Page 225 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

224 Part 3 • Organizing
◂ ◂ ◂ From the Past to the Present ▸ ▸ ▸

Hugo Munsterberg, a pioneer in the field of industrial chology at www.siop.org.) They study organizational topics
2
psychology, is “generally credited with creating the field.” such as job performance, job analysis, performance appraisal,
As an admirer of Frederick W. Taylor and the scientific man- compensation, work/life balance, work sample tests, employ-
agement movement, Munsterberg stated that “Taylor had ee training, employment law, personnel recruitment and se-
introduced most valuable suggestions which the industrial lection, and so forth. Their research has contributed much to
world cannot ignore.” Drawing on Taylor’s the field that we call human resource man-
works, Munsterberg stressed “the impor- agement. And all of this is due to the early
tance of efficiently using workers to achieve Scientifically work done by Hugo Munsterberg.
economic production.” His research and work studying the If your professor has assigned this, go to
in showing organizations ways to improve the the Assignments section of mymanage
performance and well-being of workers was WorKPLace mentlab.com to complete these discus-
fundamental to the emerging field of manage- sion questions.
ment in the early 1900s.
Today, industrial-organizational psychology is defined as Talk About It 1: Why is it important to scientifically study
the scientific study of the workplace. Industrial-organizational the workplace?
(I/O) psychologists use scientific principles and research-based Talk About It 2: Do you think it’s easier today to scien-
designs to generate knowledge about workplace issues. tifically study the workplace than it was back in Munsterberg’s
(Check out the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psy- days? Why or why not?

• Example: One hiring law states that employer has 28 days to evaluate a new employee’s
work performance; after that period, the employee has job security and termination is
difficult and expensive.
• Violators face severe penalties, including criminal action, steep fines, and even jail sentences
for employers who fail to pay, for example, the minimum wage.
Australia:
General Electric is a multinational employer • Discrimination laws not enacted until the 1980s and generally apply to women (who need
committed to observing all the different labor improved opportunities).
laws of the 100 countries in which it operates.
Shown here are employees of GE’s wind • Industrial relations specialists have important organizational roles, reducing the control line
turbine factory in Vietnam, a country whose managers have over workplace labor issues.
Labour Code of Vietnam was first passed • Labor and industrial relations
in 1994 and provides strong protections for
employees. laws were overhauled in 1997
with the goal of increasing pro-
ductivity and reducing union
power.
• The Workplace Relations Bill
gives employers greater flex-
ibility to negotiate directly with
employees on pay, hours, and
benefits, and also simplifies
federal regulation of labor–
management relations.
Germany:
• Similar to most other Western
European countries when it
comes to HRM practices.
• Laws require companies to have
representative participation—
thus redistributing power within
the organization and putting
AFP/Newscom labor on a more equal footing
with the interests of manage-
ment and stockholders.