Business Psychology

BusinessPsychology

BusinessPsychology

Thebusiness environment of any organisation comprises of employees atdifferent levels of authority or ranks. Each employee has a personalcapability in regards to the thinking and communicational skillswhich affect their contribution to the success of the organisation.Therefore, the business psychology is an analysis of how an in-depthunderstanding of the human behaviour is applicable in the effectivemanagement of the workforce in business entities (Karkouti, 2014). Byusing the psychological concepts, this study presents a developmentalprofile of an employee (Tiffany) growing through two consecutive lifestages. The profile includes the developmental strategies applicablein her case including the developmental theories relating to the casein addition to the appropriate interventions and factors that mayprevent the success of the interventions.

CaseStudy

TiffanyMckissiac is a 40-year-old individual who started smoking at the ageof 16. The smoking habit was triggered by her surroundings as shegrew up in a family of smokers. Later in her life at 40 years of age,Tiffany is employed at a firm which is currently undergoing drasticinternal changes. Under the new management at her workplace, thecompany is adopting a new managerial software which she findsintimidating. Part of her duty involves training other staff on howto use the software in the operations of the firm at different levelsof management. The technological transformation has had a greatimpact on Tiffany. Her employer has also noticed that she getsirritated quickly and is taking more frequent breaks to go and smoke.These breaks have prompted the boss to give her a warning. The casestudy presents the two developmental stages in Tiffany’s life.

DevelopmentalPeriods

ErikErickson Eight-stage of Psychosocial Theory

ErikErickson proposed an eight stage psychoanalytic theory showing thepsychosocial development of an individual from childhood all throughto adulthood (Malone,Vaillant, Rentz &amp Waldinger, 2015).According to Erik, the person faces a psychological crisis in everystage which could cause either a positive or negative influence ontheir personality development. Tiffany’s development periods in thecase study falls in the fourth and seventh stages of the Erickson’spsychoanalytic theory (Malone et al., 2015).

Thefirst development stage in Tiffany’s life is the middle-child stagebetween six and twelve years of age. This period is found in theIndustry (competence) versus Inferiority stage of Erickson’stheory. This is a school going stage of life the individual islearning to read and write from the society including the teachers,parents, friends and peers (Malone et al., 2015). The child strugglesto gain the approval of those around by doing what it feels is valuedin the society (Malone et al., 2015). The kid is easily trapped intoany harmful activity being done by the others.

TheSame scenario is seen in Tiffany’s life where she picked thesmoking habit from the members of her household. She got addicted tothe habit to the extent that it was affecting her physicalperformance twenty-five years later. In addition to Erickson’stheory, research shows that parental smoking increases theprobability of the child being a smoker in old age (Paul, Blizzard,Patton, Dwyer &amp Venn, 2008). Tiffany’s relatives were smokers,and her association with them has contributed to the addictivecondition twenty-five years later.

Theoriesof Behavioural Psychology

Thesecond developmental stage in Tiffany’s life is at the age of fortywhere she has a stable employment but still is still addicted tosmoking. The smoking happens to be Tiffany’s pre-occupational habitwhen she gets overwhelmed at work. She is easily affected by theoccurrences in her environment. The effects are evident when she getseasily irritated while teaching other employees about the newsoftware at work. The behaviourist psychology is applicable at thisstage in Tiffany’s life where she learns and also teaches othersthrough conditioning (Raiola, 2014). Learning conditioning takesplace through the human interaction with the environment (Raiola,2014). Behavioural studies show that people’s actions are shaped bytheir reaction to the stimuli in the environment. Moreover, strictbehavioural research proves that every individual has the potentialto undergo training and perform any task regardless of personaltraits like genetic backgrounds (Raiola, 2014). This concept isconfirmed by the lessons Tiffany was giving her fellow employees inspite of their different backgrounds.

TherapeuticInterventions

Smokingcan cause various health problems including lung diseases, lungcancer and asthma. These conditions can occur to all types of smokersbe it passive, active, long term or short term. As for Tiffany’scase, the smoking habits might cost her job. In case the smokinghabit does not cease, she may collide with the employer because ofthe frequent breaks she is making to smoke. On the positive side,there are interventions that she can apply to help her cope with thesmoking habit. Some of these interventions include

ProfessionalCounselling

Tobegin with, Tiffany can seek professional help from medical expertslike doctors or nurses or therapists. Therapeutically research showsthat counselling programs at both individual and group levelsincrease the chances of quitting to smoke. She can go for a medicalcheckup concerning her health whereby the health experts involvedwill give her the necessary medical advice. Also, she can attendtherapy sessions or programs prepared to help drug abusers,particularly smoking addicts. The counselling session and briefadvice from doctors or nurses are purposefully meant to trigger achange in her smoking behaviour.

