Industrial Organizational Psychology For Efficient And Productive Workplace

Industrial organizational psychology or popularly abbreviated as I/O psychology is the area of psychological study that covers behaviors in work settings or work environments. Thus, I/O psychology is highly essential in workplaces to promote productive and efficient working behaviors and attitudes, as well as in choosing possible candidates for promotions in an effective fashion.

The importance of industrial organizational psychology is unceasingly increasing. The numbers of companies in search of reliable and trustworthy I/O psychologists are similarly accelerating. Business firms hire such psychologists to assist them in revamping certain aspects of their organization, as huge demands of equal pay, equal employment and productive environment are prevalent in today’s corporate worlds.

Industrial organizational psychology is an added subfield of psychology. As a matter of fact, I/O psychology was not really that productive until the later part of 1920’s. Prior to the 20’s, there were already many people who started on improving their workplaces with the use of differential psychology, which was then renowned during the World War I. Differential psychology then focused on the dissimilarities of people that were unsuccessful in helping each other with their jobs. Apart from differential psychology that was used in work setting environments prior to I/O psychology was experimental psychology. This branch of psychology attempted to regard everyone as equal in the work field and tried to come up with their own definition of laws on how people can be similar. This too failed, which brought the third idea into usage: experimental psychology. The third idea materialized the “one best way” manner to perform a specific task. It was primarily based on money as a motivator, disregarding the idea of satisfaction in jobs and careers. Again, like the first two psychology approaches, the third one was not very satisfactory, and led to the last factor that brought industrial organizational psychology to being, the human relations movement. Human relations movement was contradictory to experimental psychology, as it motivated people to be happy and be satisfied with their job

Hawthorne Studies were done at Western Electric Company by Elton Mayo from 1927 to 1932. Several realizations that were extracted from such study were: workplaces must be thought of as social systems rather than just purely productive systems, collaborating workers in whatever decision making process abates resistance to changes, and an individual’s working behavior and attitude can be determined by sets of complex factors.

In dealing with I/O psychology, it is vital as well to be informed of its five significant subfields. These are performance appraisals, organizational development, assessments centers, leadership, and training and development.

Performance appraisal is a subfield that aids in assessing a worker’s performance. It verily provides any information helpful for promotions, pay increases, and other opportunities within the workplace. Meanwhile, organizational development addresses on positive changes in the working area and the company in general. It is utterly substantial in guiding the company to ease through smoothly into any transition and to come up with better ideas to manage through a new phase.

Every company looks out for an applicant with the most potential to be given the vacant position. Therefore, evaluating innumerable applicants is a crucial process, to which, assessment centers are catered for the purpose. Further along, the leadership section deals so much on becoming a good leader and what different styles of leadership are there applicable. Finally, the fifth subfield, training and development teach the various types and levels of trainings for companies to improve and be progressive in each of their industry.

Oftentimes, industrial organizational psychologists are employed in business positions accountable for the workers’ productivity, human resources, and employees’ assessment and training. However, there are also those that take part in researches and other academic responsibilities. Industrial organization psychology specialized in areas such as human factors and human-computer interactions.