Short Bio
Maria Rita Silva (Assistant Professor) is a Master's in Social and Organizational Psychology and has a Ph.D. in Human Resources Management and Development from ISCTE- Lisbon University Institute. Her Ph.D. investigated how people from different cultures develop perceptions about how fairly they are treated at work. Has been teaching modules in the areas of Cross-cultural research, Gender studies, Research Methods, Statistics, Organisational Psychology, among others. Other than her research related to organizational justice, well-being, and cross-cultural issues, recently, Maria Rita Silva has been appointed as Chair of USJ's Green Committee, working in the area of sustainability and coordinating the contributions of USJ in tackling the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Publications
Roque, H. C., Silva, M. R., Ramos, M., & Caetano, A. (2017). Valores societais em Portugal: Replicação do Projeto Globe 17 anos depois e implicações para a gestão. International Journal of Marketing, Communication and New Media. 5(9), 24-42.
Silva, M. R., & Caetano, A. (2016) Organizational justice across cultures: A review of four decades of research and directions for the future. Social Justice Research, 29(3), 257-287.
Silva, M. R.; Roque, H. C., & Caetano, A. (2015). Culture in Angola: Insights for Human Resources management. Cross-cultural Management: An International Journal, 22(2), 166-186.
Silva, M. R., Caetano, A. (2014). Distributive and interactional organizational justice between the years 2000 and 2008: What changes and what remains the same? Journal of Organizational Change Management, 27(1), 23-40.
Silva, M. R., Caetano, A., & Zhou, Q., (2012). (In)Justice context and work satisfaction: The mediating role of justice judgments. International Journal of Business Science & Applied Management, 7 (1) 15-2
Modules
Year 1 Master
Taking as its basis an understanding of the psychology of groups and the social structure of the workplace, this course provides students with the skills required to facilitate harmony and well-being within the workplace. The course relates aspects of decision making in groups, group polarization and ‘groupthink’ to an individuals sense of belonging and purpose within the working environment. The course provides a sound practical understanding of mediation processes between both individuals and groups within the workplace and the strategies and techniques employed to facilitate the resolution of workplace issues and conflicts. The psychological consequences of prejudicial attitudes such as sexism within the workplace are also explored, as well as practical approaches to dealing with prejudice and stereotyping. Ethical issues relating to problems within the workplace will also examined, such as whether problems should be reported to managers or whether employee confidentiality should be respected.
This course will focus on organization, leadership, decision-making, and management of people. Contemporary developments in management and in the behavioral sciences will be emphasized.
This course focus on how people in organizations communicate with others, and how conflict and teamwork is generated within organizations, topics such as their functions, channels, process, and direction. Also, the method of negotiation within or between organizations will be addressed.
This course provides the fundamental skills and knowledge in statistics of basic organizational research. Topics cover basic descriptive and inferential statistics, including measures of central tendency, sampling, the normal distribution, hypothesis testing, t-tests for means, correlation and simple linear regression. Activities will include the use of statistical software packages to explore and analysis data and conduct a study related to organizational psychology.
In this course, it introduces some assessment tools which can be applied in organizational setting. Topics like personality, motivation, socializing, job satisfaction, commitment and work engagement, interviewing skills and techniques will be covered. In addition, application of the assessments in researches of Organisational Psychology will be implemented.
Year 2 Bachelor
This module provides an overview of the issues involved in research design and practice. Research is considered within its epistemological, social and political contexts, and questions of what research is for and how t can be assessed are considered. The formulation of a researchable question/hypothesis and translating it into an appropriate and practicable research design is explored. Various approaches to research are introduced and the process of conducting a project is examined. Attention is given to planning research, data collection, analysis and reporting.
If, as some authors argue, gender categories are formed by and through experience, the activity of work represents a primary arena for this process. What can histories of work and working people tell us about the construction of gender differences? Conversely, how do gender theory and history inform our understanding of work and class? The course explores the intersections and tensions between gender and labor in modern Western and Eastern societies. We focus on activities at the margin of labor history, including housework, sex work, child-raising and unpaid social work. These occupations challenge narrowly defined conceptions of the wage relation, alienation, and labor power. In addition, we examine images of an active male breadwinner and the role of gender in labor movements. We end with a reflection on theorizing gender and class.
