Blog 2 – Organizations
Organizations can come in many forms, whether it be religious organizations sports or work. The most common would be work as it is something that drives us all and allows for us to become financial stable as well as use our education and form relationships. When it comes to organizations they can sometimes be difficult to navigate and overwhelming to enter into. According to French and Raven there are five bases of power;
1. Reward – the ability to influence by providing a pleasant outcome
2. Coercive – the ability to influence by punishment
3. Expert – the ability to influence through skilled knowledge and/or experience with a subject
4. Referent – the ability to influence through admiration
5. Legitimate – the ability to influence through official position in an organization
(Merchant 2014)
When it comes to organizations often we think of Coercive and legitimate. These two make us think of bosses and supervisors. This in positions of power who are worried about staying in control or moving forward and less concerned about the advancement of those who work under them other than to use them to get ahead themselves.
According to this week’s lesson of PSYCH424 from Pennsylvania State University, “Organizations are virtual minefields when it comes to interpersonal relations. It is often the case that people who do not know each other, are not compatible, or who do not even like each other are thrown together in organizations and expected to work together harmoniously and productively. That is a lot to ask, but that is how many things get done in our society” (PSU, Psych424 L7, P.1). This is often true however this is also how relationships (professional and personal) are formed. Something common that organizations have begun doing is using testing during interviewing or applications to get a better understanding of a candidate’s personality. If you have taken previous Psychology courses you have most likely learned about the Big 5 personality traits. Organizations use this to determine if the person is compatible with their organization and current workers which may lower chances of conflict or bullying. You can find the test at; http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/.
Another element that plays a large role in organizations id teams. Team are groups of people that work together to complete a task that will benefit the organization. Often we do not see the full team we simply see the person heading the team such as the supervisor, manager of CEO. These people are often in power and often rewarded for the work of the whole team. These teams often consist of people who all offer different specialty’s to the organization. This week’s lesson gave a perfect example of how groups or teams have developed overtime. For example in the past a farmer may have sold his good directly to merchants or store owners. However as time and society has developed and organizations such as farming and goods has increased in size the farmer would take on a chain of individuals who work on his behalf to sell his goods. In today’s society larger groups are required in order to complete a task successfully.
References
John, O. D. (2009). The Big five Personality test. Retrieved from Out of Service: http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/
Merchant, P. (2014). 5 Sources of Power in Organizations. Retrieved from Chron, Small Business: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-sources-power-organizations-14467.html
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2014, October). PSYCH 424 Lesson 7: The Environment. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych424/001/content/08_lesson/05_page.html
I personally find personality psychology fascinating. As a practitioner of Eastern medicine and Eastern psychology I find that personality psych has some similarities. Not in just just the idea that genetics and environment can shape personality but also in that it has a Big Five personality types and Eastern medicine also has a Five Element, also known as the Five Phase system, that helps to categorize and assess different personality types. You only briefly mentioned personality psych in your blog. I would have liked to have heard more about how personality psychology and the Big Five affect groups and organizations in the workplace. I also would have liked to hear more of your personal take on this particular subject and assumed you have had experience here since you chose this as your blog. I would think that many lay people would probably have much to say on this matter as we have all had experiences in the workplace with peoples “personalities”. And also in everyday almost everyone you know has a thought or opinion about “so and so’s personality” and what “type” of person they are. This is the realm of human social interaction where people become armchair psychologists I feel. By the way I do know some psychologists personally that think personality psychology is garbage, but I think its cool and very valid. If the discipline stretched out a little more to allow other types of subjective phenomenon into its domain it would be even better.