Explaining what Industrial and Organizational (I/O) psychology is and what I/O psychologists do has been a common occurrence throughout my career as I find that very few people know much about the field despite its tremendous value to organizations. So whether you’re a corporate executive, a hiring manager, an HR professional, a college student interested in psychology, or a member of my family, hopefully this information will help answer your questions and give you a better sense of the value we add to organizations and their employees.
What exactly is Industrial and Organizational Psychology?
In its simplest terms, industrial and organizational psychology – or I/O psychology – is the scientific study of working and workplace behavior. Typically, I/O psychologists engage in research, teaching, consulting, or some combination of those activities. When conducting research, I/O psychologists focus their attention on work-related issues of critical importance to individuals, businesses, and society at large, and then I/O psychologists who work in or serve as consultants to organizations apply the outcomes of that research to solve real life, workplace problems.
I/O psychologists have earned a PhD from an accredited university and are governed by the professional standards of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology which is a part of the American Psychological Association.
So how can Industrial and Organizational Psychology help your organization?
First, it’s important to recognize that I/O psychologists can be found in all types of work settings such as manufacturing, commercial enterprises, labor unions, and government agencies. Second, within those work settings, I/O psychologists can practice in a variety of fields or specialty areas within the larger scope of I/O psychology. A brief description of the most common work performed by I/O psychologists is presented below.
Strategic Planning: Given the broad perspective that I/O psychologists bring to the workplace, we often play an integral role in the strategic planning process by helping leaders set priorities, identify and focus needed resources, strengthen operations, establish agreement about intended outcomes, ensure that employees and other relevant stakeholders are aware of and working toward organizational goals, and continually assess and adjust the organization’s direction in response to the external environment. In other words, we help organizations identify where they are now, where they want to be in the future, how they’re going to get there, and how they will know whether they’ve been successful.
Job Analysis: Job analysis involves examining the tasks performed in a job, the competencies required to perform those tasks, and the connection between the tasks and the competencies. Job analysis data are then used to create formal job descriptions, job specifications, and ADA documentation, as well as documentation that specifies the job-relatedness of the tasks and competencies needed to successfully perform the job. Because the job analysis serves as the foundation of many HR functions including selection and assessment, competency modeling, performance management, succession planning, and compensation system development, it’s critical that all professional, regulatory, and legal requirements are met when conducting the job analysis. I/O psychologists are well-versed in these requirements and thus, can provide organizations with documentation that can withstand legal scrutiny.
Compensation and Benefits: Whether you’re starting a business and need to develop a compensation strategy, are merging with another organization, are engaged in labor negotiations, or just want to know how your organization’s compensation compares with the market, I/O psychologists can help you by conducting job evaluations for your current positions, benchmarking them against industry and geographic standards, and modifying your current system (or creating a new one) to ensure salaries are competitive and can help attract new and retain existing talent. In addition, a similar benchmarking process can be completed to ensure your benefits packages across all organizational levels are competitive and cost effective as well.
Talent Management: In very broad terms, talent management includes all activities that support the recruitment, retention, and development of employees; therefore, activities such as pre-hire screening, hiring, onboarding, on-the-job training, goal setting, performance management, coaching, career planning, and termination (voluntary and involuntary) represent some of the most salient talent management activities. Because of the strategic nature of talent management work (e.g., downstream activities directly influence upstream activities), I/O psychologists are able to link information from job analyses and job descriptions to
Testing and Assessment: At the core of I/O psychology is the ability to reliably measure behavior. Therefore, we are able to develop and validate selection tools (e.g., behaviorally-based, structured interviews; job knowledge tests, skills assessments; assessment centers; physical abilities tests) used for initial hire and promotion that are designed to help you select the person who is most likely to be successful on the job. Furthermore, because selection activities are particularly vulnerable to legal action by disgruntled job applicants and employees, we can ensure that our tools are legally defensible.
Training and Development: Training and development is perhaps one of the most important activities that can takes place in an organization as ongoing learning begins on an employee’s first day of work. I/O psychologists are trained in adult learning theory, instructional design, curriculum development, and program evaluation; thus, we’re able to evaluate your organization’s specific needs and create programs tailored to your specific audience. In addition to delivering training programs via live classroom events, we can create self-learning modules, e-learning courses, seminars, small group workshops, coaching programs, and mobile learning events.
Leadership Development: One specific audience that I/O psychologists spend quite a bit of time with is an organization’s leadership team. More specifically, we frequently partner with C-suite executives to assess management’s ongoing learning and development needs and then to design a strategy for providing continuous management education and succession planning. To support the formal succession plan, we may have management employees engage in live classroom seminars, self-study programs, college or university courses, mentoring, coaching, special assignments inside the organization as well as in the community, 360 feedback, and individual assessments. We are provide organizations with formal succession planning tools and training on how to use these tools.
Organizational Development, Organizational Effectiveness and Change Management: In my opinion, some of the most exciting, challenging, and rewarding work that I/O psychologists perform falls under the broad terms of organizational development, organizational effectiveness, and change management. In a nutshell, organizational development (OD) involves a complex strategy intended to change the attitudes, beliefs, values, culture, and structure of organizations so that they are better able to adapt to the factors in the external environment such as new technologies, markets, regulatory agencies, and other operating challenges. OD methods and interventions are used to improve organizational effectiveness (OE). So if your organization is undergoing any sort of change – whether it be the implementation of new technology, a departmental restructuring, the introduction of new product lines, or merging with another organization – I/O psychologists can provide comprehensive, strategic management of those activities.
There are many other work-related subject areas in which I/O psychologists can help, and they include: policy development and administration; HR technology; motivation and job attitudes such as satisfaction and commitment; engagement surveys; cross-cultural, cross-generational, and inclusion issues; teams and groups; labor relations and negotiations; EEO investigations; safety and security; employee wellness; and work-life balance issues.
If you would like more information about I/O psychology, then feel free to visit www.siop.org, and if you would like to review actual work products that I generated in my role as an I/O psychologist for various organizations, then I encourage you to visit www.lynneshermanphd.com.