1. ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SYSTEM OF PSYCHOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE

Plan

The object, subject and tasks of organizational psychology

The history of the development of organizational psychology

The current state of organizational psychology

Organizational psychology as an applied direction of psychological science

Principles and methods of research in organizational psychology

Observation in organizational psychology

Ethical aspects of the work of a psychologist in the organization

Comprehensive goal

Know :

• basic concepts of organizational psychology;

• separate stages of formation of views on the person as an employee of the organization;

• criteria for determining organizational and psychological problems and tasks.

Be able to :

• analyze the external and internal environment of the organization, as a source of organizational and psychological problems;

• identify the specifics of the mental functioning of a person in an organization.

Own :

• conceptual apparatus in the field of organizational psychology;

• methods and methods for the distribution of powers and responsibilities in solving organizational and psychological tasks;

• ethical standards of work of an organizational psychologist.

The object, subject and tasks of organizational psychology

Throughout the history of mankind, people in order to achieve the goals and solve the tasks facing them were united in groups. If we were talking about groups engaged in labor activities, then besides doing the work itself, people also regulated relations with each other, distributed workload, agreed on the conditions and content of work, clashed and argued, understood or did not understand each other. And if they purposefully studied the performance of the work itself, then the development of experience that allowed regulating the interaction of people and groups proceeded spontaneously. The situation changed at the beginning of the 20th century, when psychology was already a recognized science and the active introduction of scientific psychological knowledge into human life began.

People spend a significant part of their lives in their workplace. Lifetime is largely a time given to work, so psychological knowledge has proved to be extremely popular in industry and commerce, and then in the system of government and in any other area where people united in formalized social systems - organizations. The request of practice forced psychologists to first combine all the accumulated knowledge that is useful for owners, managers, employees of organizations under the common name "organizational psychology", and then begin a focused search for such knowledge.

In organizational psychology, the practical significance of scientific psychological knowledge is most clearly reflected. Organizational psychology is a branch of psychology that studies the psychological aspects of the behavior and activities of people and groups in an organization, as well as the psychological characteristics of the organization itself, manifested in its organizational culture, image and behavior in the external environment.

To determine the subject of organizational psychology, it is necessary to proceed from the definition of the subject of psychology. To determine the subject of science, it is necessary to clearly separate the concepts of "subject" and "object" of science. The object of science - these are the real phenomena that this science explores. The subject of science is the key concept around which the whole conceptual apparatus of science is built.

The object of organizational psychology can be divided into three levels of analysis - micro, meta, and macro. At the micro level, a person included in organizational relationships is studied, at the meta level, groups unite people belonging to an organization, and at the macro level organization as a system, of which people and groups are a part. In a generalized form, the activity of a person, group, organization manifests itself both in the internal environment of the organization, within its boundaries, and in the external environment when the organization interacts with customers, the public, the government, and other people interested in its work. .

The above areas of interest of organizational psychology are so voluminous that they determine its links not only with other areas of psychological knowledge, but also with related sciences and areas of practice that are in demand by an organization for successful functioning. The complexity of a person as an object of study, the complexity and dynamic nature of the internal and external environment of an organization, the ambiguity and sometimes paradoxical manifestation and influence of individual psychological and socio-psychological characteristics of a person and group on organizational processes make the subject of organizational psychology a wide range of phenomena connecting it with other branches of psychological science: social psychology, labor psychology, personality psychology, developmental psychology, differential psychology Gia, general psychology, educational psychology. Thus, the subject of organizational psychology is the most diverse psychological aspects and phenomena of the behavior of people and groups in an organization, and the factors determining them.

The main tasks of organizational psychology are dictated by questions arising from both owners and managers of organizations, as well as people performing performing functions. Such questions, as a rule, begin with the words why, what to do, how to do, why to do. These questions relate to the individual's own behavior, the behavior of his colleagues, managers, subordinates and the behavior of those individuals in whom the organization is interested (consumers, customers, customers, contractors). Therefore, organizational psychology solves such a task as the study of subjects of organizational behavior and the development of psychologically grounded technologies for solving organizational problems related to the "human factor" and the introduction of these technologies into organizational reality. The subtasks arising from this list dictate what an organizational psychologist should do. Their essence is as follows.

