Industrial/Organizational Psychology - What Is It?

   Industrial Organizational Psychology is thought of as the psychology of the workplace. A branch of psychology that has been around since the early 1900s, it is a quickly growing field that is making strides in the business, government, and academic world.

   Industrial Organizational Psychology. Woo, that’s a real mouthful to say, right? As someone currently aiming to enter this field, I find it quickly tiring to say that full title repeatedly whenever I’m asked about it. So let’s call it I/O Psychology for convenience.

   In general terms, I/O Psychology is primarily interested in using psychological principles and research methods to assess the human behavior of employees, their relationship with work and the workplace, and how they affect each other. To put it broadly, the overall goal of I/O Psychologists is to improve the well-being, performance, and communication of everyone to help develop a good work environment. There are three main branches of I/O Psychology: Industrial Psychology, Organizational Psychology, and Human Factors.

   Industrial Psychology focuses on improving hiring practices, job analysis and description, and developing efficient and effective training and evaluation methods once employees are hired.

   Organizational Psychology focuses on the behavior and relationships between employees in the workplace and how it affects overall performance in a business. This can involve studying management, worker satisfaction, organizational culture, and the types of social norms and expectations present.

   Lastly, Human Factors looks at the interactions between employees and the tools they use to work with in order to improve performance, health, and safety. This can range from the types of chairs and desks placed in the office to adapting to various forms of technology, improving communications, transportation, etc.

   Currently one of the fastest growing fields in Psychology, its future is bright in becoming a necessity in every company big or small. This is but a general overview of the main different subfields of I/O Psych, other areas also include occupational health psychology and humanitarian work psychology. Tune in for future upcoming blogs that will continue this little mini-series in more detail!

Source:

https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/13-1-what-is-industrial-and-organizational-psychology