Field Of Occupational Psychology Research Articles

An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective on Human in Control and AI.

The continuous and rapid development of AI-based systems comes along with an increase in automation of tasks and, therewith, a qualitative shift in opportunities and challenges for occupational safety and health. A fundamental aspect of humane working conditions is the ability to exert influence over different aspects of one's own work. Consequently, stakeholders contribute to the prospect of maintaining the workers' autonomy albeit increasing automation and summarize this aspiration with the human in control principle. Job control has been part of multiple theories and models within the field of occupational psychology. However, most of the models do not include specific technical considerations nor focus on task but rather on job level. That is, they are possibly not able to fully explain specific changes regarding the digitalization of tasks. According to the results of a large-scale study on German workers (DiWaBe), this seems to be the case to some extend: the influence of varying degrees of automation, moderated by perceived autonomy, on workers' wellbeing was not consistent. However, automation is a double-edged sword: on a high level, it can be reversely related to the workers' job control while highly autonomous and reliable systems can also create opportunities for more flexible, impactful and diverse working tasks. Consequently, automation can foster and decrease the factor of job control. Models about the optimal level of automation aim to give guidelines on how the former can be achieved. The results of the DiWaBe study indicate that automation in occupational practice does not always happen in line with these models. Instead, a substantial part of automation happens at the decision-making level, while executive actions remain with the human. From an occupational safety and health perspective, it is therefore crucial to closely monitor and anticipate the implementation of AI in working systems. Constellations where employees are too controlled by technology and are left with a high degree of demands and very limited resources should be avoided. Instead, it would be favorable to use AI as an assistance tool for the employees, helping them to gather and process information and assisting them in decision-making.

ОПИТУВАЛЬНИК МОТИВАЦІЙНИХ ОРІЄНТАЦІЙ ПІДПРИЄМНИЦЬКОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ

Актуальність дослідження. Проблема мотивації підприємницької діяльності у вітчизняній психології залишається недостатньо досліджуваною, що і зумовило необхідність створення психодіагностичного інструментарію. Метою дослідження було створення психодіагностичної методики для вивчення мотиваційних орієнтацій на підприємницьку діяльність. Методи і вибірка дослідження. У психометричну вибірку увійшли 180 досліджуваних, серед них — 104 жіночої статі та 76 — чоловічої. Вік випробовуваних варіював від 17 до 60 років. Обробка даних проводилася в пакеті StatSoft STATISTICA 6.Психометрична обробка результатів дослідження включала перевірку внутрішньої узгодженості методики за коефіцієнтом альфа Кронбаха, оцінку конструктивної валідності та ретестової надійності опитувальника. Результати. Статистика альфа Кронбаха для шкали, що включає всі 70 пунктів склала 0,951. Для виявлення внутрішньої структури методики проводився факторний аналіз, що дозволило перевірити правомірність операціоналізації даного психологічного конструкту через десять латентних факто­рів (шкали). Висновки. Запропонована психодіагностична методика дослідження мотиваційних орієнтацій на підприємницьку діяльність відповідає сучасним вимогам до психометричного обґрунтування особистісних опитувальників. Психометричними параметрами мотиваційних орієнтацій на підприємницьку діяльність визначено такі мотиви – комерційного успіху, свободи і самостійності, самореалізації, глорістичні, влади, вимушеності, афіліативні мотиви, самоствердження, інноваційності, ризику. Стандартизація опитувальника показала його високу тест-ретестову надійність та валідність. Опитувальник може бути використаний для психодіагностики у структурі досліджень у галузі психологічного супроводу кар’єрного розвитку та у галузі психології праці.

A multidisciplinary approach of workload assessment in real-job situations: investigation in the field of aerospace activities.

