Growing Leaders for Tomorrow, Assessment Example

A psychology education provides expertise and transferable skills to almost any career of choice. “Delia Cushway, lecturer in clinical psychology at Birmingham University, says: ‘Psychology can enhance careers in marketing, industry, personnel, counselling and social work.’” (“Use your head: psychology may be a clever career starter” 2004, par. 3).

An education in psychology gives a person insight to dreams, ideas and though patterns which can aide in the use of effective management in business. Dreams give insight to a person’s unconscious thoughts and feelings thus can aid in deciphering what a person is feeling or thinking. Often a person disguises their true feelings and thoughts but if you can get someone to tell you about their dreams you can develop insight to what that person if really feeling and thinking.  If a person is seeking to practise psychology as a formal career they will have to study to a post-graduate level in order to make a decent wage.  With a minor in psychology a person can work as a drug counsellor or perhaps use the degree to aid them as an educational tool in the business and financial world. Maximizing performance a manager or company’s employment force is the key to continued success in business. Recruitment, selection, team building and work place counselling are all efforts than can be addressed through the use of psychological education.

Behavioural finance can be a healthy tool to obtain wealthy clients. Psychology can shed some light on this unstable marketing economy. Colours have been known to alter the physiology and mental states of a person and can influence the product marketing with that in mind. Colour psychology can help determine whether your planned marketing strategy will fail or be effective. For example red is the colour of heat and passion where orange is the colour of vitality. If you are making a banner to promote your business you might want to use a combination of these colours. Yellow is the colour of creativity and green the colour of serenity. You might want to consider these colours if you are opening a health and day spa. Black is the colour of inspiration and simplicity hence you might want to use these colours for a new clothing line of simplicity and constant nature. A minor in psychology will allow a finance and business manager or owner to possess these essential tools to create such marketing strategies based on psychological states of minds that people are attracted to.

Financial psychology can further be used to adapt to the changing economy in helping business organizations to make necessary changes to adapt. “Simply because something has always been done a certain way does not mean that way is the best way.” (“Psychonomics” 2009, par. 3).  The goals of the organization are ascertained, the best ways to quality improve the company, a skill assessment is performed and a review of the absenteeism in the company. Competency frameworks are developed from the information provided, training and workshops are implemented and feedback mechanisms are established. Statistical and non-statistical data analyses are introduced into the scheme of things. A new strategic plan is implemented through management psychology techniques with hopes of understanding how people think and what will promote the best behaviour and action from the employees.

It is a proven fact that if you think positive you can become rich and if you think negative you will most likely stay poor. If you have a timid and weak mind your body will become unhealthy. A successful person will use psychology education to trigger the mind into becoming a successful business entrepreneur. With positive energy a person can have a fruitful business. You should tell yourself that you are a happy person and will make others happy and affirm this to yourself every morning before you go to work or do anything at home. Officially it takes 21-30 days to change the way you think. Think of the cup as being half full rather than being half empty and live every single minute of your life to the fullest. Continue to read motivational sales books with your positive mind and psychology will work in positive forces in your life.

Psychology is used to inspire interest in people and to inspire people to want to take action to do something. Short and sensory language communicated to a person is more effective than long and drawn out language. Try to get people’s attention through pictures of things that make them smile or happy rather than through the use of humour. If you are advertising online or in writing do not capitalize headings for it is difficult to read and readers find it offensive as ‘yelling’.  Be sure to tell the reader or listener ‘Why’ it is important they listen to what you have to say. This will keep their attention to you. Be very specific with your reasoning rather than vague. Selling something is ‘applied psychology’. Selling is the art of using words correctly and at the correct time-communication.

“Psychology is a focus on how humans make mistakes and implicitly psychology is a collection of theories that justify governments strategizing to control the choices that humans make. Examples would be right to sue for punitive damages and retirement savings.” (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003).  Normative-decision making tends to teach you that the more you know the better off you are. “In fact, the findings of psychology and economics have coalesced enough to suggest specific guidelines for designing institutions, with the goal of expanding financial markets, fostering success for entrepreneurs, nurturing the well-being of society, and promoting economic growth.” (Berg, 2005).

