Business Psychology: Enhancing Organizational Performance Through Data Collection - Essay Sample

Introduction

Business psychology is a science concerned with the study of human behavior concerning their workplace and organization, to ensure that individual performance is aligned to their needs. This in turn creates a healthy and productive relationship between people and organizations. Business psychology constitutes a variety of research methods to ensure that only the best organizational practice is employed (Brochhaus, 1982, pp.39-57). To facilitate this process, several methods such as data collection, surveys, case studies, and interviews are employed.

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To be a successful business psychologists, one must have their clients’ needs at heart. In the context of business psychology, a client is viewed in two aspects. The first one is the individual who is your entry to an organization in most cases referred to as the ‘sponsor’. For a sponsor to perform their duties, they require consultants who are vast in what they do, and how they deliver their duties.

The sponsor needs to have good chemistry with the consultant. This is because when one is enjoying what they are doing, they are most likely to deliver their best results, and this is what mostly attracts the sponsors. For a good business psychologist, this is where they have an opportunity of using their skills which is the ability to read other people (Frese&Gielnik, 2014, pp.413-438). By reading the interests and desires of the sponsors, they are most likely to deliver according to what they want, and this builds a good relationship between the sponsor and the consultant.

Organizational chemistry is also a major factor when choosing a consultant because they are required to have an idea about the dynamics of the organization, how things work around the organization, and have information about the reputation of the organization for the consultant to deliver according to the sponsor’s needs. An idea about the background of the organization will help the consultant know what type of values to uphold and to ensure that their behavior is in line with the organization. The other aspect that is most important to sponsors is the aspect of confidence.

In any organization, the most important aspect is confidence in delivering information, and how that information is delivered. Confidence is what determines whether clients are willing to be part of an organization or not. Therefore, it is important to the sponsor that a consultant delivers their best to the clients even in simple tasks such as direct communication with the clients because this is what gives a client an idea of what the organization is all about. They are, therefore, required to be fluent, diverse, and most importantly confident.

The capability of the consultant to deliver is also another aspect that is important to the sponsor. Consultants must be able to account for the contributions they have made to their other organizations in terms of problem-solving, and the benefits they have made(Hahn&Johansson,2006,pp.573-592). This will help build the sponsors confidence and make them trust that they are capable of delivering and contributing to the positive growth of the organization.

Therefore, in business psychology, the consultant needs to be equipped with all the skills to ensure that they can handle an organization and impact it positively. Consultants are advised to make use of the organization’s resources to deliver according to the sponsor’s needs. In any organization, good use of resources is important in the development of an organization (Bellows, 1949). Therefore, consultants are advised to set up budgets that will ensure that resources are not misused. This helps to be accountable for resources in an organization and also ensures that misuse of resources is minimal.

Consulting Project Lifecycle

In any organization, it is normal to consult on areas where there might have been a lack of understanding or misinterpretation. In this context, business consultancy involves helping an organization to solve a problem or make improvements for it to grow both internally and externally (Morrell&Wilkinson, 2001, pp.219-244). Skills such as the ability to read others and understanding how people relate in an organization, business psychologists can intervene and train people on the specific areas that they need to improve for the organization to administer better results.

Several reasons prompt an organization to use consultants. An organization that is growing at a slow rate may want to bring in a consultant for them to bring a new challenge to the organization (Welch& Tahvanainen, 2008, pp.205-222). This makes the organization to implement new ideas that were initially not ignited for them to solve the new challenge at hand. This encourages people in the organization and leads to aiming at higher goals, therefore, attracting new clients.

In such a case, a consultant can help change things around such as how some things are done to who does certain things. They are, therefore, responsible for turning things around which will, later on, bring improvements to the organization (Babakus& Avci, 2003, pp.272-286). However, consulting also has its negative impacts. In such a case where the consultant has brought about several changes in the organization like changing people’s positions to allocating different duties to different people, the results may turn out to be negative and in some cases even worse than it was before they joined the organization. In such a situation, the organization is advised to find ways to control the situation because if it is not carefully handled, it may result in conflict and the consultant professional reputation may be damaged.

