Essential Phychology for Managers Sample

ESSENTIAL PHYCHOLOGY FOR MANAGERS

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 2

INTRODUCTION TO CASE STUDY AND THEORIES ............................................................ 3

RELEVANT THEORIES AND CONCEPTS ................................................................................ 4

ANALYSIS USING THEORIES ................................................................................................... 5

RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

REFERENCES .............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

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INTRODUCTION

Psychology and its theories can be defined as that part of applied discipline or an approach which helps

to understand the human behavior and the state of mind. The goal is to understand the individuals or groups

by knowing the way they behave that leads to a particular type of action. In this context, trait theory of

personality and many others are studied to study on the behavior of individuals. This theory can also be applied

in big companies or enterprises to understand the pattern of behavior of workers working there (Psychology

Perspectives, 2007).

In this report, theories of psychology like trait and contingency theory are being studied and applied in a

case given of French mobile and internet company Orange. The case is studied and then the theories are

applied wherever applicable.

INTRODUCTION TO CASE STUDY AND THEORIES

The given case study is based on the working conditions of France telecom Orange and how the staff

members responded to those conditions. Recently one of its senior staff worker, Michel, committed suicide

and a note stating that the only reason for killing himself was the work as the culture of the company consisted

of only terror by the management and continuous stress. According to one of his sisters of Michel claimed

that he was regularly threatened to change his job by his senior managers and so he continuously accepted a

lot of heavy workload out of the fear of losing his job. Now the staff of the company has started breaking

silence and they mention that they even have to take permission to go the washrooms and in addition to this

there was need to file a written explanation if anyone of them takes even a single minute extra in the lunch

time. According to the data, there have been 23 suicides reported at the company since February 2008.

It has been reported by the staff that seniors always threatened them to leave the job. Many of the workers

have either started using of anti depressants or have extended their sock leave. The working conditions of the

company were not healthy as only money and marketing is being counted and not even the quality of work

done by the employees. The cases of suicide were all because of the hazards of the working conditions and

behavior of the top management towards the staff. On the other side, it is also given that the above complaints

of the staff are not sufficient to reflect a complete picture of the company. The company has taken into

consideration the staff’s complaints and concerns and has implemented a lot of measures in order to deal with

the problems (France: Stress and worker suicides mean the future's not bright at Orange, 2009).



By studying the case study, it can be said that there is need for the management to change their style

completely so that they can bring in some changes. In this respect, various theories of psychology can be

applied here. They can be trait theory of personality, contingency theory of management and leadership

theory. All these are important and relevant to study the behavior of both the staff and management at France

telecom Orange mobile company. The first theory helps to identify some of the traits that are common to

individuals and then define them. The second one explains the style of managing according to the situations.

The third one is the leadership theory which consists within the various styles of leadership that can be applied

in the given situation.

RELEVANT THEORIES AND CONCEPTS

With respect to the case study given, personality theories are the most suitable which can be applied here.

Trait theory of personality

One of the theories of personality that can be applied in the given case is the trait theory. This theory is an

approach to the study of human personality. It measures the traits or the attributes which are the habitual

patterns either of behaviour or emotions and even thoughts. The traits are said to be varying among individuals

and stable over time. Many professionals studied the traits in the individual and gave their varying views on

it. The most famous of all the trait theories of personality is the The Five-Factor Theory of Personality (Gray,

2006). According to this theory, there are mainly five cote traits or characteristics which interact among one

another in order to form human personality. The big five factors are openness, extraversion, agreeableness.

This also includes conscientiousness and neuroticism. This theory is preferred the most as with this it is able

to measure the different characters within a personality without getting overlapped (Trait Theory

of Personality, 2013)

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ANALYSIS USING THEORIES Trait theory of personality

The Personality psychology helps to understand the differences in the personality existing

among individuals at French telecom Orange. Also, with the help of it, human reactions to that of stress

and other people can be predicted and analysed.

This will help to understand the traits of the staff which was working in the company. This

theory can be used in the given case to understand the behaviour or action of the workers at Orange.

By analysing the theory it can be said that most of the workers there were showing a trait of Neuroticism

among the five factors of the theory (Baron, 2001). This can be interpreted as the experience of most

of the staff was that of depression and anxiety. They were under constant stress as they were threatened

by their management. The working conditions which prevailed in the company lead to such type of

behavior of the staff and this also lead to commit suicide by most of them.

In addition to this, the workers also exhibit Conscientiousness type of trait as they were highly

disciplined which is shown by the fact that they were working all the time. They always performed

their duties as required.

