Organizational Psychology deals with the intersection of people and companies. In this article, we will examine the details of what organizational psychology is and what it implies.
Organizational psychology, is sometimes called the industrial organizational psychology. Organizational psychology focuses on the behavior of individuals within an organization and the effects which an organization can have on an individual. Essentially, organizational psychologists usually observe how an individual affects the company for which they are working for and how the company affects these individuals who work for them.
Organizational Psychology is centralized in two aspects, people and companies. The industrial part of the industrial organizational psychology has to do with the staff or people. The word industry has many definitions, but think about the one who does the hard work. This is what the industrial part of industrial organizational psychology has to do with: people who work hard in an organization.
Moreover, the organizational part of the industrial organizational psychology has to do with, well organizations. It examines how companies and other organizations work and function. Consider two areas of close organizational psychology, including specific tasks that people might have for each the other.
However, as an employee you can be interested in industrial organization psychology. But what would the person do on a daily basis, as an organizational psychologist
Remember that the first part of industrial organizational psychology, has to do with people. Specifically, it addresses the selection, growth and development of the employees of various organizations. This means that psychologists will be able to determine who is right for the work and also to ensure that they do their best work through training and motivation.
There are basically four areas of personnel relations that industrial organizational psychologists deal with:
- Tests:
Many employees have to pass tests, such as tests of personality or competency tests in order to be hired for a job. As an organizational psychologist, one must be ready to give tests to those in need.
- Selection:
When a manager needs to hire someone to fill a job, they often work with industrial organizational psychologist to figure out the best fit for the job and the organization as well. For example, if the company that is hiring is mainly run by women, it would not work well to hire someone who is very sexist and thinks that women should stay at home cooking instead of working. As industrial organizational psychologist, one should be able to work with managers and help them understand how each applicant would fit into the organization and work.
- Education:
Even once a person gets the job, there are things they need to do in order to succeed. Training and development allows people to grow within their careers. One could design courses for people to take, to become better at their jobs or learn to use a new computer program, for instance.
- Attitudes and Motivation:
Happy employees are good for business. Studies conducted by organizational psychologists have repeatedly shown that happy workers are more productive, and they stay longer with a company, which means that the company does not have to spend lots of money to replace them. As industrial organizational psychologist, one can study the attitudes and motivation of people within an organization and how to make them happy.
All of these four things become a fundamental question: “How can we make employees more productive in an organization? That’s what the industrial half of industrial-organizational psychology is all about.
Organizations
But, of course, there is a whole other half of industrial organizational psychology to think about. The organizational half of the work tries to answer the question, ‘How can we make this organization strong .?’