WORK PSYCHOLOGY IN NATIONAL BANK OF OMAN

Introduction:

There are a number of ways one can use psychology to improve the work performance, to

build the job-related skills that will help your career, to give you a competitive edge.

Many people think of psychology as a set of theories and skills to be used by counselors

and therapists who deal with mental problems. Abnormal behavior and mental disorders

are, in fact, major concerns for some people who have studied psychology. But there are

many applications of psychological findings outside of counseling. One of the oldest

specialties in applied psychology has nothing to do with therapy and abnormality. This

specialty is the psychology of work behavior. Work or industrial psychology, in brief, is

concerned with the scientific structuring of organizations and of work to improve the

productivity and quality of life of people at work.

The field of work or industrial psychology is certainly a very applied field, but many

psychologists also address relatively basic research questions. In other words, work

psychologists very much want to produce solutions to problems in the workplace, but

they also usually want to develop a fuller understanding of life at work to produce a solid

scientific knowledge base. Work scientist/practitioners like being in an environment that

has problems that need to be solved, but they also like to discover and collect scientific

facts about work and organizational settings that they can apply to problems yet to be

faced. There is a lot of justification for this kind of activity because the world of work is

such a fast-moving target of study that many issues are hard to anticipate. (Borman, W.

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C., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1993). Expanding the criterion domain to include elements of

contextual performance, Pg. 71-80)

Work psychology can be classified into different branches based on the purpose to

be used within the organization:

Physiological Psychology: Physiological psychology studies the physiological correlates

of behavior. It studies both very basic processes (e.g., how brain cells function) and more

readily observable phenomena (e.g., behavioral changes as a function of drug use or the

biological/genetic roots of psychiatric disorders).

Cognitive Psychology is the school of psychology that examines internal mental

processes such as problem solving, memory, and language. It had its foundations in the

Gestalt psychology of Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka, and in the

work of Jean Piaget, who studied intellectual development in children. Cognitive

psychologists are interested in how people understand, diagnose, and solve problems,

concerning themselves with the mental processes which mediate between stimulus and

response. Cognitive theory contends that solutions to problems take the form of

algorithms rules that are not necessarily understood but promise a solution, or heuristics

rules that are understood but that do not always guarantee solutions. In other instances,

solutions may be found through insight, a sudden awareness of relationships.

Cognitive psychology is radically different from previous psychological approaches in

two key ways.

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  It accepts the use of the scientific method, and generally rejects introspection as a

valid method of investigation, unlike phenomenological methods such as Freudian

psychology.

 It explicitly acknowledges the existence of internal mental states (such as belief,

desire and motivation) unlike behaviorist psychology.

(Campbell, J. P., Gasser, M. B., & Oswald, F. L. (1996). The substantive nature of job

performance variability. In K. R. Murphy (Ed.), Individual differences and behavior in

organizations (pp. 258–265).

Developmental psychology, also known as Human Development, is the scientific study

of progressive psychological changes that occur in human beings as they age. Originally

concerned with infants and children, and later other periods of great change such as

adolescence and aging, it now encompasses the entire life span. This field examines

change across a broad range of topics including motor skills and other psycho-

physiological processes, problem solving abilities, conceptual understanding, acquisition

of language, moral understanding, and identify formation.

Developmental psychologists investigate key questions, such as whether children are

qualitatively different from adults or simply lack the experience that adults draw upon.

Other issues that they deal with is the question of whether development occurs through

the gradual accumulation of knowledge or through shifts from one stage of thinking to

another; or if children are born with innate knowledge or figure things out through

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experience; and whether development is driven by the social context or by something

inside each child.

Developmental psychology informs several applied fields, including: educational, child

psychopathology and developmental forensics. Developmental psychology complements

several other basic research fields in psychology including social psychology, cognitive

psychology, cognitive development, and comparative psychology. (Campbell, J. P.,

Gasser, M. B., & Oswald, F. L. (1996). The substantive nature of job performance

variability. In K. R. Murphy (Ed.), Individual differences and behavior in organizations

(pp. 270–276).

Social psychology Social psychology is the study of the nature and causes of human

social behavior, with an emphasis on how people think towards each other and how they

relate to each other. As the mind is the axis around which social behavior pivots, social

psychologists tend to study the relationship between minds and social behaviors. In early-

modern social science theory, John Stuart Mill, Comte, and others, laid the foundation for

social psychology by asserting that human social cognition and behavior could and

should be studied scientifically like any other natural science. It is the scientific study of

how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or

implied presence of others (Allport, 1985). By this definition, scientific refers to the

empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all

of the psychological variables that are measurable in a human being. The statement that

others may be imagined or implied suggests that we are prone to social influence even

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when no other people are present, such as when watching television, or following

internalized cultural norms.

Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the interaction of

mental states and immediate, social situations. In Kurt Lewin's (1951), famous heuristic,

behavior can be viewed as a function of the person and the environment, B=f(P,E). In

general, social psychologists have a preference for laboratory based, empirical findings.

Their theories tend to be specific and focused, rather than global and general.

Social psychology is an interdisciplinary domain that bridges the gap between

psychology and sociology. During the years immediately following World War II, there

was frequent collaboration between psychologists and sociologists (Sewell, 1989).

However, the two disciplines have become increasingly specialized and isolated from

each other in recent years, with sociologists focusing on “macro variables” (e.g. social

structure) to a much greater extent. Nevertheless, sociological approaches to social

psychology remain an important counterpart to psychological research in this area.

(Hunter, J. E., & Schmidt, F. L. (1990). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and

bias in research findings, Pg. 71-76)

Personality psychology is a branch of psychology which studies personality and

individual differences. One emphasis in this area is to construct a coherent picture of a

person and his or her major psychological processes. Another emphasis views personality

as the study of individual differences, in other words, how people differ from each other.

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A third area of emphasis examines human nature and how all people are similar to one

other. These three viewpoints merge together in the study of personality.

Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by

a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviours in

various situations (Ryckman, 2004). The word "personality" originates from the Latin

persona, which means mask. Significantly, in the theatre of the ancient Latin-speaking

world, the mask was not used as a plot device to disguise the identity of a character, but

rather was a convention employed to represent or typify that character.

The pioneering American psychologist, Gordon Allport (1937) described two major ways

to study personality, the nomothetic and the idiographic. Nomothetic psychology seeks

general laws that can be applied to many different people, such as the principle of self-

actualization, or the trait of extraversion. Idiographic psychology is an attempt to

understand the unique aspects of a particular individual.

The study of personality has a rich and varied history in psychology, with an abundance

of theoretical traditions. Some psychologists have taken a highly scientific approach,

whereas others have focused their attention on theory development. There is also a

substantial emphasis on the applied field of personality testing. (Anderson, N., Ones, D.

S., Sinangil, H. K., & Viswesvaran, C. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of industrial, work and

organizational psychology, Volume 2: Organizational psychology, Pg. 111-118)

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 This figure shows the relationship between areas of psychology:

Areas of applied
Areas of basic psychology:
psychology:  Work psychology.
 Psychological  Clinical
psychology.
psychology.
 Educational
psychology.
Practical
 Cognitive problems and
 Health psychology. opportunities.
psychology.
 Legal psychology.

 Sport psychology.
 Developmental

psychology.

 Social

psychology.

 Personality

psychology.

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Work psychology today:

Work psychology has different names in different countries in U K and U S A. It is

called industrial psychology. Increasing use is made of the psychology of work and

organization and work and organizational psychology to describe the area. Some parts of

the field are managerial psychology, vocational and personnel psychology. There are

twelve areas in which work psychologists operate as teachers, researchers and

consultants.

Psychological egoism is the view that humans are always motivated by self-interest, even

in what seem to be acts of altruism. It can be contrasted both with ethical egoism, which

is the view that the individual always ought to be motivated by self-interest and disregard

the interests of the community, and rational egoism, which asserts that the rational thing

to do in all situations is that which furthers the actor's interests the most. Psychological

egoism is controversial, since many see it as an over-simplified interpretation of

behavior, and it cannot rule out altruism without being contradicted by evidence. Rather,

it claims that when sane people choose to help others, it is because of the personal

benefits they themselves obtain or expect to obtain, directly or indirectly, from doing so.

The most prominent form of psychological egoism is psychological hedonism, the view

that the ultimate motive for all voluntary human action is the desire to experience

pleasure or to avoid pain. Many of the discussions of psychological egoism focus on this

variety, as does this entry, for the sake of simplicity. The two are not the same, however:

one can hold that all actions are ultimately motivated by considerations of self-interest,

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without thinking that all agents conceive of their self-interest in terms of feelings of

pleasure and pain.

The domains of work psychology:

Development of individuals
People’s opinion and groups.
about work.  Training.
 Attitude  Career choice develop
surveys well and counseling.
being and  Interpersonal skills.
work.  Equal opportunities.
 Managing diversity.