1. To diagnose organizational problems in terms of psychological knowledge.

2. Conduct research to specify specific organizational variables, to identify causal relationships between the behavior of organizational actors and the effectiveness of the organization.

3. Develop recommendations for optimizing behavior for participants in the organizational process.

4. Introduce these recommendations into the organizational environment, taking into account the possible resistance of employees and managers of such an intervention.

Solving the problems of organizational psychology is always aimed at improving the efficiency of organizational activity through the use of psychological phenomena associated with an individual, a group, their activities, behavior, relationships, and awareness. It is a mistake to think that an organizational psychologist, in order to ensure the effective work of an organization, forgets about a specific person and regards it only as a tool similar to tools such as a machine or a computer. An organizational psychologist, like no one else, is aware of the dependence of organizational effectiveness on the well-being and psychological comfort of people included in an organization, understands a certain inconsistency and paradoxical behavior of a person and suggests such technology options that will strategically lead to winning both the organization and the person. A certain dictate of the organization in relation to man is inevitable. If the organization does not provide its own self-preservation (for example, by reducing the staff), then it will not be able to offer anything to a person who needs it.

Organizational psychology allows managers of organizations and production units to correctly understand the psychological effects and personnel responses to various manifestations of the organizational environment and thereby ensure the possibility of timely and adequate forecasting, responding, developing and implementing management strategies and tactics that have a significant impact on staff performance and organizations in general. It is important to use this knowledge in a complex, without losing out of the attention organizational and psychological phenomena that manifest themselves at the individual level of employees, as well as at the group, concerning production teams, and organizational, affecting not only the organization itself, but also its external environment.

The history of the development of organizational psychology

The emergence of organizational psychology is associated with the name of the American psychologist William D. Scott, who first founded an advertising agency, justifying the need to take into account the psychological characteristics of the consumer when creating an advertising product, and then consulting firm that was engaged in advising executives of American business corporations. Thus, at the beginning of XX century. W. D. Scott was the first to introduce the practice of using psychological knowledge to solve problems arising in the business world. Scott was also the first to use psychology for advertising, staff selection and management. Already at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. He spoke about the potentialities of psychology in the advertising business and management.

A significant contribution to the advancement of psychological knowledge in organizational practice was made by a German psychologist, G. Munsterberg, who taught at Harvard University. He was one of the first psychologists to conduct psychological research in real production conditions. His publications, research, and work as a consultant have contributed to the growing influence of organizational psychology in the business world. The famous work of G. Munsterberg "Fundamentals of Psychotechnics" is now used by psychologists, as it contains important and useful information about the organization of professional selection, the creation of a system of incentives for labor, optimization of advertising practice, etc.

By the mid-20s. XX century. The field of application of knowledge of organizational psychologists has greatly expanded due to E. Mayo's research conducted in the city of Hawthorne, Illinois, at the Western Electric company . The research program, built as a formative experiment, and recommendations formulated on its basis, allowed psychologists to be convinced that they can solve not only issues related to personnel selection or placement, but also to carry out organizational interventions that optimize interpersonal and intergroup relations.

Hawthorne research began with a study of the influence of the physical characteristics of the working room on labor productivity. The researchers set out to answer such questions as:

- dependence of labor productivity on the working room illumination;

- dependence of labor productivity on temperature and air humidity in the working room;

- the dependence of labor productivity on the resolution of the manager to arrange short breaks.

Observance of the principle of objectivity forced scientists to conduct an experiment on two groups of workers - the control group (the working conditions did not change, only measurements of productivity and job satisfaction were carried out) and experimental (the working conditions changed). The results of Hawthorne research initially forced psychologists to be disappointed in the work done. All workers included in the study showed an increase in labor productivity. What happened in the language of experimental psychology is designated as the influence of the personality of the experimenter and the situation of the experiment on the behavior of the subjects. It turned out that social and psychological factors, such as attention to workers, the desire of members of the working group to comply with group development standards, are potentially capable of having a much greater effect on labor productivity than physical factors. The researchers concluded that the physical environment is not so important for the staff as managers believed.

Hawthorne research has allowed organizational psychology to declare itself as a vital and necessary discipline for management. Since this time, psychology is a source of professional knowledge of managers, without which it is impossible to effectively manage a working group.

