PL3239 Module Review

PL3239 Industrial and Organisational Psychology

AY2018/19 Semester 1

Taught by: Dr Patricia Chen

Textbook: McShane and von Glinow (2008)

Was another class I needed to take in addition to PL4201 if I wanted to enroll in the CDP. Accordingly, I was not expecting to enjoy this class that much. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. The content may not have been my thing, but the delivery of the module was interesting nevertheless. As a bonus, all the exams were purely MCQs lol.

The prof managed to maintain high levels of energy throughout the semester and integrated interesting case studies into the course content (esp using Disney to explain organisational culture, that was brilliant).

The course was broken down into 30% mid-terms, 30% Finals, 30% group project, and 10% pre-tutorial assignments and self-made exam questions.

Tutorials were biweekly (once a fortnight, not twice a week, although both definitions are correct). Before which, we had to complete some assigned work that were pretty straightforward. In addition to that, we had to come up with 5 possible MCQs based on the previous week’s lecture (don’t worry they won’t steal your questions). Neither of these were too troublesome; I believe most, if not all, should get full marks for this component.

The group work was quite possibly the best part of the module. Unlike most other non-research psych mods, this class (or maybe just the prof) contained an empirical project. We had to select an organisation (can be anything, if unsure just ask), diagnose potential problems therein (using research methods i.e., collect data), and come up with solutions (based on I/O theories). Compared to PL4880L, this was a breeze, hah! My group stuck to a schedule (or tried to quite well at least) and we managed things pretty well, finishing well ahead of the deadline.

Half of the project’s grade came from a presentation of the whole project while the other half came from a 6 page (single-spaced) report on it. The report was structured like a typical research paper in psych so it would be best if you were familiar with it. I don’t know how relevant this information would be for different profs though, since I don’t expect such empirical projects to be common among non-lab mods.

The remaining 60% comprised 2 x 30% exams. Each paper had 60 pretty straightforward MCQs. Make sure you take note of important stuff shown in videos during lectures, study the tutorials, and read the textbook (so many people don’t, it’s crazy!). The great part was that we had 1 lecture slot for mid-terms (1.5hrs), so I expected finals to have more questions since it was 2 hours long. I laughed to myself when I saw that the paper only had 60 questions lol. As expected, only like 8/70+ ppl stayed till the end for finals. Unfortunately for me, my paranoia would not allow me to. I had to check all the way to put myself at ease. Perhaps it was this fastidiousness that won me an A+ for this course.