Psychology promotes healthy leadership skills and values within an organization through the coordination of distinct tasks, duties, functions and responsibilities. There are discernable functions that are important to the leadership role of a business. Accomplishing these goals adds value to an organization. As stated by Lord & Mahler, “Developing leadership theories begins with human behaviour and understanding such behaviour patterns. (221).”  Leader development focuses primarily on the role of others and the process of communication. Further it is created by developing fruitful relationships with others through the use of communication. An organization is transformed by the leadership’s ability to transform its employees into positive workers. This is accomplished through coaching and positive influence on the workforce through different external reward systems or internal motivational systems. The process all begins with the psychological state of mind of the employee-employer work relationship and the communication process which is achieved through a positive self-esteem.

As with seen through research at the Coca-Cola enterprise, psychology has helped to promote more efficient management, better product development, cheaper materials and to keep labour costs down through effective planning. This was accomplished through shifting the focus to the worker rather than the company by testing, selection process and training of employees. Research showed that this process helped to promote employee satisfaction within the Coco-Cola foundation as early as the 1920’s. Hugo Musterberg focused on the idea that psychology promoted greater efficiency in industry. Further psychology offers a scientific approach to higher quality production, improved performance of workers, improved management techniques, better trained and higher skilled workers and effective advertising. “Industrial Psychology focuses on changing one employee or one department within an organization.”  (“Psychology Applied to Business”).

Economic theory is based on the concept that all individuals act rationally and consider all available information before making a financial decision. “Peter L. Bernstein in Against the Gods gives repeated examples of academia research that suggest the theory is flawed suggesting that people do make irrational choices with regard to finances when they are faced with uncertainty. A field known as “behavioural finance” has evolved that attempts to better understand and explain how emotions and cognitive errors influence investors and the decision-making process and contribute to stock market anomalies.” (“Psychology & Behavioural Finance”).  People get upset over prospective losses more than they get happy over gains. Further people tend to feel ‘regret’ after making a poor lapse of judgment in regards to finance. They are very optimistic when the market is surging and pessimistic when the market is on the decline. There is a tendency of people and stock investors to be overconfident in their financial abilities. “Psychographics describe psychological characteristics of people and are particularly relevant to each individual investor’s strategy and risk tolerance. An investor’s background and past experiences can play a significant role in the decisions an individual makes during the investment process.” (“Psychology & Behavioural Finance”).  Understanding the psychology behind the investment process is advantageous for the financial advisor as well as the investor. It can eliminate pitfalls and help to make profitable gains.

With respect to trading, people do so for both cognitive and emotional reasons. People think they have information on and issue and they trade for a sense of accomplishment but they may later learn what they thought was appropriate information was not information at all.

Conclusion

Psychology as a minor to a major Business degree can assist with understanding people and employers within an organization. Further the education is essential to providing a communication means to understand employees and develop essential advertising and management schemes within the workforce. Understanding workers is the best way to promote an effective and efficient work force. The presence of this minor in Psychology will be a grand tool in combination of the major in Business to find and develop strategic forces to be an effective manager or finance person in today’s lagging world. Communication is not simply saying the words rather it is an art of achieving how to present the words so that the receiver will understand and hear them the way the sender intended them to be heard. Cognitive and emotional interferences often interfere with true realities involved with finance decisions. A sound education in psychology is essential to understanding the realistic world of finance.

References

Use your head: psychology may be a clever career starter (2004) Retrieved from http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/graduate_management/article1056797.ece

Psychonomics Consulting (2003) Retrieved October 2, 2009 from, http://www.psychonomics.com/aboutus/consult.html

Berg, N. (2005) Finance, psychology, economics and the design of successful institutions Retrieved October 2, 2009 from,  http://www.utdallas.edu/~nberg/Berg_ARTICLES/Nathan%20Berg%20Shanghai%20Forum0511_REVISED_7_21_05.pdf

Day, D. (2004) Growing Leaders for Tomorrow Retrieved October 2, 2009 from, http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0805845860/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-page

Psychology Applied to Business Retrieved October 2, 2009 from,           http://www.google.com/#q=how+psychology+applies+to+business&hl=en&sa=2&fp=8d6a9788959b8b1b

Psychology and Behavioural Finance (1999) Retrieved October 2, 2009 from, http://www.investorhome.com/psych.htm