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Industrial-Organizational Psychology Topics

Industrial-Organizational (I-O)Psychology is defined simply as “psychology applied to work” (APA 1971). It studies “work” in its broadest sense, including paid and unpaid effort, recreation, and any purpose-driven effort (sports, hobbies). Compared with other specialties, I-O is more “applied” – putting practice above theory, since it typically aims to solve specific problems, increase efficiency, and maximize outcomes.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Research Topics

• Corporate Ethics Topics
• Group Dynamics Topics
• Individual Differences Topics
• Job Satisfaction Topics
• Leadership and Management Topics
• Organizational Behavior Topics
• Organizational Development Topics
• Recruitment Topics
• Work Motivation Topics

Compared with other fields of psychology, I-O psychology today has several features: (a) Small: I-O is a small specialty, including just 5% of US psychologists. (b) High-employment: Since I-O is in high demand in the industry; it has a negative unemployment rate below zero. (c) Lucrative: I-O has long had the highest salary, averaging at least 25% higher than 14 other psychology specialties. (d) Separate: I-O has become a very separate specialty within psychology, with its own independent association since 1987 – the Society for I-O Psychology (SIOP). (e) Hybrid: I-O overlaps with business and other social sciences. (f) Credentials: There is no one credential to define who is an I-O psychologist – be this a M.A., M.S., M.B.A., Ph.D., Psy.D., state license, APA or SIOP membership, or ABPP Diploma. (g) Demographics: SIOP members today are 6% ethnic minorities, 37% female, only 26% licensed, and 85% have a doctorate. I-O work settings vary greatly – employees in large firms, small “boutique” consulting firms, professors in psychology or business programs, or solo-practitioners.

Today, I-O psychology faces several challenges – such as globalization of organizations, the increased diversity of the US workforce, increased regulation by government and labor law, and the changing nature of work. These same challenges make a science-based I-O psychology more indispensable to successful organizations.

References:

• American Psychological Association (APA). (1971). Effective practice of psychology in industry: Task Force on the practice of psychology in industry. American Psychologist, 26, 974–991.
• Benjamin, L.T.,&Baker, D. B. (2004). Fromse´ance to science: Ahistory of the profession of psychology in America. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• Dunnette, M. D., & Hough, L. (Eds.). (1990–1994). Handbook of industrial-organizational psychology. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.
• Jones, J.W., Steffy, B. D., & Bray, D.W. (1991). Applying psychology in business: Handbook for managers and HR professionals. Lexington: Lexington Books.
• McGregor, D. M. (1960). The human side of enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Riggio, R. E. (2008). Introduction to industrial-organizational psychology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
• Roethlisberger, F. J., & Dickson, W. J. (1939). Management and the worker. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Scott, W. D. (1903). The theory of advertising. Boston: Small, Maynard, & Co.
• Zedeck, S. (Ed.) (2011). APA Handbook of industrial-organizational psychology. Washington, DC: APA.

•   [email protected]

Psychology Research Guide

I/o industrial or organizational psychology.

I/O, Industrial, Organizational or Industrial-Organizational Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior in organizations and work situations. I/O Psychologists study individual, group, and organizational behavior and use this knowledge to improve workplace problems. Before you explore the database below to find evidence for your project, you may find it helpful to learn more about this area of psychology. The following resources can help you narrow your topic, learn about the language used to describe psychology topics, and get you up to speed on the major advancements in this field.

• Potential Topics: APA Spotlight Articles I/O Psychology This link opens in a new window
• Learn more about Industrial and Organizational Psychology on the American Psychological Association's website

I/O Psychology Databases

Research in I/O psychology utilizes core psychology resources, as well as resources in business, human resources, and sociology. You may find it helpful to search the following databases for your I/o topics or research questions, in addition to the core resources listed on the home page.

I/O Psychology Subject Headings

You may find it helpful to take advantage of predefined subjects or subject headings in Shapiro Databases. These subjects are applied to articles and books by expert catalogers to help you find materials on your topic.

• Learn more about Subject Searching

Consider using databases to perform subject searches, or incorporating words from applicable subjects into your keyword searches. Here are some I/O subjects to consider:

• Industrial & Organizational Psychology
• Management & Management Training
• Occupational Interests & Guidance
• Organizational Behavior
• Personnel Attitudes & Job Satisfaction
• Personnel Evaluation & Job Performance
• Personnel Management & Selection & Training
• Professional Education & Training
• Working Conditions & Industrial Safety

I/O Example Search

Not sure what you want to research exactly, but want to get a feel for the resources available? Try the following search in any of the databases listed above:

(Industrial OR Organizational OR I/O) AND Psych*

There isn't just one accepted word for this area of psychology, so we use OR boolean operators to tell the database any of the listed terms are relevant to our search. We use parenthesis to organize our search, and we stem or truncate the word psychology with the asterisk to tell the database that any ending of the word, as long as the letters psych are at the beginning of the word, will do. This way, the word psychological and other related terms will also be included.

• Learn more about Boolean Operators/Boolean Searching

I/O Psychology Organization Websites

• Alliance for Organizational Psychology This link opens in a new window Founded in 1991, EAWOP is an open network of I/O psychology groups. Their website includes publications and resources.
• Harvard Business Review Blog - Psychology This link opens in a new window Current articles from the HBR Blog on psychology in business.
• Occupational Information Network (O*NET) This link opens in a new window O*NET is a regularly updated database of occupational characteristics and worker requirements information across the U.S. economy. It describes occupations in terms of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required as well as how the work is performed in terms of tasks, work activities, and other descriptors. It is made available by the United States Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.
• Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology (SIOP) This link opens in a new window Membership organization for I-O psychologists. SIOP is a division of the American Psychological Association and an organizational affiliate of the Association for Psychological Science.
• SIOP-SHRM White Papers The SHRM-SIOP Science of HR white paper series provides practitioner-oriented reviews of evidence-based HR practices written by leading researchers and practitioners in the field of I-O psychology and HR.
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• Next: Mental Health >>

Home > Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects > ALL-PROGRAMS > Industrial/Organizational Psychology Theses

Industrial/Organizational Psychology Theses

Theses/dissertations from 2022 2022.

Employee Satisfaction and Perceptions of Organizational Leadership Accountability , Caroline M. Clancy

The Effects of Transformational Leadership on Sales Performance in a Multilevel Marketing Organization , Alexander Techy

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Too Illegit to Quit: The Impact of Illegitiate Tasks on Turnover Intentions and Well-Being , Jacob Wessels

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

The Effects of Positive and Negative Humor at Work , Trevor Frey

Diverse Teams, Team Effectiveness, and the Moderating Effect of Organizational Support , Hannah Tilstra

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Effects of Psychological Need Satisfaction on Proactive Work Behaviors , Shota Kawasaki

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Gender Differences in Development Center Performance in a Healthcare Organization , Samuel Lawson

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Success in Learning Groups: Where have we been? And Where are we going? , Tiffany Michelle Ackerman

Individual Differences as Predictors of Success for Learning Community Students , Nicole Haffield

Moderating Effects of Resilience and Recovery on the Stressor-Strain Relationship Among Law Enforcement Officers , Austin Hearne

Selection Portfolio: Applying Modern Portfolio Theory to Personnel Selection , Eric Leingang

The Hogan Development Survey: Personality in Selecting and Training Aviation Pilots , Jenna McChesney

Evaluating a Measure of Student Effectiveness in an Undergraduate Psychology Program , Colin Omori

Participant Self-Assessment of Development Center Performance , Ryan Powley

“Let’s be clear”: Exploring the Role of Transparency Within the Organization , Maxwell Salazar

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

The Effect of an Email Intervention Tailored to Highly Ambitious Students on University Retention , Lauren Bahls

911,What's My Emergency? Emotional Labor, Work-Related Rumination, and Strain Outcomes in Emergency Medical Dispatchers , Jessica Lee Deselms

Can You Hack It? Validating Predictors for IT Boot Camps , Courtney Gear

Intervention E-mails and Retention: How E-mails Tailored to Personality Impact an Undergraduate Student's Decision to Return to School or Not , John Kelly Heffernon

Prudence and Persistence: Personality in Student Retention , Logan J. Michels

Examination of the Antecedents, Reactions, and Outcomes to a Major Technology-driven Organizational Change , Ngoc Dinh Nguyen

Training Coping Techniques to Reduce Statistics Anxiety , Brittany Prothe

Assessing the Effect of Personality Characteristics of Minnesota Golfers on the Brand Equity of Golf Drivers , Eric Schinella

Mood and Engagement Contagion in a Call Center Environment , Sarah Welsch

Why Do Some Employees Readjust to Their Home Organizations Better Than Others? Job Demands-Resources Model of Repatriation Adjustment , Yukiko Yamasaki

