Putting new research on workplace psychology in front of business and industry

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The second annual Work Psychology Innovation Award, held at London’s Ham Yard Hotel on 12 December, saw 27 of the year’s best MSc research projects being put forward by 10 leading UK universities.

The Award event, unique for its focus on bringing together workplace psychology academics and industry practitioners, is sponsored by Indigogold. As our founding director, Daniel Vacassin, says: “It’s great for the students to have a platform to talk about their research. Otherwise, they often spend a lot of time and effort putting together something that is, for them, really important – and no-one reads it!

“But during the Awards, top industry practitioners get a chance to access all the MSc research projects nominated. I saw people telling the students ‘I know four or five organisations that would be really interested in talking to you further about the work that you’ve done.’ Without a platform like this, they wouldn’t get that opportunity.”

 

The Award process

Each year, UK universities prominent in work-related psychology studies are invited to nominate up to three of their best MSC research projects.

The students create a poster summarising their research, and judges from industry and the universities get the chance to question the students before each drawing up a shortlist of their top three projects, based on three criteria: innovation (is the research new?); research quality (is the methodology sound, are the conclusions justified by the data?); and practical application (could this be used in the workplace?).
The judges then compare shortlists before agreeing a winner, who receives a £1,000 cash prize. All of the nominated MSc students are also invited to attend Indigogold’s annual industry networking event.

This year’s winning research project

Matthew Atkinson, of Birkbeck, University of London, delivered an MSc project that looked at why some workplace assessors are systematically more lenient (‘doves’) than others (‘hawks’).

Recent, inconclusive research has focused on assessor personality, with research based on cognitive-motivational models drying up around 10 years ago. Since then, new methodologies such as interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) have emerged, and Matthew used IPA to examine assessors’ beliefs and attitudes.

The findings suggest there are three critical differences between assessors: ‘dove’ assessors believe their purpose is to help individuals, while ‘hawks’ believe their purpose is to serve the business; doves’ attitudes are more passive than hawks’ attitudes; and doves express more doubt about their own judgments than hawks.
The research has clear implications for business and industry organisations concerned about the consistency of regular workplace assessments.

The entrants, research projects and judges

This year’s judges from academia were:

  • Carolyn Axtell, of Sheffield University
  • Christeen George, of the University of Hertfordshire
  • Fiona Gavin, of the University of Nottingham
  • Kate Mackenzie Davey, of Birkbeck, University of London
  • Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo, of the London School of Economics and Political Studies
  • Mark Holloway, of the University of East London
  • Rachel Lewis, of Kingston University

The practitioner judges were:

  • David Russell, Group HR Director, William Hill
  • Julie Elder, Group HR Director, Home Retail Group
  • Quintin Heath, Group HR Director, AB Sugar
  • Rachel Stock, Group HR Director, Hearst Media

The MSc students with research projects nominated for the Awards were:

Abdullah Syed (University of Hertfordshire): Taxicab drivers in London: Does shift work have an impact on health?

Anna Pleser (LSE): Working towards a desired identity: The impact of post-merger integration initiatives in a healthcare organisation

Caroline Fortunski (University of Surrey): Helping young professionals juggle work and non-work: Introduction of a competency-based diary intervention

Charmaine Portelli (Birkbeck, University of London): Psychological Contract Breach and Outcomes: Investigating the Effect of Moderators

Chika Agabu (University of Sheffield): Evaluation of a Leadership Development Programme in a London Local Authority

Claire Bruna (Kingston University): A Mixed Methods Study investigating the Big Five Personality Dimensions and Likelihood to Cheat in Cognitive Ability Tests during the Recruitment Process

John Barratt (Aston University): An examination of the moderating influence of Job Security, Organisational Seniority and Perceived Dispensability on the relationship between the Theory of Planned Behaviour and absenteeism behaviour

Julia Adorf (University of Nottingham): Part-time Work at Managerial Level: A Qualitative Study of Positive Effects, Challenges and Success Factors

Kate Farley (Birkbeck, University of London): Work engagement, political skill and job performance
Kate Hammond (Kingston University): Exploring the influence of group processes on end of day discussions in an assessment centre

Kathryn de Kort (University of Sheffield): Understanding the impact of work design on subjective career success: The mediating effects of person-job fit

Matthew Atkinson (Birkbeck, University of London): The assessor on the couch: Assessors’ beliefs and attitudes towards their role: An interpretative phenomenological analysis study into assessor severity-leniency

Mignonette Smith (University of East London): The post-GCSEs Experience of Young People who are now Entering the Job Market

Muhammad Aziz (Aston University): The Moderating Effect of Leader-Member Exchange on Adaptive and Maladaptive Perfectionism within an Organisational Setting

Nicola Gough (University of East London): Listening to the listeners: An exploration of the emotions experienced by listening volunteers and the role of debriefing support following exposure to distressing information

Noemi Dreksler (University College London): The Dark Triad and Emotional Intelligence: A Literature Review and Meta-analysis

Noor Salih (University of Hertfordshire): The Role of Psychological Capital and Values in a High Performing Executive Search Team

Petronella Loffler (University of Nottingham): Authentic Leadership, Job Satisfaction and Work Engagement: The Mediating Effect of Follower Optimism

Philip Smith (University of Surrey): Finding novelty in everything: overcoming intuitive error in workplace decision-making

Sarah Davies (University College London): Do women want to lead? Gender differences in motivation and values

Sarah Latham (LSE): Generating the ‘will to cleanse’: The impact of memories from the 2008 financial crisis on a UK financial institution’s change programme

Sebastian Weber (University of Nottingham): An empirical examination of psychological entitlement, its workplace outcomes, and the role of perceived organisational justice

Silje Andreassen (University of Sheffield): Gender differences and consequences of hierarchical Career Plateauing in a leading technology company in the UK

Simmy Grover (University College London): A Cascading Model of How Emotional Intelligence Impacts Work Outcomes and Income

Tsonka Petkova (University of East London): Q methodological study into the complex social dynamics at work: Investigating factors within the organization affecting employees’ safety perceptions, attitudes and behaviours

Ufuk Barmanpek (Aston University): The role of Servant Leadership on Employee Motivation in the Healthcare Organisations in Turkey

Winnie Yao (LSE): From unemployment to entrepreneurship: The transition of 50+ UK Necessity Entrepreneurs

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