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Santa Clara University
Department of Psychology
Psychology 157: Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Fall 2011
Tuesday and Thursday- 9:55 11:40pm
Instructor: Katerina Bezrukova
E-mail:
ybezrukova@scu.edu
Office:
Kenna Hall 111
Office hours: Tuesdays 3:30pm – 4:30pm and by appointment
Course Description
This course is designed to provide you with an introduction to the field of
industrial/organizational psychology covering fundamental theory and research in personnel and
organizations. Topics include psychology of industrial and human relations; job analysis and
design; worker morale, motivation, and efficiency; group work, organizational conflict, and
workplace diversity; leadership and top management teams; training and development;
organizational decision making; occupational health and stress.
This course has a significant experiential element to it. In addition to reading about and
discussing major topic areas in industrial/organizational psychology, you will, as part of the
requirements for this course, experience groups and organizations in two ways. First, you will be
a member of a work team within the course, and the majority of your course grade will be based
on the performance of this team. Second, you will choose an on-going group/organization
outside of class and study it as part of this course.
Course objectives include:
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To obtain a broad exposure to a number of areas of industrial/organizational psychology,
and to begin a process of becoming very familiar with the literature in these fields.
To gain an intellectual understanding of some of central concepts in the field of
industrial/organizational psychology.
To intelligently observe, recognize, and analyze groups and organizations.
To feel comfortable in applying the course principles to real life situations and contribute
effectively to groups and organizations in your lives.
The assigned readings are:

A bulk pack of assigned readings, available from the University Bookstore. These
readings include short articles from professional and academic journals, chapters from
books, cases and exercises.

Additional handouts.
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Administration
Your grade will be determined much as employee performance is evaluated in high performance
organizations. That is, your grade will be based partly on your individual participation in
class, but mostly on the performance of your entire work team.
In particular, your grade will be based upon a maximum of 100 points, distributed as follows:
Class participation (20%); evaluated individually
Quizzes (30%); evaluated individually
Group Papers (20%); evaluated as a team
Final Project (30%); evaluated as a team
Class participation (including attendance). The class participation grade will consist of 2 parts:
 Contributions to class discussion (worth 15%) will be evaluated based on your
involvement in class activities, where exemplary participation involves applying the
reading for the day in an active and constructive manner. I will also consider how
actively you participated in the reading discussion held in Q&A form, and how thoughtprovoking and insightful your questions on class materials and other opinions,
suggestions, ideas are; how actively you contribute your thoughts in your small group
discussions; how actively you participate in presenting your group's ideas to the rest of
your classmates.
 Your team allocation of 100 points based on group’s evaluation of your teamwork (worth
5%).
Quizzes (including in-class activities). This includes your individual performance on occasional
surprise quizzes in class. Quizzes will be given to check your understanding of the assigned
readings and lecture notes. If you are late or absent to class you will not be allowed to make
up the missed quiz, but your lowest quiz score will be dropped when calculating your final
overall quiz score.
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Team Formation: Four- or five-person research teams will be formed the second day
of class. Your research team will be responsible for all team-based course work.
As an I/O psychologist, learning to perform effectively in groups is a critical skill; thus, it is
important for you to experience this type of situation. Given the frequent interaction among your
team members, you need to work out any conflicts or problems as soon as possible and, if
necessary, see me. It may also be useful for your team to select a facilitator who coordinates the
team meetings. Each team is required to submit to me a “team contract.” All team
members must sign this contract. When designing your contract, think about the type of
‘social contract’ that you want to establish with each other. Such a contract should help mediate
conflict later in the quarter.
Group Papers. Each team will prepare two brief team papers. The papers will assess your ability
to analyze the characteristics of your Psych 157 team and evaluate the other in-class team. More
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details will be given later in the course of the semester.
Group Project. This project will require your work team to choose an on-going group or
organization to observe and analyze. I will be happy to meet with you during office hours or by
appointment to help you select an appropriate group/organization to study. Your team will make
an in-class presentation at the end of the quarter that summarizes your study findings, including
your recommendations to increase the studied group/organization’s effectiveness, and will turn
in a written project report. Your grade will be based on your team’s performance both on the
presentation and the written report. A short (one-page) proposal of the group/organization your
team wishes to study, and your plan for analyzing this team/organization, will be due mid quarter
(see below for a specific date).
The ppt slides for your final presentation should be submitted to me the night before your actual
presentation via email.
The final paper will be due 24 hours after your final presentation and should be submitted to me
via email.
Course Outline
I will run this class largely as a seminar. In addition to lectures, you can expect group activities
and discussions in most class meetings. The quality of these discussions largely depends upon
your coming to class prepared. This means that you must have read and thought about the
materials assigned for that class period, and be prepared to contribute your reactions, questions,
and ideas during the class period.
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Tentative Schedule of Lectures
Date
Topic
Required Readings and Assignments
Introduction to I/O Psychology
9/20
Introduction to I/O
#1
Psychology
Teams
9/22
#2
Teams and Teamwork
9/27
#3
Characteristics of Team
Members
Job Analysis & Design
9/29
Job Design
#4
Training & Development
10/4
Training and
#5
Development

