Glossary

360-degree feedback: Performance evaluation approach that gathers input from multiple sources—supervisors, peers, subordinates, and sometimes customers—rather than just from your direct boss. (Modules 01, 07)

ABC Model: Framework for Organizational Behavior Management with three components: Antecedents (environmental factors before behavior), Behavior (actual actions), and Consequences (outcomes following behavior). (Module 10)

Abilities: Stable capacities for learning and performing various behaviors that underlie skill development and job performance. (Module 03)

Absenteeism: Employee absence from work, which shows modest negative correlations with job satisfaction (r = -.15 to -.25). (Module 11)

Achievement motivation: A desire for significant accomplishment, mastery of skills or ideas, and attainment of high standards. (Module 10)

Active Learning: Learning that requires trainees to engage with content through practice, discussion, problem-solving, or other participatory activities rather than just sitting there listening. (Module 08)

Actual criterion: Our best practical approximation of the ultimate criterion, constrained by cost, time, and feasibility. (Module 06)

Adaptive Interfaces: User interfaces that dynamically adjust based on user behavior, preferences, and performance to enhance usability and reduce cognitive load. (Module 09)

Adjourning: The final stage of group development where temporary groups complete their tasks or ongoing groups experience major membership changes. (Module 13)

Adverse Impact: Occurs when a selection procedure disproportionately affects protected groups, often measured by the 80% rule. (Module 05)

Affective commitment: Emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in organizations; represents the most desirable form of organizational commitment. (Module 11)

Affective component: The “feeling” part of attitudes involving emotions and gut reactions toward attitude objects. (Module 11)

Affective disposition: Individual tendency to respond to environmental situations in predetermined ways, representing personality differences in emotional reactivity. (Module 11)

AI-Driven Coaching Platforms: Platforms that leverage machine learning algorithms to provide personalized, real-time coaching to employees based on performance data and behavioral indicators. (Module 07)

Algorithmic Bias: Systematic and repeatable errors in a computer system that create unfair outcomes, such as favoring one group over another. (Module 09)

Altering perceptions: A strategy to reduce perceived inequity by convincing yourself that the ratios are actually equitable. (Module 10)

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Prohibits disability discrimination and requires reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals who can perform essential job functions. (Module 05)

Antecedents: Environmental factors that precede behavior in the ABC model, such as instructions, goals, or environmental cues. Also factors that precede and influence the formation of job attitudes. (Modules 10, 11)

Apprenticeships: Formal on-the-job training approaches that combine hands-on practical instruction with classroom requirements—think skilled trades like electricians or plumbers. (Module 08)

Archival research: Research using secondary datasets collected by others, often cost-effective for examining long-term trends. (Module 02)

Artificial Intelligence (AI): The simulation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think and learn like humans. Technology that’s revolutionizing training through adaptive learning platforms that personalize content based on how each individual learns best. (Modules 08, 09)

ASA Model: Attraction-Selection-Attrition model describing how organizations and individuals undergo mutual assessment processes. (Module 15)

Assessment Centers: Comprehensive evaluation programs using multiple exercises, raters, and days to assess candidates for important positions. Structured evaluations using multiple raters and exercises to assess managerial potential. (Modules 04, 05)

Assessment center: A comprehensive evaluation approach that uses multiple exercises, simulations, and real-world scenarios to assess someone’s capabilities, originally developed for intelligence work during WWII. (Module 01)

Attitude: A mental shortcut for how individuals are predisposed to think, feel, and act toward specific things in their work environment. (Module 11)

Attitude formation: The process by which attitudes develop through various psychological mechanisms including modeling, conditioning, and direct experience. (Module 11)

Autocratic leadership: Leadership style involving decision-making without reference to follower input or preferences, with leaders maintaining high control. (Module 14)

Autokinetic phenomenon: The illusion that a stationary light appears to move when viewed in complete darkness, used in Sherif’s norm formation studies. (Module 13)

Automation: The use of technology to perform tasks with minimal human intervention. (Module 09)

Autonomy: The degree to which jobs provide freedom, independence, and discretion in scheduling work and determining procedures. (Modules 09, 10)

Base Rate: The percentage of current employees performing successfully, used to evaluate the effectiveness of selection systems. (Module 05)

Behavior: The actual actions that organizations wish to influence in the ABC model. (Module 10)

Behavioral component: The “acting” part of attitudes involving action tendencies or behavioral intentions toward attitude objects. (Module 11)

Behavioral Criteria: Measures of how well behaviors learned in training actually transfer to real job performance—the “does it work in the real world?” question. (Module 08)

Behavioral Description Interviews: Interviews that focus on past behavior by asking candidates to describe specific situations and actions. (Module 05)

Behavioral Modeling: Training method that applies social learning theory principles by having trainees watch and copy behaviors demonstrated by exemplary models. (Module 08)

Behavioral Observation Scales (BOS): An appraisal format that asks raters to consider how frequently employees exhibit particular behaviors. (Module 07)

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS): Performance evaluation scales that use specific behavioral examples to define different levels of performance, making ratings more objective and useful for feedback. (Modules 01, 07)

Behavioral theories of leadership: Approaches that emerged when trait theories proved insufficient, focusing on leader behaviors to understand effectiveness. (Module 14)

Big Five: Personality model organizing traits into five major dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. (Module 04)

Biographical Information (Biodata): Data collected about past behaviors and experiences to predict future job performance. (Module 05)

Brainstorming: A technique designed to enhance creativity by encouraging free generation of ideas in a group without immediate criticism. (Module 13)

Bureaucracy: A highly formalized, hierarchical organizational structure characterized by clear rules, procedures, and a division of labor. (Module 15)

Burnout: A state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged or excessive stress, often exacerbated by dysfunctional team dynamics and workplace demands. (Module 12)

Campbell’s Model: Distinguishes between performance (behaviors), effectiveness (results), and productivity (efficiency ratio). (Module 06)

Case studies: Detailed examination of particular individuals, groups, companies, or societies to provide rich insights about specific situations. (Module 02)

Causal inference: The primary goal of experimental research, requiring demonstration that changes in independent variables cause changes in dependent variables rather than just correlation. (Module 02)

Central tendency errors: A distributional error where raters use only the midpoint of the scale. (Module 07)

Centralization: The degree to which decision-making authority is concentrated at the top of the organizational hierarchy. (Module 15)

Checklists: An appraisal method requiring raters to read large numbers of behavioral statements and check whether individuals exhibit each behavior. (Module 07)

Classical conditioning: Attitude formation process that works by pairing attitude objects with positive experiences to create emotional associations. (Module 11)

Classical Organizational Theory: Early theory emphasizing economic efficiency, scientific analysis, and mechanistic approaches to organizing work. (Module 15)

