Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology: A European Perspective

Citation

Marks, A. (2000), "Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology: A European Perspective", Employee Relations, Vol. 22 No. 6, pp. 612-619. https://doi.org/10.1108/er.2000.22.6.612.2

This is a useful introductory textbook for students at both postgraduate and undergraduate level studying either psychology or business. Having been a student on the MSc directed by the editor, I note that the text has been geared towards this type of course, but I have some reservations in terms of its suitability. Some of the chapters within this textbook are not of a sufficiently advanced level for courses of this type. Having said that, it is definitely a valuable text for students on broader courses such as MBA students taking work psychology options or final year undergraduates.

Where this book attempts to find a unique place in the market is by adopting a European perspective. The rationale behind this is creditable considering there is a surplus of North American texts in this field, and the content of these tend not to be broadly generalisable to Europe. Disappointingly, I found little evidence that this text was taking a truly European perspective. There was an attempt to base most of the chapters on European literature, and some chapters made cross‐national comparisons. However, a broader selection of case studies would have further developed the idea and made the overarching theme of Europe somewhat clearer. Similarly the chapters varied in terms of their complexity and direction and there was little consistency in terms of level even within the different segments of the text.

The book is organised into five sections, including 18 chapters in total. The first part is a two‐chapter introduction looking at the history of work psychology and secondly at roles and methods within the field. Of particular interest is Chapter one written by the editor. There are too few texts that look at the origins of the subject area and this chapter takes the reader through a concise but comprehensive chronicle of the field from the industrial revolution to the present day. Helpfully it includes a description of the current state of the discipline within the UK and Europe.

Part two of the book is concerned with the person at work and contains a conventional suite of chapters on job analysis, personnel selection, training, performance appraisal and stress. The chapters in this section are all interesting and well written, but vary considerably in terms of depth and direction. Chapters three (Lees and Cordery) and seven (Le Blanc, de Jonge and Schaufeli) provide good quality, comprehensive accounts of job analysis and stress respectively, however, Anderson and Cunningham‐Snell’s review of personnel selection is worthy of particular mention. Not only does this chapter take us through an account of a variety of selection techniques and diverse theoretical perspectives, it also provides us a with an understandable summary of the statistical premises underpinning the predictability measures for selection practices which is often missing within textbooks. The authors also give one of the best accounts of personnel selection that I have read in an OB text.

Patrick’s chapter on training provides and acceptable discussion of the training process from definitions to training needs analysis and evaluation, although it does not appear to have a particularly “European” perspective. I would have liked to see some reference to the broader concept of organisational learning, and how training fits within this framework. To fully understand this chapter the reader would have need of a reasonable grounding in psychology with references to theorists such as Gagn and Vroom requiring more expansive knowledge that the author is able to supply within a 8,000 word review of the area. This is diametrically opposed to other chapters within this book for example, Unsworth and West’s chapter, which is directed at an entirely different readership. Their chapter, which I will discuss in more detail later, takes a much more basic approach and can be read and understood by readers who do not have a background within the social sciences.

Moving on to Part three. This is a consideration of the detail of the workplace, and according to the introduction “covers a considerable part of what has been called human factors, and the approach has been largely to consider people from a cognitive point of view”. I found the first chapter within this section on workload and task allocation (Tattersall) particularly interesting. It provides an intelligent yet comprehensible treatment of a topic, which is infrequently found in mainstream textbooks. Unfortunately this chapter does fail to take a “European” perspective; even a basic consideration of EU legislation on working time would have been of some use. The rest of this section is interesting and original, although there is a similar deviation in target readerships as there is in the previous section. Waterson’s chapter on the design and use of work technology is impressive in terms of its use of case studies, and facilitates ease of understanding for students without a background in psychology. There is a good basic description of socio‐technical systems theory, but I felt that the cognitive models of the user are less well explained. Chmiel’s chapter on safety at work discusses broader conceptual issues but is very readable, which is a refreshing stylistic antidote to some of the earlier chapters.

The penultimate section of this book consists of four chapters which are concerned with the more traditional organizational behaviour/organizational psychology subjects – motivation, teamworking, etc. The first two chapters within this section, leadership (Shakelton and Wale) and motivation (Foster) provide well written and critical accounts, but both are unfortunately bland and lack any European angle. Having said this, I am pleased to see the inclusion of attribution theory within the “leadership” chapter and there is also an impressive use of a “case history” to illustration the utility of the various motivation theories discussed.

The chapters on teams (Unsworth and West) and the organizational change and development (Senior) are reasonable, and the topics that are presented within these chapters are satisfactory, but I did feel a certain sense of déjà vu when reading them. The “cultural context” part of the “teams” chapter makes an interesting contribution by looking at international issues concerned with teamworking (although the faith in Hofstede is a little concerning). It would have been interesting to link this in with the discussion in the final chapter (The changing nature of work), which highlights concerns associated with cross‐national teams.

The last three chapters, managing diversity, job performance and the ageing, and the changing nature of work are contained within a section entitled “Issues for work and organizational psychology”. The aim of this section is to “discuss the very nature of work itself, and how this might change in the future”.

The “ageing” chapter is again well written and comprehensive, if a little uninspiring. If one can digest the premise that women (52 per cent of the population), ethnic minorities and the disabled can be discussed within one chapter, then Lawthom’s “diversity” section is an intelligent and sophisticated review of the literature. The chapter within this section that I was most excited about “The changing nature of work” was the most disappointing. It provides a very conventional account of anticipated work patterns/relationships and fails to take into account the enormous body of literature, which is developing within this area. The assumption that Taylorism has been replaced is concerning considering the wealth of “call centre” literature refuting this (see Taylor and Bain, 1998). I was also frustrated to find that there is no consideration of the changing home/life interface.

In summary, Work and Organizational Psychology is a relatively traditional text, which provides a useful review of the theory and research within the field. The use of chapter outlines summaries and discussion points is constructive. The dictionary is also of value, even if it is somewhat at odds with the principle that this book is aimed towards students with a background in psychology. I would have appreciated a broader consideration of job design and chapter on careers, and it would also have been interesting to see attention placed on recently developing areas such as organizational justice and psychological contracts. Overall, the book is wide ranging in terms of scope and interest. It offers useful material from a number of contributors on many aspects of work and organisational psychology and is an accessible read for both practitioners and academics and psychologists and non‐psychologists alike.