Work
psychology
Assessment of Physical work
individuals. environment:
 Selection and  Ergonomics
assessment. and
 Performance equipment
appraisal. design.
 Occupational
safety and
health.
The nature of work and
organization.
 Work design.
 Organizational
change and
development.

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1. Selection and measurement for all types of job by various methods tests and

interviews.

2. Training: identification of training needs, the design, delivery and evaluation of

training.

2. Performance appraisal: identification of key aspects of job performance, design of

systems for accurate performance assessment, training in appraisal techniques.

3. Organizational change and development: analyzing systems and relationships

with a view to possible change, implementation of any such change according to

new technology.

4. Ergonomics and equipment design: analysis and design of work equipment and

environments to fit human physical and cognitive capabilities.

5. Career choice, development and counseling, analysis of a person’s abilities,

interests and values and their translation into occupation terms.

6. Interpersonal skills: identification and development of skills such as leadership,

assertiveness, negotiation, group working and relationships with other individuals.

7. Equal opportunities, monitoring and enhancing opportunities for minority groups

at work. In recent years this has broadened into managing diversity, where the aim

is to harness the skills and perspective of many different cultural and other

groups.

8. Occupational safety and health: examination of causes of accidents and

introduction of measures to reduce their frequency of occurrence.

9. Work design: allocations of tasks so that jobs are as satisfying and motivating as

possible.

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 10. Attitude surveys: design, conduct and analysis of surveys (by questionnaire or

interview) of employee opinions and experiences at work.

11. Well-being and work: investigation of factors that lead to stress in work and

employment and identification of ways to prevent and manage stress.

Five traditions of psychology

Psychoanalytic tradition

Sigmund Freud (born Sigismund Freud) May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939; was an

Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who co-founded the psychoanalytic school of

psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind, especially

involving the mechanism of repression; his redefinition of sexual desire as mobile and

directed towards a wide variety of objects; and his therapeutic techniques, especially his

understanding of transference in the therapeutic relationship and the presumed value of

dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires.

Trait Tradition

A trait is what we call a characteristic way in which an individual perceives, feels,

believes, or acts.  When we casually describe someone, we are likely to use trait terms:  I

am, for example, somewhat of an introvert, a pretty nervous person, strongly attached to

my family, frequently depressed, and (if I do say so myself) very intelligent.  I have a

good sense of humor, fond of languages, very fond of good food, not at all fond of

exercise, and a little obsessive. 

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Phenomenological Tradition

This tradition mainly concentrates on how people experience the world around them. It

emphasizes our capacity to construct our own meaning from or experiences. This theory

is also known as humanism. This theory states that if we are to fulfill our potential, we

must be open to our experience.

The behaviourist tradition

The behaviorist perspective dominated the study of learning throughout the first half of

the twentieth century. Behaviorist theories identified processes of learning that could be

understood in terms of the relationships between the stimuli that impinge on organisms

and the way organisms respond, a view that came to be referred to as S-R theories. A

central process in S-R theories is equipotentiality. Equipotential learning means that

learning processes are the same for all animals, both human and nonhuman. By studying

learning in nonhuman animals, the early behaviorists believed they were identifying the

basic processes that are important in human learning. They also believed that learning

could only be studied by observing events in the environment and measuring the

responses to those events.

The Social Cognitive Tradition

Bandura's social cognitive theory emphasises the social origins of behaviour in addition

to the cognitive thought processes that influence human behaviour and functioning.

Bandura's social-cognitive approach represents a break from traditional theories by

proposing that cognitive factors are central to human functioning and that learning can

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occur in the absence of direct reinforcement. That is, learning can occur simply through

observation of models and in the absence of reinforcement.

Work Psychology in National Bank of Oman

National Bank of Oman is a corporation deal with money. The work in bank is running in

a traditional method for many years. Staff is accustomed to deal with the old culture or

the organization and clients also accustomed to procedures how to deal with the bank.

The role of managers is to direct and control staff resources and information.

Today after the appearance of technology everything will be changed, the work, the staff

design and the equipments. This change requires knowledge and expertise in strategy

formation, human resource management, marketing sales, the key to success, the decisive

factor in creating a focused agenda for organizational change as Clarke said in 1994

managers own behavior. If managers are to gain the commitment of others to change,

they must first be prepared to challenge their own assumptions, attitude and mindsets so

that they develop an understanding of the emotional and individual processes involved.

So the first step for change is to identify the main approaches to organizational change

and to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the main approaches to change.