Besides this, many of the workers did not recognize the complaints which were because of the good

experience of the some of the changes that took place in the company. This shows that some of the

workers were able to exhibit Agreeableness as they were friendly with the atmosphere of the company

(Nevid, 2008).

Leadership theory

The leadership style which is being followed by the management of French telecom orange is

that of authoritarian style. In this, the leader dictates the policies and procedures which are to be

followed by the workers. The targets and goals which need to be achieved are also dictated by the

leader. All the activities are under his control. There is also a clear demarcation between a leader and

worker. The workers are not included in any kind of decision making procedure (Weiten, 2008). Similar

is the situation of French telecom orange where the management does not even consider the needs and

concerns of their workers due to which they are always under stress. They did not even show any kind



of humanity with their workers and instead of that they always used to threaten them. Because of this,

the workers are not able to connect themselves with the company and always felt the pressure of work.

Contingency theory of management

This theory is applicable in the case study as the management of the company respond to the

situation of stress that was prevailing in the company. After the suicide of Michel, the company

launched negotiations in collaboration with its unions over the problem of stress. The company has also

introduced help lines and medical experts which can prove to be a help to the workers under stress.

Other measures have also been marketed by the company to mitigate the problem of stress among the

workers. According to some of the workers the company has been able to experience changes over

some of the recent years which shows that the company was changing according to the situation. Michel

has also been promoted and his salary was also increased which is a result of the technological changes

in the company.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The company here can be recommended that the leadership style followed by it is not the correct one

and should change it to the democratic one. This style involves friendly relations with the workers so that they

are not under stress and are motivated to do work in an efficient manner (Irby, 2002). This will help the

management to understand the concerns of their workers. Apart from this, the trait of openness needs to be

developed among the workers so that they can come up with unusual ideas for the betterment of the company.

Also, Extraversion trait should be shown by them so they are energetic and have positive attitude towards their

work. The feeling of low esteem among them shall also be removed by motivating them (Larsson and Eid, 2012).

The management should follow the contingency theory in a more effective way by understanding the

interests of their workers and responding to the situation immediately by providing them with healthy and

friendly working conditions.

Conclusion

Personality psychology is that branch of psychology which studies the personality and the differences

in behaviour of individuals. This is done by investigating upon the human nature and what factors lead to a

particular type of behaviour or action. Personality is defined as the set some specified characteristics that are

possessed by individuals with which his or her emotions or behaviours are being influenced (Yolles, 2009).



REFERENCES

Online

Trait Theory of Personality. 2013. [Online]. Available at: <

http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/trait-theory.htm > [Accessed on 23rd May

2013].

Leadership Theories - 8 Major Leadership Theories. 2013. [Online]. Available at: <

http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/p/leadtheories.htm > [Accessed on 23rd May 2013].

Leadership Theories. 2010. [Online]. Available at: <

http://managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership/2010/04/21/leadership-theories/ > [Accessed on 23rd May

2013].

France: Stress and worker suicides mean the future's not bright at Orange. 2009. [Online]. Available

at: < http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/18/france-telecom-suicides-orange-bullying/print >

[Accessed on 23rd May 2013].

Psychology Perspectives. 2007. [Online]. Available at: <

http://www.simplypsychology.org/perspective.html > [Accessed on 23rd May 2013].

Books and journals

Baron, R.A., 2001. Psychology. Pearson Education India.

Fernald, D., 2007. Psychology: Six Perspectives. SAGE.

Gray, P.O., 2006. Psychology. Worth Publishers.

Henri, B., Suzanne, R., and Jean, T., 2001. An Integrative Contingency Model of Software Project Risk

Management. Journal of Management Information Systems.17(4). pp. 37-69.

Irby, B.J., 2002. The synergistic leadership theory. Journal of Educational Administration. 40 (4).

pp.304 – 322.

Larsson, G., and Eid, J., 2012. An idea paper on leadership theory integration. Management Research

Review. 35 (¾ ). pp.177 – 191.

Nevid, J.S., 2008. Psychology: Concepts and Applications. Cengage Learning.

Nichols, T.W., and Erakovich, R., 2013. Authentic leadership and implicit theory: a normative form of

leadership?. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 34 (2). pp.182 – 195.

Salter, N.P., and Highhouse, S., 2009. Assessing managers' common sense using situational judgment

tests. Management Decision. 47 (3). pp.392 – 398.


http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/trait-theory.htm

http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/p/leadtheories.htm

http://managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership/2010/04/21/leadership-theories/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/18/france-telecom-suicides-orange-bullying/print

http://www.simplypsychology.org/perspective.html

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