Industrial/Organizational Psychology 1

INTRODUCTION TO I/O
necessary information on jobs, and provide
working conditions that are safe and result in
an enjoyable and satisfying work/life
PSYCHOLOGY environment.
 Interpersonal relationships
 Examining decision making and group
THE FIELD OF I/O PSYCHOLOGY dynamics
 Leadership in organization
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN I/O AND BUSINESS PROGRAMS  organizational development and
 Industrial/Organizational Psychology – is a change
branch of psychology that applies the  Systems and processes
principles of psychology in the workplace.
 The purpose of I/O psychology is to enhance Personnel Psychology
the dignity and performance of human  Personnel psychology – refers to the field of
beings and the organizations they work in. study that concentrates on the selection and
 Many topics covered are similar and related evaluation of employees.
to those in a human resource management  I/O psychologists and HRM professionals are
or organizational behavior text. involved in the study and practice such as
 I/O psychology examines factors that affect analyzing jobs, recruiting applicants,
the people in an organization. It focuses selecting the employees & determining
almost exclusively on issues involving people salary levels, training them and evaluating
in an organization. their performance.
 I/O relies extensively on research,  They choose tests or create new ones
quantitative methods, and testing that can be used to select and promote
techniques. employees
 I/O psychologists are trained to use empirical  They are involved in identifying the
data and statistics rather than intuition to organization’s training needs, developing
make decisions. training programs and evaluating its
 I/O psychologists act as scientists when success.
they conduct research and as
practitioners when they work with actual Organizational Psychology
organizations.  Organizational psychology – the field of
 They act as scientist-practitioners when study that investigates the behavior of
they apply research findings so that the employees within the context of an
work they perform with organizations will organization
enhance an organization’s effectiveness  Concerned with issues of leadership, job
 From a societal perspective, I/O satisfaction, employee motivation,
psychologists can also improve the quality of organizational communication, conflict
life by increasing employee effectiveness, management, organizational change,
which reduces cost of goods sold by and group processes within an
improving product quality. organization.
 The real benefits to the field involve  Organizational psychologists makes
positive impact on the lives of others recommendations on ways problem areas
can be improved
MAJOR FIELDS OF I/O PSYCHOLOGY  E.g. low job satisfaction might be
 Industrial approach – focuses on determining improved by allowing employees to
the competences needed to perform a job, participate in certain company decisions
staffing the organization with those  E.g. Poor communication may be
competencies, and increasing the addressed through an employee
competencies through training suggestion system
 Person-job fit
 Job analysis and design Human factors/ Ergonomics
 Safety and training  Human factors – a field of study
 Organizational approach – creates an concentrated on the interaction between
organizational structure and culture that will humans and machines
motivate employees to perform well, give

