Industrial Psychology

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INTRODUCTION Industrial psychology is concerned with people at work. It is also called personnel psychology. A closely related field is known as organizational psychology. Traditionally, industrial psychologists have assessed differences among individual workers and have evaluated individual jobs. Organizational psychologists generally seek to understand how workers function in an organization, and how the organization functions in society. The distinctions between industrial psychology and organizational psychology are not always clear. Thus, the two areas are often referred to jointly as industrial/organizational psychology, or I/O psychology. I/O psychologists work for businesses, consulting firms, government departments, and colleges and universities. Both industrial and organizational psychologists help determine fair pay scales, generally based on the levels of skill and education a job requires and any hazards it poses. I/O psychologists also research causes of and ways of reducing industrial accidents. Industrial psychologists typically help employers find the best person for a job, evaluate job performance, and train employees. In developing a system for matching an individual to a job, an industrial psychologist must first determine what special knowledge, skills, and abilities the job demands. The psychologist then designs a selection system to judge an applicant's qualifications for the job. The objective of such a system is to predict a person's performance in the workplace. Commonly used selection tools include interviews, letters of reference, work samples, and tests of aptitudes, abilities, knowledge, interests and personality. Developing methods of evaluating job performance is a major function... ... middle of paper ... ...s in the corporate world by setting new standards to promote and better satisfy their employees. We chose four leading companies in four different industries. The above analysis definitely reveals that perhaps one of the reasons why these companies are the leaders in their industry is because they are well aware of the importance of the work force. They mention in their mission statements as well that yes in deed customers are important but in order to make the customer happy they first need to motivate and satisfy the employee as well. According to Citibank, the general belief is that a happy worker is a motivated and loyal one. So keeping employees' spirits high is a sure-fire way of maintaining a productive workforce. A productive work force would ultimately lead to a healthy organization which would not only promote the society its working for but also itself.

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