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Fitting Flow: An Analysis of the Role of Flow Within a Model of Occupational Stress , Jeffrey Alan Dahlke

Created Equal? Comparing Disturbing Media Outcomes Across Occupations , Christine Nicole Gundermann

The Influence of Perceived Similarity, Affect and Trust on the Performance of Student Learning Groups , Jennifer Louise Lacewell

Depth of a Salesman: Exploring Personality as a Predictor of Sales Performance in a Multi-Level Marketing Sample , Colleen Rose Miller

Expatriate Adjustment of U.S. Military on Foreign Assignment:The Role of Personality and Cultural Intelligence in Adjustment , Jennifer Pauline Stockert

Organizational Trust As a Moderator of the Relationship between Burnout and Intentions to Quit , Glenn Trussell

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Ethnic Names, Resumes, and Occupational stereotypes: Will D'Money Get the Job? , Tony Matthew Carthen

Examining the Effectiveness of the After Action Review for Online and Face-to-Face Discussion Groups , William Cradick

University Commitment: Test of a Three-Component Model , Brittany Davis

An Investigation into the Effect of Power on Entrepreneurial Motivations , Jack Reed Durand

Development and Enhancement to a Pilot Selection Battery for a University Aviation Program , Ryan Thomas Hanna

Overseas Assignments: Expatriate and Spousal Adjustment in the U.S. Air Force , Andrew R. Hayes

The Roles of Social Support and Job Meaningfulness in the Disturbing Media Exposure-Job Strain Relationship , Hung T. Hoang

Student Assessment of Professor Effectiveness , Roger Emil Knutson

Dirty Work: The Effects of Viewing Disturbing Media on Military Attorneys , Natalie Lynn Sokol

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Selection System Prediction Of Safety: A Step Toward Zero Accidents In South African Mining , Rachel Aguilera-Vanderheyden

Examining Generational Differences across Organizational Factors that Relate to Turnover , Kimberly Asuncion

An Investigation of Online Unproctored Testing and Cheating Motivations Using Equity Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior , Valerie Nicole Brophy

Race, Gender, and Leadership Promotion: The Moderating Effect of Social Dominance Orientation , Chelsea Chatham

Disentangling Individual, Organization, and Learning Process Factors that Drive Employee Participation , Diana Colangelo

Will [email protected] get the Job Done? An Analysis of Employees' Email Usernames, Turnover, and Job Performance , Jessica Marie Lillegaard

Using Personality Traits to Select Customer-Oriented Security Guards , Tracy Marie Shega

Mobile Internet Testing: Applicant Reactions To Mobile Internet Testing , Sarah Smeltzer

Ethical Leadership: Need for Cross-Cultural Examinations , Shuo Tian

Development of a Pilot Selection System for a Midwestern University Aviation Program , Kathryn Wilson

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Identifying Organizational Factors that Moderate the Engagement-Turnover Relationship in a Healthcare Setting , Stevie Ann Collini

Organizational Wellness Programs: Who Participates and Does it Help? , Justin Michael Dumond

Coping with Economic Stressors: Religious and Non-Religious Strategies for Managing Psychological Distress , Jonathan Karl Feil

The Creation and Validation of a Pilot Selection System for a Midwestern University Aviation Department , Jacob William Forsman

The National Survey of Student Engagement as a Predictor of Academic Success , Paul Michael Fursman

Perceptions of a Text-Based SJT versus an Animated SJT , Amanda Helen Halabi

The Moderating Effects of Work Control and Leisure Control on the Recovery-Strain Relationship , Jason Nicholas Jaber

The Role Social Influence Has On Dormitory Residents' Responses to Fire Alarms , Michael Otting Leytem

The Impact of Culture, Industry Type, and Job Relevance on Applicant Reactions , Olivia Martin

Someone Who Understands: The Effect of Support on Law Enforcement Officers Exposed to Disturbing Media , Jessica Morales

The Effects of Task Ambiguity and Individual Differences on Personal Internet Use at Work , Hitoshi Nishina

The Roles of Self-Efficacy and Self-Deception in Cheating on Unproctored Internet Testing , Christopher Adam Wedge

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

Assessing Transfer Student Performance , Hyderhusain Shakir Abadin

Should You Hire [email protected]?: An Analysis of Job Applicants' Email Addresses and their Scores on Pre-Employment Assessments , Evan Blackhurst

The Dirty Work Of Law Enforcement: Emotion, Secondary Traumatic Stress, And Burnout In Federal Officers Exposed To Disturbing Media , Amanda Harms

Comparison of a Ranking and Rating Format of the 5Plus5: A Personality Measure , Kristy Lynn Jungemann

Cultural Intelligence and Collective Efficacy in Virtual Team Effectiveness , Pei See Ng

Relationship Type Determines the Target of Threat in Perceived Relational Devaluation: Organizational Self vs. Interpersonal Relationships , Peter Sanacore

Development of an Assessment Center as a Selection Method for I/O Graduate Applicants , Ting Tseng

Hiking, Haiku, or Happy Hour After Hours: The Effects of Need Satisfaction and Proactive Personality on the Recovery-Strain Relationship , Paige Woodruff

Exploring the Antecedents of Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Knowledge-based Virtual Communities , Luman Yong

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6.2 Topics in Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Topics in Industrial and Organizational Psychology 1 2

Work occupies a central part of people’s lives around the world. For example, full-time workers in the U.S. work an average of 8.5 hours/day, spending more time working than performing any other life activity except for sleep (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). Work experiences exert a heavy effect on people’s life satisfaction (Erdogan, Bauer, Truxillo, & Mansfield, 2012), and career goals are a central concern of many young adults (e.g., Rogers, Creed, & Glendon, 2008). Indeed, most readers of this chapter are likely in college as a step toward achieving a hoped-for career!

However, the world of work is changing in many ways that present new questions and challenges for workers. For example, advances in technology, including automation, are disrupting major industries and changing or eliminating many jobs (Susskind & Susskind, 2016). Employers are increasingly experimenting with alternative work arrangements, like contract workers in “gig” jobs (e.g., driving for Uber or Lyft), rather than offering full-time work with job security and stable benefits (Friedman, 2014). Despite progress, women, racial and ethnic minorities, religious minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with disabilities still struggle to be accepted and successful in many workplaces (Myors et al., 2008). And, around the world, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers continue to search for decent work opportunities that can fulfill their basic needs (Moyce & Schenker, 2018).

Against this backdrop, industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology has an important role to play in improving organizations and promoting the well-being of workers. This chapter first presents a brief overview of I-O and what work in this field entails, and then reviews a series of major areas of research and practice within each half of the field.

I-O psychology is the scientific study of working and the application of psychological principles to workplace issues facing individuals, teams, and organizations. I-O psychologists apply the scientific method to investigate issues of critical relevance to individuals, businesses, and society. As a consequence, I-O psychologists are trained as scientist-practitioners with the ability to both conduct rigorous research and engage in the practical application of scientific knowledge alongside business people.

There are roughly 500 graduate programs in the U.S. that grant master’s and doctoral degrees in I-O psychology. Unlike many areas of psychology that require a doctoral degree practice, a terminal master’s degree is sufficient to pursue many excellent work opportunities in I-O psychology (Michalski, 2017). Moreover, the Department of Labor projects increased demand for I-O psychology into the mid-2020s. Much more information about graduate training and work opportunities is available on the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) website; SIOP is the primary professional body for the field.

Figure 1. SIOP, Division 14 of the American Psychological Association, has over 9,000 members as of January 2018.

Photo source: SIOP, used with permission.

Industrial Psychology

As the name “industrial-organizational” suggests, I-O psychology has often been viewed as a field with two distinct, though related, components. The industrial half of I-O Psychology, which is sometimes referred to as personnel psychology , focuses on the analysis of jobs; recruitment, selection, and training of employees; and evaluation of performance in the workplace. Industrial psychology is a close partner of human resource (HR) management in organizations, with industrial psychologists supplying the technical and legal expertise to create and evaluate the personnel systems that HR managers use on a daily basis. To this end, the major areas of research and practice that fall within industrial psychology include job analysis, recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, and training.

Job Analysis

Before we can hire people, before we can assess their performance, before we can decide on their salaries, before we can train them – before we can do virtually anything to affect a job, we must first understand what a job consists of. What tasks does it include? What skills does the job require? Where does the job fit within the organization? Job analysis helps I-O psychologists answer these questions (Sanchez & Levine, 2012). Because of its importance for making further decisions about jobs, many I-O psychologists begin their consulting work with a job analysis.

