[9] I-O psychology research and practice also includes the work–nonwork interface such as selecting and transitioning into a new career, occupational burnout, unemployment, retirement, and work–family conflict and balance.
The Alliance currently has member organizations representing Industrial, Work and Organisational psychology and IWO psychologists from Australia, Britain, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Europe, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.
[14] The historical development of I-O psychology was paralleled in the US, the UK,[22] Australia, Germany, the Netherlands,[23] and Eastern European countries such as Romania.
In the mid–1880s, Wundt trained two psychologists, Hugo Münsterberg and James McKeen Cattell, who went on to have a major influence on the emergence of I-O psychology.
Walter Dill Scott, who was a contemporary of Cattell and was elected President of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1919, was arguably the most prominent I-O psychologist of his time.
Scott, along with Walter Van Dyke Bingham, worked at what was then Carnegie Institute of Technology, developing methods for selecting and training sales personnel.
[29] After the War, increasing employment in the U.S. created opportunities for I-O psychology practitioners who called themselves "industrial psychologists"[30] The "organizational" side of the field was focused on employee behavior, feelings, and well-being.
[31] Following the war, Elton Mayo found that rest periods improved morale and reduced turnover in a Philadelphia textile factory.
With the passage of the American with Disabilities Act in 1990 and parallel legislation elsewhere in the world, I-O psychology saw an increased emphasis on "fairness in personnel decisions.
By contrast, a worker-oriented job analysis involves an examination of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) required to successfully perform the work.
[60] A meta-analysis of selection methods found that general mental ability (g factor) was the best overall predictor of job performance and attainment in training.
[62] Performance appraisal is used for a variety of purposes including alignment with organizational objectives, the basis for employment decisions (promotion, raises and termination), feedback to employees, and training needs assessment.
Research has identified a number of job stressors (environmental conditions at work) that contribute to strains (adverse behavioral, emotional, physical, and psychological reactions).
[73][74] Other I-O researchers have examined gender differences in leadership style and job stress and strain in the context of male- and female-dominated industries,[75] and unemployment-related distress.
[84] By contrast, psychosocial safety climate refers to management's "policies, practices, and procedures" aimed at protecting workers' psychological health.
"[96] Research has demonstrated that work design has important implications for individual employees (e.g., level of engagement, job strain, chance of injury), teams (e.g., how effectively teams co-ordinate their activities), organisations (e.g., productivity, safety, efficiency targets), and society (e.g., whether a nation utilises the skills of its population or promotes effective aging).
[101] Similar to performance management (see above), an I-O psychologist would employ a job analysis in concert with the application of the principles of instructional design to create an effective training program.
Affective training concerns teaching individuals to develop specific attitudes or beliefs that predispose trainees to behave a certain way (e.g., show commitment to the organization, appreciate diversity).
While there is no universal definition for organizational culture, a collective understanding shares the following assumptions:[124]: 2 ... that they are related to history and tradition, have some depth, are difficult to grasp and account for, and must be interpreted; that they are collective and shared by members of groups and primarily ideational in character, having to do with values, understandings, beliefs, knowledge, and other intangibles; and that they are holistic and subjective rather than strictly rational and analytical.Organizational culture has been shown to affect important organizational outcomes such as performance, attraction, recruitment, retention, employee satisfaction, and employee well-being.
In financial terms, productive behavior represents the point at which an organization begins to achieve some return on the investment it has made in a new employee.
By taking both in-role and extra-role performance into account, an I-O psychologist is able to assess employees' effectiveness (how well they do what they were hired to do), efficiency (outputs to relative inputs), and productivity (how much they help the organization reach its goals).
Performance is commonly broken into two major categories: in-role (technical aspects of a job) and extra-role (non-technical abilities such as communication skills and being a good team member).
[151][154] Campbell labeled job-specific task proficiency and non-job-specific task proficiency as in-role dimensions, while written and oral communication, demonstrating effort, maintaining personal discipline, facilitating peer and team performance, supervision and leadership and management and administration are labeled as extra-role dimensions.
[113] Van Dyne and LePine developed a measurement model in which overall job performance was evaluated using Campbell's in-role and extra-role categories.
[113] Researchers have advanced the view that employees engage in OCBs as a form of "impression management," a term coined by Erving Goffman.
In contrast, leaders undertake the tasks of setting a direction or vision, aligning people to shared goals, communicating, and motivating.
[173] These theories assume that an effective leader can accurately "read" a situation and skillfully employ a leadership style that meets the needs of the individuals involved and the task at hand.
[176] Conflict can occur when stressful experiences in one domain spillover into the other, such as someone coming home in a bad mood after having a difficult day at work.
[175]: 18 A comprehensive list of US and Canadian master's and doctoral programs can be found at the web site of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).
For example, an IO psychologist specializing in selection and recruiting should have expertise in finding the best talent for the organization and getting everyone on board while he or she might not need to know much about executive coaching.