The emergence of new, sophisticated weapons during World War II posed new challenges for organizational psychologists. It was necessary to take into account the psychological characteristics of a person when creating sophisticated military equipment. Psychologists worked together with engineers and designers, their contribution allowed to overcome the limitations in the use of technical means, machines, mechanisms caused by the "human factor" (the specifics of the processes of obtaining, storing, processing information by man, the dynamics of functional states, etc.).

The achievements of organizational and engineering psychologists during the war years led to an even greater demand for psychological knowledge at the state level, in the civil service system and the military-industrial complex and in the business world.

The intensive development of organizational psychology, which began in the United States after the end of World War II in 1945, coincided with a no less intensive development of entrepreneurship and industry. The size and complex structure of modern corporations has put organizational psychologists in front of the need to acquire new knowledge and skills. The introduction of new technologies meant that staff needed updated and sophisticated training programs. Thus, with the advent of computers, not only did the need arise for programmers and technicians serving them, but many technologies have changed. Psychologists were expected to answer the following questions: what abilities a person must possess in order to be able to cope with such duties; What kind of people are most likely to possess these abilities and what are the reliable ways to identify and train them?

In the work of organizational psychologists in the foreground were the problems associated with human relations in the workplace. Managers and managers at various levels realized that creating highly efficient production is impossible without mastering the skills of interpersonal communication. The nature of leadership, the role of motivation and job satisfaction, the impact of enterprise structure and team morale on labor productivity and approaches to decision making - these are the phenomena that analyzed and studied organizational psychologists. The recognition of the importance of all these problems by the US psychological community was reflected in the reorganization of the Organizational Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association (ARA) into the Society of Industrial-Organizational Psychologists ( SIOP ).

The term "organizational psychology" entered the Russian practice only in the early 1990s. The experience accumulated by Soviet specialists in the field of labor psychology and engineering psychology allowed a constructive critical attitude towards the developments of world and, above all, American psychology at a time when, after an information vacuum, they became available to domestic management and marketing practices. Despite a certain isolation of Soviet psychology from world experience, psychologically based professional selection procedures were introduced at enterprises and organizations, managers were trained, and personnel were placed. Back in the 1920s. in Moscow, Leningrad, Kazan, Kharkov, in other cities psychotechnics developed as an area of ​​practical application of psychological knowledge. The emergence and development of psychotechnics in the USSR is associated with the creation in 1921 of the Central Labor Institute (CIT), headed by A. K. Gastev. By 1923, about 60 organizations had been created studying heap problems. The achievements of the Soviet psychotechnology include:

- development of a professional selection procedure and methods of professiography;

- identifying the dynamics of performance and fatigue, depending on the factors of the organizational environment;

- determination of the patterns of formation of labor skills;

- the introduction of the labor method of studying occupations; the introduction of scientifically based methods of labor incentives;

- identification of problems of interaction between man and technology.

From the mid 1930s to the 1960s. psychological science in the USSR developed more as an academic direction, somewhat divorced from the solution of practical issues. Since the 1970s applied research has reappeared. They were devoted to the tasks of engineering psychology, psychology of vocational training, space psychology, etc. At this time, issues related to the study of the personality of the employee come to the fore. Studies of the motivation and organization of the labor process and labor management predominate.

In the 1970s formed the main areas of research work:

а) психофизиологическое – изучение функциональных состояний в труде и внедрение приемов минимизации негативных последствий утомления, стресса, монотонии;

б) инженерно-психологическое – разработка психологических принципов проектирования деятельности человека- оператора;

в) организационно-психологическое – разработка оптимальных режимов груда, нормирование рабочей нагрузки, оптимизация совместной деятельности;

г) профориентационное – психологическое обеспечение профессионального обучения, профессионального отбора и аттестации сотрудников организаций.

Работы таких ученых как Б. Ф. Ломов, В. Д. Шадриков, В. А. Бодров, Д. А. Ошанин, Е. А. Климов и других позволили психологам, решающим производственные задачи в конкретных условиях, внедрять научно обоснованные технологии, оптимизирующие использование кадрового потенциала организаций и предприятий.

In the 1970–1980s scientific and educational centers actively involved in the problems of the psychology of labor developed. Among them are the departments of labor psychology in the Leningrad and Moscow universities, the faculty of psychology of the Yaroslavl University, research laboratories in the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a number of others.