Generally speaking, a job analysis can fall into one of two categories: work-oriented or worker-oriented (Brannick, Levine, Morgeson, & Brannick, 2007). Work-oriented job analysis focuses on the job itself, and involves developing a list of tasks that the job involves. For example, a retail store sales clerk might assist customers in finding merchandise, answer customer questions, use a cash register to take money and make change, bag the merchandise, and thank the customer, among other responsibilities.  If we put this all together, it produces a job description that we can later use to identify training needs and the valuable behaviors that we should reward.

On the other hand, worker-oriented job analysis focuses on identifying the qualities needed by an employee to successfully perform the job in question. Traditionally, I-O psychologists have tried to identify several key characteristics of employees, including their knowledge (things they know), their skills (such as skill at persuading others), and their abilities (more stable traits they possess, like mathematical ability), often referred to as the “KSAs” required to perform the job. Returning to the example of our retail sales clerk, we might find that they need to be friendly, detail-oriented, reliable, and have the ability to learn about the merchandise the store has in stock. This information is crucial to developing a selection system that identifies job applicants with the right qualifications to be successful.

The process of completing a work- or worker-oriented job analysis procedure is actually quite similar. In each case, I-O consultants typically interview current employees and supervisors, or ask them to complete surveys, to gather information about the job. The consultants then use this information to write the task or KSA statements that describe the job.

Recruitment, Selection, & Placement

Once I-O psychologists understand what a job entails, and the requirements that are necessary to do the job, they can use this information to assist an organization in a wide variety of ways. Generally, this information will be used to aid the hiring process in an organization–quality job analysis information can help with this process in a variety of ways.

The hiring process actually begins with recruitment—before people can be hired into an organization, they must first apply for an open position. Recruitment refers to the process of attracting people to submit applications for open positions within an organization. Today, recruitment often takes advantage of technology, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and internet job boards like Indeed.com and Monster.com. In their attempts to recruit people to apply for a job opening, organizations will typically describe the requirements of the position, including educational requirements, and the main tasks and responsibilities associated with the position. Organizations may also attempt to describe aspects of the culture of the organization, such as the feel of the work environment, or the values or mission of the company. An organization that describes itself as “fast-paced” or “competitive” is likely to attract rather different applicants than an organization that advertises “teamwork” and “cooperation.”

Once an organization has recruited an applicant pool, the organization must decide how to assess the applicants, and the formal hiring process begins. The process used to evaluate job candidates and decide which ones to hire is typically referred to as personnel selection .  Personnel selection is one of the oldest topics in I-O psychology, dating back to the very roots of the field at the start of the 20 th century (Farr & Tippins, 2010; Ployhart, Schmitt, & Tippins, 2017). Selection usually involves administering a series of instruments, such as tests or interviews, to job applicants; the instruments are often scored and combined with other information, such as letters of recommendation, to help employers select the best applicant(s). The selection instruments an organization uses are commonly referred to as predictors , and helping organizations develop effective predictors are one of the most common roles that I-O consultants engage in. Common predictors that I-O psychologists help develop include tests of various qualities (such as intelligence, personality and other traits), and interviews (Cascio & Aguinis, 2011).  Determining the right combination of predictors to give applicants for a given job is a central topic for consultants that assist with personnel selection, and involves the consideration of many factors, including cost, time, legality, validity, reliability, practicality, and acceptance in the business world. Selection often occurs in multiple stages. During the initial stage, it is common for applicants to participate in some initial screening assessments to “weed out” unqualified applicants.  Following this, subsequent stages in the selection process attempt to select the optimal candidate from the qualified applicants that remain after screening.

What predictors do the best job of helping organizations choose qualified applicants? One of the most consistent findings in I-O psychology, based on decades of research, is that general mental ability , or intelligence, is the single most effective predictor of job performance in nearly all jobs, and especially complex jobs (Schmidt & Hunter, 2004). One of the reasons this is the case is that general mental ability helps predict a person’s ability to learn new information and skills, a critical component of success in virtually any job.

Beyond general mental ability tests, many other predictors have been found to be effective for predicting employee success as well. Personality tests , such as those measuring the Big 5 traits, have also been found to successfully predict which applicants will make effective employees. In particular, the Big 5 trait conscientiousness has been found to predict performance in a wide variety of jobs. This is not surprising, given that people high in this trait are typically hard-working, reliable, and organized, all traits that should lead to success in most jobs (Barrick, Mount, & Judge, 2001). Additional predictors, such as simulations and work samples, can be used to successfully assess a person’s ability to handle actual job-related tasks in realistic settings (Scott & Reynolds, 2010).

What about interviews? Interviews have long been used by organizations to help make hiring decisions, and they remain one of the most commonly-used predictors in organizations today (Posthuma, Morgeson, & Campion, 2002). Interviews can be written to evaluate a variety of applicant characteristics and qualifications (Landy & Conte, 2010). Research on the effectiveness of interviews is mixed. Most interviews used in organizations tend to be fairly flexible conversations, where the interviewer is free to ask an applicant a wide variety of different questions. Each applicant may be asked different questions, and the questions may not be directly related to the job the applicant is applying for. These interviews are typically known as unstructured interviews , and, despite their prevalence, they are not very effective predictors for evaluating applicants. One reason for this is that the information gained from one applicant’s interview might be quite different from the information gained from another applicant’s interview, thus making it difficult to compare “apples to apples.”

Fortunately, interviews can be improved by making the interview process more structured . Strategies for structuring an interview include deciding on a consistent list of questions that will be asked of all applicants, ensuring that the questions are related to the content of the job, and using a scoring system to evaluate applicants’ responses. Structured interviews that have these features are much more effective at predicting which applicants will be successful in a given job (Huffcutt, Conway, Roth, & Stone, 2001). I-O consultants often help organizations to design and implement structured interviews to improve the organization’s selection process. Unfortunately, many organizations continue to rely on traditional unstructured interviews, which are much more prone to errors and subjective evaluations of job applicants. This divide between the predictors that I-O psychologists know are effective, and the predictors that many organizations utilize, remains an important concern for many I-O psychologists today.

Evaluating and Managing Worker Performance

Once employees are hired and placed into their roles in an organization, it is typically necessary to assess their performance to see how well they are performing in their new role. Evaluating how well employees perform their jobs, and documenting this performance, is important for a variety of reasons. Certainly, performance information is often used to make decisions about whether and when to promote, train, re-assign, or terminate employees; it can also be used for decisions about compensation, bonuses, and other rewards. If an employee’s performance is lacking, the gap between how he or she is performing, compared to the ideal, might be addressed by training (or re-training) the needed knowledge, skills, or abilities. Performance appraisal can also be used to give employees feedback, and help employees learn about their strengths and weaknesses–thus, another goal of performance appraisal is general employee development.

Performance appraisals are often conducted on a recurring schedule—once or twice a year is common. The review itself is typically structured around the employee’s primary tasks and responsibilities, such that the supervisor provides a summary of the employee and their performance. The appraisal will often involve making ratings on numeric scales corresponding with specific aspects of performance, as well as comments and/or illustrative critical incidents to communicate to the employee how well they are performing on each aspect of the job. Critical incidents are specific behaviors the employee has engaged in—they are used to illustrate good or bad performance and often supplement numeric performance ratings. Feedback and critical incidents from other coworkers may be gathered by the supervisor with the goal of basing the performance appraisal on complete information.

One variant of performance appraisal that has become popular in recent years is 360-degree appraisal, which seeks to gather feedback from multiple sources that the person being evaluated interacts with, such as subordinates, peers, supervisors, clients/customers, and others.  Self-appraisal, provided by the employee him- or herself, may also be included. The goal of this process is to provide employees with a more well-rounded sense of how they’re performing.

Numeric performance ratings are a common part of a performance appraisal.  For example, an employee may be rated on dependability on a scale of one to five, with anchors ranging from unacceptable (1), to average (3), to superior (5). Employees are often rated in the context of how other members of their team or work group are performing. Other rating approaches involve making direct comparisons between employees within a unit, such as ranking all employees, or comparing them two at a time and deciding which of the two is the superior performer. When using any numeric rating method, organizations need to be aware of the biases that raters may unknowingly exhibit. One risk is that all raters will not use a rating scale the same way—for instance, some might provide more generous, or harsher, ratings regardless of how the employee is performing. Such errors can lead to biases in the appraisal process, and impact the fairness of a performance appraisal system; fortunately, rater training can help avoid some of these issues.