Coach-style leadership: Leadership approach focusing on follower growth and development by encouraging individuals to leverage their strengths and talents. (Module 14)

Coercive power: Control over punishments or negative consequences that followers wish to avoid. (Module 14)

Coefficient of determination (r²): The percentage of variance in the criterion accounted for by the predictor variable. (Module 02)

Cognitive Ability: General mental capacity that predicts job performance across most jobs; typically the strongest single predictor available. (Module 04)

Cognitive choice theories: Propose that people function as rational decision-makers who weigh alternatives and choose behaviors based on expected outcomes. (Module 10)

Cognitive component: The “thinking” part of attitudes involving beliefs, knowledge, and thoughts about attitude objects. (Module 11)

Cognitive dissonance theory: Theory explaining psychological discomfort experienced when holding inconsistent beliefs or when actions contradict attitudes, motivating attitude or behavior change. (Module 11)

Cognitive Ergonomics: The subfield of human factors dealing with mental processes such as perception, memory, and reasoning as they affect interactions with systems. (Module 09)

Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA): Specialized methods that focus on the cognitive skills, knowledge structures, and decision-making processes that distinguish expert from novice performance. (Module 03)

Cognitive Workload: The amount of mental effort required to perform a task. (Module 09)

Cohesion: Strength of group members’ attraction to maintaining membership in the group and the strength of links developed among group members. (Modules 12, 13)

Collaborating: Conflict management approach that seeks win-win solutions where everyone benefits, often ideal but time-consuming and requiring mutual cooperation. Also seeking win-win solutions where everyone can achieve their important objectives through creative problem-solving. (Modules 12, 13)

Collective rationalization: Involves explaining away warnings or negative feedback that might cause the group to reconsider its assumptions; a symptom of groupthink. (Module 13)

Common Metric Questionnaire (CMQ): A worker-oriented instrument with over 2,000 items designed to address limitations of the PAQ through more behaviorally specific language. (Module 03)

Communication: A crucial outcome of performance management, encompassing feedback delivery, performance discussions, and developmental planning. (Module 07)

Communication structure: Determines how information flows within a group, affecting team effectiveness and coordination. (Module 13)

Compensable factors: Elements like skill requirements, effort demands, responsibility levels, and working conditions used to determine relative job worth for compensation purposes. (Module 03)

Compensation hypothesis: Theory that satisfaction in one area of life can compensate for dissatisfaction in another area. (Module 11)

Competencies: Sets of behaviors that are instrumental to accomplishing desired outcomes—the specific skills and actions that lead to success. (Module 08)

Competency models: Sophisticated approach to describing job requirements by combining behavioral indicators with underlying KSAOs for integration across HR systems. (Module 03)

Competency: Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that allow people to effectively perform specific functions, developed through systematic training and experience. (Module 01)

Compliance Training: Any training that all employees must undergo to meet legal, regulatory, or organizational requirements—the stuff you have to do whether you want to or not. (Module 08)

Composite criteria: Weighted combinations of multiple performance dimensions to create single performance indices. (Module 06)

Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT): Technology that adjusts question difficulty based on previous responses to provide more precise measurement. (Module 04)

Concurrent validity: The extent to which a test predicts a criterion measured at the same time as the test. (Module 02)

Confidentiality: Protection of participant data from unauthorized access or disclosure, particularly important in workplace research involving sensitive information. (Module 02)

Confounding variables: Extraneous variables that vary systematically with independent variables, creating alternative explanations for experimental effects and eliminating the ability to make causal statements. (Module 02)

Conflict: What happens when people perceive that others are keeping them from reaching a goal. (Module 13)

Conformity: The tendency for individuals to align their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with group norms. (Module 13)

Consequences: The outcomes that follow behavior in the ABC model, including both intended and unintended results. (Module 10)

Conservation of Resources (COR) Model: Theory proposing that people work to acquire and maintain resources needed to ward off stress, with resource loss playing a critical role in stress processes. (Module 12)

Consideration: Relationship-oriented behaviors that demonstrate concern and respect for followers, including participative decision-making and supportive interactions. (Module 14)

Construct validity: The extent to which tests or measures actually assess the underlying theoretical constructs they were intended to measure rather than something else. (Module 02)

Content validity: The degree to which a test covers a representative sample of the quality being assessed, established through expert judgment. (Module 02)

Contextual performance: Activities that help or hurt the broader organizational, social, and psychological environment, beyond formal job tasks. (Module 06)

Contingency approaches to leadership: Theories recognizing that effectiveness depends on matches between leader characteristics, follower needs, and situational demands. (Module 14)

Contingency Theories: Theories proposing that optimal organizational structure depends on situational factors rather than universal principles. (Module 15)

Continuance commitment: Awareness of costs associated with leaving organizations; remaining because one needs to rather than wants to. (Module 11)

Continuous employee development: A cyclical process in which employees are motivated to plan for and engage in actions benefiting their future employability on ongoing basis. (Module 07)

Contrast errors: Occur when one person’s performance rating is influenced by the performance of a previously evaluated person. (Module 07)

Control: The essential feature of experimental design involving systematic management of all variables that might affect results except the one being studied. (Module 02)

Control theory: Motivational theories that center around negative feedback loops resulting from comparison of performance feedback with goals or standards. (Module 10)

Controllability: The degree to which humans can influence or direct the actions of an AI system. (Module 09)

Convergent validity: Evidence that a measure relates appropriately to other measures of similar constructs. (Module 02)

Coping strategies: Behavioral or cognitive efforts to manage or reduce stress, enhanced by team support and shared resources. (Module 12)

Correlation coefficient: Index of relationship strength between two variables, ranging from -1.00 to +1.00 and indicating both direction and magnitude. (Module 02)

Correlational research: Research approach measuring relationships between variables to enable prediction without establishing causation. (Module 02)

Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CWBs): Behaviors that harm or detract from organizational effectiveness, such as theft, sabotage, or interpersonal abuse. (Module 06)

Criterion: An evaluative standard that functions as a measuring instrument for assessing employees’ or organizations’ success or failure. (Module 06)

Criterion contamination: Occurs when the actual criterion measures aspects not part of the ultimate criterion, including random error and systematic bias. (Module 06)

Criterion deficiency: Refers to important aspects of the ultimate criterion not included in the actual criterion measure. (Module 06)

Criterion relevance: The degree to which the actual criterion relates to the ultimate criterion. (Module 06)

Criterion-related validity: The degree to which tests predict important real-world outcomes like job performance, attitudes, or behaviors, demonstrated through predictive or concurrent validity studies. (Module 02)

Critical Incident Technique: A job analysis method that involves collecting critical incidents of effective and ineffective performance to identify the key behaviors that distinguish success from failure in a role. Method that asks Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to identify specific examples of behavior or performance that led to successful or unsuccessful outcomes. (Modules 01, 03)

