Managerial Psychology

Managerial psychology is a sub-discipline of industrial and organizational psychology, which focuses on the efficacy of individuals, groups and organizations in the workplace. Its purpose is to specifically aid managers in gaining a better understanding of the psychological patterns common among individuals and groups within any given organisation. Managerial psychology can be used to predict and prevent harmful psychological patterns within the workplace and can also be implemented to control psychological patterns among individuals and groups in a way that will benefit the organisation long term. (Robbins, SP et al.2010).

If in the early stages managerial psychologists used to study the problems of fatigue, boredom, and other working conditions that could impede efficient work performance. More recently, their contributions have expanded to include learning, perception, personality, emotions, training, leadership, effectiveness, needs and motivational forces, job satisfaction, decision-making processes, performance appraisals, attitude measurement, employee-selection techniques, work design, and job stress(Robbins, SP et al.2010). This means that they apply psychology principles to the workplace and use their skills to study workplace productivity, morale, employee screening or organizational development. Apart from this, they can also train and screen job applicants, assist with organizational development, and consult with corporations on a problem-solving basis.

Herzberg et al.’s (1959) seminal two-factor theory of motivation theorized that satisfaction and dissatisfaction were not two opposite extremes of the same sequence, but two separate entities caused by quite different facets of work – these were labelled as “hygiene factors” and “motivators”. Hygiene factors are characterized as extrinsic components of job design that contribute to employee dissatisfaction if they are not met. Examples include: supervision, working conditions, company policies, salary, and relations with co-workers. Motivators, however, are intrinsic to the job itself and include aspects such as achievement, development, responsibility and recognition. On the other hand, intrinsic factors have long been acknowledged as important determinants of motivation. There is a longstanding debate as to whether hygiene factors really contribute to job satisfaction (Furnham et al., 1999; Warr, 1987). Most job satisfaction and motivation research literature is concerned with organisational or situational predictors (such as pay and supervision) (Locke, 1976) while neglecting individual differences (Staw and Ross, 1985). O’Reilly et al. (1980) discovered that individuals’ significantly differ in the way they perceive their jobs, even if the job description and the tasks they had to perform remained constant, thus suggesting that some individual differences must have an effect on work attitudes.

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