Industrial and organizational psychology (also known as I/O psychology, work psychology, work and organizational psychology, W-O psychology, occupational psychology, or personnel psychology) concerns the application of psychological theories, research methods, and intervention strategies to workplace issues. I/O psychologists are interested in making organizations more productive while ensuring workers are able to lead physically and psychologically healthy lives. Relevant topics include personnel psychology, motivation and leadership, employee selection, training, and development, organization development and guided change, organizational behavior, and work and family issues. I/O psychologists who work for an organization are most likely to work in the HR (human resources) department. However, many I/O psychologists pursue careers as independent consultants or applied academic researchers.

I/O Psychology as a specialty area has, ccording to Paul M. Muchinsky, atuhor of "Applied Psycholgy at Work", 1990, (06), a more restricted definititon than Psychology as a whole. Guion (1965) defines Industrial and Organizational Psycholgoy as "the scientific study of the relationship between man and the world of work:... in the process of making a living" (p. 817), Blum and Naylor (1968) defines it as "simply the application or extension of psycholgoical facts and principles to the problems concerning human being operating within the context of business and industry" (p 4). Broadly speaking, the I/O Psychologist is concerned with behavior in work situations, Muchinsky states.

In his text book, he explains the two sides of I/O Psychology: science and practice. He further states that I/O Psychology is a legitimate fiels of scientific inquiry, concerned with advancing knowledge of people at work; he points out that it is an academic discipline. this is supported by him stating that "as in any area of science, questions are posed by I/O Psychologists to gudiee their investigaiton (with the) use of the scientific method to find answers.

One of the tools I/O psychologists commonly utilize in the field is called a job analysis. Job analyses identify essential characteristics associated with any particular position through interviews of job incumbents, subject matter experts, supervisors and/or past job descriptions. Job analysis measures both worker facets necessary to perform the job adequately (aka KSAOs - knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (such as personality, beliefs, and attitudes) as well as unique facets of the job itself. Once a job analysis is complete, I/O psychologists will typically utilize this information to design and validate systems to select new applicants, restructure employee performance appraisals, uncover training needs, and analyze fairness in employee compensation. Though a thorough job analysis takes time, resources and money, its benefits tend to outweigh the costs.

I/O psychologists also may employ psychometric tests to measure the abilities and personality traits of prospective and current employees. These tests are commonly used for employee selection and other employment decisions. Employee attitudes such as morale, job satisfaction, or feelings towards management or customers are other commonly measured work-related person variables.

Increasingly, people factors are recognized as a major determinant of organizational performance and a key competitive differential. Psychologists therefore may also advise senior managers on the management of organizational climate or culture, on dealing with organizational change, or on group dynamics within an organization. It is probably partly for this reason that management coaching is an increasingly popular part of the psychologist's work.

Industrial and organizational psychology is a diverse field incorporating aspects of disciplines such as social psychology, personality psychology and quantitative psychology (which includes psychometrics) as well as less closely linked social studies such as law. As a diverse, applied field, influences from any branch of psychology, even clinical psychology, are not uncommon. At one point in time, industrial and organizational psychology was not distinguished from vocational (counseling) psychology or the study of human factors. Although the foregoing disciplines still overlap with industrial and organizational psychology, today they are formally taught in separate classes and housed in separate graduate-level psychology programs within a psychology department.

Many industrial and organizational psychologists specialize in one of the following aspects: psychometrics; quality; employment law; personnel selection; training; leadership selection, coaching and development; organizational design and change. Many of these activities are referred to as talent management. Some I/O psychologists are academic (working in both business and psychology departments) or non-academic researchers, while many others are engaged in practice, holding positions such as the following:

• executive coach
• counselor
• diversity consultant
• legislative compliance officer
• labor relations specialist
• human resources specialist
• process improvement consultant
• manager of selection and training
• Assessment and Development Specialist

There are also a number of methodologies specifically dedicated to Organizational Psychology such as Peter Senge’s 5th Discipline and Arthur F. Carmazzi’s Directive Communication. These are a variety of psychological approaches that have been developed into a system for specific outcomes such as the 5th Discipline’s “learning organization” or Directive Communication’s “Organizational culture enhancement”.

In an attempt to correct for statistical artifacts (i.e., sampling error, unreliability and range restriction) that compromise the ability of I/O psychologists to draw general conclusions from a single study, I/O researchers have increasingly employed a technique known as meta-analysis. Meta-analysis is a methodology for averaging results across studies. It has been used to address research questions involving various levels of analysis (i.e., individual, group, organizational, and/or vocational). Although the use of meta-analytic methods is not without controversy, its more frequent appearance in the I/O research literature has profoundly impacted the field. The most well-known meta-analytic approaches are those of Hunter & Schmidt (1990, 2004), Rosenthal (1991), and Hedges & Olkin (1985).