The list of problems solved by psychologists in organizations can be seen on the example of the practical goals of psychological activity analysis (PAD) specified by V. D. Shadrikov:

- PAD for professional selection;

- PAD for professional orientation;

- PAD for professional certification;

- PAD for vocational training;

- PAD in order to optimize and streamline activities.

Серьезный самостоятельный путь, пройденный отечественной психологией груда, позволил А. В. Карпову в рамках трансформационной концепции менеджмента объяснить, почему не все разработанные в американской организационной психологии рекомендации могут быть использованы в российских условиях, почему их внедрение в реалиях отечественной действительности приводит организацию к потере эффективности, на какие принципы необходимо опираться, чтобы эффективно внедрить рекомендации организационных психологов в практику.

Современное состояние организационной психологии

Организации начала XXI в. благодаря информатизации определенным образом отличаются от организаций 1970– 1980-х гг. Соответственно изменяется и запрос бизнеса и менеджмента к психологии.

In the XXI century. The rapidly changing nature of work, combined with technical progress and a more diverse population, sets organizational tasks for the organizational psychologist and imposes even greater responsibility on him. One of the difficulties that an organizational psychologist faces today is to change the content and conditions of activity. We list the innovations that have become common.

1. Виртуальное рабочее место. Для многих наемных работников виртуальные рабочие места, на которых они трудятся в отрыве друг от друга и от менеджеров, уже реальность, и все свидетельствует о том, что в будущем именно такие рабочие места станут преобладающими. В настоящее время существует значительное число предприятий с большим числом сотрудников, работающих вне его стен и связывающихся со своими работодателями из домашнего офиса с помощью телекоммуникационных систем. Это следствие эры новых информационных технологий. Многие виды работ могут быть выполнены где угодно в пределах действия современных электронных средств коммуникации – электронной почты, голосовой почты, пейджеров, сотовых телефонов, ноутбуков и персональных информационных систем.

Efficient and productive operation of such virtual workplaces is possible, provided that:

- there is online information that can be transferred from the central computer to the personal one and printed;

- there are databases of consumers and products and automated central files that are accessible to and remote from the center;

- there is a technical opportunity to contact the staff and give them a task at any time of the day.

However, in addition to the advantages of such work, there are drawbacks. Such work looks around the clock and rather negatively affects the psychological well-being of workers.

2. Temporary workers. Crisis in the economy, mergers or withdrawal from the market led to the fact that the staff employed in the organization lost faith in job security. Often a modern organization is not able to meet the basic need of the employee for security, i.e. to conclude with him a psychological guarantee contract up to pension support. The response of the employee market was that they also ceased to show long-term loyalty and dedication to the organization.

Сотрудники предпочитают внештатную, временную работу по контракту или сезонную занятость. Многие молодые рабочие выбирают непостоянную работу, поскольку она дает им возможность самим распоряжаться собой, предоставляет определенную свободу и в то же время искать и пробовать новое, повышать свою квалификацию и совершенствовать навыки. Среди причин выбора человеком варианта построения карьеры, существует и такой как желание сохранить личную свободу и не стать "заложником" организационных норм и правил. Данный мотив карьеры обозначается как автономия и отмечается в настоящее время у все большего числа выпускников вузов, которые начинают трудовую деятельность.

3. Постоянное изменение технологий. Сотрудник, получивший профессиональное образование в 1960-е гг., мог пользоваться полученными знаниями и умениями вплоть до конца 1980-х гг. Содержание работы требовало достаточно незначительных усилий по повышению профессиональной квалификации. Иная ситуация сложилась в наше время. Можно закончить вуз или техникум десять лет назад, но в настоящее время под влиянием изменившегося технологического обеспечения деятельности практически отказаться от тех приемов работы, которые усвоил в процессе обучения, и использовать умения, сформированные в ходе внутрифирменного обучения или дополнительного образования. Для примера рассмотрим работу бухгалтера, который для того, чтобы профессионально реагировать на постоянные изменения, вносимые в систему бухучета и налогообложения, должен регулярно читать профессиональные журналы, консультироваться со специалистами из других областей (юристами, программистами), участвовать в семинарах и конференциях.

