Organizational psychology

Since modern organizations inevitably face constant changes in internal and external environment, can anything be done in order for the strategy of changes to become “proactive” and to prevent naturally determined crisis situations and recession? Featuring empirical data, the article discusses the possibility of sociopsychological research in the situation of instability. Among other aspects, there is suggested an answer to the question of whether social psychology can help a person to realize his/her identity in professional and organizational environments. Moreover, a number of fixed behavioral patterns observed in situations of changes are examined specifically.

The profession of a flight attendant appeared in aviation in the 1920s. Professional community of flight attendants is constantly growing with the growth of complexity of aviation technology, professional standards of passenger service and safety. The psychological scientific research was carried out by a psychologist who worked as a flight attendant. The study revealed the psychological content, demands, peculiarities in cabin crews’ labor. A job description was accomplished. Temporal and spatial characteristics, the main contradictions, unfavorable psychogenic and stress factors in labor were examined and described. Psychological profiles of a cabin attendant and of an air passenger were drawn up.

Is there any future for the activity approach? Has it exhausted its potential yet? We suggest the scheme of “subject-action-object-surrounding world” instead of “subject-activity-object”. This scheme takes us beyond the limits of a singular action where the accent is laid on synchronization with one of the processes in the world around. The time coincidence is to be realized, and the subject foresees it. The subject referred to is a group of people performing a united action. Thus we oppose a singular action to interaction of individuals in cooperative action amidst processes taking place in the world around and within a variety of other actions. We found it useful to extend the concept of activity and to speak of the life-activity, embracing many vital processes of individuals or groups engaged in a certain activity.

This article deals with the results of a pilot research of a subjective system of activity criteria represented in professional experience of business managers from the Ural region. The authors investigate the question of changes in an individual criterionoriented system of assessing effectiveness of activities depending on a subject’s professional experience and his/her position. The cluster analysis helped to single out groups of criteria that underwent a preliminary quantitative and qualitative analysis. A complex interdisciplinary approach was used in this research.