Organizational Psychology

The paper presents the main stages in the history of industrial and organizational psychology in the Yaroslavl region (Russia). Analysis of the historical development of these scientific disciplines is carried out in the context of the history of the development of the Yaroslavl school of psychology (YaPS) in general. Specific time stages have been identified, the main achievements of each of them have been presented. The article also assesses the role of scientific research and the personal contribution of the Yaroslavl psychologists in the each time period. Information about the main scientific events, publications, important historical events, as well as rare historical facts have been provided. The author’s view regarding the comparison of distinctive features of the national (and specifically, Yaroslavl) and abroad research in organizational psychology has been described. The article highlights the main reasons for these differences and the factors decisively contributing to the formation of the original developmental path of industrial and organizational psychology in the national conditions. The possible background to the synthesis of popular psychological disciplines in the Soviet period (engineering psychology, labor psychology, industrial psychology, social psychology) into a single integrated macrodiscipline of organizational psychology is presented in the paper. The paper outlines the analysis of the current state of organizational psychology in the Yaroslavl region,the desctiption of the specific features of scientific, practical and administrative work of the Yaroslavl organizational psychologists, the prospects of further development of organizational psychology in the Yaroslavl region. The article also presents an overview of the most important scientific and educational methodical works of Yaroslavl psychologists, describes special features of the YaPS and organizational psychology as its part.

We present three studies aimed to develop a new version of Work Motivation Questionnaire (WMQ) with 20 items operationalizing the relative autonomy continuum described in Self-Determination Theory by E. Deci and R. Ryan. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in two large samples (N =3,614 and N = 10,913) of Russian production enterprises we confirmed the validity of a structure with six scales measuring intrinsic motivation, integrated, identified, introjected, and external forms of extrinsic motivation, as well as amotivation. The internal consistency of the scales ranged from .62 to.91. The second-order factor structure supports the indices of autonomous and controlled motivation (alpha .91 and .80, respectively), as well as relative autonomy index (alpha .84) based on bifactor rotation. Using multigroup CFA we found scalar invariance of the instrument with respect to employee position and test administration format (paper-based vs. computerized). Predictable associations of autonomous and controlled motivation with work engagement, boredom, emotional exhaustion, and self-reported performance indicate the validity of the new measure. Relative autonomy was associated with work intensity and difficulty, job autonomy, support from colleagues and supervisor, availability of feedback, as well as positive socio-moral climate (justice, respect, open discussion, collective decision-making). Employee position and education were the strongest demographic predictors of autonomous motivation. In a separate sample (N = 69) we found positive associations of autonomous motivation and negative associations of controlled motivation with expert ratings of competencies based on competence interviews. The findings indicate that the WMQ is a reliable and valid instrument for organizational research based on Self-Determination Theory.

The article presents the results of theoretical and methodological analysis of one of the most important but simultaneously the least explored concepts of social and organizational psychology — the concept of the middle group. A new approach to the interpretation of this concept and its role in the conceptual system of organizational psychology have been presented. There were suggested decisions of some key problems of psychology of groups: the phenomenology of the middle groups, their structural organization, criteria for their differentiation from the small and large groups, group dynamics. There was substantiated that the concept of the middle group can and should be regarded as the leading concept for synthesis of social and organizational psychology. The specific role of this concept in the organizational psychology theory were discussed in the article. The theses about the fundamental heterogenea of medium-sized groups and their hierarchical organization were formulated and developed.

Purpose. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried to check effect of determinants of employee engagement on the employee attitudinal level of attrition in different private sector banks in Guntur Urban area. Four determinants, supervisory support, training and development, reward and work environment for employee engagement and three determinants - job security, promotion and compensation benefits for attrition - were considered. Methodology. A structured questionnaire was developed for thesurvey. A stratified random sampling based on the age group was adopted and 320 employees between 23 and 56 years participated in the survey. A total of 283 fully filled in questionnaires received from 218 male and 65 female respondents with 88.4% response rate. Correlation and regression tests were applied for analysis. Findings. The treatment on the data collected shows a significant negative relation between employee intention to quit and the determinants of employee engagement (–.069 to –.670).The R² value from the regression analysis depicts that only 18.4% of variability can be explained by the determinants of employee engagement such as work environment, supervisory support, training and development and reward on employee intention to quit from the organization. Values of the results. Thestudy provides thought provoking managerial idea to reduce attrition levels by improvising employee engagement in the organizations. This paper also throws light for the researchers to carry out the study with other socio and psychological attributes influencing employee intention to quit.