This module covers more advanced topics in research methods including complex design of studies such as cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. It emphasises applying the concepts of research methods to actual studies in psychological research as well as learning the skills and techniques for writing reports about psychological research.
This course will explore further topics in the statistical analysis of numerical data derived from psychological research. Students will learn the principles and practical skills needed for the analysis of data using factorial analysis of variance, including data derived from different designs (between-subject, within-subject and mixed designs). Students will learn the principles and methods of multiple linear regression, including heirarchical linear models. Finally, students will learn how to conduct a (Pearson’s) chi-squared test of nominal data to compare frequencies observed in various categories.
Gender is a cultural construct that shapes individual’s lives, in the sense that it influences personal experiences and beliefs. The study of gender interests both psychology and sociology for it is located at the crossroads of these two disciplines. Therefore, both perspectives, psychological and sociological, will be consistently considered.
Students will be exposed to several theoretical approaches on gender differences and gender development, covering biological grounded views, social learning views and cognitive developmental views, among others. Consequences of gender bias and stereotyping in culture, work organizations and media will be discussed. The course intends to (1) contribute to a better understanding of socialization, cultures and policies from a gendered perspective and to (2) encourage students to think critically regarding widely accepted gender roles.
Year 3 Bachelor
This module provides students with the social science tools needed to solve organizational problems and influence the actions of individuals, groups and organizations. It prepares managers to understand how to best organize and motivate the human capital of the firm, manage social networks and alliances, and execute strategic change. This will be accomplished through knowledge of competitive decision-making, reward system design, team building, strategic negotiation, political dynamics, corporate culture and strategic organizational design.
This course focuses on the interrelationships between culture and psychological processes. Students will explore the ways in which culture, and related concepts, such as ethnicity, affect the thinking and behavior of individuals as well as how individual thought and behavior define and reflect aspects of culture. They will look at the development of cross-cultural psychology as a distinctive area of psychology and at the recent attempts by cross-cultural psychologists to devise theories that reflect the cultural, social and developmental, perspectives on behavior. A range of research methodologies used by cross-cultural psychologists will also be explored. The course focuses on the topics of research issues, culture and thinking, culture and self, social behavior, communication across cultures, and mental health.
This module considers equality of opportunity, uptake and outcome, and social justice, which embrace the issue of social inclusion in education. Issues of gender, class and ethnicity in education are addressed, including, for example: educational achievement and assessment; educational provision; affirmative action and early years interventions; deprivation and poverty; privilege and wealth; life chances and education; cultural, linguistic, economic, social capital and education; stereotyping, labeling and stigmatization; The implications of multiculturalism and interculturalism, gender awareness and the breakdown of sexism, racism, classism and prejudice are addressed in education.
Year 4 Bachelor
This course focuses on negotiation in the global business setting designed to improve students' skills in all phases of negotiation: understanding prescriptive and descriptive negotiation theory as it applies to dyadic and multiparty negotiations, to buyer-seller transactions and the resolution of disputes, to the development of negotiation strategy and to the management of integrative and distributive aspects of the negotiation process. The course is based on a series of simulated negotiations in a variety of contexts including one-on-one, multi-party, cross-cultural, third-party and team negotiations, cultural strategies, culture interests, and culture ethics.
Building upon the students’ knowledge of research methods and the analaysis of data from research studies in psychology, this module will require students to conduct their own research project proposal to explore a research question selected from a range of different topics derived from the psychology literature. Students will be organised into groups under the leadership of a member of faculty who will guide them through the process of developing, conducting and reporting on their own research project. Students will need to submit a written project report and also to make an oral presentation of their project and answer questions related to their project.
This module explores the relationship between social psychology and human behaviour in organisational settings. This interaction between these two disciplines of psychology will be discussed and the relevance of topics such as motivation, teamwork and leadership will be explored and how various interventions can be implemented in the workplace to support organisational aims. The module will also consider how technological influences individual and group behaviour in the workplace and how career planning and personal goals can influence organisational behaviour.
This module will provide students with experience of supervised professional practice in an organisational setting in Macau. In the host organisation, students will experience real-life situations, with staff at the host organisation functioning as a model and supporting the student’s increasing autonomy. In the faculty, the academic supervisor will help the student to conceptualise activities and interventions and support the integrate of their experiences with their academic learning. At the end of their internship, student’s will submit a report describing explaining and reflecting on their experiences.
