Challenges of the Assessment and Measurement Process Paper
Introduction
Organizational leadership is an important area in organizational psychology. Organizational leadership involves the selection, recruitment, training and development of effective future leaders in an organization. The main aim of this area of organizational psychology is to nurture and develop leaders in an organization who will ensure the organization is led in an appropriate manner today and in the future. There are many challenges faced in organizational leadership. Psychologically, the problem is divided into two sections. First, employees have to work under a manager or a supervisor, the satisfaction and efficiency of employees is influenced by the supervisor’s leadership style. Secondly, most leaders in business organizations rise from college educated ranks, this means that they will have probably worked in some different capacities of management at some point in their career.
The interest of psychologists is the ability of leaders in different scenarios as well as the impacts of various styles of leadership on junior employees. To ensure stability and growth, organizations are obligated to employ the most competent individuals to the leadership positions. These people are expected to use their skills effectively to the advantage of the organization. However, organizational leadership process requires a working criterion to guide the nurturing and developing of leaders. The criterion should provide for measurement and assessment of various aspects of leadership in the individuals being groomed to become leaders. The process of measurement and assessment is faced by several challenges.
Challenges of the process of measurement and assessment
When assessing and measuring psychological issues in an organization about organizational leadership, psychologists encounter various kinds of challenges which may affect the outcome of the results. Here are some of the major challenges encountered.
Communication issues
Some organizations have devised a special mode of communication that cannot be understood by individuals outside the organization. This implies that only members of that the organization can communicate using this kind of communication. In some cases, these organizations have devised new vocabulary for internal use. Since I-O psychologists are required to closely work with the leaders and other employees in the organization, communication in such a scenario becomes difficult hence affecting the psychologists’ assessment and measurement. The psychologists will not be able to comprehend the activities, ideas and research outcomes hence; their findings will not be valid.
Lack of cooperation from workers and employees
In many organizations, external individuals are usually treated with suspicion concerning their intentions. This leads to psychologists having a hard time trying to assess and measure an organization’s leadership structure and its performance or efficiency. More so, employees tend to resist cooperating with psychologists because they believe the psychologists are hired to devise new working habits that would increase their work load for the same pay. The resistance could also be because employees feel that their leadership performance in the past is wanting. Cooperation issues could also arise because the members of the organization do not agree with the psychologist’s approach towards taking measurements and assessments. It is important for managers and employees to support psychologists because the outcomes of the measurement and assessment are meant to improve the working conditions in the organization such as organizational leadership.
Objectives of the assessment and measurement process
Psychologists face this challenge because most organizations feel that the recommendations of the psychologists are not applicable in reality. Some of the measurements and assessments are theoretically oriented making the results difficult to implement. Psychologists have to ensure that the process of assessment and measurement is done in a manner that would make it possible to put any recommendations into practice. Organizational leadership is an organizational aspect that requires practical results to improve the organization’s quality of leadership. Therefore, practicality must be emphasized.
Fraud and incompetence
This is a common challenge in psychology because some of the psychologists get tempted to get involved in fraud while some are just incompetent. Organizational leadership involves matters that are secretive and unique to every organization. However, when psychologists are employed, their duty is to assess and measure the level of efficiency of the organizational leadership in the company. There are some psychologists who act unprofessionally by going to reveal to rival companies the strengths and weaknesses of such companies, or worse still they help rival companies take away competent and potential leaders. This is a challenge that has to be stamped out so as to ensure professionalism prevails and organizational leadership standards are improved. There are some psychologists who are incompetent in that they do not have necessary skills to measure and assess the standards of organizational leadership.
Common research methods in organizational leadership
Psychologists employ qualitative research methods in the area of organizational leadership in organizational psychology.
Observational studies
This is the most common research method used in assessing and measuring organizational leadership. It is cheap and efficient since the psychologist simply takes time to analyze the leadership structure by spending time observing how the organizational leadership process is run. Observation allows the psychologist to get information first hand hence; his or her recommendations will most likely be accurate.
Surveys
This is another qualitative research method employed by psychologists when assessing organizational leadership. In this approach, the psychologist interacts with employees and leaders of the organization through interviews or when administering questionnaires. In this research method, the researcher has the privilege of getting feedback from employees about their opinion on the organizational leadership of the organization and the changes they would like see. Therefore, surveys allow the psychologist to make recommendations about organizational leadership with respect to the opinions of the people in that organization.
Psychologists may use quantitative research methods such as inferential statistics like correlation. Descriptive statistics about the organizational leadership structure can be used when carrying out this kind of organizational psychology.
Importance of performance management systems in organizational leadership
In all areas of organizational psychology, there is a need for performance management mechanisms that would help in monitoring the efficiency of performance in that area of the organization. Perhaps organizational leadership is the area where a mechanism of performance management is required. Leadership is an intangible aspect that requires professionals to assess and measure in order to determine the organization’s leadership standards. Therefore, organizations should develop performance management systems for organizational leadership to monitor the progress made and the necessary changes to be made to improve organizational leadership.
Conclusion
Therefore, the process of assessment and measurement of organizational leadership must be done professionally to improve the credibility of the psychologists’ recommendations. Furthermore, the challenges facing this area of organizational psychology must be avoided to ensure that organizational leadership standards are raised with the help of psychologists’ expertise. The research done in organizational leadership must be done using appropriate research methods. Finally, performance management systems must be developed to monitor the effectiveness of the organizational leadership program.
References
Anderson, N. (2001). Handbook of Industrial, Work and Organizational Psychology: Personnel psychology (illustrated, reprint ed.). New York: SAGE.
Guion, R. M. (2011). Assessment, Measurement, and Prediction for Personnel Decisions. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Jex, S. M. (2002). Organizational Psychology: A Scientist-Practitioner Approach. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2010). Psychology and Work Today. An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. New York: Pearson Education.
