Personnel, Work and Organizational Psychology

The course aims to provide a systematic presentation of the main and most recent theoretical approaches to the study of leadership and interpersonal and social power, with specific reference to the state of the art within social and organizational psychology. Particular attention will also be paid to the various applicative areas of power and interpersonal influence strategies. Specifically, class lectures will allow students to develop knowledge about the basic components involved in the persuasive processes and the theoretical approaches to the study of leadership and power dyna-mics. Subsequently, group work, organized for attending students, will aim to promote a deeper understanding of each theoretical model linked to the study of leadership and power, with reference to the various applica-tion areas. Knowledge and understanding. The course aims to develop knowledge and skills that will enable students to discriminate between relevant theoretical models. Students who attend lessons will also acquire a specific competence on techniques linked to the different reference models. Applying knowledge and understanding. At the end of the course students will be able to understand the phenomena related to power dynamics and interpersonal influence, to interpret and explain them according to the different theoretical reference mo-dels. In addition, they will be able to propose solutions to specific problems in the various areas of applica-tion (work organization, politics, etc.) of psychosocial theories on leadership and power. Making judgements. The systematic review of the main theoretical perspectives will provide the basis for a greater awareness of the processes underlying power dynamics and interpersonal influence. Through group work, students will have the opportunity to develop and formulate independent judgments about the phenomena involved in power dynamics and interpersonal influence, as well as to reflect on the social and ethical responsibilities related to the application of the acquired knowledge Communication skills. After an initial phase of class lectures, group work is planned in order to deepen and connect with specific themes related to leadership and social power. Such group work consists in the study of materials, provi-ded primarily by the instructor and relevant for the deepening of the relevant topics. The students, from one side, have to integrate individually-studied materials with the other members of their work group, and from the other, they have to clearly and coherently present this material in the classroom in a way that is useful to their classmates . In this way, we will try to stimulate not only critical thinking about the topics and the ability to work in a group, but also the communication skills and abilities necessary to manage a presenta-tion in front of an audience. Learning skills. Through the group activity (illustrated in point 2.2.4), students will be able to improve their ability to manage, autonomously and within a group, the different stages of knowledge about the topics under study. In addi-tion to the mere study of the material provided by the instructor to carry out the group work, students will be stimulated to integrate this material with additional material (movies, videos, commercials, etc), autono-mously found and deemed useful to stimulate debate and reflection on the phenomena.