What kinds of employee performance are typically assessed in organizations? In many cases, the answer to this question is determined by the type of organization the employee works in—effective performance for an employee who makes electric motors in a factory is likely to be very different from an employee who creates apps for your phone. For legal reasons, it is important for an organization to avoid assessing people based on irrelevant characteristics, such as their age, gender, or race. Here again, I-O consultants often help organizations design performance appraisal systems that focus on core aspects of job performance, and avoid evaluating irrelevant characteristics. For many jobs, the main focus of performance appraisal is on task performance —that is, how effectively an employee performs the key requirements of their job. However, many organizations are also concerned with additional behaviors that employees may engage in outside of their job responsibilities. These “extra” behaviors can be positive or negative in nature. Positive behaviors are typically referred to as organizational citizenship behaviors , or OCBs, and may include actions such as bringing donuts or bagels to an early morning meeting, staying late to assist a coworker with a project, or speaking positively about the organization to outsiders. Negative behaviors, often called counterproductive work behaviors , or CWBs, range from fairly minor actions, such as being rude to a coworker from time to time, to more serious, criminal activities such as theft, sabotage, or arson. As you would expect, employees who enjoy their work are more likely to engage in OCBs, while dissatisfied employees are likely to engage in CWBs. Thus, if organizations want to promote OCBs, and prevent CWBs, it is important for them to consider their employees’ thoughts and feelings about their workplace.

Training & Development

Over time, it often becomes necessary for employees to learn new knowledge or skills, to enhance their job performance and keep pace with changes in their occupation. I-O psychology intersects with cognitive psychology and learning theories in the domain of training and development , which focuses on increasing employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. Like many other organizational processes, training is, in part, based on job/task/work analysis to determine the elements of a job that a person requires training to do. The training process often begins with a training needs analysis, which is an analysis of the organization, tasks, and person that results in objectives for training (Arthur, Bennett, Edens, & Bell, 2003). Principles of learning and cognition serve as the basis for designing training and development interventions. Basic principles about memory, perception, judgment, and learning include cognitive biases, primacy and recency, interferences, decision-making, and developments. These are relevant to determining how best to convey information about how and when to engage in various work behaviors, and how to assess how well training has accomplished its goals.

What topics do organizations commonly use training for? Some training is motivated by legal considerations, such as diversity and sexual harassment training. With diversity training, employees are typically educated on the benefits of diversity, and provided with suggestions for acting with sensitivity in a diverse workplace. Sexual harassment and discrimination, which are typically prohibited both by law and organizational policies, can also be addressed via training. Employees may be educated on key terms and ideas related to harassment, practice identifying situations in which harassment may occur, and discuss appropriate courses of action for reporting and preventing harassment.

Other types of training are prompted when employers require employees to possess a particular area of knowledge, skill, or ability to meet organizational needs. If an organization wants to avoid training, they may look to hire employees that already have those KSAs that they desire (a selection approach). Alternatively, they may use help current employees develop those KSAs (a training approach). The decision between these approaches is driven by several considerations, including cost, timing, other available resources, and staffing goals. For example, for employers do not wish to increase the size of their workforce, training may be a more attractive option. In addition, the expected trainability of a knowledge, skill, or ability and skill level of current personnel might be taken into account. Consider the likelihood of successfully teaching someone a specific skill, such as typing, using a cash register, or engaging in successful customer service interactions, compared to the more difficult challenge of improving a person’s mathematical abilities or extraversion.

In organizations today, training can occur in a wide variety of formats. Training often occurs with a face-to-face instructor , but many organizations today are relying on remote or distance training, mediated by communication technology, and self-paced training. In addition, employers are generally motivated to understand whether their resources devoted to training are achieving key training objectives. Consequently, many employee trainings are followed, either immediately or after a delay, with some form of evaluation. Some evaluations focus on how much of the training content was understood and retained by the trainee, while others focus on how well that information transfers to on-the-job behaviors, how well the trainee feels about the training process, and what the outcomes for the organization are (Kirkpatrick, 1959). For the individual, training can be considered in terms of impact on career development and advancement in the organization.

Organizational Psychology

The organizational half of I-O Psychology is broadly concerned with the social and psychological context of the workplace. Organizational psychology focuses on many different levels of workplace phenomena, including micro, within-person experiences, like attitudes and emotions; meso, small group dynamics like teamwork and interpersonal discrimination; and macro, organization-wide factors, such as leadership and organizational culture. Overall, organizational psychology helps us understand the experience and consequences of working life in modern organizations. Major areas of study within organizational psychology include employee attitudes, worker health and safety, motivation, and teamwork and leadership.

Employee Attitudes

I-O psychologists are often concerned with the attitudes employees hold about their work.  Several attitudes have been the focus of extensive research over the past several decades, and the importance of employee attitudes has been demonstrated by their ability to predict whether employees will exert less effort at work, engage in CWBs, or even leave the organization altogether.

Job satisfaction , which refers to an employee’s overall evaluation of their job, is the most fundamental attitude studied in I-O psychology (Judge & Klinger, 2007).  When a worker has positive feelings and thoughts about his or her job, positive outcome are likely. These outcomes include performing their job at a high level, feeling motivated, and being inclined to do extrarole behaviors that are helpful but aren’t explicitly required as part of the job. Job satisfaction is often measured using scales, which include questions with a range of numeric response options with either images or phrases as anchors (e.g., 1 = very dissatisfied to 5 = very satisfied). While job satisfaction can be measured using a single question, a more nuanced understanding of satisfaction can be achieved using multi-item scales that ask the respondent about various aspects of a job (e.g., pay, autonomy, coworkers). Measuring satisfaction in this way can help I-O consultants get a more detailed understanding of which aspects of their jobs employees like and dislike the most.

Another attitude important for understanding work behavior is organizational commitment , or an individual’s psychological attachment to an organization (Meyer & Allen, 1991).  Researchers studying the nature of organizational commitment have identified three types of commitment. Affective commitment reflects an emotional connection an employee may feel with their organization. Employees with high affective commitment may feel as though they are a “part of a family” with their organization. Continuance commitment reflects commitment that is based on a lack of available alternative employment options. Employees with high continuance commitment may stay at their current job because of poor job prospects in their area, or because they lack necessary education or training to make themselves competitive for other job opportunities. Finally, normative commitment is driven by employees’ sense of obligation to their organization. For instance, if a company gives an employee their first job after graduating from college, or has invested resources in an employee in the form or training or development, the employee may feel obligated to stay with the organization to “pay back” these investments. Overall, strong ties have been found between organizational commitment and turnover, or leaving one’s organization.

Employees’ attitudes about an organization may also be based on how fairly they feel they are treated.   Organizational justice theory suggests that employees pay attention to the fairness of how they’re treated in several ways.  The various types and subtypes of justice focus on how outcomes or results are distributed across employees, the fairness of organizational procedures or decision rules, and the nature of interactions among organizational members.  For example, an employee may feel that the process of performance appraisal is fair (procedural justice), but that it did not result in a sufficient pay raise (distributive justice).

What can an organization do to improve their employees’ attitudes? Unfortunately, psychological research on attitudes in general suggests that attitude change is often quite difficult. A basic principle of attitudes is that once an attitude or belief is held, it serves as an anchor around which new information is judged. Thus, once an employee begins to evaluate their workplace negatively, they may seek out and focus on additional information that supports this attitude.

Worker Health & Safety

Occupational health is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the health and safety of people at work, and has become the subject of much research in I-O psychology. Jobs place a variety of demands on workers, and these demands can lead to the experience of stress, which may be followed by various negative outcomes such as effects on the physical and mental health of employees (Beehr, 1995; Jex, 1998; Tetrick & Quick, 2011). Occupational health research examines internal and external sources of occupational stress, as well as ways to decrease worker stress and methods for preventing stress. Evidence suggests that organizations should be concerned with occupational health, as consistent exposure to stressful working conditions can impact not only employees, but also organizational effectiveness: studies have estimated that billions of dollars are lost from the U.S. economy due to occupational stress, based on the assumption that stress plays a role in negative outcomes such as increased medical, legal, and insurance costs, higher rates of absenteeism and turnover, diminished productivity, and increased occupational accidents (e.g., Goldin, 2004).

While I-O psychologists have contributed to the study of occupational stress, the occupational stress literature consists of important contributions from multiple perspectives, including medical (focusing on the contribution of stress in the workplace to employee health and illness), clinical/counseling (which focuses on the impact of stressful working conditions on mental health outcomes such as anxiety and depression), engineering psychology (which focuses on stressors originating from the physical work environment), and organizational psychology . Organizational psychology focuses heavily on cognitive appraisal (the process by which employees perceive the work environment and decide whether it is stressful), as well on sources of stress that are social in nature (e.g., are sourced from interactions with others). Recently, these four approaches have joined into one field known as occupational health psychology (OHP; Barling & Griffiths, 2011). OHP is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on using psychological theories and methodology to enhance health, safety, and well-being for individuals and organizations.

