University of Baltimore Division of Applied Behavioral Sciences

SYLLABUS for
Practical Applications in I/O Psychology
APPL 655.185  Spring 2013

  Instructor:   Tom Mitchell, Ph.D. (410) 837-5348
        Email:
   TMITCHELL@ubalt.edu
Home Page:   http://home.ubalt.edu/tmitch
   Office hrs:   Tues/Wed 12:00 -2:00 PM
          Class:    Wednesdays 5:30 - 8:00 PM in Room AC 205

  Sakai (webboard for class)


 
 Schedule of Activities, Project due dates: (before midnight)  
             
Class: Wednesdays 5:30 to 8:00 PM AC 222      
Session # Month Day  Activity JA PA SEL OB
1 Jan 23 Discuss syllabus        
2 Jan 30 JA Discussion/vendor eval Organize      
3 Feb 6 PA Project Discussion via: TeamViewer   Organize    
4 Feb 13 SEL Project Discussion     Organize  
5 Feb 20 OB Project Discussion Reports*     Organize
6 Feb 27 Present JA Reports Present SPSS structure    
 7 Mar 6 Discuss PA progress        
8 Mar  13 Discuss SEL progress   Reports* SPSS structure  
  Mar 20 Spring Break        
9 Mar 27 Present PA & Orals    Present    
10 Apr 3 Discuss OB Projects       SPSS structure
11 Apr 10  SIOP     Reports*  
12 Apr 17 Discuss OB Progress         
13 Apr 24 Present SEL & Orals       Present  
14 May  1 Present OB & Orals       Report* Present
15 May 8  No class        
             
Notes:              
             
* team member task assignments due with report      
Note: Draft report is optional: must be submitted one week prior to report due date (for feedback)
         
  APPL 655 Spring 2013                  
                     
  Team Assignments                  
    2 Teams 2 Teams 2 Teams 2 Teams          
  Team Ldr for case: Consultant* JA PA SEL OB          
  PA 1 FCPS Corrigan, Robert 1 1 5 1          
  SEL 5 SoftApps Grimes, Kristi 5 1 5 1          
  OB 1 FCPS Jackson, Hermanski 1 5 1 1          
  PA 5 SoftApps Jones, Janessa 5 5 1 1          
  OB 1 FCPS Walsh, Kevin 1 5 1 1          
                     
                     
                     
  Team Leaders:        
PA1 FCPS Corrigan, Robert PA1 FCPS : Teacher Performance Appraisal
PA5 SoftApps Jones, Janessa PA5 SoftApps:Software engineer performance appraisal
SEL! FCPS Walsh, Kevin SEL1 FCPS Elementary School Teacher Selection program
SEL5 FCPS Grimes, Kristi SEL5 SoftApps: Selecting Software engineers
OB1 FCPS Jackson, Hermanski OB1 FCPS New Teacher discontent
JA1 FCPS: School Teacher Job Analysis
JA5 SoftApps: Software engineer Job Analysis
 

Course Materials and resources:

Links to relevant sources: Professional Journals:
I. Descriptive Information
           Catalog description:
The purpose of this course is to enable students to practice real-world applications of competencies acquired in the program. Students will respond to simulated, real-world human resources problems to demonstrate their ability to integrate and apply their knowledge of personnel and organizational psychology. 
II. Objectives of course:

General Objective:  Provide the student with opportunities to apply the theory and practices of I/O psychology in a workplace setting. 

    Specific Objectives are to:

    Competencies to be Demonstrated by each student: III. Class format:
Students will act as I/O consultants to solve simulated real-world contemporary problems typically encountered in an organization. The instructor will act in a management role to pose problems that require students to utilize the competences they have learned in previous coursework. A simulated, virtual organization will provide the environment for this dynamic interaction. Students will work in teams to diagnosis problems, generate solutions, and implement them. The Instructor will respond and react to proposed solutions and implementations, providing simulated feedback with criticism, recommendations, and outcome of implementations.  Both face-to-face (synchronous) and computer assisted (asynchronous) modes of communication will be used. Class discussions will be used to discuss ongoing projects and to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the organizational interventions.