Financial compensation of industrial and organizational psychologists generally is among the highest in the whole field of psychology. While salary and benefits tend to be significantly greater in the private sector, academics who specialize in industrial and organizational psychology may command greater compensation than their faculty peers. Teaching (and sometimes research) opportunities exist in business schools as well as in psychology programs. Business schools typically offer more generous salaries and benefits than do psychology programs. Some academics choose to gain practical experience and access to data, as well as to supplement their incomes, by engaging in consulting work on the side.

For a thorough, well researched, analyzed, comparative, documented history review of American Industrial and Organizational Psychology (also known as Scientific Management) and a Biography of its great American Founding Father, an Engineer in Scientific Management, you may refer to the seven books compiled into two volumes titled Frederick W. Taylor: Father of Scientific Management authored by Frank Barkley Copley, reprint of Economic Classics, New York 1969; first edition 1923 by Harper and Brothers Publishers. It can also be found at The Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number 68-55515. And at the San Francisco Public Library, SF, CA, USA, Card Catalogue B, T2132c, copyright 1969. With this books one can abhor the idea of having to write the history already written, and as Frederick Taylor's strategic thinking would perhaps say if he was alive today, progress can be made by first researching the existing work, analyzing it, comparing it and if need be adding to it. A caveat would definitely be that the adding ought to be upward not downward as to strip it down. As it is pointed out on the first volume progress has always been made by adding to the already existing intellect. Our profession may greatly benefit by taking many of the overarching business acumen array of principles Frederick Taylor based on his hands-on work in which he would take a concept or scheme or proven paradigm and extrapolate its application to another situation, company, project or field and follow the general parameters of the original as much as plausible, making the necessary adjustments to fit it to the new project, company or career. Furthermore, this advent of Scientific Management set itself as a science apart from other forms of science by first without any abashment, even on the face of resistence to his new methods, applying the methods and then taking them to the stage of proving them as a proven principle or practice that works.

Contrary to other sciences, the author of his biography elued to the fact that the scientific method used to establish a theory or prove a thesis was not used by Frederick Taylor. Frederick Taylor felt that he would rather set a maaagement practice in motion, analyze its results, and if it produced higher wages, lower labor cost and a higher profit, then and only then would he present it a scientific principle which more often than not was widely adopted with enormous longivity within the organizational core practices. Therefore, he did not enjoy the luxury of the safety alloted by the scientific method in a lab to contain side-effects of his practice. It was all hands-on work. Thus, the enormous resistence his new methods usually encountered which I naturally would say ought to be the the reaction of any savvy, critical, cautious business owner or corporate governing body in lieu of the potentially costly effect a practice whose statistical validity and reliability has not been proven that it's positive or negative correlation or cause-effect relationship are probably due to chance only 0.05 or less on the index of statistical significance. Said differently that the presence of any correlation or cause-effect relationships are probably not due merely to chance 95% or better yet 99% of the time; thus making it statistically significant. In spite of not having the advantage of access and the resources to, during his days (1856-1915), use these statistical research, design and analysis tests, which are part of the rational scientific method since the last several decaded, Frederick Taylor's efforts and results towards advancing effectiveness and efficiency are admirable.

The guiding method(s) he used and fine-tuned over time is objectively, clearly and comprehensively described by the author of his biography in volume one.

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The history of the field differs country by country.

In the United States, its origins are those of applied psychology in the early 20th Century, when the nation was experiencing tremendous industrialization, corporatization, unionization, immigration, urbanization and physical expansion. Arguably, the field's greatest early pioneers were Hugo Münsterberg (1863-1916), Walter Dill Scott (1869-1955) and Walter Van Dyke Bingham (1880-1952). As in other countries, wartime necessity (e.g., World War I and World War II) led to the discipline's substantial growth. Business demand for scientific management, selection and training also has promoted and sustained the field's development.

For a detailed history of industrial and organizational psychology, particularly in the United States (but with some discussion of developments in other countries), one can consult Koppes, L. L. (Ed.). (2007). Historical perspectives in industrial and organizational psychology. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.

