01353 - Psychology of Work and Organisations

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course, the student will attain the following results:

• He/she will be familiar with the main concepts and theoretical approaches developed in the field of Work Psychology in order to explore the interdependent relationships between workers, work tasks, and organizational contexts;
• He/she will develop social skills specific for managing group interactions and conflicts;
• He/she will be able to analyze real organizational contexts and to select and employ tools and methodological approaches suitable for acting effectively according to the characteristics of each specific work environment.

Course contents

The course provides an overview of the most relevant themes of the Work Psychology and analyzes the theoretical assumptions and the intervention perspectives useful to promote teamwork effectiveness, suitable leadership behaviors according to different contexts and tasks and strategies for conflict management. The course will explore also the practical-professional aspects of traditional Work Psychology topics, based on current international literature with reflection on practical implications.

The main didactic goals entail the acquisition of essential knowledge aimed at:

1. Understand the constructs useful for reading psycho-social phenomena underlying organizational dynamics;
2. Apply theoretical approaches to the analysis of psycho-social risk factors and work-related stress risk;
   
3. Analyze antecedents and indicators of organizational well-being;
4. Know and apply models to the study of work motivation and the management of emotions in the workplace;
5. Analyzing work team activities and related complexities;
6. Identifying the tools and strategies suitable for conflict prevention/management, in addition to approaches able to foster adequate interpersonal dynamics in work contexts.

Contents

The contents entail the analysis of the work team characteristics, their processes and the promotion of group effectiveness.

• Main theories and research areas in Work Psychology
  
• Personal resources and job demands
• Psycho-social and health risk factors
• Promotion of well-being and prevention in organizational contexts
• Work engagement and burnout
• Work related Stress and coping
• Workaholism
• Mobbing
• Emotional labor
• Motivations at work
• Proactivity in the workplace: job crafting strategies
• Safety in the workplace

Readings/Bibliography

• SARCHELLI G. & FRACCAROLI, F. (2017), Introduzione alla psicologia del lavoro. Società editrice il Mulino.
  CHAPTERS: II-III-V-VI-VII

And one of the following texts:

• GUGLIELMI, D. (2015). Mobbing. Quando il lavoro ci fa soffrire. Bologna: Il Mulino
• GUGLIELMI, D. & FRACCAROLI, F. (2016). Stress a scuola: 12 interventi per insegnanti e dirigenti. Il mulino.

Other material (slides, papers or other) may be distributed during the lessons.

Teaching methods

The following teaching methods will be adopted during the course: lectures, discussions, tasks assigned to students during the course and group exercises. In order to facilitate the acquirement of knowledge and skills, students will be invited to carry out team works and to elaborate exercises or case analyzes.

In addition, there is also a 12-hour teaching innovation methodology section (on the Teams platform) aimed at accompanying the students, organised into working groups, in the analysis of a case based on the topics presented in the lesson by experts in the field. In order to do this, a first part of the lesson will be attended by an expert who will present his or her structure and the subject matter of the lesson also from an operational perspective (e.g. management of working groups in practice). After an initial hour of presentation, the students will be divided into groups in virtual rooms and will collaborate interactively using interactive digital spaces that allow visual team collaboration (e.g. Mural or Lucidspark). This will result in a presentation to be returned and discussed with the whole class in the next lesson.

This modality will also allow for the involvement of and participation in the classroom experiences by non-attending students, who will be able to participate in these lessons both in the more "frontal" part and in group work.

 

Rules and regulations for a correct didactic function:

1) Attendance to lessons is endorsed and will be verified.

2) Students are strongly encouraged to actively participate in the didactic work and to complete the assigned homework.

3) Students are encouraged to actively participate in the course and to progressively study the assigned homework: they are also responsible for keeping up dated on what has been disclosed in class or on the professor's website (including variations of the program and on the programmed activities)

4) It is expected that students behave correctly. This concerns not only avoiding offensive behavior which could be prosecuted on a disciplinary level (e.g copying from class mates or from internet, falsifying data) but also respect of the social rules.

Assessment methods

The final exam will consist of a written test (15 closed questions and 3 open-ended questions).

Teaching tools

The following tools will be adopted during the course:

• Group exercises
• Powerpoint presentations
• Printed documents provided by the teacher
• Additional materials available in teacher's webpage.

Office hours

See the website of Dina Guglielmi