Industrial and Organisational Psychology: Evidence-Based Motivation, Selection and Work Design – Jeddah, 22–26 Aug 2027

Programme overview

Introduction:

HR decisions on hiring, engagement, workload and appraisal are often driven by fashion, vendor claims or intuition, and organisations pay for programmes that never change behaviour. Industrial and organisational psychology offers tested theory and measurement for these decisions. This Core Concept course shows HR business partners, talent specialists and people managers how to read the research, measure job attitudes, judge selection tests, redesign work, detect strain and rating distortion, and interpret employee survey results. Participants finish with an Evidence-Based People Intervention Proposal for a case organisation.

Course Objectives:

• Appraise people practices using the sources of evidence-based management: published research, practitioner expertise, organisational data and stakeholder views
• Apply motivation theories to diagnose effort, persistence and withdrawal problems in a work unit
• Measure engagement, job satisfaction and organisational attachment with validated survey scales and interpret the scores
• Judge the reliability, validity and fairness of personality and cognitive ability tests before they are used in hiring
• Redesign roles with the job characteristics model, job crafting and the job demands-resources model to reduce strain and burnout
• Build a people intervention proposal with a logic model and a measurable evaluation design

Target Audience:

• HR business partners who advise line leaders on engagement, retention and performance problems
• Talent acquisition and talent management specialists who choose selection methods and psychometric tests
• People managers who lead teams and make appraisal, workload and role allocation decisions
• Employee experience and people analytics practitioners who run surveys and report findings to leadership
• Organisational development practitioners who design interventions for work groups

Course Outline:

Day 1: Foundations of I-O Psychology and Evidence-Based HR

• Scope of Industrial and Organisational Psychology: Personnel and Organisational Branches
• Evidence-Based Management: Research, Expertise, Organisational Data and Stakeholder Views
• Research Design Literacy: Correlational Studies, Field Experiments and Meta-Analysis
• Effect Size Interpretation for HR Claims and Vendor Evidence
• Current-State Review of a People Practice Using an Evidence Quality Checklist

Day 2: Motivation Theories and Job Attitude Measurement

• Goal-Setting Theory: Goal Specificity, Difficulty and Feedback Loops
• Expectancy Theory: Effort, Performance and Outcome Links
• Self-Determination Theory: Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness Needs
• Job Satisfaction Versus Work Engagement: Construct Definitions and Scales
• Three-Component Model of Organisational Commitment: Affective, Continuance and Normative

Day 3: Selection Science, Job Design and Job Crafting

• Big Five Personality Traits as Predictors of Job Performance
• General Mental Ability Tests: Predictive Validity and Subgroup Score Differences
• Test Manual Review: Internal Consistency, Criterion-Related Validity and Norm Groups
• Job Characteristics Model: Skill Variety, Task Identity, Significance, Autonomy and Feedback
• Job Crafting Interventions: Task, Relational and Cognitive Crafting

Day 4: Strain, Burnout, Team Processes and Rating Distortion

• Job Demands-Resources Model: Health Impairment and Motivation Pathways
• Burnout Indicators at Unit Level: Exhaustion, Cynicism and Reduced Efficacy
• Team Effectiveness Using the Input-Process-Output Model and Conflict Types
• Performance Appraisal Distortions: Recency, Contrast and Idiosyncratic Rater Effects with Frame-of-Reference Training
• Employee Survey Analytics: Scale Reliability, Driver Analysis and Response Bias

Day 5: Case Work: Evidence-Based People Intervention Proposal

• Case Organisation Diagnosis: Turnover, Absence and Engagement Survey Data
• Intervention Selection Matrix Weighing Research Strength and Local Fit
• Logic Model Linking Intervention Activities to Attitude and Performance Outcomes
• Evaluation Design: Pre-Post Measures with a Comparison Group
• Evidence-Based People Intervention Proposal Presentation and Panel Challenge

Skills You Will Gain:

• Evidence Appraisal
• Motivation Diagnosis
• Attitude Survey Design
• Psychometric Test Evaluation
• Work Redesign
• Burnout Risk Detection
• Team Process Diagnosis
• People Data Interpretation

Why Attend This Course:

• Return with an Evidence-Based People Intervention Proposal built on a case organisation's data and challenged by a review panel
• Question vendor claims about tests, engagement tools and popular programmes with a clear view of effect sizes and validity
• Spot where workload, role design and rating habits are undermining performance before they show up in turnover
• Compare people practice with HR and line colleagues from other sectors and countries

Conclusion:

Industrial and organisational psychology turns everyday HR judgement into decisions that can be tested and defended. The week moves from evidence-based management and research literacy, through motivation theory and job attitude measurement, to personality and ability testing, job design and job crafting, then to strain, burnout, team processes, appraisal distortions and survey analytics. The final day applies this to a case organisation and produces an Evidence-Based People Intervention Proposal with an evaluation design, ready to discuss with line leaders and HR leadership.