An organizational psychologist is aware that the changes taking place with the staff are caused by the development of the organizations themselves. The development of organizations due to the following factors:

- changes in the external environment (economics, politics, ethics, culture, etc.);

- changes in the internal environment (movement of workers, transition to new technologies, etc.);

- changing the needs and interests of a person and society (the need for human self-expression, the need for a surplus product of society, etc.);

- aging and deterioration of material elements (equipment, man, technology);

- environmental change;

- technical progress;

- the global state of world civilization.

The organization must be active when interacting with the external environment and change in accordance with its requirements, as well as change the external environment itself. The quality of such changes is the basis for self-preservation of the organization and the realization of its mission. Forms of interaction of the organization with the external environment are divided into two classes: adaptation and accommodation.

The progressive form of social adaptation of an organization is the production of qualitatively new and effective use of existing social strategies, the expansion of the sphere of professional and individual activity.

Accommodation - purposeful change of the environment to the needs and requests of the subject, the group of the organization to create conditions that allow them to realize the mission and strategy.

Реализация мероприятий, входящих в оба направления взаимодействия с внешней средой, позволяет организации эффективно функционировать. И адаптация, и аккомодация используются организацией во всех сферах деятельности. В области организационной психологии – это прежде всего изменение социальных и эргономических внутриорганизационных условий в соответствии с запросом сотрудников (адаптация) и активный отбор, обучение сотрудников в соответствии с нуждами организации (аккомодация). Современный организационный психолог ориентирован на вопросы не просто управления, а развития персонала как совокупности организационно-экономических мероприятий службы управления персоналом, направленных на самосохранение и совершенствование функционирования организации. Развитие персонала предполагает реализацию таких бизнес-процессов как:

– позиционирование организации на рынке труда;

– оценка кандидатов на вакантную должность;

– обучение, переподготовка и повышение квалификации персонала;

– профессиональная адаптация и социализация;

– текущая периодическая оценка кадров;

– планирование деловой карьеры;

– работа с кадровым резервом.

Для реализации каждого из этих направлений требуется квалифицированный организационный психолог.

Организационная психология как прикладное направление психологической науки

Организационный психолог по отношению к организации может занимать одну из двух позиций:

1) внешнюю – консультант и исследователь (в качестве примера можно привести работу по заказу различных фирм, чаще всего связанную с оценкой и аттестацией персонала, изучением социально-психологического климата, разрешением конфликтных ситуаций, обучением персонала и т.д.);

2) internal - a practitioner working directly in the organization.

Эти позиции различаются между собой и по содержанию, и по структуре деятельности. Например, позиция консультанта и исследователя предполагает возможность нейтрального подхода к решению многих и особенно кадровых задач, но одновременно нередко возникают проблемы из-за недостаточного знания реальных организационных ситуаций, невозможности сразу же определить глубинные причины и условия возникновения какого-либо явления или процесса. Описанная позиция в полной мере представлена в деятельности многочисленных современных консалтинговых компаний, действующих на рынке труда, оценки и подбора персонала, осуществляющих рекрутинговые услуги. Вторая позиция также, наряду с плюсами (например, доскональное знание организационной и кадровой ситуации и возможность профилактики конфликтов), имеет и свои ограничения (при длительной работе на предприятии часто происходит снижение статуса психолога до статуса члена коллектива, переход к позиции "коллективной жилетки", к которой обращаются сотрудники по любому поводу). Занимая вторую позицию, организационный психолог чаще всего работает в структуре отдела кадров, отделов обучения, в качестве заместителя директора по персоналу. В решении многих вопросов они взаимодействуют и с другими специалистами фирмы – социологами, гигиенистами, юристами, экономистами.

An organizational psychologist as a practitioner performs several functions.

1. Research ( expert ) function. Collecting specific information about the mechanisms of human behavior in a diverse and complex system of organizational relationships. The main thing is the study of the group and the individual as subjects of labor. The most common goal of such a study is the effective selection of personnel as one of the forms of preliminary quality control of human resources.

Successful implementation of this function requires the psychologist to master the methods of organizational diagnostics at each level of the organizational subject (individual, group, organization).