Another focus within the field of OHP is employee safety, usually with regard to preventing accidents and injuries in the workplace. Research has examined workplace safety outcomes in relation with both situational factors in the work environment (e.g., physical hazards such as heat and noise; Jex, Swanson, & Grubb, 2013) and personal factors in the employee (e.g., personality traits; Clarke & Robertson, 2008). Most models of employee safety posit that certain factors influence the experience of accidents and injuries through an effect on the safety performance of the employee (i.e., employees being compliant with safety procedures and notifying others in the organization about safety concerns; Griffin & Neal, 2000). Most studies have found moderate to strong relationships between different types of safety performance and the experience of workplace accidents (Jiang, Yu, Li, & Li, 2010). Moreover, the safety climate of a work unit and/or organization is predictive of safety performance, which has been linked to workplace accidents (Zohar, 2011). Safety climate refers to whether the employees in a company share similar perceptions of policies and procedures regarding workplace safety, such as rules regarding the use of safety equipment. A recent review of the injury and accident prevalence literature suggested that thousands of American workers die each year from injuries sustained in the workplace; however, prevalence rates are far worse in countries that do not have government oversight of labor practices: over two million individuals worldwide die each year as a result of injuries suffered in the work environment (Kaplan & Tetrick, 2011). In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the government agency established to assure safe and healthful working conditions by setting and enforcing standards and providing training, outreach, education, and assistance to US organizations. Most private employers are responsible for ensuring that OSHA standards are met, and employers concerned with worker health and well-being seek to maintain safe working conditions and offer channels for addressing issues as they arise.

Understanding employee motivation –the forces that direct employees’ behaviors at work–has a long history in I-O psychology. The study of motivation in I-O psychology can be traced back to studies by Hugo Munsterberg , who studied motivation issues for employees working at knitting mills (Landy & Conte, 2004). He saw that employees were working 12-hour days, and working 6 days a week.  With some modifications (i.e., having kittens play with balls of yarn on the factory floor), Munsterberg was able to influence the satisfaction and alertness of the employees.

Some of the basic motivational questions that I-O psychologists study include what needs elicit action for individuals, what traits impact the engagement of behaviors, and how the environment (space and individuals) influences the motivation and behaviors of people.  While the study of work motivation is continually evolving, there are several seminal theories that have informed our understanding of motivation.

One of the most well-supported theories of motivation in I-O psychology is goal-setting theory (Locke & Latham, 1990). This theory emphasizes that goals can influence employees in a variety of ways. For instance, goals can influence the direction of actions; Goals can also affect the effort that employees put forth to those actions; In addition to these benefits, goals can increase employee persistence, and motivate them to choose more effective strategies for attaining those goals. Goals that tend to provide the benefits just described tend to share some key characteristics. Specifically, goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) are typically more effective than goals that lack these qualities (Locke & Latham, 2002).

Despite the popularity of goal-setting theory, several other motivation theories have received attention, and research support, from I-O psychologists. Expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) suggests that employees are unlikely to be motivated unless they can provide affirmative answers to three questions. The first question involves asking whether employee effort will lead to performance (instrumentality). If an employees feels that working hard will not result in success on the job, they are likely to have low motivation. If an employee decides that their effort will actually result in a sufficient level of performance, they must then evaluate whether their performance is likely to be rewarded or recognized in satisfactory ways (expectancy). In some workplaces, employees may feel that their strong performance goes unrecognized–if this pattern persists over time, they are likely to lose motivation. Finally, the third questions associated with expectancy theory concerns whether an employee values the rewards they are able to receive (valence). If an organization rewards its employees with public “employee of the month” ceremonies, but an employee would prefer a cash reward rather than public recognition, they may find their motivation limited.

The job characteristics theory (Hackman & Oldham, 1976) takes a rather different approach to motivation. This theory suggests that several key features of job themselves can also influence the motivation level of employees. For example, autonomy , or the freedom that employees have to choose how their work is done (or at least certain elements of it) typically has a positive effect on motivation. Doing work that allows employees to use a variety of different skills and abilities (task variety), and performing work that feels important to other peoples’ lives (task significance) can also generate higher levels of motivation. Finally, receiving feedback , such as from supervisors and peers, can improve motivation for many employees.

In many organizations today, work is often conducted in the context of a group or team. Teams are defined as two or more individuals who share one or more common goals, and interact to perform activities that are relevant to the organization. Teams are influenced by a wide variety of social dynamics. As an example, consider Susie who just graduated medical school and has started her intern year in a department that emphasizes teamwork. Her role in the interdisciplinary team is that of the physician, which she feels comfortable doing as she graduated with honors from her university. What she is concerned about is how to function effectively in the team. She personally likes to do things on her own, so she is uncertain how this part of her job will actually go, especially since she knows the intern year is a very stressful one and she knows that two of the other team members have reputations of being really difficult to work with.

Some of the concerns that Susie has are ones that I-O psychologists try to grapple with as consultants and researchers. Many topics that originated in social psychology are relevant to the study of teams. For instance, many people have a tendency to work with less intensity when they are in a group, compared to when they are by themselves, which social psychologists refer to as social loafing (see Latané, Williams, & Harkins, 1979). Managers can help avoid social loafing in their work groups by making sure that each employee knows what they are responsible for.

Management and Leadership

A natural sister topic of teams concerns the individuals tasked with facilitating teams— leaders . While there are many definitions of leadership, the common elements of the definitions are influence and guidance of others towards a goal. Over time, I-O psychologists have studied management and leadership from several different perspectives. In the 1920s and 1930s, early leadership research focused on the trait approach , which centers on the idea that leaders possess certain traits (e.g., ambition, dominance, extroversion, height) that non-leaders do not possess.  However, this approach did not prove to be productive, as research did not show consistent relationships among the traits. Undeterred, I-O psychologists re-focused their attempts to understand leadership by looking for specific behaviors that successful leaders might engage in. Fleishman and Harris (1962) defined leadership using two dimensions, consideration (concern for the individual’s needs) and initiating structure (organizes and defines activities). This approach proved to be more successful, and the legacy of this work can be seen in more modern research on transactional and transformational leadership (Bass, 1985).

I-O psychologists have a unique place as researchers and consultants when informing the greater population as to the practice of leadership. With changing workforce practices, such as the utilization of temporary workers, teleworking, virtual teams, increasing diversity in the workforce and other existing ambiguous boundaries that modern jobs hold, I-O psychologists are prepared to contribute to our understanding of leadership and how we best develop and coach the leaders of today and tomorrow.

A significant portion of I-O research focuses on management and human relations. Douglas McGregor (1960) combined scientific management (a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows with the main objective of improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity) and human relations into the notion of leadership behavior. His theory lays out two different styles called Theory X and Theory Y. In the  Theory X  approach to management, managers assume that most people dislike work and are not innately self-directed. Theory X managers perceive employees as people who prefer to be led and told which tasks to perform and when. Their employees have to be watched carefully to be sure that they work hard enough to fulfill the organization’s goals. Theory X workplaces will often have employees punch a clock when arriving and leaving the workplace: Tardiness is punished. Supervisors, not employees, determine whether an employee needs to stay late, and even this decision would require someone higher up in the command chain to approve the extra hours. Theory X supervisors will ignore employees’ suggestions for improved efficiency and reprimand employees for speaking out of order. These supervisors blame efficiency failures on individual employees rather than the systems or policies in place. Managerial goals are achieved through a system of punishments and threats rather than enticements and rewards. Managers are suspicious of employees’ motivations and always suspect selfish motivations for their behavior at work (e.g., being paid is their sole motivation for working).

In the  Theory Y  approach, on the other hand, managers assume that most people seek inner satisfaction and fulfillment from their work. Employees function better under leadership that allows them to participate in, and provide input about, setting their personal and work goals. In Theory Y workplaces, employees participate in decisions about prioritizing tasks; they may belong to teams that, once given a goal, decide themselves how it will be accomplished. In such a workplace, employees are able to provide input on matters of efficiency and safety. One example of Theroy Y in action is the policy of Toyota production lines that allows any employee to stop the entire line if a defect or other issue appears, so that the defect can be fixed and its cause remedied (Toyota Motor Manufacturing, 2013). A Theory Y workplace will also meaningfully consult employees on any changes to the work process or management system. In addition, the organization will encourage employees to contribute their own ideas. McGregor (1960) characterized Theory X as the traditional method of management used in the United States. He agued that a Theory Y approach was needed to improve organizational output and the wellbeing of individuals.  Table summarizes how these two management approaches differ.

Another management style was described by Donald Clifton, who focused his research on how an organization can best use an individual’s strengths, an approach he called strengths-based management . He and his colleagues interviewed 8,000 managers and concluded that it is important to focus on a person’s strengths, not their weaknesses. A strength is a particular enduring talent possessed by an individual that allows her to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in tasks involving that talent. Clifton argued that our strengths provide the greatest opportunity for growth (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001). An example of a strength is public speaking or the ability to plan a successful event. The strengths-based approach is very popular although its effect on organization performance is not well-studied. However, Kaiser & Overfield (2011) found that managers often neglected improving their weaknesses and overused their strengths, both of which interfered with performance.

