Occupational Psychology: An Applied Approach

Book Review : Gayatri Maniklal Jogi, MGV’s Loknete Vyankatrao Hiray Arts, Science and Commerce College Panchvati, Nashik

Introduction of Book:
The book “Occupational Psychology: an applied approach” is academic in nature book for psychology students. Though I am not from this stream, but still I was quite curious about psychology and this book talks about occupational psychology which is really applicable and useful for working professionals. So being a teacher, I like to read this and chosen to read.
About Author:
The book is written by Gail Steptoe-Warren. She is an Occupational Psychologist, Senior Lecturer and Course director in Occupational Psychology at Coventry University. She has an MSc in Occupational Psychology and an MSc in Forensic Psychology and a PhD entitled ‘The development of a situational judgment test to assess managers’ strategic decision making competencies. Gail has worked on an extensive range of psychometric assessment projects and her experience spans the commercial, voluntary and academic sectors.
Objective of the Book:
The major objective of this book is to provide concepts of occupational psychology in a clear and systematic manner with a focus on applications. It aims to develop you as you move into a practitioner role.
Area of Usage of Book:
The real world of work never runs smoothly, issues always arising. These issues may include a reduction in productivity due to reduced motivation and job satisfaction; conflict between an employee’s work and home life leading to stress. So the book is really not only helpful for practioners of occupational psychology but also helpful for HR managers, labour leaders, professional leaders, schools, colleges managements, CEOs etc, Even, it is helpful for employees to understand occupational psychology to reduce work life conflicts and to reduce stress at work place. In short, the is the best guide to maintain healthy relationship between employers and employees.
Structure of the Book:
The structure and design of content is too good as it is academic book. Within this book content is well organized in orderly manner, it starts from brief content, Detailed contents index is provided, then guided tour of the book is provided which explains the content outline of each chapter. Each chapter starts with Clear Learning outcomes, then after every concept ‘Stop and reflect boxes’ suggest to think about your own relevant experiences and how can you apply the content. Next to that Practical examples are also provided. Then ‘Think about it’ problems provided for development of critical & creative thinking. Next to that ‘Real cases’ are also discussed. At the end of chapter, Short answer questions section is provided to test the knowledge understanding of the topics in the chapters. Next to that ‘Case Study’ is provided to develop role of occupational psychologist to develop real life application. In the last of every chapter under the heading ‘Further reading’ name of reference books and website links are provided to explore further in-depth knowledge. So in this way the book is really well designed and perfect example for how the academic book should be.
In the book, total there are 15 chapters and at the end of book Glossary is provided to understand the terminologies used. Next to that, in References around 500 books and many website links provided in detailed which will provide the reader a great insight and motivation to become a great learner and occupational psychology expert. In the last Index is provided which gives key words and its page numbers in alphabetic order.
Content of the Book:
Total there are 15 chapters in the book.
In the 1st chapter, History of occupational psychology starting from Pre-First world war to 21st century is provided.
In 2nd chapter, Guidelines for practitioners of occupational psychologist is given which includes consultancy, consultancy report writing, ethics etc.
Then in 3rd chapter, Legislation applied to the workplace, UK & European laws provided as the book is written by UK’s author. Here one drawback is that the book is not providing Indian legislation.
In 4th chapter, Employee selection process, recruitment provided in detailed. Also different methods of job analysis, Position analysis questionnaire, Task analysis, Persons’ specifications, job advertisement, Competency based interview, different psychometric tests, fairness in selection, Decision making, legal context explained in detailed.
In 5th chapter, Performance appraisal and in-depth psychological study approaches towards performance appraisal is provided. Also career development, counseling and coaching provided in depth which include career planning and career management.
The 6th chapter, Well-being, stress and work-life balance which includes all round approach towards wellbeing of employee. Then stress at work explained with types of stress, theory of stress, causes of stress, Bullying process, consequences of stress, Coping with stress, organization strategies to reduce stress, and outcomes of stress reductions, importance of healthy workplace, Multilevel impact of stress and legel context, all these points are described in detail with various case studies and real life examples.
The 7th Chapter, Individual Differences, explains about concept of Personality, Trait perspective to personality, Biological perspective to personality, Personality and Brain functioning, Personality and Evolution, Psychoanalytic perspective, Cognitive perspective to personality. Also different leveled assessment of personality is provided. Multilevel impact of individual differences is explained.
The 8th Chapter, Training, gives great insight towards training, models of training , cycle of training, design of training, methods of training, Delivery of training, Evaluation of training, Befits of training, Legel context.
The 9th Chapter, Design of environments and work focuses of ergonomic (furniture, equipment, arrangement to improve working conditions to work more efficiently) principles as well as health and safety at work and human factors. Also tells about Human error, attention failures, error management, multilevel impact of ergonomics and legal context.
The 10th Chapter, Motivation, Job satisfaction, employee engagement and behavior modification explains Motivation, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Job design theories, Measurement of job satisfaction etc.
The 11th Chapter, Management & Leadership approaches provides in depth knowledge about Leadership, Trait theory of leadership, situational leadership, management theories, Relational theories, Modern approach, Leadership development in detail.
The 12th Chapter, Groups and Teams gives insight towards nature of work groups and teams within organization, Function of groups and teams, its benefits, Formation and development of groups and its different models, Group roles : formal and informal, Group factors, group performance, Group norms, Group polarization, Group think, Social loafing, Team conflict etc many aspects and case studies discussed.
The 13th Chapter, Organizational structures, culture and change explains organization structure, related theories, culture, its types, Organisational Change, Six steps model of change, Response to change, models and evaluation of change.
The 14th Chapter, Example Consultancy Report provides opportunities to consider how you would write a report based on business case studies. Also detail different approaches and examples of writing business and consultancy reports are provided. Also useful websites for report writing is provided.
The 15th Chapter, The Future of work focuses on how the world of work may look like in future, Organizational changes and challenges for future, sustainability, Globalization, Technological changes, Youth unemployment, Ageing population, Multilevel impact of the future work. This provides insight for future and how to be ready to face the challenges.
Conclusion: In the last, I would like to conclude, whether you are psychology student, or any other stream student or you are working professional or not, the book must read as everywhere people are working and every one need to understand the psychology behind working people, related problems and solutions. The book will make you an wise person to understand people and how to deal with them. Also the book can develop leadership quality in you.