Managing the Dynamic of the Consulting Project Lifecycle

The consulting life cycle involves a series of stages which are meant to ensure that the consulting process is successful. There are two phases that ensure that the consulting lifecycle is complete and successful. The first phase is finding the work that you intend to offer to the clients. According to your status of work, it could be the highest level of work. This stage involves marketing yourself and the ideas that you intend to bring to the organization. It involves a lot of competition from different consultants, therefore, one is advised to market and present themselves in the best way possible.

Building relationships and connections is the next stage which involves creating positive relationships with individuals. In any organization, good and positive relationships contribute to a healthy working environment, therefore, ensuring that there is positive growth in the organization (Wellington & Bryson, 2001, pp. 933-946). In this stage, trust and respect are the main relationships to build. This ensures that the organization can trust you with important and confidential information, and also ensure that there is trust among the colleagues.

The second phase of the consulting life cycle is delivering the work. This phase involves three stages which are meant to ensure that the work is delivered in a specific way with the organization or individual. The first stage is defining the project. In this stage, the consultant is required to understand what the project entails and how they are to deliver the project. This is a critical stage to the consultant because there understanding of the project is what will determine the type of work that they will deliver. Therefore, it is advised that they avoid ambiguity rather they should describe the project in simpler words that can be easily understood.

After understanding what the project entails, the next step is to design it. This stage entails the methodologies that are to be used in the project. To come up with the right methodology for any project, the consultant should review how it may affect the organization and they should be able to conduct a simple questionnaire to record the negative and positive impacts it will have on the organization (Sidwell, 1990, pp.159-178). The last stage is on implementing the work which entails enforcing the ideas that one has acquired. This stage involves coming into direct with the organization and analyzing how the ideas at hand can be implemented in the organization to promote growth in that particular organization. As a consultant, one is expected to come up with tools that are to be used in an organization, and consultants are, therefore, expected to guide through the processes that may be helpful in the organization

Value-Based Consultancy

Values are systems that guide individuals on what to do and what not to do. Every individual has their values impacted on them due to their surroundings, and therefore different individuals have different values. When people come together, they are bound to exchange values and this ensures that an individual grows as a whole because of the values impacted on them.

In the case of an organization, it has proven difficult for people to acquire and exchange values because in this type of organization people come together for financial benefits and not socialization (Karantinou&Hogg, 2007). In an organization set up, people are bound to have different opinions on different issues, and, therefore, disagreements among them tend to occur from time to time. When consultants come into such spaces, they are bound to try and fix the dysfunctional situation which in some organizations these dysfunctional situations are what makes the organization unique, and, therefore, in such a situation, it proves to be difficult.

It is difficult to go about such a situation especially if a narcissist leader is involved. A narcissist leader is one who attracts large numbers of people, and they never want to be corrected or to be challenged. According to Maccoby, it is advisable to remove a narcissist leader for a system to function properly. Value-based consultancy has tried to eradicate the problem of paying more attention to the processes than to each other by coming up with several ways to go about the system such as helping people to develop a sense of dialogue which helps people to be more transparent and close with each other. This helps people to have better and deeper connections. People are, therefore able to operate according to their values and the values of an organization. The purpose of this is to establish better communications channels among different people.

Creative field inquiry is another way that can be used to ensure that people are more social in an organization. Creative field inquiry as a process helps to understand how the organization operates which is the day to day activities of an organization, and it also helps to understand how the community of people in the organization work together (Robinson&Hunt, 1991, pp13-32).These are mainly the principles that guide people on how to interact in an organization.

These guidelines help people to create boundaries in the workplace, therefore, ensuring that respect is sustained among them. This helps people to understand that every person is entitled to his or her opinion and that different people have different opinions towards different things and that they are supposed to respect each other despite their different opinions.

Focusing on ideas and actions that build an organization to make a positive difference is also another way of ensuring that analytical diagnosis and mechanistic interventions are avoided (Liinamaa et al., 2016, pp.37-49).This process helps people in an organization to focus their energies on actions that will bring development to the organization by setting realistic values that are attainable by the people in that particular organization. These values ensure that social responsibility is adhered to and this helps people to work together in unity, therefore, ensuring that the goals are attained (Page&Donohue, 2004, pp.1-...