Leadership is an important element of management. Leadership styles have been of major interest within I-O research, and researchers have proposed numerous theories of leadership. Bass (1985) popularized and developed the concepts of transactional leadership versus transformational leadership styles. In  transactional leadership , the focus is on supervision and organizational goals, which are achieved through a system of rewards and punishments (i.e., transactions). Transactional leaders maintain the status quo: They are managers. This is in contrast to the transformational leader. People who have  transformational leadership  possess four attributes to varying degrees: They are charismatic (highly liked role models), inspirational (optimistic about goal attainment), intellectually stimulating (encourage critical thinking and problem solving), and considerate (Bass, Avolio, & Atwater, 1996).

As women increasingly take on leadership roles in corporations, questions have arisen as to whether there are differences in leadership styles between men and women (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, & van Engen, 2003). Eagly & Johnson (1990) conducted a meta-analysis to examine gender and leadership style. They found, to a slight but significant degree, that women tend to practice an interpersonal style of leadership (i.e., she focuses on the morale and welfare of the employees) and men practice a task-oriented style (i.e., he focuses on accomplishing tasks). However, the differences were less pronounced when one looked only at organizational studies and excluded laboratory experiments or surveys that did not involve actual organizational leaders. Larger gender-related differences were observed when leadership style was categorized as democratic or autocratic, and these differences were consistent across all types of studies. The authors suggest that similarities between the genders in leadership styles are attributable to genders needing to conform the organization’s culture; additionally, they propose that gender-related differences reflect inherent differences in the strengths each gender brings to bear on leadership practice. In another meta-analysis of leadership style, Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, & van Engen (2003) found that women tended to exhibit the characteristics of transformational leaders, while men were more likely to be transactional leaders. However, the differences are not absolute; for example, women were found to use methods of reward for performance more often than men, which is a component of transactional leadership. The differences they found were relatively small. As Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, & van Engen (2003) point out, research shows that transformational leadership approaches are more effective than transactional approaches, although individual leaders typically exhibit elements of both approaches.

Work-Family Balance

Many people juggle the demands of work life with the demands of their home life, whether it be caring for children or taking care of an elderly parent; this is known as  work-family balance . We might commonly think about work interfering with family, but it is also the case that family responsibilities may conflict with work obligations (Carlson, Kacmar, & Williams, 2000). Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) first identified three sources of work–family conflicts:

• time devoted to work makes it difficult to fulfill requirements of family, or vice versa,
• strain from participation in work makes it difficult to fulfill requirements of family, or vice versa, and
• specific behaviors required by work make it difficult to fulfill the requirements of family, or vice versa.

Women often have greater responsibility for family demands, including home care, child care, and caring for aging parents, yet men in the United States are increasingly assuming a greater share of domestic responsibilities. However, research has documented that women report greater levels of stress from work–family conflict (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005).

There are many ways to decrease work–family conflict and improve people’s job satisfaction (Posig & Kickul, 2004). These include support in the home, which can take various forms: emotional (listening), practical (help with chores). Workplace support can include understanding supervisors, flextime, leave with pay, and telecommuting. Flextime usually involves a requirement of core hours spent in the workplace around which the employee may schedule his arrival and departure from work to meet family demands.  Telecommuting  involves employees working at home and setting their own hours, which allows them to work during different parts of the day, and to spend part of the day with their family. Recall that Yahoo! had a policy of allowing employees to telecommute and then rescinded the policy. There are also organizations that have onsite daycare centers, and some companies even have onsite fitness centers and health clinics. In a study of the effectiveness of different coping methods, Lapierre & Allen (2006) found practical support from home more important than emotional support. They also found that immediate-supervisor support for a worker significantly reduced work–family conflict through such mechanisms as allowing an employee the flexibility needed to fulfill family obligations. In contrast, flextime did not help with coping and telecommuting actually made things worse, perhaps reflecting the fact that being at home intensifies the conflict between work and family because with the employee in the home, the demands of family are more evident.

Posig & Kickul (2004) identify exemplar corporations with policies designed to reduce work–family conflict. Examples include IBM’s policy of three years of job-guaranteed leave after the birth of a child, Lucent Technologies offer of one year’s childbirth leave at half pay, and SC Johnson’s program of concierge services for daytime errands.

Link to Learning:  Glassdoor  is a website that posts job satisfaction reviews for different careers and organizations. Use this site to research possible careers and/or organizations that interest you.

Organizational Culture

Each company and organization has an organizational culture.  Organizational culture  encompasses the values, visions, hierarchies, norms, and interactions among its employees. It is how an organization is run, how it operates, and how it makes decisions—the industry in which the organization participates may have an influence. Different departments within one company can develop their own subculture within the organization’s culture. Ostroff, Kinicki, and Tamkins (2003) identify three layers in organizational culture: observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions. Observable artifacts are the symbols, language (jargon, slang, and humor), narratives (stories and legends), and practices (rituals) that represent the underlying cultural assumptions. Espoused values are concepts or beliefs that the management or the entire organization endorses. They are the rules that allow employees to know which actions they should take in different situations and which information they should adhere to. These basic assumptions generally are unobservable and unquestioned. Researchers have developed survey instruments to measure organizational culture.

With the workforce being a global marketplace, your company may have a supplier in Korea and another in Honduras and have employees in the United States, China, and South Africa. You may have coworkers of different religious, ethnic, or racial backgrounds than yourself. Your coworkers may be from different places around the globe. Many workplaces offer diversity training to help everyone involved bridge and understand cultural differences.  Diversity training  educates participants about cultural differences with the goal of improving teamwork. There is always the potential for prejudice between members of two groups, but the evidence suggests that simply working together, particularly if the conditions of work are set carefully that such prejudice can be reduced or eliminated. Pettigrew and Tropp (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to examine the question of whether contact between groups reduced prejudice between those groups. They found that there was a moderate but significant effect. They also found that, as previously theorized, the effect was enhanced when the two groups met under conditions in which they have equal standing, common goals, cooperation between the groups, and especially support on the part of the institution or authorities for the contact.

One well-recognized negative aspect of organizational culture is a culture of  harassment , including sexual harassment. Most organizations of any size have developed sexual harassment policies that define sexual harassment (or harassment in general) and the procedures the organization has set in place to prevent and address it when it does occur. Thus, in most jobs you have held, you were probably made aware of the company’s sexual harassment policy and procedures, and may have received training related to the policy. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (n.d.) provides the following description of  sexual harassment :

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. (par. 2)

One form of sexual harassment is called quid pro quo. Quid pro quo means you give something to get something, and it refers to a situation in which organizational rewards are offered in exchange for sexual favors. Quid pro quo harassment is often between an employee and a person with greater power in the organization. For example, a supervisor might request an action, such as a kiss or a touch, in exchange for a promotion, a positive performance review, or a pay raise. Another form of sexual harassment is the threat of withholding a reward if a sexual request is refused. Hostile environment sexual harassment is another type of workplace harassment. In this situation, an employee experiences conditions in the workplace that are considered hostile or intimidating. For example, a work environment that allows offensive language or jokes or displays sexually explicit images. Isolated occurrences of these events do not constitute harassment, but a pattern of repeated occurrences does. In addition to violating organizational policies against sexual harassment, these forms of harassment are illegal.

Harassment does not have to be sexual; it may be related to any of the protected classes in the statutes regulated by the EEOC: race, national origin, religion, or age.

Violence in the Workplace

In the summer of August 1986, a part-time postal worker with a troubled work history walked into the Edmond, Oklahoma, post office and shot and killed 15 people, including himself. From his action, the term “going postal” was coined, describing a troubled employee who engages in extreme violence.

Workplace violence is one aspect of workplace safety that I-O psychologists study.  Workplace violence  is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening, disruptive behavior that occurs at the workplace. It ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide (Occupational Safety & Health Administration, 2014).

There are different targets of workplace violence: a person could commit violence against coworkers, supervisors, or property. Warning signs often precede such actions: intimidating behavior, threats, sabotaging equipment, or radical changes in a coworker’s behavior. Often there is intimidation and then escalation that leads to even further escalation. It is important for employees to involve their immediate supervisor if they ever feel intimidated or unsafe.

Murder is the second leading cause of death in the workplace. It is also the primary cause of death for women in the workplace. Every year there are nearly two million workers who are physically assaulted or threatened with assault. Many are murdered in domestic violence situations by boyfriends or husbands who chose the woman’s workplace to commit their crimes.