Cronbach’s alpha: The most common measure of internal consistency reliability that examines relationships among all test items, with values above .70 generally considered acceptable. (Module 02)

Decision Accuracy: Measures how well a selection system distinguishes between successful and unsuccessful hires. (Module 05)

Declarative knowledge: Information known about how to accomplish tasks. (Module 06)

Deception: Research technique involving withholding or misrepresenting information to participants, requiring careful justification and thorough debriefing. (Module 02)

Deduction: Approach to science that starts with theory and collects data to test theoretical predictions. (Module 02)

Defining performance: The first step in the performance management cycle, involving establishing clear organizational objectives and communicating expectations. (Module 07)

Deindividuation: A psychological state where individuals lose their sense of personal identity and responsibility in a group, often leading to uninhibited behavior. (Module 13)

Democratic leadership: Leadership style encouraging decision-making from multiple perspectives and emphasizing participation throughout the organization. (Module 14)

Dependent variables (DVs): Variables measured to assess the effects of experimental manipulations, serving as the criteria, outcomes, consequences, or effects in research studies. (Module 02)

Descriptive norms: Group expectations that define what most people actually do in particular situations, such as working long hours or checking email after hours. (Modules 12, 13)

Descriptive statistics: Statistical procedures that summarize and describe data characteristics without making inferences about populations. (Module 02)

Determinism: Scientific assumption that behavior is orderly and systematic rather than random, following discoverable patterns and principles that can be identified and used for prediction. (Module 02)

Diffusion of responsibility: The tendency for individuals to feel less personal responsibility when others are present. (Module 13)

Direct experience: Attitude formation through personal experience with attitude objects, often creating stronger and more lasting attitudes than indirect exposure. (Module 11)

Directs (motivation): Focuses effort toward particular objectives rather than random activity. (Module 10)

Discoverability: The optimistic assumption that it’s possible to discover orderliness in behavior through human ingenuity and good methodology. (Module 02)

Disparate Impact: Unintentional discrimination resulting from neutral practices that disproportionately affect protected groups. (Module 05)

Disparate Treatment: Intentional discrimination based on protected characteristics. (Module 05)

Distributed Practice: Dividing training into segments with rest periods between sessions rather than cramming everything into one marathon session. (Module 08)

Distributional errors: Encompass leniency, central tendency, and severity errors, representing different patterns of scale usage. (Module 07)

Diversity Training: Training that teaches employees to work respectfully and effectively with people from various backgrounds—increasingly important in our interconnected world. (Module 08)

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Organizational efforts to create truly inclusive workplaces where people from all backgrounds can thrive and advance based on their capabilities. (Module 01)

Divergent validity: Evidence that a measure does not relate strongly to measures of different constructs. (Module 02)

Division of Labor: The specialization of tasks and responsibilities among different individuals or groups within an organization. (Module 15)

Drive-reduction theory: Proposes that physiological needs create aroused tension states (drives) that motivate organisms to satisfy those needs and thereby relieve the arousal. (Module 10)

Dunning-Kruger effect: A cognitive bias where unskilled individuals overestimate their abilities and lack metacognitive skills to realize their limitations. (Module 07)

Dynamic criteria: Reflect the phenomenon where performance levels and relative rankings change over time. (Module 06)

Dysfunctional turnover: The loss of productive workers, which is costly to organizations. (Module 11)

Effectiveness: The evaluation of performance results, recognizing that outcomes often depend on forces beyond individual worker control. (Module 06)

Ego-defensive function: Psychological function of attitudes that protects self-esteem and helps avoid uncomfortable truths. (Module 11)

E-learning: Training delivery via the Internet that enables remote access to content at trainee convenience—perfect for our digital age. (Module 08)

Elements: The smallest unit of work activity that can be meaningfully analyzed, serving as building blocks for tasks. (Module 03)

Emotion-Aware Systems: AI systems that use various sensors and analysis techniques to detect and respond to users’ emotional states. (Module 09)

Emotional intelligence: Critical factor in leadership effectiveness encompassing awareness and management of both personal emotions and others’ emotions. (Module 14)

Employee comparison procedures: Include rank-ordering, paired comparison, and forced distribution methods for performance appraisal. (Module 07)

Employee Referral Programs: Recruitment strategy where current employees refer candidates, often with incentives. (Module 05)

Empiricism: The philosophical approach that emphasizes learning through systematic observation and direct experience rather than pure reasoning or theoretical speculation. (Modules 01, 02)

Energizes (motivation): Creates a force that results in some level of effort expenditure. (Module 10)

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): Federal agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. (Module 05)

Equity theory: Proposes that employees’ perceptions about the fairness of their treatment at work significantly affect motivation, attitudes, and behaviors. (Module 10)

ERG theory: A modification of Maslow’s hierarchy that reduces the five-need hierarchy to three categories: Existence, Relatedness, and Growth needs. (Module 10)

Ergonomics: The scientific discipline and profession concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system. (Module 09)

Essential Functions: Core job duties that must be performed, used to determine reasonable accommodations under the ADA. (Module 05)

Evidence-based practice: Using systematic research and data analysis to determine what actually works rather than relying on intuition, tradition, or popular management trends. (Module 01)

Expectancy (E): The perceived relationship between effort and performance in expectancy theory, ranging from 0 to +1. (Module 10)

Expectancy theory: Proposes that individuals behave in certain ways because they are motivated to select specific behaviors over others based on expected results. (Module 10)

Experience sampling methodology (ESM): Research technique using smartphone apps to capture momentary attitudes and states throughout the day. (Module 02)

Experienced meaningfulness: A critical psychological state in Job Characteristics Theory resulting from skill variety, task identity, and task significance. (Module 10)

Expert power: Power derived from special knowledge, skills, or expertise that others need or value. (Module 14)

Explainable AI (XAI): AI systems designed to make their decision-making processes transparent and understandable to human users. (Module 09)

Exposure effects: Tendency for repeated contact with attitude objects to increase positive attitudes through simple familiarity. (Module 11)

External Recruitment: Seeking candidates from outside the organization to bring in new skills and perspectives. (Module 05)

External validity: The extent to which research results generalize across other people, settings, and times beyond the specific study context, typically higher in field studies. (Modules 01, 02, 04)

Extraneous variables: Variables that might affect study outcomes but are not manipulated by the researcher, also known as “noise.” (Module 02)

Extrinsic motivation: Involves the desire to perform behaviors due to promised rewards or threats of punishment. (Module 10)

F

Face Validity: Whether the test looks like it is measuring what it is intended to measure. (Module 04)

Faces Scale: Job satisfaction measurement tool that uses visual representations of facial expressions rather than written statements to capture emotional aspects of satisfaction. (Module 11)

Fairness: Captures employees’ perceptions of criterion reasonableness and justice, influencing motivation and acceptance of decisions. (Module 06)

