Industrial and Organizational Psychology (also known as industrial-organizational psychology , I-O psychology , work psychology , organizational psychology , work and organizational psychology , occupational psychology , personnel psychology or talent assessment ) applies psychology to organizations and the workplace. (In December 2009, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology plans a vote to either retain its name or to change it to the Society for Organizational Psychology (TSOP) to eliminate the word "Industrial". Any such change might cause many American researchers, practitioners and educational programs in I-O psychology to change over to the new name to describe their field.) "Industrial-organizational psychologists contribute to an organization's success by improving the performance and well-being of its people. An I-O psychologist researches and identifies how behaviors and attitudes can be improved through hiring practices, training programs, and feedback systems."
Overview
Guion (1965) defines I-O psychology as "the scientific study of the relationship between man and the world of work:... in the process of making a living" (p. 817). Blum and Naylor (1968) define it as "simply the application or extension of psychological facts and principles to the problems concerning human beings operating within the context of business and industry" (p 4). I-O psychology has historically subsumed two broad areas of study, as evident by its name, although this distinction is largely artificial and many topics cut across both areas. I-O psychology has roots in social psychology; organizational psychologists examine the role of the work environment in performance and other outcomes including job satisfaction and health. I-O psychology is represented by Division 14 of the American Psychological Association.
Common research and practice areas for I-O psychologists include:
- Job performance
- Job analysis
- Personnel recruitment and selection
- Performance appraisal/management
- Individual assessment (knowledge, skills, and ability testing, personality assessment, work sample tests, assessment centers)
- Psychometrics
- Compensation
- Training and training evaluation
- Employment law
- Work motivation
- Job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, commitment, organizational citizenship, and retaliation)
- Occupational health and safety
- Work/life balance
- Human factors and decision making
- Organizational culture/climate
- Organizational surveys
- Leadership and executive coaching
- Ethics
- Diversity
- Job design
- Human resources
- Organizational development (OD)
- Organizational research methods
- Technology in the workplace
- Group/team performance
I-O psychologists are trained in the “scientist-practitioner” model. The training enables I-O psychologists to employ scientific principles and research-based designs to generate knowledge. They use what they have learned in applied settings to help clients address workplace needs. I-O psychologists are employed as professors, researchers, and consultants. They also work within organizations, often as part of a human resources department where they coordinate hiring and organizational development initiatives from an evidence-based perspective.
History
The "industrial" side of I-O psychology has its historical origins in research on individual differences, assessment, and the prediction of performance. This branch of the field crystallized during World War I, in response to the need to rapidly assign new troops to duty stations. After the War the growing industrial base in the U.S. added impetus to I-O psychology. Walter Dill Scott, who was elected President of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1919, was arguably the most prominent I-O psychologist of his time, although James McKeen Cattell (elected APA President in 1895) and Hugo Münsterberg (1898) were influential in the early development of the field.. Organizational psychology gained prominence after World War II, influenced by the Hawthorne studies and the work of researchers such as Kurt Lewin and Muzafer Sherif.
Research methods in I-O psychology
As described above, I-O psychologists are trained in the scientist-practitioner model. I-O psychologists rely on a variety of methods to conduct organizational research. Study designs employed by I-O psychologists include surveys, experiments, quasi-experiments, and observational studies. I-O psychologists rely on diverse data sources including human judgments, historical databases, objective measures of work performance (e.g., sales volume), and questionnaires and surveys.
I-O researchers employ both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative methods used in I-O psychology include both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (e.g., correlation, multiple regression, and analysis of variance). More advanced statistical methods employed by some I-O psychologists include logistic regression, multivariate analysis of variance, structural equation modeling, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM; also known as multilevel modeling). HLM is particularly applicable to research on team- and organization-level effects on individuals. I-O psychologists also employ psychometric methods including methods associated with classical test theory (CTT), generalizability theory, and item response theory (IRT). In the 1990s, a growing body of empirical research in I-O psychology was influential in the application of meta-analysis, particularly in the area of the stability of research findings across contexts. The most well-known meta-analytic approaches are those associated with Hunter and Schmidt, Rosenthal, and Hedges and Olkin. With the help of meta-analysis, Hunter and Schmidt advanced the idea of validity generalization, which suggests that some performance predictors, specifically cognitive ability tests (see especially Hunter and Hunter & Schmidt ) have a relatively stable and positive relation to job performance across all jobs. Although not unchallenged, validity generalization has broad acceptance with regard to many selection instruments (e.g., cognitive ability tests, job knowledge tests, work samples, and structured interviews) across a broad range of jobs.
Qualitative methods employed in I-O psychology include content analysis, focus groups, interviews, case studies, and several other observational techniques. I-O research on organizational culture research has employed ethnographic techniques and participant observation to collect data. One well-known qualitative technique employed in I-O psychology is John Flanagan's critical incident technique, which requires "qualified observers" (e.g., pilots in studies of aviation, construction workers in studies of construction projects) to describe a work situation that resulted in a good or bad outcome. Objectivity is ensured when multiple observers identify the same incidents. The observers are also asked to provide information about what the actor in the situation could have done differently to influence the outcome. This technique is then used to describe the critical elements of performance in certain jobs and how worker behavior relates to outcomes. Most notably, this technique has been employed to improve performance among aircraft crews and surgical teams, literally saving thousands of lives since its introduction. An application of the technique in research on coping with job stress comes from O'Driscoll and Cooper.
I-O psychologists sometimes use quantitative and qualitative methods in concert. For example, when constructing behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS), a job analyst may use qualitative methods, such as critical incidents interviews and focus groups to collect data bearing on performance. Then the analyst would have SMEs rate those examples on a Likert scale and compute inter-rater agreement statistics to judge the adequacy of each item. Each potential item would additionally be correlated with an external criterion in order to evaluate its usefulness if it were to be selected to be included in a BARS metric.
Topics in industrial-organizational psychology
Job analysis
Job analysis is often described as the cornerstone of successful employee selection efforts and performance management initiatives. A job analysis involves the systematic collection of information about a job. Job-analytic methods are often described as belonging to one of two approaches. One approach, the task-oriented job analysis, involves an examination of the duties, tasks, and/or competencies required by a job. The second approach, a worker-oriented job analysis, involves an examination of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) required to successfully perform the work. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Various adaptations of job-analytic methods include competency modeling, which examines large groups of duties and tasks related to a common goal or process, and practice analysis, which examines the way work is performed in an occupation across jobs.
Job-analytic data are often collected using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. The information obtained from a job analysis is then used to create job-relevant selection procedures, performance appraisals and criteria, or training programs. Additional uses of job-analytic information include job evaluations for the purpose of determining compensation level
Industrial-Organizational Psychology Links by Subtopic
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Industrial/Organizational Psychology (MAIOP) - Online
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Borman,W. C. (Ed), Ilgen,D.R. (Ed), Klimoski,R.J. (Ed)and Weiner,I.B. (Editor-in-Chief) Handbook of Psychology, Volume 12, Industrial and Organizational Psychology ISBN 0-471 ...
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
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