Ответственность психолога за качество экспертного заключения является и полной, и ограниченной. Это означает, что исследователь отвечает за обоснованность и соответствие своего заключения современному уровню психологических знаний в области организационной психологии, но он, однако, не несет ответственности за конкретные решения руководства организации или заказчика, принятые па основе экспертного заключения. Основная задача экспертной оценки не склонить заказчика экспертизы к определенным решениям и шагам, а учесть анализ предметной ситуации, проведенный специалистом. Именно поэтому экспертное заключение должно быть понятным и локализованным (указывающим на границы точности и компетентности эксперта).

2. Консультационная функция. Психолог консультирует и менеджеров, и сотрудников организаций по вопросам оптимального использования личностных и профессиональных возможностей человека (например, при приеме на работу, заполнении вакансий, сокращении кадров). Он участвует в проектировании и разработке различных методов управления персоналом, социальным развитием организации, улучшении организации труда и консультирует руководство по этим вопросам.

A special place is occupied by personal counseling. The need for counseling is usually associated with a certain limitation of the experience of the organization’s leadership in the field of human resources. The obvious advantage of the consultant is the possibility of an independent, independent vision of the situation. The main factor in the effective work of a consultant is his freedom and independence, which consists of financial (the amount of payment and its reliability), administrative (the consultant does not obey the client) and emotional components. Counseling, as a rule, is impossible without research study and the adoption of expert position.

Consultants may be generalists or specialists in particular problems (for example, in the psychological diagnosis of the personality of managers, in the implementation of innovations, in conflict situations, etc.).

The consultant adheres to the position of neutrality, impartiality and non-interference in confrontation and struggle that may exist in the organization, which provides an objective and undistorted analysis of relationships and situations.

3. Pedagogical and educational functions. The psychologist transmits special knowledge that employees of the organization can use for their own development and improvement of their own activities. If the expert analyzes, the consultant recommends and advises, the teacher initiates, increases the level of knowledge and skills, contributes to the development of the abilities of the staff of the organization. Currently in-house training programs are in demand.

Summarizing all the functions performed by an organizational psychologist, we list the organizational tasks that he accomplishes in practice.

1. Evaluation of staff for the purposes of hiring, certification and relocation (the study and fixation of business, professional skills, abilities).

2. Vocational guidance and counseling.

3. Socio-psychological training of staff and staff development.

4. Acceleration of the processes of adaptation of workers in the organization.

5. Optimization of interaction of the head with subordinates.

6. Certification of positions included in the staffing table (job description, compilation of professiograms, job descriptions).

7. The study of working conditions, the organization of jobs.

8. Analysis of the personality of the employee in the system of organization (the study of the relationship to work, job satisfaction, motivation and stimulation of labor, safety).

9. Evaluation of personnel policy and organization strategy.

10. Ensuring the introduction of innovations and reorganizations.

11. The formation of group norms, morality, organizational culture.

12. Prevention and conflict resolution.

13. Monitoring the state of the socio-psychological climate in the team, its improvement and rehabilitation.

14. Creating a "team".

15. Improving labor discipline.

16. Formation of loyalty in relation to the organization.

17. The introduction of a new employee in the course of affairs in the organization.

18. Resolving issues of vocational training and staff development.

19. Assessment of the labor input of workers.

20. Development of means of maintaining discipline and effective methods of encouraging and punishing employees.

21. Participation in the examination of complaints, mediation in the negotiations of workers and trade unions with the administration.

22. Ensuring the negotiation process in a conflict situation.

23. Participation in the organization of the communication system in the organization.

24. Improving the organization of labor (reducing monotony, creating an aesthetic environment in the organization).

Principles and methods of research in organizational psychology

Organizational psychologists conducting research in real production conditions use several methods. The selection of the most suitable of them is one of the most important tasks that must be solved when starting a research program. In most cases, the choice of method is determined by the nature of the problem to be studied. In the work of an organizational psychologist, practice is a place for all classical psychological methods - experiment, observation, survey.

An experiment in organizational psychology. The purpose of the experiment is to determine the effect of any parameter on the actions or behavior of the studied people - participants in the experiment. The first experiments in organizational psychology were research in the field of advertising (dependence of advertising memorability on its position on the page) and labor productivity (Hawthorne studies).

Psychologists are planning an experiment in advance. Planning primarily assumes that the researcher has clearly defined an independent variable — an element of the organizational situation (management style, salary, number of participants in the group working on the task, work schedule, etc.) and dependent — a characteristic of the activity or behavior of the organization’s employees, its customers or other stakeholders. Both variables are available for objective observation, measurement and can be fixed.