Each student will work as a team member on four assigned projects. To accomplish the objectives for a project, each team member will utilize a set of  previously developed I/O specialist competencies. In-class meetings will be held to discuss the progress of the on-going projects. Project teams will also meet in both face-to-face discussions outside of class and also in asynchronous meetings using the  

Students will serve as junior I/O consultants to management at Applied Psychology Consultants, Inc. (APC), a virtual national company specializing in providing I/O consulting services to private and public sector organizations. Because of the recent success of its I/O consulting services, APC Inc. management has hired a full staff of junior consultants from the University of Baltimore's Applied Psychology MS program and begun to market its services to a wide range of new clients. Projects  involve a broad range of I/O applications including job analysis, performance management (performance appraisal, motivating employees), job design, selection and placement, organizational development and many others.

Each project will be initially defined by management and assigned to a project team consisting of from two to five I/O consultants. An appointed Project Team Leader (PTL) will be responsible for managing the project to insure that the goals and objectives are accomplish and that the project is completed on schedule. Since consultants will serve on projects for different clients, it will be necessary for teams to communicate and share relevant client information as projects progress. Each project team (PT) will:

The Project Team Leader (PTL) will submit a written Project Report (by its PTL) to management documenting the project  and indicating each team member's contributions to the project. Projects will proceed simultaneously throughout the semester and progress in a dynamic manner, simulating real world applications. With the exception of the Job Analysis project the Project Team will collect data (simulated data from instructor) and obtain other information relevant to the project. In some instances, the instructor will provide information from management relevant to the projects.


IV. Texts recommended:
  1.  Northouse, P. G. (2006) Leadership: Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Pub: Sage ISBN 978-1-4129-7488-2 paperback
  2.  Landy, F., & Conte, J. M. (2010). Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 3rd edition Blackwell Publishing ISBN- 978-1-4051-9025-1
  3.  Cascio, W. F., & Aguinis, H. (2011). Applied Psychology in Human Resource Management (7th Ed.). Prentice Hall.
     ISBN: 13: 978-0-13-609095-3
  4. Latham, G. P. (2007). Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research, and Practice. Sage: CA. ISBN: 0-7619-2017-X 

V. Assessment:
The student will be evaluated on how well he or she was able to demonstrate the application of theory and practice in  accomplishing the project objectives. 

Scoring % weights:     Activity:

Rating scale for all assessments: 
  • 0-6   = Little or no contribution
  • 7       = below expectations
  • 8       =   met expectations;  exceeded expectations; 
  • 9-10 = exceeded expectations 
  • 10     = absolute top 

Grade description:
     
  •  F    no significant work; 
  • C    below expectations; 
  • B    met expectations
  • B+  exceeded expectations; 
  • A    superior 
 

 Requirements for Data Analyses Reports:

 
   
  • JA:  Projects 
    Assignment: decide online (Sakai) how you will conduct the team effort.
    1. Leadership strategy (choose a leader/facilitator to ensure deadlines are met, member assignments are met)
    2. Assign tasks to each team member
    3. Assign report writing tasks
    4. Decide roles for Ppoint development and presentation
    5. Decide how team members will serve as SMEs 
     
  • JA requirements:
  1. Conduct the job analysis for the purposes of developing a performance appraisal and selection procedure:
  2. Determine the best method to use for the client's job (i.e, worker, work oriented, or hybrid)
  3. Include a task (dimension) and KSAO matrix
  4. Ensure that it complies with legal requirements
     
 
  •  PA: Projects  ** All issues  and tasks below Must be discussed / addressed in Report **
     
