Organizational Psychology

Basic findings and research methods in organizational psychology are reviewed. The module covers basic attributes of organizations, ethics and morals in organizational behavior, individual attributes in the workplace, and the structures and processes of work teams. Furthermore, it analyzes the impact of organizational culture as well as organizational change and development. Sessions on managerial decision making, professional communication, conflict management, and negotiation complete the module.

At the end of the module students are able to describe, interpret, and explain concepts and applications of various organizational behavior theories. They are able to analyze theories and models of organizational behavior in light of normative values and ethics and to discern the effects of personality and motivation of individuals. In addition, they are able to classify structures and processes of work teams and to give an account of current theories on organizational culture and organizational change.

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Theories and concepts of organizational psychology are conveyed by presentations. Voluntary in-class group work, individual assignments, and video analyses complement the tools of the interactive lectures, aiming at critical reflection of the discussed concepts. All sessions are videotaped and made available online, so that participants can reiterate the concepts while studying the relevant literature and supporting materials, which are provided on the online learning management system Moodle. As part of the course, students are able to participate in a 60-120 min long psychological study/psychological experiment as a mid-term examination. Participation is voluntary and can, in accordance to APSO regulations, be used to improve the grade on the final exam. This mid-term examination illustrates parts of the learning content and allows students to gain experience with scientific (psychological) methodology. Available experiments are listed on http://www.psycho.wi.tum.de/Experimente.php.

Presentation slides, textbooks, scientific papers, handout, videos.

- Wood, J. M. (2010). Organisational behavior: Core concepts and applications. Milton, Australia: Wiley.
- Landy, F.J, & Conte, J.M. (2013). Work in the 21st century. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

In a 60min written examination, we test the students' abilities to recall interpret, and transfer basic concepts and theories of organizational psychology to various occupational settings. For this purpose, the questions are designed as single choice items. They can take on the form of
- simple knowledge questions, which aim at recall of the learned concepts
- decision items, which aim at classifying or interpreting the course contents
- scenarios, which aim at transferring the learned concepts to real-life settings
The final grade is determined by the performance in the written examination. It is allowed to bring one hard-copy dictionary (English – first language) or English thesaurus.