The present contribution presents two field studies combining tools and methods from cognitive psychology and from occupational psychology in order to perform a thorough investigation of workload in employees. Cognitive load theory proposes to distinguish different load categories of working memory, in a context of instruction. Intrinsic load is inherent to the task, extraneous load refers to components of a learning environment that may be modified to reduce total load, and germane load enables schemas construction and thus efficient learning. We showed previously that this theoretical framework may be successfully extended to working memory tasks in non-instructional designs. Other theoretical models, issued from the field of occupational psychology, account for an individual’s perception of work demands or requirements in the context of different psychosocial features of the (work) environment. Combining these approaches is difficult as workload assessment by job-perception questionnaires explore an individual’s overall job-perception over a large time-period, whereas cognitive load investigations in working memory tasks are typically performed within short time-periods. We proposed an original methodology enabling investigation of workload and load factors in a comparable time-frame. We report two field studies investigating workload on different shift-phases and between work-shifts, with two custom-made tools. The first one enabled workload assessment by manipulating intrinsic load (task difficulty) and extraneous load (time pressure) in a working-memory task. The second tool was a questionnaire based on the theoretical concepts of work-demands, control, and psychosocial support. Two additional dimensions suspected to contribute to job-perception, i.e., work–family conflicts and availability of human and technical resources were also explored. Results of workload assessments were discussed in light of operators’ alertness and job-performance.

Hauntings of Solidarity in Post-Fordist Italy

Beginning in the mid-1990s and continuing through the 2000s, Italy’s population of semi-permanent or sub-employed workers doubled, while its safeguarded workforce was halved, a trend particularly salient in Northern Italy. In historical tandem with this immense socio-economic transformation, outstanding public attention, originating in the field of occupational psychology, has been focused on a form of workplace harassment called mobbing ( il mobbing ). Mobbing, I show, both as praxis and site of public discourse, articulates the inchoate threats and ravages of intra- and inter-class solidarities which have become the affective trademarks of post-Fordism. It is but one example of everyday labor practices which signal a far deeper proximity between the detached and atomized workers of a market-oriented labor regime and the Fordist ideals of material stability, valorized toil, and, crucially, affective ties. Italy’s working populations confront Fordist ruins not only as intangible and nostalgic remnants but as a labor force deprived of solidarity between workers even though workers’ affective investment in their labor has intensified. I interrogate how the eerie presence of capitalism’s affective past is reincarnated in mobbing discourse, redeployed to signal at once the solidarity-stripping capacity of post-Fordism and the affinity-affirming spirit of Fordism.

Partizipation und Belastung von Unternehmensberatern - Empirische Befunde zu den Risiken und Nebenwirkungen „wissensintensiver“ Arbeit / Participation and strain of consultants – empirical findings about risks and side effects of knowledge-intensive work forms

Abstract Die Nutzung des Wissens und die Aktivierung des Lernpotenzials von Beschäftigten gelten als Schlüssel zur Sicherung dauerhafter Wettbewerbsvorteile von Unternehmen. Vor diesem Hintergrund rücken partizipative Gestaltungsüberlegungen stärker in den Mittelpunkt arbeitswissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. Gilt aus arbeitspsychologischer Sicht die Selbstregulation der Arbeit seit langem als Kernelement einer persönlichkeitsförderlichen und humanen Arbeitsgestaltung, deuten inzwischen empirische Befunde auf eine Reihe von Problemen hin, die für die Beschäftigten in wissensintensiven Arbeitsformen mit einem hohen Partizipationsgrad einhergehen. In diesem Beitrag wird der Zusammenhang von Partizipation und Belastung am Beispiel von Beschäftigten in Beratungsunternehmen empirisch untersucht.

Research that makes a difference

Given the dramatic economic times we are all living in today, it is important, more than ever before, that the research we undertake in the field of psychology is of relevance to society. The economic recession is one of the worst in recent history, and will have many consequences for the cultures that we live and work in. It will not only affect the field of occupational psychology but also clinical, developmental and neuro-cognitive psychology as well. The impact of this downturn is having consequences for individual’s health and well-being, family relationships, the roles of men and women at work and in the family, and for old age as well as work opportunities begin to dry up for older workers. It is incumbent of research psychologists that our work is relevant and applied to the contemporary problems we currently face. We will always engage of blue-sky or basic psychological research, but many of the problems people face in Europe during these difficult times require apposite and effective solutions. The time has come for applied psychologists to work on the issues that really matter in understanding human behaviour in times of distress. This is a golden opportunity for us, as many of the changes that are taking place across Europe provide us with a natural laboratory for our science, and the practice of applied psychology.