The selected variables must be monitored to obtain an objective result. Control of the experimental conditions suggests that any change in the reaction of the subjects is solely a consequence of the change in the independent variable. To realize this important requirement and provide reliable control, psychologists work with two groups of subjects - with an experimental group consisting of subjects exposed to an independent variable, and with a control group. There are special techniques for balancing these groups in composition.

The selection of participants in the experiment is quite difficult to solve the problem. The control and experimental groups should be as identical as possible. This can be achieved using one of two ways of their acquisition, on the basis of a random sample or on the basis of the correspondence principle.

The conditions in which the organizational-psychological experiment is carried out are designated as field, as they are conducted in real conditions and with real employees. This imposes additional ethical requirements on the work of an organizational psychologist.

It is important that the implementation of the results of the experimental study was carried out under the supervision of an organizational psychologist, he needed to cooperate with managers and workers who understand what caused the innovations resulting from the experiment and how subjective gains will lead to their implementation.

Observation in organizational psychology

When studying the behavior of people at work, it is not always possible to use an experimental method for this purpose and to ensure proper control over variables. To do this in real production conditions, you can watch him without resorting to manipulation of an independent variable.

The advantages of this method include the fact that the observed examples of behavior and situations in which this behavior takes place are typical and correspond to what happens in everyday life. Long-term observation, carried out according to a certain plan and at a certain time, is referred to as organizational and psychological monitoring. Thanks to him, the psychologist finds out the stable features of the behavior of employees and on the basis of this makes a decision about the methods of correction or the working conditions or the very behavior of employees (using training and consulting procedures).

A variant of monitoring the work of sellers or dispatchers working with clients is the "mysterious buyer" procedure, when a specially trained observer plays the role of a buyer or customer, and then evaluates the degree of courtesy, professional awareness, interest in the client or the stress tolerance of the seller using a system of pre-defined criteria. Observers are selected so that their appearance best matches the appearance and style of behavior of typical visitors to the store. In accordance with the information received from the observers, decisions are made on personnel changes in the stores, on the content of trainings conducted for employees, on the employee’s compliance / non-compliance with the position held.

In organizational psychology, survey methods are widely used (questionnaires, interviews, tests). The organization is interested in information about what people work in it, how they relate to their membership in the organization, who is the informal leader of groups, what their stakeholders think about the organization. Such information allows you to make decisions about human resource management technologies, personnel changes, methods of conflict management, ways of forming an organizational image. If possible, the measuring instruments of an organizational psychologist-practice should comply with the principles:

- profitability - when filling out questionnaires or tests, employees cannot spend a lot of time, therefore, quite often diagnostics are carried out using express procedures;

- informativeness - in conditions of limited time, the psychologist needs to get a sufficiently large amount of information that will allow to understand, explain and predict the behavior of subjects of organizational behavior;

- acceptability - when choosing a survey procedure and compiling questions, it must be remembered that employees of an organization can relate to farrowings biased and negative, therefore the terms and formulas used in questions require careful selection and pilotage.

As an example of the negative reaction of respondents to the terminology used by psychologists, let us give a situation where the leadership of an organization interested in measuring public opinion forbade the use of the semantic differential method, since among the evaluative antonyms were couples: masculine - feminine and bright - dull.

Assessment tools are used for each level of organizational behavior - the evaluation of individuals, groups, organizations.

Evaluation of personnel is carried out in many ways, the most common are evaluations of intellectual, emotional and motivational characteristics, interpersonal features, business characteristics.

As a result of the diagnosis, the psychologist answers the questions posed by the leadership of the organization acting as the customer.

1. What is the level of intelligence of an employee or candidate for a vacancy, can he think logically, analytically, abstractly, specifically? Are there any kinds of tasks that are particularly easy or particularly difficult for him?

2. Which of the emotional reactions are situational, and which make up the emotional background? To what extent is an employee free from excessive anxiety, obsessions, feelings of guilt, hostility, neurotic symptoms? Does he have a system of moral standards?

3. What is the employee's motivation level, what basic needs “move” him through life? Does he have ambition, thirst for power? Is the candidate's behavior more subordinate to the requirements of the current moment, or is he living for distant prospects? As far as he is able to be a leader or he prefers to give others the right solution?