There are many risk factors for workplace violence that can be committed by leaders, employees, and even customers. A significant risk factor is the feeling of being treated unfairly, unjustly, or disrespectfully, and may become more serious when combined with other individual factors like personality and history, environmental stressors, and lack of community. In a research experiment, Greenberg (1993) examined the reactions of students who were given pay for a task. In one group, the students were given extensive explanations for the pay rate. In the second group, the students were given a curt uninformative explanation. The students were made to believe the supervisor would not know how much money the student withdrew for payment. The rate of stealing (taking more pay than they were told they deserved) was higher in the group who had been given the limited explanation. This is a demonstration of the importance of procedural justice in organizations. Procedural justice  refers to the fairness of the processes by which outcomes are determined in conflicts with or among employees.

In another study by Greenberg & Barling (1999), they found a history of aggression and amount of alcohol consumed to be accurate predictors of workplace violence against a coworker. Aggression against a supervisor was predicted if a worker felt unfairly treated or untrusted. Job security and alcohol consumption predicted aggression against a subordinate. To understand and predict workplace violence, Greenberg & Barling (1999) emphasize the importance of considering the employee target of aggression or violence and characteristics of both the workplace characteristics and the aggressive or violent person.

As you can see, I-O psychologists are concerned with a wide variety of topics related to the performance and well-being of both employees and their organizations. Some topics, such as recruitment, selection, and performance appraisal, have been important from the start, while others, such as worker attitudes, stress, and motivation, have increased in importance in recent years. Today, while it is still possible to make a distinction between “I” and “O” topics within this field, there is greater recognition that these areas represent two sides of the same coin, and that both sides can have a substantial influence on one another. As work continues to become more complex and subject to global and technological pressures, I-O psychologists will become increasingly important for helping both workers and organizations weather these changes.

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Myors, B., Lievens, F., Schollaert, E., Van Hoye, G., Cronshaw, S. F., Mladinic, A., … & Schuler, H. (2008). International perspectives on the legal environment for selection. Industrial and Organizational Psychology , 1 , 206-246.

Ployhart, R. E., Schmitt, N., & Tippins, N. T. (2017). Solving the supreme problem: 100 years of selection and recruitment at the Journal of Applied Psychology . Journal of Applied Psychology, 102 , 291-304.

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Home > Academic Units > SPFC > IOP Dissertations

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

The Seattle Pacific University Department of Industrial-Organizational Psychology offers both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology.

This series contains successfully defended doctoral dissertations.

Dissertations from 2024 2024

"Me? Be a Coach?" A Grounded Theory Investigation of Coach Identity Among Managers Who Coach , Sara Mary Cannon

Effects of Advertising Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) on Female Applicants’ Intentions to Pursue Employment Through Perceived Organizational Support , Jamie Crites

Exploring the Effects of Autotelic Personality, Proactive Personality, and Positive Affectivity on Dispositional Employee Engagement , Stormy Soldonia

Dissertations from 2023 2023

The psychometric evaluation of decent work in India , Jadvir K. Gill

Implicit Trait Policies and Situational Judgment Tests: How Personality Shapes Judgments of Effective Behavior , Alexander Edward Johnson

An Investigation of the Impact of Prosocial Action on Psychological Resilience in Female Volunteer Maskmakers During COVID-19 , Linda D. Montano

To make or buy: How does strategic team selection and shared leadership strategy interact to impact NBA team effectiveness? , Brandon Purvis

Dissertations from 2022 2022

“Intended Between a Man and a Woman”: Examining the LGBTQ Campus Climate of a Non-Affirming Free Methodist University , Justin Cospito

Adverse Work Experiences and the Impact on Workplace Psychological Well Being, Workplace Psychological Distress, Employee Engagement, Turnover Intention, and Work State Conscientiousness , Nicole J. DeKay

Managing One’s Anxiety When Work Narratives Misalign , Shannon Eric Ford and Shannon Ford

The HERO in you: The impact of psychological capital training and perceived leadership on follower psychological capital development and burnout , Alifiya Khericha

CoachMotivation: Leveraging Motivational Interviewing Methodology to Increase Emotion Regulation Ability in the Workplace , Michael R. Nelson

Effects of Pay Transparency on Application Intentions through Fairness Perceptions and Organizational Attractiveness: Diversifying the Workforce by Effectively Recruiting Younger Women , Phi Phan-Armaneous

The space between stress and reaction: A three-way interaction of active coping, psychological stress, and applied mindfulness in the prediction of sustainable resilience , Kait M. Rohlfing PhD

A Quantitative Comparison of Employee Engagement Antecedents , Kirby White

Dissertations from 2021 2021

RAD Managers: Strategic Coaching for Managers and Leaders , Audrey Mika Kinase Kolb

Can Gender Pronouns in Interview Questions Work as Nudges? , Fei Lu

Catalytic Resilience Practices: Exploring the Effects of Resilience and Resilience Practices through Physical Exercise , Mackenzie Ruether

Dissertations from 2020 2020

Softening Resistance Toward Diversity Initiatives: The Role of Mindfulness in Mitigating Emotional White Fragility , Vatia P. Caldwell

When Proenvironmental Behavior Crosses Contexts: Exploring the Moderating Effects of Central Participation at Work on the Work-Home Interface , Bryn E.D. Chighizola

Developing Adaptive Performance: The Power of Experiences and a Strategic Network of Support , Joseph D. Landers Jr.

Purposeful Investment in Others: The Power of a Character of Service , Kayla M. Logan

Developmental Experiences Impacting Leadership Differentiation in Emerging Adults , Gabrielle E. Metzler

Fighting dirty in an era of corporate dominance: Exploring personality as a moderator of the impact of dangerous organizational misconduct on whistleblowing intentions , Keith Andrew Price

CoachMotivation: Developing Transformational Leadership by Increasing Effective Communication Skills in the Workplace , Megan L. Schuller

The Relationship Between Authentic Leadership and Resilience, Moderated by Coping Skills , Alice E. Stark

Building and Sustaining Hope in the Face of Failure: Understanding the Role of Strategic Social Support , Kira K. Wenzel PhD

Dissertations from 2019 2019

Exploring the Buffering Effects of Holding Behaviors on the Negative Consequences of Workplace Discrimination for People of Color , Heather A. Kohlman Olsen

Employee Engagement Around the World: Predictors, Cultural Differences, and Business Outcomes , Amanda Munsterteiger

Dissertations from 2018 2018

Ignatian Spirituality in Vocational Career Development: An Experimental Study of Emerging Adults , Scott Campanario

Narrative Leadership: Exploring the Concept of Time in Leader Storytelling , Helen H. Chung Dr.

Vulnerability in Leadership: The Power of the Courage to Descend , Stephanie O. Lopez

An Exploratory Study Examining a Transformational Salesperson Model Mediated by Salesperson Theory-of-Mind , Philip (Tony) A. Pizelo Dr.

Dissertations from 2017 2017

Developing Conviction in Women Leaders: The Role of Unique Work and Life Experiences , McKendree J. Hickory

The Role of Organizational Buy-in in Employee Retention , Serena Hsia

The Psychometric Evaluation of a Personality Selection Tool , James R. Longabaugh

Approaching Stressful Situations with Purpose: Strategies for Emotional Regulation in Sensitive People , Amy D. Nagley

Validation of the Transformative Work in Society Index: Christianity, Work, and Economics Integration , John R. Terrill

Seeking Quality Mentors: Exploring Program Design Characteristics to Increase an Individual’s Likelihood to Participate as a Mentor , Kristen Voetmann

Predicting Employee Performance Using Text Data from Resumes , Joshua D. Weaver

College for The Sake of What? Promoting the Development of Wholly Educated Students , Michael P. Yoder

Dissertations from 2016 2016

Am I a Good Leader? How Variations in Introversion/Extraversion Impact Leaders’ Core Self-Evaluations , Marisa N. Bossen

Dissertations from 2015 2015

The Development of Job-Based Psychological Ownership , Robert B. Bullock

Generational Differences in the Interaction between Valuing Leisure and Having Work-Life Balance on Altruistic and Conscientious Behaviors , Sandeep Kaur Chahil

Obtaining Sponsorship in Organizations by Developing Trust through Outside of Work Socialization , Katie Kirkpatrick-Husk

Managing Work and Life: The Impact of Framing , Hilary G. Roche

Men and Women in Engineering: Professional Identity and Factors Influencing Workforce Retention , Caitlin Hawkinson Wasilewski

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13.1 What Is Industrial and Organizational Psychology?

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Understand the scope of study in the field of industrial and organizational psychology
• Describe the history of industrial and organizational psychology

In 2019, people who worked in the United States spent an average of about 42–54 hours per week working (Bureau of Labor Statistics—U.S. Department of Labor, 2019). Sleeping was the only other activity they spent more time on with an average of about 43–62 hours per week. The workday is a significant portion of workers’ time and energy. It impacts their lives and their family’s lives in positive and negative physical and psychological ways. Industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology is a branch of psychology that studies how human behavior and psychology affect work and how they are affected by work.

