85402 - Intervention in Personnel Psychology

Academic Year 2024/2025

  • Docente: Rita Chiesa
  • Credits: 7
  • SSD: M-PSI/06
  • Language: English

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will know: - the most relevant theories of career development, - some methods used in career interventions, with particular concern to career counseling, - the main explanatory theories of the Psychology of the Human Resources; - the objectives and the methods of the professional activity of the psychologist in Human Resources; - the tools for the development of a project on human resources management.

Course contents

The course has two main objectives:

  • presenting the main career development theoretical frameworks;
  • introducing different career intervention's modalities (main principles and tecniques): career counseling, coaching and outplacement .

Specifically, the course aims to improve the students' knowledges about the following contents:

  • How the current labour market uncertaintly impacts on career development;
  • Interpersonal differences in career self-management and competencies;
  • Career counselling: aims and techniques;
  • Career interventions in organizations: outplacement and coaching.

Readings/Bibliography

Career Development Theories

Hall, D. G. (2001). Career in and out organizations. SAGE Publications, Incorporated https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unibo/detail.action?docID=996728&query=career+choice

Prior, R. & Bright, J (2011). Complexity, Uncertainty and Career Development Theory (pp. 13-23), in The Chaos Theory of Careers A New Perspective on Working in the Twenty-First Century, Routledge

Career Interventions

Gysbers, N. C., Heppner, M. J., & Johnston, J. A. (2014). Career counseling: Holism, diversity, and strengths. Wiley. Following chapters: Chapter 1, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

Halil Bader Arslan (2005). Where Can Outplacement Be Placed? Offering a Broader Role to Assistance: A Theoretical Approach. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 3(3)

Knowles, S. (2021). Positive Psychology Coaching. Springer. Following chapters: Chapters 1, 4, and 5

All the references (ebook and articles) are available through UNIBO library sources.

Teaching methods

The evaluation will be based on:

  • an individual paper (reaction paper) of 2000-2500 words (up to 25 points)
  • a group presentation (up to 5 points) based on an article

The final grade will be from 0 to 30, 18 being the minimum passing grade.

Assessment methods

The course will combine traditional lectures to in-group discussions, case studies analyses and practical exercises.

The course is designed to be very interactive, based on students’ active participation. Therefore, students are requested to attend systematically all the lectures.

Exchange students, aiming to choose this course for their learning agreement, should carefully consider – in their own interest – that they are requested to attend the full course.

Teaching tools

The slides presented during the lectures and additional materials will be made available on the virtual platform.

Office hours

See the website of Rita Chiesa

See the website of Marco Giovanni Mariani