01_Leadership and organization_OI_inttroduction

• Industrial and Organizational Psychology


  The scientific study of working and the application of that science to workplace issues facing individuals, teams and organizations
• Industrial and Organizational Psychology is a broad and interdisciplinary field, a synthesis of multiple fields including management, economics, labour law, marketing, healthcare, mental health, etc.
• Dual purpose of I/O Psychology

  • Making the work more meaningful, challenging, enjoyable
  • Making the workplace atmosphere harmonious
  • Improve employees' motivation
  • Enhance organizational commitment
  • Higher productivity
  • Lower level of worker-fluctuation
  • Lower absenteeism
  • Enhancing employee's wellbeing at workplace
  • Improving the company performance
• What organizational psychologists typically do


  • Recruitment, selection
  • Training, development
  • Performance appraisal
  • Promotion, salary, perks
  • Motivation, attitudes
  • Leadership, coaching, mentoring
  • Team-performance
  • Stress management
  • Human resource management
  • Job design
  • Communication
  • Organizational development
• Fields of I/O Psychology


  • Organizational psychology as part of the science of psychology
  • The development of organizational psychology
• The study of I/O psychology originated in the United States in the early 1900s, inspired by the work of Wilhelm Wundt and Frederick W. Taylor
• I/O psychology grew rapidly after World War I and even more so after World War II
• The involvement of the United States in World War I in April 1917 catalyzed the participation of psychologists in the military
• From 1929 Elton Mayo and his colleagues began a series of studies at a plant near Chicago, Western Electric's Hawthorne Works, marking the origin of organizational psychology
• Main areas of competence in organizational psychology


  • Selection and recruitment
  • Training
  • Performance assessment
  • Ergonomics
  • Careers and careers advice
  • Social skills
  • Equality, diversity
  • Occupational health
  • Job analysis and design, job description
  • Attitude test
  • Satisfaction
• Organizational psychology came to light with industrialisation, the emergence of skilled jobs and mass employment, when scientific management was first introduced by Taylor
• Over time, Taylor's metric precision and performance orientation has been much refined and newer trends have emerged, such as human relations as formulated by Mayo
• Organizational psychology "trends" always appear embedded in the historical, cultural and economic context of the time