Feedback: Information provided to trainees about their performance, which is crucial for learning and behavior change—the more specific and timely, the better. (Modules 08, 09, 10)

Feedback environment: Embodies organizational culture and climate, influencing how feedback is received and processed. (Module 07)

Feedback Orientation (FO): An individual’s overall attitude toward feedback or receptivity to feedback. (Module 07)

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory: Leadership effectiveness results from interactions between leader orientation and situational favorability. (Module 14)

Field experiments: Research maintaining experimental control through random assignment while conducted in real-world settings to enhance external validity. (Module 02)

Fight-or-flight response: Physiological stress response that increases heart rate, breathing, and energy availability while suppressing non-essential functions like digestion. (Module 12)

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: Tendency for people who agree to small requests to become more likely to comply with larger requests later, partly through attitude changes. (Module 11)

Forced distribution: An employee comparison procedure requiring raters to distribute ratees into categories following normal distribution properties. (Module 07)

Forming: The initial stage of group development where members get to know each other and understand expectations. (Module 13)

Frame of Reference (FOR) training: Focuses on enhancing observational and categorization skills by providing common frames of reference to increase rating consistency. (Module 07)

Free-riding: When employees do less than their share of work but share equally in rewards. (Module 13)

French and Raven’s power model: Identifies five distinct power sources that leaders can use to influence followers. (Module 14)

Functional Job Analysis (FJA): A task-oriented approach that systematically evaluates tasks along data, people, and things dimensions using standardized rating scales. (Module 03)

Functional Organizational Structure: Organizational design structured according to the various functions of the employees. (Module 15)

Functional turnover: The loss of poor-performing workers, which can actually benefit organizations. (Module 11)

General Adaptation Syndrome: Three-stage model of stress response including alarm stage, adaptation/resistance stage, and exhaustion stage. (Module 12)

General Cognitive Ability: Mental capacity that consistently predicts performance in training contexts—basically, how quickly and effectively someone can learn new things. (Module 08)

Generative AI: A type of artificial intelligence that can produce new content, such as text, images, or audio, based on patterns learned from existing data. (Module 09)

Gig economy: The trend toward more people working as freelancers, contractors, and in temporary arrangements rather than traditional full-time employment. (Module 01)

Goal acceptance: The parts of a goal that are assigned and acknowledged. (Module 10)

Goal commitment: The parts of a goal that are internalized. (Module 10)

Goal-setting theory: Demonstrates that appropriate goals can enhance both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation while improving performance outcomes. (Module 10)

Graphic rating scales: Consist of traits or behaviors that raters evaluate based on how much the ratee possesses each dimension. (Module 07)

Great Man theories: Historical perspectives on leadership emphasizing exceptional individual characteristics as drivers of historical change. (Module 14)

Great Resignation: The massive wave of voluntary job changes beginning in 2021 that forced organizations to rethink employee value propositions and work experiences. (Module 01)

Group cohesiveness: How much group members like each other and want to stay together. (Module 13)

Group polarization: The tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of their members. (Module 13)

Groupthink: A phenomenon where highly cohesive groups prioritize harmony and conformity over critical evaluation, leading to flawed decisions. (Module 13)

Growth need strength: The extent to which individuals value or desire fulfilling higher-order needs. (Module 10)

Halo error: The rater’s tendency to use a global evaluation of a ratee in making dimension-specific ratings, or an unwillingness to discriminate between independent dimensions. (Module 07)

Hawthorne Effect: The phenomenon where people change their behavior simply because they know they’re being studied or observed, regardless of the specific intervention being tested. (Modules 01, 02)

Hawthorne studies: Demonstrated that the psychological environment is as important as, or more important than, the physical environment in determining workplace behavior and performance. (Module 10)

Homeostasis: An organism’s ability to adjust its physiological processes to maintain equilibrium. (Module 10)

Human Factors: The area of I/O psychology that focuses on designing workplaces, technology, and systems that work well with human capabilities and limitations rather than against them. (Modules 01, 09)

Human Relations Approach: Emphasizes the importance of social factors, employee morale, and informal groups in organizational effectiveness. (Module 15)

Human-AI Collaboration: The process of humans and AI systems working together, leveraging their respective strengths. (Module 09)

Human-Centered AI: An approach to AI design and implementation that prioritizes human needs, capabilities, and well-being. (Module 09)

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): The study of how people interact with computers and the design of user interfaces. (Module 09)

Humanitarian Work Psychology: The application of I/O principles to improve working conditions and promote social justice worldwide, particularly in developing regions. (Module 01)

Hybrid approaches: Job analysis methods that gather information about both work activities (tasks) and worker requirements (KSAOs) simultaneously. (Module 03)

Hygienes: Factors related to job context that can lead to dissatisfaction when absent or inadequate. (Module 10)

Hyper-personalization: The use of advanced analytics and AI to create highly individualized approaches to recruitment, selection, development, and performance management. (Module 01)

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis: Body system that plays a central role in stress response through hormone release, activated by both physical and psychological stressors. (Module 12)

Idealized influence: One of four components of transformational leadership involving serving as role models who maintain high ethical standards. (Module 14)

Identical Elements Theory of Transfer: Theory suggesting that transfer likelihood increases when training situations closely resemble actual job conditions—practice like you play. (Module 08)

Impression management: Control of behavior to make a good impression on others. (Module 07)

Independent variables (IVs): Variables systematically manipulated by researchers in experiments, serving as the predictors, precursors, antecedents, or causes being studied. (Module 02)

Independent view of self: A cultural orientation that emphasizes individual characteristics, personal achievements, and autonomy as most important for identity. (Module 01)

Individualized consideration: Component of transformational leadership representing attention to follower individual needs. (Module 14)

Induction: Approach to science that works from data to theory, starting with observations and building toward theoretical explanations. (Module 02)

Industrial and organizational psychology: The application of psychological principles, theories, and research methods to understand and improve workplace settings, employee behavior, and organizational effectiveness. (Module 01)

Industrial psychology: The branch of I/O psychology that focuses on individual-level issues like job analysis, employee selection, training and development, and performance measurement. (Module 01)

Informational social influence: Influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality. (Module 13)

In-group members: Develop high-quality relationships characterized by trust, mutual respect, and expanded roles in LMX theory. (Module 14)

Initiating structure: Task-oriented behaviors including role definition, goal setting, planning, and performance monitoring. (Module 14)

Input-Transformation-Output Model: Basic framework of systems theory showing how organizations convert inputs into outputs. (Module 15)

Inputs: Factors individuals bring to situations in equity theory, such as education, effort, and ability. (Module 10)

Inspirational motivation: Component of transformational leadership encompassing creating compelling visions of the future. (Module 14)