There are many divisions in the bank and each division has its job and selected staff to

perform the job. Most of the work is manual, depends on clerical and accounts work. The

correspondence goes through post and transactions are offered in the counter this will be

changed through computer and e-mail and internet and collecting money and deposit

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through mechanical cashier. This needs qualified staff and to spread awareness among

clients how to deal with new systems.

The procedure in this respect is to name and outline the different jobs, outline the

personnel selection design and validation process, to analyze job procedures which are

designed to produce systematic information about jobs, the nature of work, equipment

used and working conditions, personnel selection, redesign and training and career

development, concentrate on describing the psychological or behavioral requirements of

the job such as communicating, decision making, reasoning.

Personnel selection, design, validation process:

Job analysis

Person specification

Design of selection
methods (collection of
predictor data)

Take selection decision

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Sources of analysis data divided into the following categories:

1. Written material:

This can provide the analysis with useful information that provides comprehensive

information about the job. Other written material such as production data organization

charts, training manuals, job aids. These also provide useful additional information.

2. Job holders reports:

The process of interviews in which job holders are asked careful questions to give

descriptions for their main tasks and how they perform since interview is usually

essential element in any job analysis.

This will provide useful information for selection.

3. Colleagues’ report:

In case of job analysis questionnaire, a comparison of the responses of job holders

and their supervisors provide a basic for assessing the validity of questionnaire.

4. Direct observation:

In any job analysis exercise, some direct observation of the job being carried out is

invariably helpful.

The presence of analyst may alter the job holder behavior; it is often useful to

conduct a job analysis using a variety of methods. It is also useful for personnel

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 selection and the resulting information may be helpful in other areas of the

organization.

Procedures for change:

Work psychology concerns both the interaction between an individual and his work and

he relationships between the people in the work setting. This include staff selection,

training, vocational guidance, management development, ergonomics, organizational

development, equal opportunities and job redesign.

Staff selection:

Select the person vides interview and oral tests and to make sure he has the ability to

understand and perform properly and can cope with new technology.

Training:

To determine the needs of training, select the proper persons and evaluation and test is

very important design of the system for accurate performance and how to deal with new

technology, analysis and design of work equipment and create safe environment to fit

human physical.

Using organizational change and development and analysis of systems to make possible

change as a result of new technology.

Analysis and design equipment of work develop skills such as leadership, group working

and relationships with other individuals pave the way for equal opportunities for minority

groups at work.

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Of course, it is normal that change of work or work place causes stress. Today most o

people are not pleased in their work places. They feel headache and some problems and

sometimes unsatisfied with their position.

In this case changing attitudes is an important part of staff’s work; some staff in certain

division try to persuade potential clients to hold a positive attitude to whatever they are

performing.

Managers may seek to change the attitudes of colleagues or some subordinates on issues

as bank strategy or work practice. This should be noted that such attempts are aimed at

changing behavior.

Minorities at work:

How to help them?

First to make equal training for work groups, where work teams could explore the ways

in which they subtly utilize discriminatory practice and behaviors in the course of their

productive activity.

Using job analysis information:

It can be used in number of ways:

Job description can be prepared from job analysis data. It can give some understanding on

using selection procedure. It can also used by organization to provide information for

training and job evaluation and other purposes. Job analysis also provides information

that might be used when recruitment advertisements to attract candidates for the job.

A personnel specification represents the demands of the job translated into human terms.

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Conclusion:

Psychology at work its function is to support the clients by providing high quality

services that translate psychological research into work place practice. Psychology at

work is able to offer a wide range of scientifically researched and validated solution

including psychometric abilities and personality testing for both recruitment and current

development purposes. Psychometric testing has been proven to provide sound insight

into an intellectual abilities and personality which provides valuable information on how

a person will perform specific job role. It reduces resistance to change, assess corporation

emotional intelligence management.

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References:

1. Work psychology understanding Human Behavior in work place by John

Arnold / Cary L Cooper Ivan / Robertson 3rd edition.

2. Borman, W. C., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1993). Expanding the criterion domain to

include elements of contextual performance. Chapter in N. Schmitt and W. C.

Borman (Eds.), Personnel Selection. San Francisco: Josey-Bass (pp. 71-98).

3. Campbell, J. P., Gasser, M. B., & Oswald, F. L. (1996). The substantive

nature of job performance variability. In K. R. Murphy (Ed.), Individual

differences and behavior in organizations (pp. 258–299). San Francisco:

Jossey-Bass.

4. Hunter, J. E., & Schmidt, F. L. (1990). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting

error and bias in research findings. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

5. http/www.workpsychologyarena.com

6. Hand book of management edited by Thomas Kempner.

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