In order to meet the needs of Stage 1 of the BPS Qualification in Occupational Psychology, this module aims to promote critical thinking and develop insight into major theories and concepts relating to organisation design, development and change in today’s business and globalised markets. The module content aims to enable students to understand and diagnose organisational development and change, plan required interventions and measure and evaluate its effectiveness. Furthermore, the module aims to provide students with evidence-based knowledge and practical skills necessary for fostering work motivation and favourable job attitudes through a critical understanding of job and workplace design. The module also aims to enable students to recognise and anticipate risks when planning and managing change in organisations and understand the key principles of human error and workplace safety.

(LO1) Students will be able to recognise and critique the importance of motivation and organisational justice in the workplace, and develop practical skills in job and workplace design.

(LO2) Students will be able to critically evaluate research evidence examining the relationship between job attitudes and individual, team and organisational processes and outcomes.

(LO3) Students will be able to understand and practically appraise key models and theories of organisational development and change.

(LO4) Students will have critical insight into key concepts relating to organisational structure, design, culture and climate and the implications these have for individual and team outcomes.

(LO5) Students will be able to judge differences in organisational change and development across cultures.

(LO6) Students will be able to critically evaluate the strategies used for organisational change, identifying those that are effective for sustaining it, and how to evaluate it.

(LO7) Students will be able to appraise the importance of human factors, workplace safety, risk management, and error management in organisations.

(S1) Teamwork. Students will be required to work together as a team to deliver an assessed group presentation on the module.

(S2) Problem solving. Students will be exposed to case studies and organisational problems and will develop solutions using module content.

(S3) Communication skills. Students will be expected to communicate effectively with their teammates in the development of their group presentation.

(S4) Organisation skills. Students will be required to develop informed solutions to organisational problems, and will therefore need to effectively organise and apply knowledge and skills acquired on the module.

(S5) International awareness. Students will be exposed to different cultural perspectives, norms and values by considering module content from a globalised international perspective.

Lectures x 20 hours.
Lectures will introduce key topics and concepts which will be explored and applied further in seminars.
Each session on this module will begin with a 2 hour lecture, followed by a 1 hour seminar.

Seminars x 10 hours.
Seminars will be designed to support the lecture content by providing students with the opportunity to critically discuss models, concepts and theories, and apply them to practical examples such as case studies.

Workshops x 5 hours.
A practical skills workshop will be designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop and apply relevant professional skills needed by occupational psychologists in the domain of work design, organisational change and development (such as project management, delivering presentations and using the consultancy cycle, for example).
The purpose of the module workshop is to enable students to develop and practice specific professional skills through the application of theory, models and concepts to practical scenarios in an applied business context. The workshop will incorporate coverage of the consultancy cycle and ethical issues in practice.

Self-directed learning x 118 hours.
Students will use self-directed learning hours to engage in the following activities: group work on the assessed presentation, key and recommended reading, consolidation of lecture topics, wider self-directed reading, individual assignment preparation, case study analysis, use of online resources (e.g., videos) to support learning.

The module will take a multi-level perspective to introduce new subject matter not yet considered in the programme. Indicative content will include:

Job design and work motivation – understanding the antecedents of job attitudes and extra-role behaviors in the workplace;

The design of work environments for fostering performance, creativity and innovation – the impact of team-based working;

The psychology of people and technology; Human factors and ergonomics;

Workplace safety, risk management, and error management;

Organisation design including structure, culture, and climate (linking to globalisation and international aspects);

Organisational change and development diagnosis, interventions, and effectiveness;

Models and methods of organisational and individual change and development;

Applying theory to practice: the application of the consultancy cycle and practical skills development.