Source: Industrial Psychology 8th Edition – Michael G. Aamodt

 Industrial/Organizational Psychology 2
 Concentrate on workplace design, Hawthorne, Illinois, that have come to
human-machine interaction, represent any change in behavior when
ergonomics, and physical fatigue and people react to a change in the
stress environment
 They work with engineers and other technical  It demonstrated that employee behavior
professionals to make workplace safer and is complex and that the interpersonal
more efficient interactions between managers and
employees played a tremendous role in
BRIEF HISTORY OF I/O PSYCHOLOGY employee behavior
 I/O psychology has a short history  Hawthorne Effect – when employees
 It is thought to have started in 1903 when change their behavior due solely to the
Walter Dill Scott wrote the Theory of fact that they are receiving attention or
Advertising, in which psychology was first are being observed.
applied to business  Hawthorne studies inspired psychologists
 1910: Huge Münsterberg wrote Psychology to increase their focus on human relations
and industrial efficiency in the workplace and to explore the
 1911: Walter Dill Scott wrote the book effects of employee attitudes
Increasing Human efficiency in business  1960: passage of several major pieces of civil
 I/O Psychology is more or less born in the rights legislation that focused the attention of
early 1900s. HR professionals on developing fair selections
 Common terms for this field were economic techniques.
psychology and business psychology  It is also characterized by:
 Army Alpha and Army Beta tests – tests of - Sensitivity training
mental ability administered by I/O - T-Groups for managers
psychologists  1980s & 1990s: Major changes to IO
 Alpha for those who can read; they are psychology occurred
assigned to officer training  Increase use of fairly sophisticated
 Beta for those who can’t read; they are statistical techniques and methods of
assigned to the infantry analysis
 John Watson – a pioneer of behaviorism who  There is a new interest in the application
developed perceptual and motor tests for of cognitive psychology to the industry.
potential pilots - Many articles approached the
 Thomas A. Edison – an inventor who also performance appraisal issue by
created a 163-item test that he administered examining the thought process used
to over 900 applicants in an attempt to select by managers when they conduct
right employees. appraisals
 Frank Gilbreth & Lillian Moller Gilbreth – they  Increased interest in the effects of work
were among the first scientists to improve on family life and leisure activities.
productivity and reduce fatigue by studying - Employee stress—especially stress
the motions by workers resulting in workplace violence
 Frank became famous for developing received attention
improvements in bricklaying that  IO psychologists took a renewed interest
reduced the number of motions needed in developing methods to select
to lay a brick employees
 Lillian received her Ph.D. from Brown - Cognitive ability tests
University in 1915 - Personality tests
 Lillian became a professor of - Biodata
management and engineering at - Structured interviews
Purdue University.  Other changes that had significant
 During the early years of the effects
development of the field, prominent - Massive organizational downsizing
psychologists applied psychology to - Greater concern for diversity and
problems in industry outside the united gender issues
states - Aging workforce
 Hawthorne Studies – a series of studies - Increased concern about effects of
conducted at the western electric plant in stress
Source: Industrial Psychology 8th Edition – Michael G. Aamodt
 Industrial/Organizational Psychology 3
- Emphasis on organizational  IO psychologists who work in a public sector
development interventions work for a local, state, or federal government
 2000s: There are rapid advances in agency
technology and many tests and surveys are  In 2014, the Bureau of labor statistics released
not administered on the internet data that job opportunities for IO
 Changes in the demographic that constitute psychologists are estimated to grow by 53%
the workforce from 2012-2022
 Women are increasingly entering the
workforce and taking managerial roles EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS AND TYPES OF
 Hispanics and Latinos are now the largest PROGRAMS
minority group in the US population  Having a master’s or doctoral degree
 Asian Americans are the fastest-growing certainly increases employment and career
segment of the US population opportunities
 Increasing number of workers, vendors,  Graduate Record Exam – a standardized
and customers have English as their admission test required by most psychology
second language. graduate schools
 The global economy Is affecting the role of
IO psychology Types of Graduate programs
 As an increasing number of employees  Master’s degree programs:
work in other countries and as rates of  Terminal master’s degree programs – do
immigration increase, efforts must keep not have Ph.D. programs and a master’s
pace to understand various cultures, and degree is the highest that can be earned
training must be conducted so that at such schools
employees and managers can - Best suited for students wanting an
successfully work not only in other applied HR position in an organization
countries, but at home with expatriates  Doctoral programs usually have more
from other countries well-known faculty members and better
facilities and research funding
EMPLOYMENT OF I/O PSYCHOLOGISTS - Best suited for students who
eventually want to teach, do
research, or consult.
- Typically takes 5 years to complete
- Dissertation – a formal research
required of most doctoral students in
order to graduate. It is broader in
scope, longer, and requires more
original and independent effort than
the thesis
 Master’s programs requires about 40
hours of graduate coursework. Many
programs require a student to complete
a thesis which is completed in the second
year of graduate school.
 IO Psychologists who work at colleges - Internship – a situation in which a
typically teach and conduct research student works for an organization,
 IO Psychologists who work in consulting firms either for pay or as a volunteer, to
help a wide variety of organizations by receive practical work experience
helping them select a high quality and - Practicum – a paid or unpaid position
diverse workforce, designing systems that with an organization that gives a
motivate employees and treat them fairly, student practical work experience
training employees and ensuring that they
are being treated in an ethical and legal
manner
 IO psychologists who work in a private sector
work for a single company, whereas
consultants work with many companies
Source: Industrial Psychology 8th Edition – Michael G. Aamodt
 Industrial/Organizational Psychology 4
behind it is correct. It is often due to a poor
research design
 At times, many theories may explain a
particular behavior. At other times, behavior
can be predicted, but the reason for the
behavior may not be known. Also, we may
have questions but can’t predict what the
answer will be.

RESEARCH IN I/O PSYCHOLOGY

WHY CONDUCT RESEARCH?

