Organizational Psychology

Organizational Psychology

Organizational psychology is the branch of psychology that uses psychological techniques and values to solve problems in the workplace. I/O psychology concentrates on troubles by employees which affect other employees in an organizational setting (Reference for Business, 2013). Known as I/O psychology, it focuses on improving output, alleviating stress, and other issues that concern the welfare of the employees. I/O psychologists work on the employees’ attitudes and behavior, evaluate companies, and offer leadership training (Cherry, 2013).

There are two aspects of I/O; the industrial side, and the organizational side. The industrial side is known as personnel psychology and deals with finding the best person for the best job. The industrial side also encompasses job training, measuring job performance, and standardizing job performance. The organizational side looks at how the organization affects the individual employee’s behavior. The organizational side looks at the factors that affect the employees, such as the social norms and role expectations, and tries to improve each employee’s performance and ultimately improve the organization (Cherry, 2013).

There are four different approaches that I/O psychologists use to create an effective performance. Discovering what motivates the employees to work and creating the programs that uses the motivation methods for better working conditions. Although job satisfaction does not correlate to increased performance or less absenteeism, job satisfaction is a goal of the psychologist. Learning how leaders act and how to train employees to lead is an important factor for the psychologist. Most important, putting the individual approaches together to help the organization develop and grow (Reference for Business, 2013).

Organizational psychologies use research and statistical methods for answers to many questions regarding issues from employees’ attitudes to new, more efficient training methods, to boosting job performance. The most basic method of research is simple observation. The psychologist can watch, observe, and take notes on the worker’s attitudes, behaviors, and job performance. They can use the archival files to study the records of the employees. The files are easy to retrieve and because the data was not gathered for the survey purpose, the information is not distorted (Jax & Britt, 2008). Surveys, standard or made to order are another research method. They can bee the paper and pencil type, or surveys taken either in the Internet or the company’s intranet. Taking surveys several months apart for a longitudinal study will help to