The article describes the experience of strategic communications consulting of first persons in a large and medium-sized commercial companies. The general consulting approach and specific authorial methods were described. Such methods help to guide the client’s attention through the key elements of the effective strategic communication. The principles and methods of managing externaland internal organizational communication were analyzed on the business case. Real practical tools, communicative matrices were presented. Specific part of the article were devoted to the description of preparation steps to effective strategic negotiations. The preparation stage for negotiations consists: collection and analysis of the necessary preliminary information on the negotiaton partner (status, biography, goals, interests, social circle, habits, personal characteristics), the scenario for the meeting (place, position, genre, proposals, expectations, the course of communication). The structure of the negotiations with the client were proposed: the expected results, the actual results, the reason for the inconsistency, possible lessons, a scaled adjustment. Thus, the advisory work on the maintenance of strategic communications always involves at least four stages: 1) collecting and analyzing information about the partner; 2) development of a communication plan with him; 3) preparation for specific negotiations; 4) an analysis of the progress and outcome of these negotiations. Typically, this sequence of steps is repeated as many times as necessary to achieve the desired result. The author argues that there is two levels of professional competence of the consultant: working with content of negotiations and working with the values, feelings and personal conditions.

This article describes labor activity and communities among people, leading a nonprofessional way of life. We have conducted this qualitative research on the sample of Russian lifestyle travelers, for whom the main life activity is not a work, but a journey. The sample included Russianspeaking lifestyle travelers — one woman and seven men aged from 25 to 41 years with experience of lifestyle travel in different countries from 1.5 to 21 years long and with homes in the territory ofthe Russian Federation or Ukraine. We interviewed each respondent, and then used theory-based thematic analysis with pre-specified categories based on the parameters of the professional way of life. In addition, we analyzed several books written by lifestyle travelers, and their collective and personal Internet resources. Finally, we have made participant observation on several gatherings of the lifestyle travelers’ community in the Moscow region. We have found that labor activity in the non-professional way of life of free travelers is episodic and serves only to ensure their existence during journey. They take local jobs and work intensively for a limited period of time, or earn money online permanently and not actively. While working locally lifestyle travelers are limited by local laws, so they often get jobs unofficially, and their pay is usually lower than for locals. However, online jobs among lifestyle travelers have no specific legal restrictions or lower payment rates. In addition, we have found out that communities of lifestyle travelers are similar to professional and amateur communities - they also have a culture of special knowledge sharing. They share it on live collective gatherings or through creating information sources — books, videos, travel reports, etc. Such communities, in mostly, are formed around Internet sites or social media group. Further, lifestyle traveler have specific communities - temporary communes (enclaves) and permanent communes. These findings are giving ground for creating new models describing non-professional way of life.

The goal is a constructive discussion of the problems of the development of industrial organizational psychology (IOP) in Russia. The reason for the discussion was the content of the article: Ones, D., Kaiser, R., Chamorro-Premusik, T., Svensson, S. Industrial-Organizational Psychology: Deadlockor a New Stage of Development? Organizational Psychology, 2017, 7(2), 126–1361. Design. The article critically examines the complex and undesirable aspects of the development of discipline, formulates possible and affordable ways to optimize the development of IOP. The history of the formation of the scientific and practical discipline, social and personal determinants of this formation (discontinuities in evolution, separation and subsequent delimitation of the “theory” and “practice”, “theorists” and“practitioners”, features of the professional work of the first and second) have been analyzed. There were discussed factors that influence for the formation of discipline and associated “troubled nodes” (the spontaneous beginning of the formation of discipline, distancing in the relations of “practitioners” and “academic psychologists”, short time plans for work, the problem of universalism, the typical organization of work, the phenomenon of “Russian government”, understanding the content of the social order, the difference in the understanding of the subject and the methods of his cognition, etc.). There is a crucial in the difference in understanding the subject of the discipline — “theorists” operate with concepts and describe “ideal theoretical objects” and “ideal empirical objects” (according to V. S. Stepin), where as “practitioners” — with “real empirical objects” cognized through the method of hermeneutics, which leads to a difference and the languages of the description of objects and subjects of research (transformation). Methodical problems of describing complex social objects (questions of sample homogeneity, the apparatus of mathematical statistics, results of analysis, typical models offragments of reality, limitations of the existing factual base) are considered. Conclusions. There are opportunities and available means to improve the efficiency of scientific research and scientific and practical work in industrial organizational psychology. The following are the “sufficient and necessary” initial conditions for optimizing the prospects for the development of discipline: an active correction of the contents of the social order by psychologists, the formation of a new type of teams as the integration of different professionals, adequate temporal parameters of the expected transformations in the organization, the creation of a bank of empirical data.

Book review: Ivanov M. A. Advising first persons of the company: client-centered approach, Moscow: Olimp-Biznes, 2018. — 432 p. The publisher’s abstract: Mikhail Ivanov is a Russian professional management consultant, working in business more than 20 years. He is convinced: external professional assessment of the organization, feedback are useful and necessary for any leader. The book covers all the main stages of consulting: marketing, the first contract with the client, the diagnosis of the organization, the methods of working with the first persons in companies on typical requests. The author formulates the principles of his approach to counseling, suggesting a shift from organization-centeredness to client-centeredness. This means that the consultant needs to work with leaders — people who have the authority to set goals and carry out organizational changes. The bookis addressed to both novice and experienced consultants and management practitioners. The book isnecessary for everyone who is interested in making effective management in our country and facing the new business challenges.