Instrumental function: Psychological function of attitudes that helps individuals get what they want while avoiding what they don’t want. (Module 11)

Instrumentality (I): Reflects beliefs that performance will result in particular consequences in expectancy theory, ranging from 0 to +1. (Module 10)

Intellectual stimulation: Component of transformational leadership involving challenging assumptions and encouraging innovation. (Module 14)

Interdependent view of self: A cultural orientation that emphasizes shared characteristics, group membership, and relationships as most important for identity. (Module 01)

Interpersonal conflict: Tension and friction in workplace relationships that can significantly impact individual stress and well-being. (Module 12)

Inter-rater Reliability: The degree to which multiple raters or judges agree when evaluating the same person or performance. (Module 04)

Internal Recruitment: Filling positions with current employees through promotions or transfers. (Module 05)

Internal Validity: Extent to which we can draw causal inferences about variables. (Modules 02, 04)

Intrinsic motivation: Represents the desire to perform behaviors for their own sake and to experience effectiveness and mastery. (Module 10)

James-Lange theory: Theory proposing that emotional experiences result from physiological responses rather than causing them. (Module 11)

Job Analysis: Systematic process of identifying job requirements and the KSAOs needed for success. (Module 05)

Job analysis: The systematic process of identifying the content of a job in terms of activities performed and attributes required for performance. (Module 03)

Job Characteristics Model: A framework identifying five core job dimensions (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) that contribute to meaningful work. (Module 09)

Job description: Written statements about what job holders do, how they do it, and why they do it, serving multiple organizational purposes. (Module 03)

Job Descriptive Index (JDI): A standardized questionnaire used to measure job satisfaction across five dimensions: work, pay, promotions, supervision, and coworkers. Also a widely used facet satisfaction measure assessing five dimensions: work content, pay, promotion opportunities, supervision, and coworkers. (Modules 01, 11)

Job design: Process of analyzing and organizing work tasks to improve efficiency, safety, employee satisfaction, or other important outcomes. (Module 03)

Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS): Satisfaction measurement tool that uses Job Characteristics to measure five job facets: Pay, Security, Social, Supervisory, and Growth satisfaction. (Module 11)

Job Displacement Anxiety: Fear or stress related to the potential loss of one’s job due to automation or AI. (Module 09)

Job Element Method (JEM): A worker-oriented approach focusing on identifying KSAOs that distinguish superior from average performers. (Module 03)

Job enrichment: Strengthens the motivating potential of jobs by enhancing the key variables identified in Job Characteristics Theory. (Module 10)

Job evaluation: Systematic process using job analysis information to determine the relative worth of different positions for compensation purposes. (Module 03)

Job involvement: The extent to which one is cognitively engaged in their job; also known as “flow.” (Module 11)

Job performance: A hypothetical construct intended to reflect how well individuals perform their assigned work roles. (Module 06)

Job Redesign: The process of altering job tasks, responsibilities, and workflows, often influenced by the integration of AI. (Module 09)

Job satisfaction: A pleasurable, positive emotional state resulting from evaluation of one’s job or job experiences. (Module 11)

Job specifications: Documents that delineate the KSAOs necessary for effective job performance, focusing on human requirements rather than work activities. (Module 03)

Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model: Theory suggesting that stress occurs when job demands exceed available resources, with team factors serving as either demands or resources. (Module 12)

Jobs: Collections of positions that are similar enough to share a common job title and general requirements across organizations. (Module 03)

Kirkpatrick’s Taxonomy: Framework identifying four types of criteria for comprehensive training evaluation: reaction, learning, behavioral, and results—your roadmap for measuring training success. (Module 08)

Knowledge: Information, facts, and understanding that individuals must possess to perform job tasks effectively. (Module 03)

Knowledge function: Psychological function of attitudes that helps organize and make sense of complex information by serving as a mental filing system. (Module 11)

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other characteristics (KSAOs): The comprehensive set of human attributes required for successful job performance. (Modules 03, 05)

Laissez-faire leadership: Leadership style distributing responsibilities broadly among group members, minimizing formal leader direction or control. (Module 14)

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory: Focuses on individual relationships between leaders and specific followers rather than average leadership styles. Indicates that supervisors develop different types of relationships with different subordinates, affecting performance appraisal processes. (Modules 07, 14)

Leadership: A social process through which individuals intentionally exert influence over others to structure behaviors and relationships in pursuit of common goals. (Module 14)

Leadership prototypes: Mental models that individuals use to categorize and evaluate leader behavior, developed through experience and cultural influences. (Module 14)

Leadership Training: Training that focuses on soft skills enhancing interpersonal effectiveness with emphasis on leadership qualities—because good leaders are made, not just born. (Module 08)

Learned helplessness: A social motive characterized by feelings of powerlessness, beliefs that develop from repeated failure experiences, and convictions that situations cannot be overcome. Also generalized feelings of powerlessness that can develop from repeated experiences where individual actions have no effect on team or organizational outcomes. (Modules 10, 12)

Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience or practice—the whole point of training. (Module 08)

Learning Criteria: Evaluation of how much trainees actually learned during training programs—did the information stick? (Module 08)

Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale: Fiedler’s measure of leader orientation based on how leaders describe their worst coworker using bipolar adjectives. (Module 14)

Legitimate power: Power stemming from organizational authority formally bestowed on leaders through position or role assignments. (Module 14)

Leniency: A distributional error occurring when raters consistently provide higher ratings than justified. (Module 07)

Life-Change Model: Theory proposing that all life changes, positive or negative, contribute to stress load through required adaptation and adjustment. (Module 12)

Machine Learning (ML): A type of artificial intelligence that allows systems to learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions with minimal human intervention. (Module 09)

Maslow’s hierarchy: Proposes that humans are driven by needs organized into five levels: physiological, safety, love/belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization. (Module 10)

Mastery Orientation: Focus on increasing competence through training rather than merely appearing competent—learning for the sake of getting better, not just looking good. (Module 08)

Matrix Organizational Structure: Organizational design that combines elements of both functional and product structures. (Module 15)

Maximum performance: What individuals can achieve when fully motivated and focused. (Module 06)

Meaningfulness of Material: The extent to which training content is relevant and connects to actual work situations—make it matter, and people will pay attention. (Module 08)

Measurement: Assignment of numbers to objects or events in such a way as to represent specified attributes of the objects. (Modules 02, 04)

Measuring performance: The second step in the performance management cycle, aligning with traditional performance reviews and encompassing data collection and analysis. (Module 07)

Mechanistic Organizations: Structures characterized by high formalization, centralization, and specialization, suitable for stable environments. (Module 15)

Meta-analysis: A statistical technique that combines results from multiple independent studies on the same topic to obtain more robust and generalizable conclusions about relationships or effects. (Module 01)

Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire: Job satisfaction measure that assesses 20 different facets of job satisfaction or can use a short form for overall satisfaction. (Module 11)

Modeling processes: Attitude formation through watching and copying people one respects, especially during early years. (Module 11)

Motivation: The force that drives people to behave in certain ways. (Module 10)

Motivational Force: The product of expectancy, instrumentality, and valence (E × I × V) in expectancy theory. (Module 10)

Motivation to Learn: Trainee’s desire to acquire new knowledge and skills during training—without this, even the best training will fail. (Module 08)

Motivators: Factors that lead to satisfaction and motivation, such as recognition, interesting work, responsibility, advancement opportunities, and achievement. (Module 10)

Multidimensional view of performance: Recognizes that different performance aspects may be relatively independent and require separate consideration. (Module 06)

Multiple Cutoff Approach: Selection model requiring candidates to meet minimum scores on all assessments. (Module 05)

Multiple Hurdle Method: Sequential selection process using inexpensive assessments first to screen candidates. (Module 05)

Multiple Regression: Statistical method combining predictors to estimate job performance. (Module 05)

Natural Language Processing (NLP): A field of artificial intelligence that enables computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language. (Module 09)

Need for achievement (nAch): A social motive representing a general disposition to excel across various situations. (Module 10)

Need-motive-value theories: Propose that human behavior is driven by attempts to satisfy various needs, whether biological, psychological, or social in nature. (Module 10)

Normative commitment: Feelings of obligation to remain with organizations based on moral or ethical considerations; remaining because one feels they ought to. (Module 11)

Normative social influence: Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval. (Module 13)

Norming: The third stage of group development when the group starts to gel and members develop shared expectations. (Module 13)

Norms: Unspoken rules that guide the behavior of group members. (Module 13)

O*NET (Occupational Information Network): Comprehensive online database providing detailed information about occupations, required skills, work activities, and job requirements. Replaced the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. (Modules 01, 03)

Obedience: Compliance with direct commands from authority figures. (Module 13)

Objective criteria: Performance measures derived from organizational records, involving minimal subjective judgment (e.g., absence rates, productivity). (Module 06)

On-the-Job Training: Training technique based on learning through observation and hands-on experience with actual job materials—learning by doing. (Module 08)

Open Systems: Organizational theories that view organizations as constantly interacting with their external environment. (Module 15)

Operant conditioning: Attitude formation through consequences (rewards and punishments) that shape attitude development. (Module 11)

Operational Definitions: The definition of a hypothetical construct in terms of the operations used to measure it. (Modules 02, 04)

Optimum arousal theory: Suggests that organisms are motivated to maintain arousal at optimal rather than minimal levels. (Module 10)

Organic Organizations: Flexible structures characterized by larger spans of control, less formalization, and decentralized decision-making. (Module 15)

Organizational Analysis: Examination of organization’s goals compared to current performance levels to identify training needs—figuring out where the gaps are. (Module 08)

Organizational Behavior Management (OBM): Approach to improving motivation and performance in organizations based on reinforcement theory and applied behavior analysis. (Module 10)

Organizational Change: The necessary and inevitable adaptation to internal and external forces affecting organizations. (Module 15)

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs): Voluntary behaviors valued by organizations that contribute to organizational effectiveness beyond job duties but not formally required, a subset of contextual performance. (Modules 05, 06)

Organizational Climate: The shared perceptions of employees about their work environment and psychological atmosphere. (Module 15)

Organizational commitment: How strongly individuals identify with and get involved in their particular organization, including emotional attachment and behavioral loyalty. (Module 11)

Organizational Culture: The shared values, beliefs, assumptions, and practices that characterize an organization. (Module 15)

Organizational Development (OD): The systematic effort to improve organizational effectiveness, adaptability, and health through planned change interventions based on behavioral science knowledge. Also planned, organization-wide efforts to increase effectiveness through behavioral science knowledge. (Modules 01, 15)

Organizational Ergonomics: The subfield of ergonomics concerned with the optimization of sociotechnical systems, including organizational structures, policies, and processes. (Module 09)

Organizational identification: The degree to which a worker ties their identity to the organization they work for, based on social identity theory. (Module 11)

Organizational psychology: The branch of I/O psychology that studies group and organizational-level phenomena like motivation, leadership, team dynamics, organizational culture, and change management. (Modules 01, 10)

Organizational Theory: Provides frameworks for understanding how groups and individuals behave within different organizational structures and circumstances. (Module 15)

Organization-based self-esteem (OBSE): A measure of how valuable employees view themselves as organization members. (Module 11)

Other characteristics: Job-relevant attributes including personality traits, interests, physical characteristics, and experiences that influence performance. (Module 03)

Outcomes: What individuals receive from situations in equity theory, such as compensation, benefits, and recognition. (Module 10)

Out-group members: Experience low-quality relationships limited to formal job descriptions and contractual exchanges in LMX theory. (Module 14)

Overlearning: Continued practice even after trainees appear to have mastered behaviors—practice until it becomes automatic. (Module 08)

Parallel Forms Reliability: Consistency between different versions of the same test measuring the same construct. (Modules 02, 04)

Peer feedback: Performance evaluations provided by colleagues at similar organizational levels. (Module 07)

Perceived behavioral control: Individual’s confidence level about whether they can actually perform a particular behavior; similar to self-efficacy. (Module 11)

Perceived organizational support (POS): Employee’s global beliefs about the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being. (Module 11)

Performance: Specifically refers to actions or behaviors that individuals exhibit that are relevant to organizational goals. (Module 06)

Performance appraisal: The systematic review and evaluation of employee job performance and the delivery of performance feedback. (Module 07)

Performance Management: The ongoing process of creating a work environment and implementing systems where people can perform to the best of their abilities to meet organizational goals. (Modules 01, 07)

Performing: The fourth stage of group development where everything clicks and the group focuses energy on accomplishing goals. (Module 13)

Person Analysis: Process of identifying which specific employees need training based on individual performance data—matching training to the people who need it most. (Module 08)

Personal control: A critical factor, as people thrive when given appropriate choices and opportunities to influence their work environments. (Module 10)

Personality Tests: Assessments measuring stable individual traits and behavioral tendencies across situations. (Module 04)

Personnel measures: Encompass various administrative actions and records that may indicate job performance, like absences, accidents, and disciplinary actions. (Module 06)

Person-Job Fit: The compatibility between individual skills, abilities, and interests and job demands and requirements. (Module 15)

Person-Organization Fit: The compatibility between individuals’ values and personalities and the organization’s culture. (Module 15)

Physical Ergonomics: The subfield of human factors focusing on the human body’s interaction with physical tools and workspaces. (Module 09)

Point system: Job evaluation approach that assigns points to jobs based on the degree to which they require various compensable factors. (Module 03)

