Organizational Psychology

Takhir Bazarov — is one of those domestic social and organizational psychologists, who combines career as a researcher, teacher and practitioner very well.

The research aims at exploring the key aspects of time management in shift workers’ lives. The results of empirical study, based on the data gained through in-depth interviews, semantic differential method and the locus of control scale, are provided. The total number of research participants is 147 including 107 shift workers and 40 non-shift workers. The findings reveal that shift workers own both a common concept of time which was acquired by them through the process of socialization and a specific concept of time acquired during shift work by interiorisation of time-related aspect sof their specific professional way of life. Time management in shift workers’ lives is based on socialdesynchronosis experience. Two types of social desynchronosis are described – inner and outer. Theinner desynchronosis arises as a result of conflict between a common time concept owned by shiftworkers and their specific time concept; The outer desynchronosis is based on clash of shift workers’social rhythms and social rhythms of their significant others who work without shifts. Specificaspects of time management in shift workers’ lives are as following: a shortened work-leisure cycle, predominance of short-term planning over long-term planning, preference for pastimes which are notlinked to communicating with others. In order to cope with social desynchronosis, shift workers use mostly spontaneously situational approach characterized by responding to particular situations and acting according to circumstances. Shift workers also tend to demonstrate less internal locus of control compared to non-shift workers.

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to identify the types of labor interests of different categories of employees and its effect on organizational behavior. Methods. The paper uses analysis of scientific literature on the issue of interest; analysis of data obtained from the author’s social and psychological surveys in organizations, interviews and focus groups of employees, monitoring of the organizational behavior. Findings. The conceptualization of the “interest” construct has been discussed, the differences between needs and interests, motives and interests, emotion and awareness of interests has been revealed, the modern definition of labor interests construct has been suggested. The new basis for classification and the typology of interest for current employees have been proposed to highlight the characteristics and types of interests. The role of  “interests” construct in social psychology of work has been outlined. The social and psychological aspects of the conflict of interests of employees within the organization have been analyzed considering external factors involvement rights in different social groups. Thus, the basis for the structural typology of the modern employee’s interests have been highlighted. It includes seven types of interests: economic, narrow professional, career (wellprofessional, labor), group, corporate, national, general civil (state). Value of the results. This study represents the relationship between conflicting interests of groups of employees and organizational performance. The suggested structural model of employee interests can be used to design research and define the basic phenomena. Also, the paper provides organizational practitioners with insights into the building sustainable, useful and socially significant labor interests. The paper shows the importance of considering the level of employee’s involvement in the organizational activities in the assessment of organizational effectiveness.

Purpose. The maim aim of the present study is to discover how the personal qualities andbehaviors of informal leaders correspond to the social representations of their followers. Methodology.Methodology based on Social Representation Theory by S. Moscovici and general findings of Americanscholars regarding personality and behavior of the leaders in organization. Findings. The structure ofsocial representations of leadership has been revealed, it includes the nucleus (an idea of the leaderas a self-confident person) and the periphery, consisting of such qualities as activity, courage and resoluteness.Also gender differences and status differences in social representations about leadershiphave been found. The differences and similarities of social perceptions, attitudes and stereotypes havebeen analyzed. Conclusions. The results enrich theoretical understanding of scientific knowledge aboutsocial representations. As a result of the study both differences and similarities between social representations,attitudes and stereotypes were detected. Thus social representations, in comparison toattitudes, are more stable mental formations that are more deeply rooted in the collective unconscious.They accumulate energy in preparation for action, and provide for a community feelings of unity andsolidarity. Social representations differ from stereotypes by diversity and depth of knowledge aboutthe object. The similarities of the social representations and stereotypes are based on the phenomenaof attribution. Both core and peripheral components of social representations of leadership in organizationwere brought to light. Based on the results of content-analysis, the majority of respondentsevaluate self-confidence as the most important leadership quality. It is evidence that self-confidence isthe core component of social representations about personal qualities of a leader in organization. Valueof the results. It has been proven that leaders in organizations aim to comply with the expectations oftheir followers. Furthermore, managers and employees have similar social representations about leadership,but have different requirements of the leader.

The journal “Organizational Psychology” continues to publish Russian standards governing different professional activities in the field of applied and practical psychology.

In recent decades Russian companies have seen a widespread use of psychometric testing as part of personnel assessment procedures; however, until now there have been no single, universally accepted document containing the list of requirements and criteria for assessing the quality of testing. Russian standard for personnel testing was established in 2014-2015, on the initiative of the National Confederation of “Human Capital Development” and supported by the expert community. This standardis intended to clarify and popularize the Russian speaking space of one of the basic principles of shared responsibility: the test is responsible for the quality of the developer, and for the quality of the test – the user of techniques. This standard is developed in the period of information and computer revolution, which has led to the proliferation of new types of testing – especially remote online testing has become particularly relevant for large, geographically distributed companies. The standard is designed to solve this problem at the level common to all of the professional community of methodical, technological and ethical requirements for the testing procedures and regulations for the use of their results. In the development of the Russian standard takes into account the recommendations of national and international guidelines for the development and application of test methods. This first edition of the Russian standard for personnel testing – a generally applicable practice-oriented methodological guidance. It lays the foundation for further development of more detailed and highly specialized standards, and is the basis for “professional standards for personnel evaluator” along with the standards of other valuation methods and procedures.

Purpose. The paper seeks to investigate the impact of managers’ gender on the characteristics of decision making process in the situation of time pressure. Methods. The analysis of literature revealed that the issue of decision-making by leaders in the situation of time pressure remains unexplored, although it is highly relevant to the current business reality. Moreover, the concepts of “sex” and“gender” are not differentiated in the most studies that affects on the results of such studies. Therefore, it was decided to explore the features of decision making process by leaders in situation of time pressure depending on their level of masculinity/feminity/androgyny. To assess leader’s decisions the experimental method was employed and the specific case was designed. The sample included 84 managers from the different professional fields. Findings. The results demonstrated that in a situation of lack of time the leaders of different gender make decisions in different ways. It underlines the impossibility of a direct transfer of sex differences in the study of leaders from the perspective of social gender once again. Feminine leaders are less affected by situations of time pressure and make more complex solutions, while androgynous and masculine leaders make less complex solutions. Research implications for practice. The suggested methodological tools could be relevant to the training processof low-experienced managers in decision-making in non-standard situations, as well as evaluation of managers at all management levels.

International conference «Crisis management solutions in HR in times of high business turbulence» for executives and training and development managers held in Institute of Practical Psychology of National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE, Russia) in cooperation with Vlerick Business School (Belgium) on April 8, 2015. Сonference was in tune with XVI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development (HSE). Urgent problems of Russian business were in the focus of discussion. The conference was interactive, allowing HRmanagers and training and development managers to find unique business solutions in a situation of instability and uncertainty. Major problems and possible perspectives were discussed. The main idea of the conference has been realized with the help of a comprehensive expert view on HR management in a difficult market situation.

Regular Meeting of the European Association of work and organizational psychology at this time was held in Oslo. This year the conference is traditionally attended by about 1,500 people.