WHY STUDY I-O
PSYCHOLOGY?
I-O Psychology is useful
In mixed company, when asked to describe
Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology, I
usually don’t know what to say. I want to
make it sound both important and
interesting, while at the same time not
sounding like a puffed-up, out-of-touch
academic. Try doing that in a tight 2 minutes.
The damn title alone is 14 syllables long.
Here’s an assortment of my failed attempts.
•
It’s like human resources management
only more scientific.
•
Unlike business schools, we don’t only
tell you what to do, but why you’re doing
it.
•
When you apply for jobs, all that stuff
you go through, I-O psychologists
developed them.
•
Some of us do executive coaching,
helping managers who are stalled in their
careers. Other stuff, too.
•
“Industrial” is like human resources;
“Organizational” is closer to what you
think of when you think of psychology;
behaviour in organizations, teamwork,
sh*t like that.
FAIL! And to think I’ve had 20 years to come
up with a better response.
The irony: I-O psychology is both important
and interesting. More than that, you develop
employable skills, it’s relevant to your life now,
and you can have a direct impact on people’s
lives. You also have more career options than
in other areas of psychology.
I think part of the problem is that the arenas
in which I-O psychologists work are so vast
and varied that it defies pithy description. We
also don’t want to sound like hacks that use
business-speak like “capitalizing on human
potential”; “leveraging talent”; and prefacing
anything with “synergizing.” Using nouns as
verbs should only be done as broad satire.
In an effort to stop embarrassing myself, I’ve
attempted to explain what we do here. Some
of it is adapted from the websites of the
Canadian Society for Industrial and
Organizational Psychology (CSIOP); and the
Society for Industrial and Organizational
Psychology (SIOP).
Also known as (AKA)
Industrial-Organizational Psychology is
referred to by other names and also
subsumes other popularly known topics.
•
Personnel psychology
•
Work psychology
•
Organizational behaviour
•
Human resources management
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Labour relations
•
Human factors and ergonomics
•
Vocational guidance
Journals frequently referred to by I-O
researchers and business professionals
•
Journal of Applied Psychology
•
Academy of Management Journal
•
Personnel Psychology
•
Journal of Business and Psychology
•
Journal of Organizational Behavior
•
Journal of Occupational Health
Psychology
•
Industrial and Organizational Psychology:
Perspectives on Science and Practice
•
…and many more.
This is how CSIOP defines I-O
“The Canadian Society for Industrial and
Organizational Psychology (CSIOP) is an
organization whose mission is to further the
welfare of people by: (a) helping organizations
effectively manage their human resources, (b)
scientifically investigating human behaviour and
cognition at work, and (c) helping individuals
realize their work goals, including helping them
to maximize job satisfaction and productivity
and minimize work stress.”
Not a bad definition, all things considered. It’s
not terribly concrete, though.
Sectors I-O psychologists work
When it comes to career paths, I-O is not
short on options. They include:
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Academia (colleges, universities)
•
Consulting
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Industry (for-profit and not-for- profit)
•
Government (public servants)
•
Hybrids of the above (e.g., research
institutes, think-tanks, health-care)
That pretty much covers everywhere a human
works. And if you refer back to CSIOP’s
description on the left, that pretty much
covers everything humans do at work.
So, basically, I-O psychologists study and
influence the thoughts, feelings, and
behaviours of humans at work. In terms of
career advice, this is about as useful as a
fortune cookie.
(Actually, SIOP does have more detailed
resources that can aid in identifying and
planning possible I-O career paths.)
I-O psychology is not a “job”
According to their brochures, colleges and
other vocational schools train you for “jobs.”
That’s all well and good, but a job is what is
referred to as a social construction: A group of
people (e.g., society) have agreed that a
particular set of tasks, duties, and problems
to be solved form a category called [insert job
title here.] This taxonomic convenience is
useful when your kid announces that he
wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.
The alternative is little Bobby telling you that
when he grows up, he wants to control and
extinguish fires or respond to emergency
situations where life, property, or the
environment is at risk, drawing upon the
following knowledges, skills, and abilities ...
[yada yada yada]. This is a simple and readily
understood example because the general
public knows—or thinks they know—what a
firefighter is and does.
Alternatively, if Bobby says he wants to be a
“consultant”, you’d think a) who’s Bobby
hanging out with? and b) what kind of
consultant does he mean? Describing a
consultant is not quite as straightforward as
describing a firefighter. There are consultants
willing to give advice on almost any topic,
using any method you can imagine. Similarly,
defining what an I-O psychologist does is like
nailing Jell-o to a wall. Hence, the use of
“sectors” (see above) rather than “jobs” when
discussing what I-O psychologists do: it’s
more manageable and informative.
Think of I-O psychology as a toolbox: It
contains a vast array of different tools to fix a
wide range of problems in all sorts of
different ways. A full and comprehensive
toolbox gives you the most flexibility in fixing
different problems, but even a small number
of tools have their place and don’t necessarily
have to be used by a handyman. (Metaphors
are not my strong suit).
What I-O psychologists do
Right off the bat, you should know that the
title of this section is erroneous and
misleading. If you noticed, test passed. If you
didn’t, read the section to the left.
To give you more concrete examples of what
I-O trained people can do, here’s a brief and
incomplete list of activities. Note that the
activities listed could be performed by people
with other “jobs” such as a human resources
director, an advertising consultant, or a
vocational guidance counsellor. What we
DON’T do is therapy.
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Design/select tests or interview formats
to guide employers in who they should
hire and for what positions
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Develop and facilitate performance
evaluations to assess individual
employees and the organization as a
whole
•
Provide relevant training to managers.
•
Determine needs of new and existing
employees and develop/evaluate related
training programs (e.g., technical or
diversity training
•
Advise an organization’s attorneys (such
as when faced with litigation cases
concerning employees)
•
Analyze a company’s job positions to
determine if employees are treated fairly
and legally
•
Design, evaluate, or advise on systems
that promote employee satisfaction,
organizational performance, and fill
employee needs, such as incentives and
rewards, on-site childcare, fulfilling job
tasks, and more
•
Evaluate customer satisfaction