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Essay on Psychology Applied to Work
Theory and methodology have been advanced for training people in leadership. Specifically, psychologists have shown the necessity for leaders to develop a vision that inspires and galvanizes a workforce and to set specific difficult goals to move the vision from rhetoric to concrete action steps.
A primary role of leadership is selection. American psychologists have been at the forefront in developing job analysis techniques that identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities critical for performing a job well, and developing selection techniques that minimize employer biases. The statistical correlations between how people perform on these selection procedures and how they perform on the job have been impressive (Barney, 1997).
A second role of leaders is to coach and develop employees after they have been hired. American psychologists have pioneered ways of developing appraisal instruments for measuring an employee’s performance, increasing the objectivity of the observers who use the instrument and bringing about a positive behavioral change on the part of employees on the basis of performance feedback and setting goals based on this feedback.
In the process of conducting an appraisal, a leader may discover that an employee has the desire but not the skill to perform the job well. American psychologists have written extensively on the subject of training. Empirical research has been conducted on ways to improve the skills of leaders themselves as well as the people who report to them. In the process of an appraisal, a leader may also discover that the person has the skill but has lost the desire to perform the job well. American psychologists are extremely well known for their theories of motivation and organizational commitment, and for the empirical research that support these theories. The three dominant theories of employee motivation used world-wide were developed by American (expectancy theory; goal-setting theory, social-cognitive theory)....................