Alternatively,she can seek medical attention by taking a nicotine replacementtherapy which reduces the withdrawal symptoms when she quits smoking(Sonmez,Aydin, Turker, Baltaci, Dikici, Sariguzel &amp Demir, 2015).Nicotine replacement remedies can be found in chewing gums, inhalers,and sublingual tablets (Sonmez et al., 2015).

Tiffany’semployer also realised that she has been showing signs ofirritability as a result of the management changes at work. Thissituation can be attributed to increasing in anxiety which is anothercondition she has been having off late. Irritability is a disruptivebehavioural condition that can cause conflicts between her and otheremploys at work affecting organisation’s performance (Sonmez etal., 2015). In fact, she has a new role of training other employeeson how to use the new software her performance on the new duty mightnot be useful if she does not manage the irritability.

Therefore,I would suggest some interventions for this condition. First, Tiffanycan seek professional assistance by attending cognitive behaviouraltherapy. This therapy is modified to help the individuals managetheir anger. Through the sessions, she will learn about the causesand consequences of the behavioural problem. Eventually, she willacquire skills on how to regulate her emotions and solve problemswhich will reduce irritability and aggression. Additionally, she canundergo an adult session of another counselling therapy called theParent Management Training.

Humanbeings have different ways of operation and reaction towards certainissues due to the difference in genes and other factors likeenvironmental effects. For example, people respond differently tomedicine or therapy in treatment. As noted earlier in this paper,Tiffany’s addiction to smoking may have resulted from thedevelopments in her immediate environment. She was from a householdof smokers. As for irritability, it is noted that the new managementchanges at her place of work had made her get quite anxious. Anxietycauses one to have frequent negative emotions in addition to havingless tolerance to stress or mental energy. It is for these reasonsthat Tiffany was getting irritated quickly at work while teachingothers about the new software.

Therefore,Tiffany needs to stop smoking in order to increase her productivityat work in addition to improving health. She can employ theinterventions mentioned earlier to assist in reducing irritabilityand quitting smoking although there are factors that may prevent thetreatment remedies from working (Sonmez et al., 2015). These factorsinclude environmental (social) factors, financial requirements.

Thenormalisation of smoking in the community. Tiffany may be havingfriends who are all smokers whereby non has ever tried to quitsuccessfully (Sonmez et al., 2015). The community may be having somany smokers that there is no pressure to stop. There are alsochallenges of an existing culture of sharing where smokers sharecigarettes among many (Sonmez et al., 2015). Some people have a habitof sharing cigarettes with friends and family, and it would be achallenge to for Tiffany to decline such an offer.

Properknowledge of the successful intervention strategies. Manyintervention strategies are available in the market, although, littleinformation is available about the successful ones and theprobability of the success of each intervention. Tiffany needs to dosome background analysis of the possible interventions to identifythe be in terms of success rates.

Secondly,the services of most of these therapeutic interventions are chargedby the facilitators. The fees charged differ with the serviceprovider, the type and level of therapy. Other interventions may beintegrated with medical services, and their costs may be even higher.It would be a costly activity for Tiffany to engage such services ifshe is not financially well off.

Finally,Tiffany should make the ultimate decision to quit smoking more so atthis crucial moment when her performance at work is already underscrutiny by the employer. She may engage in all the interventions oreven have the money to cater for the charges, but, if she has notresolved to quit, all the efforts will be in vain because she willjust get back to the smoking habit.

Implications

Inconclusion, Tiffany is a chronic smoker a habit she started as ateenager and has carried on to her current age of forty.Psychological theories like Erickson`s psychological theory have beenused to explain about the developmental stages of Tiffany’s life.Recent managerial changes at her place of work have had effects onher performance in addition to the smoking habit. Sampleinterventions like therapy and medical therapy have been highlightedthat she can try out to solve the irritability and smoking problemsthat are affecting her performance at work. However, there arechallenges like therapy charges and personal decision making that mayhinder her from successfully applying the interventions. In fact,these problems are minor and can be avoided if she is willing to quitsmoking.

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