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ): A structured job analysis instrument that analyzes jobs in terms of worker activities, using 194 job elements grouped into six divisions. Standardized worker-oriented instrument containing 187 items for describing work in terms of human requirements. (Modules 01, 03)

Positions: Individual combinations of tasks performed by specific people within organizations, representing unique work arrangements. (Module 03)

Positive Transfer: When training content improves job performance—the ultimate goal of any training program. (Module 08)

Practicality: The extent to which criteria can and will be used by organizational decision-makers. (Module 06)

Predictive Analytics: The use of statistical and AI techniques to forecast future outcomes or trends based on historical data. (Module 09)

Predictive Validity: Type of criterion-related validity where predictors are measured before performance outcomes occur. (Modules 02, 04)

Predictors: Assessment tools and procedures used to evaluate job candidates. (Module 06)

Prescriptive norms: Group expectations that suggest what people should do, feel, or think in particular situations, such as maintaining work-life boundaries. (Modules 12, 13)

Principle of aggregation: The concept that attitude effects become clearer when looking at patterns of behavior over time rather than isolated incidents. (Module 11)

Process Automation: The use of software and technology to automate complex business processes and functions. (Module 09)

Process conflict: When group members disagree about how work should be accomplished. (Module 13)

Procedural knowledge: Knowing how to actually perform tasks. (Module 06)

Product-Based Organizational Structure: Organizational design structured by the different products the company makes. (Module 15)

Productivity: Captures the relationship between effectiveness and efficiency by calculating the ratio of output achieved to the cost of achieving that level of output. (Module 06)

Proximity errors: Happen when ratings on one dimension affect ratings on other dimensions simply because they are physically close together on evaluation forms. (Module 07)

Psychological Safety: A workplace climate where people feel safe to speak up, make mistakes, ask questions, and challenge the status quo without fear of punishment or humiliation. Also a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. (Modules 01, 09)

Quality of Work-Life: Efforts to enhance employee satisfaction, well-being, work-life balance, and overall work experience while maintaining organizational effectiveness. (Module 01)

Rationalism: The philosophical approach that emphasizes discovering truth through reasoning, logical thinking, and theoretical analysis rather than empirical observation. (Module 01)

Reaction Criteria: Assessment of trainee attitudinal reactions to training programs including satisfaction with content and delivery—the “smile sheets.” (Module 08)

Referent power: Power emerging from respect, admiration, and identification that followers feel toward leaders. (Module 14)

Reinforcement Theory: Theory suggesting that behavioral change occurs through manipulation of behavior consequences—reward good behavior, and you’ll see more of it. (Module 08)

Relationship conflict: Personal tension and friction between team members. (Module 13)

Reliability: The consistency of job analysis results across different analysts, incumbents, time periods, or measurement occasions. Consistency or stability of measurement across time, raters, or different versions of the same test. (Modules 03, 04, 06)

Reskilling: The process of learning new skills to perform a different job or adapt to changes in an existing job. (Module 09)

Results Criteria: Assessment of ultimate value of training to organizational effectiveness including productivity gains and cost savings—the bottom-line impact. (Module 08)

Reward power: Power involving control over positive outcomes that followers value, including compensation, recognition, and promotions. (Module 14)

Role ambiguity: Lack of clarity about job duties, responsibilities, or expectations within teams, creating uncertainty and stress. (Module 12)

Role conflict: Incompatible demands or expectations placed on an individual in their work role, often arising from unclear team structures or competing priorities. (Module 12)

Role overload: Feeling that one lacks necessary skills, resources, or time to complete required tasks effectively. (Module 12)

Role playing: Adopting new behavioral roles that initially feel artificial but gradually become internalized as genuine attitude change. (Module 11)

Role structure: Defines who does what within the group. (Module 13)

Science: Systematic process for generating reliable knowledge that combines empirical observation with logical reasoning to describe, explain, predict, and control phenomena. (Module 02)

Scientific Management: An early management theory emphasizing efficiency, standardization, and optimization of work processes. (Module 15)

Scientist-practitioner model: The training approach that prepares I/O psychologists to be both generators and intelligent consumers of research knowledge, bridging the gap between scientific theory and practical application. (Module 01)

Segmentation hypothesis: Theory that satisfaction in one area of life is unrelated to satisfaction in other areas of life. (Module 11)

Selection: The process of choosing individuals who have relevant qualifications and the highest probability of success to fill existing or projected job openings. (Module 01)

Selection Batteries: Sets of assessments used together to improve prediction of job success. (Module 05)

Self-ratings: Performance evaluations completed by employees themselves. (Module 07)

Sensitivity: Requires that criteria be capable of discriminating between effective and ineffective employees. (Module 06)

Set points: Values that are defended by regulatory mechanisms in homeostatic systems. (Module 10)

Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs): Assessments presenting work scenarios and asking candidates how they would respond. (Module 04)

Skills: Practiced capabilities for performing specific actions that develop through experience and training. (Module 03)

Skill variety: The degree to which jobs require various skills and talents. (Module 10)

Social facilitation: The tendency for individuals to perform better on simple or well-learned tasks when in the presence of others, but impaired performance for difficult or new tasks. (Modules 12, 13)

Social influence: How other people change your behavior, thoughts, and feelings just by being around. (Module 13)

Socialization: The process by which a new employee becomes aware of the values and procedures (culture) of the organization. (Module 15)

Social Learning Theory: Theory proposing that behavioral change can occur through observation of others without direct reinforcement—we learn by watching. (Module 08)

Social loafing: The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working in a group compared to working alone, often due to diffusion of responsibility or feeling less accountable. (Modules 12, 13)

Social support: The perceived availability of help and emotional resources from supervisors, coworkers, family, and friends. (Module 12)

Sociotechnical Systems Theory: A theory that advocates for the joint optimization of both the social (human) and technical (technology) aspects of a work system to achieve overall effectiveness. (Module 09)

Span of Control: The number of subordinates who report to a given supervisor. (Module 15)

Spillover hypothesis: Theory that satisfaction in one area of life spills over to influence satisfaction in other areas. (Module 11)

Spillover Model: Theory proposing that attitudes and behaviors carry over from work to family domains or vice versa, creating either positive or negative effects. (Module 12)

Split-half Reliability: Internal consistency measure involving correlation between odd and even numbered test items. (Module 04)

Storming: The second stage of group development where conflicts emerge as people assert preferences and challenge assumptions. (Module 13)

Stress: A psychological and physiological reaction to environmental demands that tax or exceed adaptive capacities, significantly influenced by team context and social factors. (Module 12)

Stress-performance curve: The relationship between stress levels and performance that follows an inverted U-shape, with optimal performance at moderate stress levels. (Module 12)

Stressor: Any demand that requires coping, including both individual and team-level demands that challenge adaptive capacity. (Module 12)