For a concise history of Industrial/Organizational Psychology please visit History

• Hawthorne studies at Western Electric
• U.S. Army Project A

• Anderson, N., Ones, D. S., Sinangil, H. K., & Viswesvaran, C. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of industrial, work and organizational psychology, Volume 1: Personnel psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.
• Anderson, N., Ones, D. S., Sinangil, H. K., & Viswesvaran, C. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of industrial, work and organizational psychology, Volume 2: Organizational psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.
• Borman, W. C., Ilgen, D., R., & Klimoski, R., J. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of Psychology: Vol 12 Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
• Borman, W. C., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1993). Expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance. Chapter in N. Schmitt and W. C. Borman (Eds.), Personnel Selection. San Francisco: Josey-Bass (pp. 71-98).
• Campbell, J. P., Gasser, M. B., & Oswald, F. L. (1996). The substantive nature of job performance variability. In K. R. Murphy (Ed.), Individual differences and behavior in organizations (pp. 258–299). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Dunnette, M. D. (Ed.). (1976). Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Chicago: Rand McNally.
• Dunnette, M. D., & Hough, L. M. (Eds.). (1991). Handbook of Industrial/Organizational Psychology (4 Volumes). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
• Greenberg, Jerald [1]. Managing Behavior in Organizations, Prentice Hall, 2005. [2]
• Guion, R. M. (1998). Assessment, measurement and prediction for personnel decisions. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Hunter, J. E., & Schmidt, F. L. (1990). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
• Hunter, J. E., & Schmidt, F. L. (2004). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
• Lange, S. L. (2005). Content valid minimum qualifications: Does it reduce adverse impact? Unpublished dissertation, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI.
• Lowman, R. L. (Ed.). (2002). The California School of Organizational Studies handbook of organizational consulting psychology: A comprehensive guide to theory, skills and techniques. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Muchinsky, P. M. (Ed.). (2002). Psychology Applied to Work. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
• Rogelberg, S., G. (Ed.). (2002). Handbook of research methods in industrial and organizational psychology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
• Sackett, P. R., & Wilk, S. L. (1994). Within group norming and other forms of score adjustment in pre-employment testing. American Psychologist, 49, 929-954.
• Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 262-274.

• Journal of Applied Psychology
• Personnel Psychology
• Academy of Management Journal
• Academy of Management Review
• Journal of Management
• Human Performance
• The Journal of Organizational Behavior
• Organizational Research Methods
• The Journal of Vocational Behavior
• Administrative Science Quarterly
• Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
• European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
• Applied Psychology: An International Review
• International Journal of Selection and Assessment
• International Journal of Training and Development
• Work and Stress
• Journal of Occupational Health Psychology
• International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology [3] (edited annual volume)

• Academy of Management (AOM), United States
• Association of Business Psychologists, UK
• Canadian Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (CSIOP), Canada
• College of Organisational Psychologists (COP), Australian Psychological Society, Australia
• Division of Occupational Psychology, British Psychological Society, UK
• European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP), Europe
• Industrial Psychology Research Centre, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
• Minnesota Professionals for Psychology Applied to Work (MPPAW), United States
• Division 1: Work & Organizational Psychology, The International Association of Applied Psychology, International
• NIOSH - Occupational Health Psychology, United States
• Organizational Behavior Management Network (OBM Network)
• Industrial Division, Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), South Africa
• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), United States
• Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), United States
• Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology of South Africa (SIOPSA), South Africa

In many countries it is possible to obtain a bachelor's degree, master's degree, Psy.D., and/or a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology. The types of degrees offered vary by educational institution. There are both advantages and disadvantages to obtaining a specific type of degree (e.g., master's degree) in lieu of another type of degree (e.g., Ph.D.). Some helpful ways to learn more about graduate programs and their fit to one's needs and goals include taking or sitting in on an industrial and organizational psychology course or class; speaking to industrial and organizational psychology faculty, students, and practitioners; consulting with a career counselor; taking a reputable vocational interest survey; and visiting program websites. Regardless of one's needs or goals, admission into industrial and organizational psychology programs can be highly competitive, especially given that many programs accept only a small number of students each year.

In the United States, specific resources that can help to clarify the fit of particular programs to an individual's needs, goals, and abilities are Graduate Training Programs (Including Program Rankings) - SIOP, Top U.S. Graduate School Programs - U.S. News & World Report, and Professional I/O Psychologist Network.

• Behavioral Risk Management
• Consulting Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Employment Law
• How Occupation and Employment can affect Identity
• Human Factors
• Human Resources Development
• Human resource management
• Industrial engineering
• Industrial sociology
• Labor and industrial relations
• Labor Law
• List of human resource management topics
• List of psychological topics
• Important publications in Industrial and organizational psychology
• Organizational behavior
• Organizational development
• Organizational empowerment
• Personality psychology
• Psychometrics
• Social psychology
• Total quality management
• Vocational (Counseling) Psychology

• Industrial & organizational psychology at The Psychology Wiki
• Research on Organizations: Bibliography Database and Maps
• Professional I/O Psychologist Network (where you can post your own messages and/or read and reply to others' postings; organized by topic; maintains anonymity via use of avatars)

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