Katzenbach & Smith, “Team basics: A working
definition and discipline”
 Katzenbach & Smith, “One team: A story of
performance”
DUE: Team Contract (in class)
 Bezrukova, “Your preferences: Checklist”
 Go to the web (http://keirsey.com) and take the
Temperament Sorter. Print out your results (mini
report) and bring them to class.
 Parker, “Team players and teamwork”
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 Muchinsky, “Training and development”.
DUE: Paper #1: Analysis of Team Member
Characteristics
Decision-Making & Problem Solving
10/6
Decision Making: Part I 
#8
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10/11
#9
Decision Making: Part
II
In-Class Team Assessment
10/13
Research Methods
#10
10/18
No Class
#11
10/20
Assessment
#12
Hackman, JR, et al. “A new strategy for job
enrichment”
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Harvey, “The Abilene paradox: The management of
agreement”.
Thompson, “Team decision making: Conformity,
pitfalls, and solutions”.
Janis & Mann, “Stages of decision making.”
Aamodt, “Research methods in I/O psychology.”
Prepare for in-class assessment
Assessment of in-class team
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Organizational Conflict & Diversity
10/25
Conflict
#6
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10/27
#7
New Directions in
Conflict Research
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Stress
11/1
#13
Stress & Health
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CNN: Video
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De Dreu, “Conflict management and performance.”
Jehn & Mannix, “The dynamic nature of conflict: A
longitudinal study of intragroup conflict and group
performance.”
Capozzoli, “Resolving conflict within teams”
DUE: Paper #2: Assessment and Feedback for
another in-class team
Lau & Murnighan, “Demographic diversity and
faultlines: The compositional dynamics of
organizational groups.”
Gratton, L., Voigt, A., Erickson, T. (2007).
Bridging faultlines in diverse teams. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 48 (2), 22-29
DUE: GROUP PROJECT PROPOSAL
Druskat & Wolff, “Building the emotional
intelligence of groups.”
Gabarro & Kotter, “Managing your boss.”
Patcher, “Bosses behaving badly”
Guest Speaker:
Dr. Chester Spell,
Professor of Health
Management, Rutgers
University
Motivation, Performance, & Feedback
11/3
Work Motivation
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#14
Theories
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11/8
#15
Performance Appraisal
and Feedback
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Leadership
11/10
Leadership,
#16
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11/15
Top Management
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Muchinsky, “Work motivation.”
Kerr, “On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping
for B.”
Case, “When salaries aren’t secret.”
Beer, “Conducting a performance appraisal
interview”
Peiperl, “Getting 360o feedback right”
Porter, “Giving and receiving feedback; it will never
be easy, but it can be better”
Lumsden & Lumsden, “Leadership and
responsibility: Influencing your teams”
Prepare to assess your individual and group
leadership skills
DUE: Individual assessments
Levy, “The nut island effect: When good teams go
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#17
11/17
#18
Teams
No Class
Team Presentations
11/29
#19
12/1
Last Day of Class
#20
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wrong”
Prepare for your presentations!
Final presentations
Final presentations
FINAL PAPERS DUE