 Answering questions and making decisions.
Research ultimately saves organizations
money. Monetary savings can result from
many factors including increased employee Literature reviews
satisfaction, increased productivity and  The search for literature of similar research is
fewer accidents important because if the question you are
 Research and everyday life. Understanding interested in answering has already been
research helps an individual to critically listen researched in 20 studies, it is not necessary to
and analyze results of these studies to make conduct another study.
more intelligent decisions  If the specific question has not been
 Common sense is often wrong. Common researched before, it is probable that it has
sense is not common and is often wrong. similar research conducted that can provide
Many of our common sense policies have good ideas on how to conduct one’s study.
been, and continue to be wrong  Journals – a written collection of articles
describing the methods and results of new
CONSIDERATIONS IN CONDUCTING RESEARCH research. These are the best source of
unbiased and accurate information about a
Ideas, Hypotheses, and Theories topic.
 The first step in conducting research is to  Bridge publications – designed to bridge the
decide what to research. Many research gap between academia and the applied
ideas stem from a person starting a sentence world. Articles in these are usually written by
with “I wonder…..” professors about a certain topic of interest,
 Once a question is asked, the next step is to but not as statistically complex or formal as
from a hypothesis. those in journals.
 Hypothesis – an educated prediction  Trade magazines – a collection of articles for
about the answer to a research question those “in the biz” about related professional
 Theory – a systematic set of assumptions topics, seldom directly reporting the methods
regarding the cause and nature of and results of new research. These present
behavior research in an easy-to-understand format,
 Even though a study might support a but can be somewhat biased
hypothesis, it is still important to determine  Magazines – an unscientific collection of
why the hypothesis is true articles about a wide range of topics
 In other cases, it is difficult to form a  Internet – a problem with relying on
hypothesus becayse a prediction could go secondary sources such as the internet is that
either way one cannot be sure if the information in a
 At times, a hypothesis may not be supported secondary source accurately reflects the
by a study even though the logic and theory information in the primary source.
Source: Industrial Psychology 8th Edition – Michael G. Aamodt
 Industrial/Organizational Psychology 5
- Dependent variable – the measure of
Location of the study behavior that is expected to change
 Laboratory research – 32% of IO psychology as a result of changes in the
research is conducted in a laboratory, usually independent variable
at a university. One disadvantage this poses - Experimental group – the group of
is external validity or generalizability. subjects that receives the
 External validity – refers to the extent to experimental treatment of interest to
which research results can be expected the experimenter
to hold true outside the specific setting in - Control group – a group of
which they were obtained employees who do not receive a
 Generalizability – is the extent to which particular type of training so that their
research results hold true outside the performance can be compared with
specific setting in which they were that of employees who do receive
obtained, just like external validity. training
 Research is often conducted in
laboratories because researchers can Quasi-experiments
control many variables that are not of  Quasi-experiments – a research method
interest in the study used in which the experimenter either does
 Field research – a research that is conducted not manipulate the independent variable or
in a natural setting as opposed to a in which subjects are not randomly assigned
laboratory. to conditions
 It loses control of extraneous variables  These are often used to evaluate the results
that are not of interest to the researcher of a new program implemented by an
(internal validity) organization.
 Informed consent – the formal process by
which subjects give permission to be Archival research
included in a study.  Archival research – research that involves the
- Seldom an issue in laboratory studies use of previously collected data or records to
- In field studies, obtaining informed answer a research question.
consent can be difficult and change  Desirable features of this method is not being
the way people behave obtrusive or expensive.
- It can only be waived only when the  Drawbacks from this method are due to the
research involves minimal risk to the fact that records in files are not always
participants. accurate and are not always kept up-to-
 Institutional reviewer boards – a date
committee designated to ensure the
ethical treatment of research subjects Surveys
- These review boards pay close  Surveys – a method of conducting research
attention to confidentiality and by asking people their opinion on some topic
ensure it by using subject ID numbers  It can be conducted via a variety of
rather than names and avoiding methods such as mail, personal interviews,
discussion of individual participants phone, email, and the internet
 It is important to consider whether the
Research to be used intended population can access the
 Experiments – a type of research study in medium of survey, whether they will agree to
which the independent variable is complete the survey, and the extent to
manipulated by the experimenter. which the person will provide honest and
 Cause and effect relationships are accurate answers
determined by this methods  A high response rate is essential for trust to be
 Manipulation – one of the two placed in survey results. Response rates can
characteristics that define an be increased by:
experiment; manipulation of one or more  Notifying participants in advance about
independent variables the survey
- Independent variable – the  Providing monetary or non-monetary
manipulated variable in an incentives
experiment
Source: Industrial Psychology 8th Edition – Michael G. Aamodt
 Industrial/Organizational Psychology 6
 Personalizing the survey through such  A large sample size is not necessary if the
means as an original signature or experimenter can choose a random sample
addressing the participant in a cover and control for many extraneous variables
letter  The method of selecting the sample is
 Ensuring anonymity of respondents using dependent
ID numbers  To increase experimental rigor and decrease
 Having a university sponsor the survey the costs of conducting research, many
 Distributing the survey in person studies are conducted at universities using
 Well-designed survey questions are easy to students as subjects rather than employees
understand; use simple language; do not ask  Random sample – a sample in which every
for hypothetical questions and keep member of the relevant population had an
questions relatively short in length equal chance of being chosen to
 Another issue involving surveys is the extent to participate in the study.
which responses to the survey questions are  Convenience sample – a nonrandom
accurate research sample that is used because it is
 Inaccurately responding to survey easily avoidable
questions is not always an intentional  Random assignment – random, unbiased
attempt to be dishonest, but it can be assignment of subjects in a research sample
also a result of the person not actually to the various experimental control
knowing the correct answer to a question conditions

