University of the West of England
MODULE SPECIFICATION
Code: USPJDR-20-3 Title: ISSUES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WORK Version: 3
Level: 3 UWE credit rating: 20 ECTS credit rating: 10
Module type: Standard
Owning Faculty: Applied Sciences Field: Psychology
Valid from: September 2003 Discontinued from:
Pre-requisites: USPJDB-20-2 Social and Developmental Psychology 2,
or USPJDJ-20-2 Developmental and Social Psychology 2,
USPJDD-20-2 Cognitive Psychology,
or USPJDH-20-2 Aspects of Cognition
Co-requisites: None
Excluded combinations: None
Learning outcomes:
• Discuss the psychological issues involved in personnel selection and training.
• Discuss issues involved in managing people and helping them to develop their potential.
• Evaluate ways of improving communication and decision making in groups and organisations and discuss the principles of team building.
• Consider organisations as social systems and discuss methods of organisational change.
• Appreciate the influence of the physical and technological environment on well-being and effectiveness at work.
• Discuss the issues of training and retraining, redundancy and retirement in lifeskills development.
Syllabus outline:
Unit One - The Experience of Work
Stress at work ; Job satisfaction and job design; Vocational choice and career development
Unit Two - Integrating the Individual and the Organisation
The psychology of selection; Developing employees; Psychology and equal opportunities at work; Performance management.
Unit Three - Managing Work Relationships
Working in teams; Organisational justice; Managing change
Unit Four - Working with Technology
The development of technology at work; Socio-technical approaches; Ergonomics and human-computer interaction; Organisational approaches to the introduction of new technology; Information and communication technologies.
Teaching and learning methods:
The teaching methods will involve lectures, experiential and participative exercises, guided independent study and use of LRW presented material and exercises.
Reading Strategy
All students will be encouraged to make full use of the print and electronic resources available to them through membership of the University. These include a range of electronic journals and a wide variety of resources available through web sites and information gateways. The University Library’s web pages provide access to subject relevant resources and services, and to the library catalogue. Many resources can be accessed remotely. Students will be presented with opportunities within the curriculum to develop their information retrieval and evaluation skills in order to identify such resources effectively.
This guidance will be available either in the module handbook, via the module information on UWEonline or through any other vehicle deemed appropriate by the module/programme leaders.
Key recommended texts include :
Arnold, J., Cooper, C., and Robertson, I. (1998) Work psychology. Financial Times : Pitman Publishing.
Chmiel, N. (2000) Work and oganisational psychology : A European Perspective. Blackwell.
Chmiel, N. (1998) Jobs, technology and people. Routledge.
Warr, P. (ed.) (2002) Psychology at Work. (5th edition). Penguin.
Newell, S. (2002) Creating the healthy organisation : well-being, diversity and ethics at work. Thomson Learning.
Furnham, A. (1997) The psychology of behaviour at work. Psychology Press.
Williams, S. (2002) Managing employee performance. Thomson Learning.
Cooper, C. and Locke, E. (2000) (eds.) Industrial and organisational psychology : Linking theory with practice. Blackwell.
Assessment
Weighting between components A and B (standard modules only) A: 50% B: 50%
ATTEMPT 1
First Assessment Opportunity
Component A Element weighting
EX2 |
Examination (2 Hours) |
1 |
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
ES1 |
Essay (2000 words) |
1 |
| ||
Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes) No
Component A
Description of each element Element weighting
EX2 |
Examination (2 Hours) |
1 |
|
| |
|
|
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
ES1 |
Essay (2000 words) |
1 |
|
| |
|
|
SECOND (OR SUBSEQUENT) ATTEMPT Attendance at taught classes. Yes
Specification confirmed by …………………………………………………Date ……………………………
(Associate Dean/Programme Director)