FIELDS OF STUDY AND PRACTICE AREAS IN INDUSTRIAL AND

ORGANISATIONAL (I-O) PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 2

Learning outcomes to keep in mind whilst studying this chapter

What are the main themes and focus areas of industrial and Organisational Psychology (I–O) and why are they important?

• Describe the nature and identity of I-O psychology

• Name and discuss various subfields of I-O psychology

• Describe application fields in I-O psychology

• Discuss the history of I-O psychology

• Discuss professional training and practice in I-O psychology

• Discuss future challenges in I-O psychology.

Sub-fields in psychology

• Clinical psychology – aims to alleviate emotional distress caused by psychological disorders and problems of life

• Counselling psychology – management of pain caused by life, facilitating improved understanding of issues, fostering use of effective coping skills

• Career psychology – involves studying and facilitating occupational development across the life-span

• Educational and school psychology – focuses on studying factors, behaviour, processes & problems of learning

• Developmental psychology – focuses on age related changes across a person’s life span

• Social psychology – studying human social interaction by understanding the influence of behaviour, beliefs and feelings amongst people.

Sub-fields in psychology (continued)

• Cognitive psychology – revolves around the theory and research regarding higher mental processes

• Personality psychology – the study of the more or less consistent patterns of behaviour in people across time and situations

• Physiological/Neurological psychology – Study of relationship between human behaviour and neurological and physiological systems

• Psychometrics – entails the development of psychological measuring instruments

• Experimental psychology – used in many psychological disciplines to establish patterns of human behaviour in controlled situations

• Health psychology – utilises psychological knowledge to identify causes and symptoms of physical health and illness and related dysfunctions.

Sub-fields in psychology (continued)

• Positive psychology – emphasis on enhancement of optimum human functioning

• Forensic psychology – studying context of criminal behaviour (e.g. causes) and obtaining and giving evidence in legal procedures

• Community psychology – using, developing and adapting psychological knowledge and practices to improve quality of life in human communities

• Cross-cultural psychology – focuses on diversity management or the consideration of differences in and between groups of people

• Consulting psychology – professional involvement of psychologists with individuals, groups & organisations

• Industrial and Organisational (I-O) psychology – utilises principles and assumptions of psychology to study and influence human behaviour at work.

Nature and identity of I-O psychology:I–O Psychology: A scientific discipline?

• I-O Psychology is branch of psychology

• Utilises psychological knowledge and in the work context to assess, utilise, develop and influence individual employees

• While inextricably linked to psychology, I-O psychology has adapted and developed it own identity

• It utilises, develops and teaches foundational knowledge, e.g. psychological theory/research on human behaviour in work context

• Foundational knowledge is supported through work-related research to further its knowledge base

• Is an applied science utilising many types of practical applications and methods to achieve best fit between employee and workplace.

Sub-fields and practice areas in I-O psychology

Organisational psychology

• Concerned with work organisations as systems involving individual employees and work groups, as well as structure and dynamics of organisations

Personnel psychology

• Focus on utilising individual differences in and between employees and predicting the optimal employee-organisation fit

Research methodology

• Entails psychological methods of inquiry to solve research problems

Occupational psychological assessment

• Entails the development and utilisation of assessment instruments to obtain measures of attributes and behaviour of employees.

Sub-fields and practice areas in I-O psychology (continued)

Career or vocational psychology/counselling

• Studies career development issues with regard to individuals, employment, unemployment, career-related issues in organisations and also non-work influencing factors

Employment relations

• Deals with behavioural dynamics, communication and conflict management between individuals and groups of employees, employers and other parties

Employee and organisational well-being

• Aims to facilitate positive psychological capital or resources in organisations and employees

Ergonomics

• Concerned with understanding of human interaction between employees and their technical environment.

Sub-fields and practice areas in I-O psychology (continued)

Consumer psychology

• Also referred to as Economic and Market Psychology concerned with studying psychological aspects of consumer behaviour

Other applied fields

• Cross-cultural Industrial Psychology

• Management and leadership

• Entrepreneurship and diversity management.

History of I-O psychology

Taylorism

• Man is a rational-economic being

• Humans are inherently

−Lazy, inefficient and unreliable

−Only motivated by financial incentives

Criticism of taylorism

• Heavily criticised as a result of findings in Hawthorne experiments

• Perceived as an exploitation of workers

• Neglect of individual differences

Hawthorne experiments

• Employee work performance may vary if employees follow specific procedures and standards under strict supervision.

Professional training and practice issues

Contributing institutions

• HPCSA

• Professional Board for Psychology, etc.

Contributing peoples, associations and events

Professional training and practice

• Governing bodies

• Qualifications

• Practice

• Universities and other training institutions

• Proximity with human resources management.

Future challenges in I-O psychology

• How to use existing knowledge and practice

• How to develop and adapt this knowledge and practice

• I-O psychologist must be able to speak the language of business

• Future psychologists successes in making employees and organisation more adaptive to change

• The management of the increase in work stress

• Creating meaningful employment amidst growing sophisticated technology, business mergers and downsizing, decreasing job opportunities

• Changing nature of work requires ongoing revision of validity theory in the assessment of employees

• More incorporation of technology driven interventions in organisations.

Thank you.