assessment center is “a variety of testing techniques designed to allow candidates [or current employees] to demonstrate, under standardized conditions, the skills and abilities that are most essential for success in a given job” (qtd. in Coleman 3). Typical assessment center techniques include tests, structured interviews, in-basket exercises, leaderless group discussions, role plays, case studies, presentations, and writing samples (Campion 2014). The results of these techniques can be used for multiple human resource functions, including selection, placement, promotion, development, identifying early managerial talent, and managing succession (Gaugler et al. 493, Thornton III and Byham 3, Spychalski et al. 71). In addition, assessment centers can help organizations detect organizational deficiencies, inefficient procedures, and training deficiencies (Hale 18). The versatile nature of assessment centers makes them a beneficial tool for human resource management.

Selecting the right employee to fill a position is one of the most challenging decision making processes a company has to make. The ultimate goal of employee selection is to hire the candidate who is most compatible not only with the organization but for the position that they are trying to fill. In order for the candidate to be successful in a particular position, their talents and personal goals must be taken into consideration and objectives need to be utilized in order to retain qualified individuals. The most common forms of selection methods are resumes and applications but testing, interviews, reference checks, honesty tests, medical exam and drug

With these words and emphasis, Taylor and Mosier (1948, p. 1) launched Personnel Psychology over 60 years ago. Then, as now, Personnel Psychology was centrally concerned with the study of people at work. As the new editorial team begins its term, I want to take this opportunity to share my vision and plans for Personnel Psychology. To understand where we are heading, however, it is helpful to first consider where Personnel Psychology has been. As former editor John Hollenbeck noted when describing some of Personnel Psychology 's past ground-breaking research, "The impact that one has on the future seems to be closely related to one 's appreciation of the past" (1998, p. 819). In that spirit, we look forward by first looking back.

For many years companies have depended on three basic tools, such as résumés, interviews and references to gather qualified candidates. These sources are commonly used in a day to day basis but have proven to be inadequate for consistently selecting good employees. When it comes to hiring and selecting you want to use productive tools to help determine the best decision possible. Using the incorrect tools to hire and test potential candidates causes employee turnover and retention. Companies need to understand what pre-employment assessments are and why they are effective. I will be discussing the best means of hiring and testing new employees. Exploring what other companies are doing in hiring and testing, accessing the positives and negatives of each, and lastly offering recommendations to our department.

It must not be seen as a single selection method and generally incorporates a number of methods including interviews and psychometric testing and perhaps work simulated/related exercises. The idea behind assessment centres is that they allow the managers to identify job-related behaviours. It is found that these can be limited however with a key problem being that assessors, normally managers, are not abel to accurately assess cross-situational abiliteis from different exercises. Managers also tend not to be trained on observing or judging competencies (Bach 2005).

Many organizations depend only on the result of the test without taking the reliability and validity into considerations, which that might lead to in hiring the wrong people. What is the difference between reliability and validity? “Reliability is the consistency and the stability of a selection measurement and validity is the degree to which a measure predicts on-the-job performance” (Green, 2003). For instance, the consistency of a test is made for to measure reliability and what kind of method to use to test the candidate is to measure validity. Since reliability and validity are both important aspects in the selection process, let’s look at several methods that are used in today’s industries.