    1. Role of PA in Performance management 
    2. Alignment of competencies -> behaviors -> results -> org objectives ->mission 
    3. Conflicting Dual purposes of PA (administration and development)
    4. Focus on behavior and/or results
    5. Measurement issues: objective v. subjective, rating freq or evaluations, 
    6. Perceived fairness (procedural & distributive justice)
    7. Role of feedback in performance management  
    8. Aggregating (items, dimensions, overall), weighting
    9. Multi-rater issues
    10.  Explain reasons for choice of demographic (employee attributes)
    11. Explain reasons for choice of Organizational groups (jobs, depts, geo, etc.)
    12. Explain use of Criteria: subjective and objective (reliability/validity)
    13. Construct SPSS data structure (var names, var labels, value labels)
    14.  Conduct Data analysis for PA projects
    15. Submit report / prepare for oral exam
    
  •  SEL: Projects:  ** All issues below Must be discussed / addressed in Report **

    1. Criterion reliability (over time/ interrater)
    2. Attenuation in predictor/criterion
    3.  Why you chose criteria: behavioral/performance results / archival data /
    4.  Why you chose predictors: (Predictor types:  Biodata, Work samples CAT, personality inventories, interviews.
          SJT, Assessment Centers (explain your reasoning for selecting/not selecting each one)
    5. Modes of testing (explain possible alternatives)
    6. Explain how you handled project issues of buy-in with mgt and incumbents.
    7.  Explain Interrater reliability, agreement results (include literature/theory)
    8. Criterion reliability, corrections for unreliability
    9. Placement of predictors (for temporal order for effectiveness, i.e. incremental validity; and cost factors
    10. Why Demographics were chose: (purpose of grouping variables in analysis (theoretical import):
            gender/race/job class /region etc.
    11. Explain potential adverse impact issues and how you address them in intro/method/results.
    12. Explain decision to aggregate across raters at item or dimension level
    13. Submit report and prepare for oral exam.

   
  • OB: Projects ** All issues below Must be discussed / addressed in Report **
  1. Report structure: Exec summary / intro / method & procedure / results / discussion (recommendations) Appendices
  2.  Why and how you computed variables
  3. Describe variable types: Categorical and linear variables
  4. Explain issue: Common method variance 
  5. Explain dimensions for JSS / how / why items are summated
  6. Data analysis procedures for Survey studies 
  7. Explain why you are adding items specific to an issue
  8. Compute JSS facets and total, compare to norms (using appropriate statistic)
  9. Confirm inter-correlations among facets and calculate alphas
  10. Anonymity v. confidentiality (explain why you chose one or the other)
  11. Explain how buy-in was obtained (don't forget union buy in if relevant)
  12. Explain Drilling down procedure / deciding on number needed in categories
  13. Data analysis: Anova: group v repeated measures 
  14. Reporting results: Presenting to management (oral exam question)
  15. Reporting results: Presenting to employees (oral exam question)


APPLICATIONS OF MOTIVATION AND LEADERSHIP CONCEPTS


Bibliography

    Readings in Organizational Psychology  (J. LeBreton, E. Tenn State)

Bass, B. M. (1997) Does the transactional-transformational Leadership paradigm transcend organizational and national boundaries? American Psychologist, 52, 130-139.

House, R. J. & Aditya, R. N. (1997). The social scientific study of leadership: Quo Vadis? Journal of Management, v. 23, 409-473

Markham, S. E. (1988). Pay for performance, a dilemma revisited: Empirical example of the importance of group effects. J. of Applied Psychology, 73, 172-180.

Ostroff, C. (1992). The relationship between satisfaction, attitudes, and performance; An organizational Level of Analysis. J. of Applied Psychology. 77, 963-974

Ryan, R.M., Deci, E. L.  (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68-78.

Shore, L. B. & Wayne, S. J. (1993). Commitment and employee behavior: Comparison of affective commitment and continuance commitment with perceived organizational support. J. of Applied Psychology, 78, 774-780

Welsh, D. H. B., Luthans, F., & Sommer, S. M. (1993). Managing Russian factory workers: The impact of U.S. -based behavioral and participative Techniques. Academy of Management Journal, 36, no. 1, 58-79.

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