70014 - Psychology of Human Resources

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will have an advanced knowledge of the main research and applied themes of work/applied psychology, particularly as far as the approches related to human resources management. The student will specifically develop knowledge in the following areas: job analysis and personnel selection, performance appraisal and management, career development, health and well-being at work.

Course contents

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, as detailed in the following program. Lectures (16 hours in remote on MS TEAMS) aim to introduce students to the core tenets of the discipline. Seminars (12 hours) aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials and exercises. For the seminar section of the course, students will be divided in two groups according to their preferences and according to rules concerning the current pandemic emergency: one group will do the seminar in classroom (12 hours) and another group will do the seminar remotely on MS TEAMS (12 hours), for a total of 28 hours for each student. Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the session and - in the case of seminars - active participation through presentations of existing scholarship and case studies will also be expected. Regardless of the health-related conditions and the specific organization of the course, students will be able to follow the lessons of the entire course remotely on MS TEAMS.

Lectures will cover the following topics:

- The focus of applied psychology as related to human resources management;

- Personnel recruitment and selection;

- Performance appraisal and management;

- Stress, health and well-being at work.

Seminars will cover additional thematic aspects of the discipline. Each seminar will be organized in the following way: a first brief presentation of the lecturer to introduce the topic, followed by a presentation of a subgroup of students based on the assigned reading and a discussion with the contributions of all the students attending the seminar. Students must read in advance the material (i.e., a scientific article or a book chapter) assigned by the lecturer for the seminar. The following are examples of the topics that will be focused:

1. Work motivation: approaches and interventions

2. Job satisfaction and work engagement

3. Personality at work

4. Workaholism and the 'always available culture' at work

5. Remote and smart working: managerial implications

6. Carreers at work: implications of the COVID-19 pandemic

Nota bene: The course contents may be partly changed following a discussion with students during the first (introductory) lecture.

Readings/Bibliography

Foreign students are assumed to attend all (or most of) the lectures.

Readings/material for the final examination are the following:

1) Powerpont slides of the lectures.

2) Balducci, C. (2015). Gestire lo stress nelle organizzazioni. Bologna: Il Mulino.

3) Readings assigned by the lecturer for the seminars, which will be made available at the beginning of the course.

Students with an interest for specific topics may also discuss with the lecturer the possibility of using alternative texts/papers.

Students who do not attend lectures should contact the lecturer to take an agreement on the readings for the final examination.

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures, in class discussions, group projects and  presentations based on readings made available by the lecturer.

Assessment methods

Written examination based on open-ended and multiple choice questions. Open-ended questions require to write a small portion of text within the available space. Multiple choice questions are composed of either four or five different response alternatives. The written examination will assing a maximum of 26 points. The presentation given by the student during the course contributes to the final mark with up to 6 points.

Students with disabilities (e.g., learning disablities) are invited to contact the lecturer to explore the possibility of a different assessment method that considers their personal needs.

Teaching tools

Powerpoint slides and papers from scientific journals. Such material will be available for download on the platform Insegnamenti OnLine at the beginning of the course.

Office hours

See the website of Cristian Balducci