Meta-analysis Running the study

 Meta-analysis – is a statistical method of  To ensure that data are collected in an
reaching conclusions based on previous unbiased fashion, it is important that all
research instructions to the subjects be stated in a
 Effect size – a statistic that indicates the standardized fashion and at a level that is
amount of change caused by an understandable
experimental manipulation  Debriefed – refers to the act of informing the
 Mean effect size – a statistic that is the subject in an experiment about the purpose
average of the effect sizes for all studies of the study in which he or she was a
included in the analysis participant and providing any other relevant
 Correlation coefficients(r) – a statistic information
resulting from performing a correlation
that indicates the magnitude and Statistical analysis
direction of a coefficient  Results are statistically analyzed after being
 Difference score(d) – a type of effect size collected.
used in meta-analysis that indicates how  It helps us determine how confident we are
many standard deviations separate the that our results are real and did not occur by
mean score for the experimental group chance alone
from the control group  Statistical analysis provides answers on the
- used as the effect size when looking significance of results by determining the
at the difference between two probability that our data were a result of
groups chance.
 Practical significance – the extent to  Significance levels indicate only the level of
which the results of a study have actual confidence we can place on a result being
impact on human behavior. the product of chance.
 A reference to a meta-analysis should carry  To determine the strength of a finding, we use
more weight than a reference to only one or the effect size instead.
two studies
Correlation
Subject samples  A statistical procedure used to measure the
 Decisions must be made regarding the size, relationship between two variables.
composition, and method of selecting the  Correlation does not indicate a cause-and-
subjects who will serve as the sample in a effect relationship because an intervening
study. variable often accounts for the relationship
between the variables
Source: Industrial Psychology 8th Edition – Michael G. Aamodt
 Industrial/Organizational Psychology 7
 Intervening variable – a third variable that
can often explain the relationship between
two other variables
 The result of correlational analysis is a number
called a correlation coefficient.
 The values of this coefficient range from 1 to
1; the further the coefficient is from zero, the
greater the relationship between two
variables.
 A negative (-) correlation means that as the
values of one variable increase, the values of
a second variable decrease.

ETHICS IN I/O PSYCHOLOGY

 Ethical dilemmas – are ambiguous situations that
require a personal judgement of what is right or
wrong because there are no rules, policies, or
laws guiding such decisions. These dilemmas are
often faced every day by organizations and
employees
 Type A: there is a high level of uncertainty
as to what is right or wrong, there appears
to be no best solution, and there are both
positive and negative consequences to
a decision
 Type B: also called rationalizing
dilemmas, the difference between right
and wrong is much clearer than in a Type
A dilemma. Individuals usually know what
is right but choose the solution that is most
advantageous to themselves

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Source: Industrial Psychology 8th Edition – Michael G. Aamodt