Industrial Organizational Psychology Is Concerned With Understanding And Predicting Human Behavior In The Workplace
Industrial organizational psychology is concerned with understanding and predicting human behavior in the workplace (Klimoski, 2000). This specialization applies psychological theories and the principles to organizations. This subfield focuses on increasing workplace productivity and related issues, such as physical and mental well-being of the employees. They perform a wide variety of tasks, such as studying worker attitudes and behavior, evaluating companies, and to conduct leadership training.
Industrial organizational psychologist’s task may involve investigating workplace issues, such as employee selection, organizational development, performance, and productivity. There are two sides of I/O psychology the first one is the industrial side, and it does involve looking at how to best match individuals to a specific job. They may assess employee characteristics then match individuals to jobs that may perform well in. This also includes training employees, developing job performance standards, and measuring job performance. The organizational side of psychology it is focused on understanding how organizations can affect individuals behavior. Organizational structures, social norms, management styles, and role expectations are factors, which can influence how people’s behavior within an organization (Klimoski, 2000).
Albert Bandura’s social learning theory can be used in the I/O field because this behavior is learned from the environment by the process of observational learning. This theory I believe would work best because they are trying to determine what makes an employee react, or feel successful and be enthusiastic and produce productivity. For example, if the company has a policy where they are paying the women way less for the same kind of work the men are doing women will feel unequal to men and may produce less productivity and will feel less enthusiastic about their work. The I/O psychologist would observe the women and men to see what the problem is
Industrial organizational psychologist’s task may involve investigating workplace issues, such as employee selection, organizational development, performance, and productivity. There are two sides of I/O psychology the first one is the industrial side, and it does involve looking at how to best match individuals to a specific job. They may assess employee characteristics then match individuals to jobs that may perform well in. This also includes training employees, developing job performance standards, and measuring job performance. The organizational side of psychology it is focused on understanding how organizations can affect individuals behavior. Organizational structures, social norms, management styles, and role expectations are factors, which can influence how people’s behavior within an organization (Klimoski, 2000).
Albert Bandura’s social learning theory can be used in the I/O field because this behavior is learned from the environment by the process of observational learning. This theory I believe would work best because they are trying to determine what makes an employee react, or feel successful and be enthusiastic and produce productivity. For example, if the company has a policy where they are paying the women way less for the same kind of work the men are doing women will feel unequal to men and may produce less productivity and will feel less enthusiastic about their work. The I/O psychologist would observe the women and men to see what the problem is
References: Klimoski, R. J. (2000). Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Assessments and interventions, A. E. Kazdin (Eds), Encyclopedia of Psychology, Vol. 4, pp. 258-263. Washington, DC, US; New York, NY; US. American Psychological Association.