4. Does the employee behave in a friendly, open, benevolent society? Interested in communication? Is the style of his behavior constant or changes depending on time, circumstances, mood? Can he respect the ideas and evaluate the merits of people he dislikes?

5. Can an employee plan, manage, take initiative, organize?

The information requested by the leaders of the organization about employees or candidates for a vacancy is so diverse and complex that psychologists currently use an assessment center procedure. Traditional diagnostic tools (examining documents for admission to work, conducting interviews, testing, setting a trial period) can reveal only part of the abilities and character traits of an employee or applicant. But it is desirable to get as complete a picture as possible of the applicant and his psychological, social and psychological qualities. This result is achieved using an assessment center. This is a systematic method that allows you to determine not only personal qualities, but also the strengths and weaknesses of the employee in the professional field. Predefined requirements are placed by observers simultaneously on all participants. Background diagnostics procedures (tests), collection of information about the past (conversation, interviews), collection of information about real behavior (business games, cases, group work) are used.

The assessment center is appropriate in the following situations.

1. Recruitment: assessment of the candidate’s readiness to work in a given position, determination of the presence (or absence) of the qualities necessary for successful work, description of personal characteristics.

2. Promotion: assessment of employee readiness to perform new functions.

3. Training: assessment of the level of professional competence, identification of areas of study and development, knowledge and skills that need to be mastered, identification of stereotypes of thinking that interfere with effective work or management that must be overcome.

4. Reorganization: assessment of personnel adaptability to new working conditions, selection of the most adaptive and efficient employees who are left in the new organization.

5. Promotion: the implementation of certain measurements, on which depends the size of bonuses and compensation.

6. Reduction or dismissal: assessment of the prospects of the dismissed person, guidelines and recommendations where he could be more successful, possibly assistance in selecting a retraining program.

The target group for the assessment center is mostly senior and mid-level managers, personnel managers, training instructors, and sales managers.

In situations where it is economically unprofitable to carry out an assessment center for the personnel you are searching for, for some reason, you can use some of its elements in team trainings or during an interview. Experts call this a mini-assessment. In order for it to be effective, it is enough to keep the main idea of ​​assessment - the ability to put a person in a situation as close as possible to the “combat”, i.e. to what exactly he will have to face in this position. Mini-assessments can be very effective, but it is often more difficult to prepare and conduct them than the standard - a smaller amount of tasks significantly complicates the objective fixation of the required competences in behavioral responses.

Criteria for the effectiveness of the assessment procedure center:

- objectivity: the assessment of a specialist should not depend on someone’s private opinion or a separate judgment, as often happens;

- reliability: the result of the assessment should be free from the influence of situational factors (mood, weather, past successes or failures);

- accuracy: should be assessed the real level of skills and competencies (how well a person copes with his business), and not their individual manifestation;

- the possibility of forecasting: the assessment should include information on what activities and at what level the employee is potentially capable;

- Complexity: not only individual specialists of the company are evaluated, but also communications and relations within it, as well as the capabilities of the company as a whole;

- accessibility: the objectives and criteria of the assessment procedure should be clear not only to a narrow circle of specialists, but also to the person being assessed.

Coordinates the entire process of the assessment center, the facilitator - the leading group work. The assessment itself is carried out by expert observers. Their quality training is very important for a successful assessment. For this, special methods are used to select and train observers, to which a significant part of the time and financial costs of the assessment is allocated.

The decision on each participant is made during the discussion of the data. All evaluation criteria are selected in the framework of the position professiogrammy. Experts discuss all its positions and only then draw structured conclusions for each of the candidates.

Evaluation of groups and teams is carried out to develop team building programs, optimize intergroup communication, and create project teams. The complexity of organizational goals and objectives implies involvement in the achievement and solution of not one employee, but the group. A small working group is not just the number of employees included in it, it is an independent social entity, a social community with system characteristics. Ideally, the working group should first of all have such a characteristic as efficiency, effectiveness. Such features are not a priori inherent in any working group. The development of the group is an objective process that will take place, even if purposefully it does not engage. Однако знание законов групповой динамики и генеза позволяет специалисту сопровождать группу для достижения ею запланированных показателей