13. Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Describe the purpose of industrial-organizational psychology

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• Describe the scope of study in the field of industrial and organizational psychology

• Describe the history of industrial and organizational psychology

Examine the application of industrial-organizational psychology to hiring and evaluating employees

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• Describe job analysis and the initial steps in employee selection

• Explain the aspects of employee selection, including candidate testing and interviewing

• Describe types of job training and employee performance assessment

Explain the impact of leadership and organizational culture on the workplace

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• Explain the measurement and determinants of job satisfaction

• Describe key terms associated with management including Theory X and Theory Y

• Discuss effective leadership methods, including transactional and transformational leadership

• Explain the significance of organizational culture

Describe bias in the workplace and human factors psychology

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• Identify types of bias and discrimination that occur in the workplace

• Describe the laws designed to prevent bias and discrimination in hiring

• Describe the field of human factors psychology and give examples of its application

Essential Concepts

Industrial and Organizational Psychology Basics

• The field of I-O psychology had its birth in industrial psychology and the use of psychological concepts to aid in personnel selection. It includes industrial psychology, organizational psychology, human factors psychology, occupational health psychology, and humanitarian work psychology.

• Both WWI and WWII had a strong influence on the development of an expansion of industrial psychology in the United States and elsewhere—the tasks the psychologists were assigned led to the development of tests and research in how the psychological concepts could assist industry and other areas. This movement aided in expanding industrial psychology to include organizational psychology.

• The Hawthorne studies in the early 20th century explored organizational dynamics and interpersonal relations, leading to the identification of the “Hawthorne effect,” which observes that individuals perform better when they know they are being watched.

• Frederick Taylor’s work emphasized efficient workplace design, employee training, and time-motion studies to maximize company output and worker benefits.

• Lillian Gilbreth, a pioneering I-O psychologist, innovated time and motion studies to enhance productivity and ergonomics, introduced practical applications like refrigerator door shelves and trash can foot pedals, and made significant contributions to modern management and human factors psychology.

Hiring and Evaluating Employees

• Industrial psychology studies the attributes of jobs, applicants of those jobs, and methods for assessing fit to a job. These procedures include job analysis, applicant testing, and interviews. It also studies and puts into place procedures for the orientation of new employees and ongoing training of employees.

• The process of hiring employees can be vulnerable to bias, which is illegal, and industrial psychologists must develop methods for adhering to the law in hiring.

• Performance appraisal systems are an active area of research and practice in industrial psychology.

Leadership and Organizational Culture

• Organizational psychology is concerned with the effects of interactions among people in the workplace on the employees themselves and on organizational productivity.

• Job satisfaction and its determinants and outcomes are a major focus of organizational psychology research and practice. Organizational psychologists have also studied the effects of management styles and leadership styles on productivity.

• In addition to the employees and management, organizational psychology also looks at the organizational culture and how that might affect productivity.

• The changing workplace requires organizations to adapt quickly to factors like technology, globalization, and demographics.

• Team structures are increasingly popular, but their productivity varies, and gender-balanced teams tend to perform better.

• Organizational culture, including observable artifacts and espoused values, plays a significant role, and diversity training can help reduce prejudice and improve teamwork. Contact between diverse groups can reduce prejudice, especially under conditions of equal standing, common goals, cooperation, and institutional support.

Workplace Design and Bias

• One aspect of organizational culture is the prevention and addressing of sexual and other forms of harassment in the workplace. Sexual harassment includes language, behavior, or displays that create a hostile environment; it also includes sexual favors requested in exchange for workplace rewards (i.e., quid pro quo).

• Industrial-organizational psychology has conducted extensive research on the triggers and causes of workplace violence and safety. This enables the organization to establish procedures that can identify these triggers before they become a problem.

• Human factors psychology, or ergonomics, studies the interface between workers and their machines and physical environments. Human factors psychologists specifically seek to design machines to better support the workers using them. Psychologists may be involved in the design of work tools such as software, displays, or machines from the beginning of the design process or during the testing of an already developed product.

• Human factor psychologists are also involved in the development of best design recommendations and regulations. One important aspect of human factors psychology is enhancing worker safety.

• Human factors research involves efforts to understand and improve interactions between technology systems and their human operators. Human–software interactions are a large sector of this research.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Cheat Sheet from Lumen One Introduction to Psychology, Lumen Learning, https://lumenlearning.com/, CC BY.

Psychology, 2e, OpenStax, https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/, CC BY.

David Wiley