Structured Interviews: Interviews using standardized, job-analysis-based questions asked consistently across candidates with systematic scoring. Standardized interviews with consistent questions and scoring, based on job analysis. (Modules 04, 05)

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): Individuals who are incumbents or experts regarding the target job, providing essential input for job analysis processes. (Module 03)

Subjective criteria: Rely on human judgments and evaluations, such as performance appraisal ratings. (Module 06)

Subjective norms: Individual perceptions of social pressures to perform particular behaviors and motivation to meet those expectations. (Module 11)

Sustains (motivation): Maintains effort over extended periods of time. (Module 10)

Systems Theory: View of organizations as complex entities that develop and change through internal and external forces. (Module 15)

Tardiness/Lateness: Chronic lateness significantly predicted by job satisfaction, with meta-analytic relationships around r = -.21. (Module 11)

Task Analysis: Examination of specific job requirements necessary for successful performance—breaking down exactly what the job entails. (Module 08)

Task conflict: When team members have different ideas about the work to be accomplished. (Module 13)

Task identity: The degree to which jobs require completion of whole, identifiable pieces of work. (Module 10)

Task inventory method: Task-oriented approach that generates comprehensive, standardized lists of task statements for systematic evaluation. (Module 03)

Task performance: Work-related activities that contribute to the organization’s technical core and formal job requirements. (Module 06)

Tasks: Meaningful units of work that encompass multiple elements and are performed to achieve specific objectives or outcomes. (Module 03)

Task significance: The degree to which jobs have substantial impacts on others’ lives or work. (Module 10)

Team effectiveness: A multidimensional concept encompassing team performance, member attitudes, and withdrawal behaviors that reflects overall team functioning. (Modules 12, 13)

Test: Any systematic way of observing behavior and turning it into numbers for prediction purposes. (Module 04)

Test-retest Reliability: Consistency of test scores when the same test is administered to the same people at different times. (Modules 02, 04)

Theory: Set of interrelated concepts and propositions that present systematic views of phenomena, serving as “best guesses about universal truths” to guide research and practice. (Module 02)

Theory of Planned Behavior: Framework explaining when and why attitudes translate into action, identifying three key factors: attitudes toward behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. (Module 11)

Theory X: McGregor’s theory assuming employees are lazy, self-serving, and require directive supervision. (Module 15)

Theory Y: McGregor’s theory emphasizing employee potential, capabilities, and need for participative management. (Module 15)

Total Quality Management (TQM): Focus on employee involvement in continuous quality improvement and customer satisfaction. (Module 15)

Training: Formal procedures that companies use to help employees learn so that their performance contributes to achieving organizational goals and objectives. (Module 08)

Training Needs Analysis: Systematic process of determining whether training needs exist and what type of training is required—the detective work that should come before any training. (Module 08)

Trait theories of leadership: Early approaches focused on identifying individual characteristics that distinguish effective leaders from others. (Module 14)

Transactional leadership: Leadership based on contingent exchanges where leaders monitor performance and provide rewards or punishments based on results. (Module 14)

Transaction Model: Theory recognizing stress as residing in the interaction between person and environment, emphasizing cognitive appraisal processes and subjective interpretation. (Module 12)

Transfer of Training: The extent to which material, skills, and procedures learned in training are applied in actual job settings—does it work when it counts? (Module 08)

Transformational leadership: Leadership involving inspiration of followers to commit to shared visions and values that transcend immediate self-interest. (Module 14)

Transparency: The degree to which the internal workings and decision-making processes of an AI system are understandable to humans. (Module 09)

Trust: The extent to which raters believe that fair and accurate appraisals have been and will be made in their organizations. (Module 07)

Turnover: The rate at which employees leave an organization voluntarily, showing relationships with satisfaction ranging from r = -.20 to -.30. (Module 11)

Two-factor theory: Proposes that the determinants of job satisfaction are fundamentally different from those that cause job dissatisfaction. (Module 10)

Typical performance: What individuals normally do under regular work conditions. (Module 06)

Ultimate criterion: Encompasses all aspects of job performance that define success, representing a comprehensive but abstract ideal. (Module 06)

Underemployment: Working fewer hours than desired or in positions below one’s skill level, which creates psychological distress levels between those of adequately employed and unemployed workers. (Module 12)

Unfolding model: Model suggesting that “shock to the system” events (unsolicited job offer, change in marital status, transfer, merger) propel turnover decisions. (Module 11)

Unstructured Interviews: Traditional interviews without standardized questions or systematic scoring procedures. (Module 04)

Usability: The ease with which users can learn to use a system, its efficiency, memorability, error rate, and user satisfaction. (Module 09)

Utility: The practical value of job analysis information for organizational decision-making, encompassing cost-effectiveness and feasibility. (Module 03)

Valence (V): Represents the value individuals personally place on rewards or outcomes in expectancy theory, ranging from -1 to +1. (Module 10)

Validity: The accuracy of job analysis in representing actual job requirements and predicting important outcomes like job performance. The accuracy of measurement; the extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure. The degree to which a selection method accurately measures what it intends to and predicts job performance. (Modules 03, 04, 05)

Value-expressive function: Psychological function of attitudes that allows individuals to show the world who they are and what they stand for. (Module 11)

Vigilance: The ability to maintain focused attention and detect infrequent or subtle changes over prolonged periods. (Module 09)

Virtual Organizations: Flexible and adaptive structures that leverage technology to connect geographically dispersed individuals or units. (Module 15)

WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale): Comprehensive, individually administered intelligence test providing detailed cognitive ability information. (Module 04)

Willpower: The cognitive resource required for self-regulation; the ability to resist impulses or perform behaviors that don’t come naturally. (Module 10)

Wonderlic Personnel Test: Brief cognitive ability assessment commonly used for employment screening. (Module 04)

Work centrality: The importance work plays in one’s life relative to other life domains such as family, leisure, and community involvement. (Module 11)

Work Design: The application of sociotechnical systems principles and techniques to the humanization of work, concerned with the content and organization of workers’ tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities. (Module 09)

Work-family balance: The degree to which individuals can simultaneously satisfy work and family demands, significantly influenced by team norms and organizational support. (Module 12)

Workaholism: Preoccupation with job activities that goes beyond healthy engagement, involving compulsive work behaviors that may be detrimental to well-being. (Module 11)

Workplace bullying: Harassing, offending, socially excluding, or assigning humiliating tasks to persons in subordinate positions repeatedly over extended periods of time. (Module 12)

Workplace Dynamics: The interactions and relationships among individuals and groups within a work environment, influenced by AI. (Module 09)

Work Samples: Direct assessment of job-relevant tasks that closely mirror actual work activities and requirements. (Module 04)

Woodward’s Technology-Based Framework: Identified three types of organizations based on production technology. (Module 15)