Industrial and organizational psychologists work in four main contexts: academia, government, consulting firms, and business. Most I-O psychologists have a master’s or doctorate degree. The field of I-O psychology can be divided into three broad areas ( Figure 13.2 and Figure 13.3 ): industrial, organizational, and human factors. Industrial psychology is concerned with describing job requirements and assessing individuals for their ability to meet those requirements. In addition, once employees are hired, industrial psychology studies and develops ways to train, evaluate, and respond to those evaluations. As a consequence of its concern for candidate characteristics, industrial psychology must also consider issues of legality regarding discrimination in hiring. Organizational psychology is a discipline interested in how the relationships among employees affect those employees and the performance of a business. This includes studying worker satisfaction, motivation, and commitment. This field also studies management, leadership, and organizational culture, as well as how an organization’s structures, management and leadership styles, social norms, and role expectations affect individual behavior. As a result of its interest in worker wellbeing and relationships, organizational psychology also considers the subjects of harassment, including sexual harassment, and workplace violence. Human factors psychology is the study of how workers interact with the tools of work and how to design those tools to optimize workers’ productivity, safety, and health. These studies can involve interactions as straightforward as the fit of a desk, chair, and computer to a human having to sit on the chair at the desk using the computer for several hours each day. They can also include the examination of how humans interact with complex displays and their ability to interpret them accurately and quickly. In Europe, this field is referred to as ergonomics.

Occupational health psychology (OHP) deals with the stress, diseases, and disorders that can affect employees as a result of the workplace. As such, the field is informed by research from the medical, biological, psychological, organizational, human factors, human resources, and industrial fields. Individuals in this field seek to examine the ways in which the organization affects the quality of work life for an employee and the responses that employees have towards their organization or as a result of their organization’s influence on them. The responses for employees are not limited to the workplace as there may be some spillover into their personal lives outside of work, especially if there is not good work-life balance. The ultimate goal of an occupational health psychologist is to improve the overall health and well-being of an individual, and, as a result, increase the overall health of the organization (Society for Occupational Health Psychology, 2020).

In 2009, the field of humanitarian work psychology (HWP) was developed as the brainchild of a small group of I-O psychologists who met at a conference. Realizing they had a shared set of goals involving helping those who are underserved and underprivileged, the I-O psychologists formally formed the group in 2012 and have approximately 300 members worldwide. Although this is a small number, the group continues to expand. The group seeks to help marginalized members of society, such as people with low income, find work. In addition, they help to determine ways to deliver humanitarian aid during major catastrophes. The Humanitarian Work Psychology group can also reach out to those in the local community who do not have the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to be able to find gainful employment that would enable them to not need to receive aid. In both cases, humanitarian work psychologists try to help the underserved individuals develop KSAs that they can use to improve their lives and their current situations. When ensuring these underserved individuals receive training or education, the focus is on skills that, once learned, will never be forgotten and can serve individuals throughout their lifetimes as they seek employment (APA, 2016). Table 13.1 summarizes the main fields in I-O psychology, their focuses, and jobs within each field.

Link to Learning

Find out what I-O psychologists do on the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) website—a professional organization for people working in the discipline. This site also offers several I-O psychologist profiles.

The Historical Development of Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Industrial and organizational psychology had its origins in the early 20th century. Several influential early psychologists studied issues that today would be categorized as industrial psychology: James Cattell (1860–1944), Hugo Münsterberg (1863–1916), Walter Dill Scott (1869–1955), Robert Yerkes (1876–1956), Walter Bingham (1880–1952), and Lillian Gilbreth (1878–1972). Cattell, Münsterberg, and Scott had been students of Wilhelm Wundt, the father of experimental psychology. Some of these researchers had been involved in work in the area of industrial psychology before World War I. Cattell’s contribution to industrial psychology is largely reflected in his founding of a psychological consulting company, which is still operating today, called the Psychological Corporation, and in the accomplishments of students at Columbia in the area of industrial psychology. In 1913, Münsterberg published Psychology and Industrial Efficiency , which covered topics such as employee selection, employee training, and effective advertising.

Scott was one of the first psychologists to apply psychology to advertising, management, and personnel selection. In 1903, Scott published two books: The Theory of Advertising and Psychology of Advertising . They are the first books to describe the use of psychology in the business world. By 1911 he published two more books, Influencing Men in Business and Increasing Human Efficiency in Business . In 1916 a newly formed division in the Carnegie Institute of Technology hired Scott to conduct applied research on employee selection (Katzell & Austin, 1992).

The focus of all this research was in what we now know as industrial psychology; it was only later in the century that the field of organizational psychology developed as an experimental science (Katzell & Austin, 1992). In addition to their academic positions, these researchers also worked directly for businesses as consultants.

When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the work of psychologists working in this discipline expanded to include their contributions to military efforts. At that time Yerkes was the president of the 25-year-old American Psychological Association (APA) . The APA is a professional association in the United States for clinical and research psychologists. Today the APA performs a number of functions including holding conferences, accrediting university degree programs, and publishing scientific journals. Yerkes organized a group under the Surgeon General’s Office (SGO) that developed methods for screening and selecting enlisted men. They developed the Army Alpha test to measure mental abilities. The Army Beta test was a non-verbal form of the test that was administered to illiterate and non-English-speaking draftees. Scott and Bingham organized a group under the Adjutant General’s Office (AGO) with the goal of developing selection methods for officers. They created a catalogue of occupational needs for the Army, essentially a job-description system and a system of performance ratings and occupational skill tests for officers (Katzell & Austin, 1992). After the war, work on personnel selection continued. For example, Millicent Pond researched the selection of factory workers, comparing the results of pre-employment tests with various indicators of job performance (Vinchur & Koppes, 2014).

From 1929 to 1932 Elton Mayo (1880–1949) and his colleagues began a series of studies at a plant near Chicago, Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works ( Figure 13.4 ). This long-term project took industrial psychology beyond just employee selection and placement to a study of more complex problems of interpersonal relations, motivation, and organizational dynamics. These studies mark the origin of organizational psychology. They began as research into the effects of the physical work environment (e.g., level of lighting in a factory), but the researchers found that the psychological and social factors in the factory were of more interest than the physical factors. These studies also examined how human interaction factors, such as supervisorial style, increased or decreased productivity.

Analysis of the findings by later researchers led to the term the Hawthorne effect , which describes the increase in performance of individuals who are aware they are being observed by researchers or supervisors ( Figure 13.5 ). What the original researchers found was that any change in a variable, such as lighting levels, led to an improvement in productivity; this was true even when the change was negative, such as a return to poor lighting. The effect faded when the attention faded (Roethlisberg & Dickson, 1939). The Hawthorne-effect concept endures today as an important experimental consideration in many fields and a factor that has to be controlled for in an experiment. In other words, an experimental treatment of some kind may produce an effect simply because it involves greater attention of the researchers on the participants (McCarney et al., 2007).

Watch this video of first-hand accounts of the original Hawthorne studies to learn more.

In the 1930s, researchers began to study employees’ feelings about their jobs. Kurt Lewin also conducted research on the effects of various leadership styles, team structure, and team dynamics (Katzell & Austin, 1992). Lewin is considered the founder of social psychology and much of his work and that of his students produced results that had important influences in organizational psychology. Lewin and his students’ research included an important early study that used children to study the effect of leadership style on aggression, group dynamics, and satisfaction (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939). Lewin was also responsible for coining the term group dynamics , and he was involved in studies of group interactions, cooperation, competition, and communication that bear on organizational psychology.

Parallel to these studies in industrial and organizational psychology, the field of human factors psychology was also developing. Frederick Taylor was an engineer who saw that if one could redesign the workplace there would be an increase in both output for the company and wages for the workers. In 1911 he put forward his theory in a book titled The Principles of Scientific Management ( Figure 13.6 ). His book examines management theories, personnel selection and training, as well as the work itself, using time and motion studies. Taylor argued that the principal goal of management should be to make the most money for the employer, along with the best outcome for the employee. He believed that the best outcome for the employee and management would be achieved through training and development so that each employee could provide the best work. He believed that by conducting time and motion studies for both the organization and the employee, the best interests of both were addressed. Time-motion studies were methods that aimed to improve work by dividing different types of operations into sections that could be measured. These analyses were used to standardize work and to check the efficiency of people and equipment.

Personnel selection is a process used by recruiting personnel within the company to recruit and select the best candidates for the job. Training may need to be conducted depending on what skills the hired candidate has. Often companies will hire someone with the personality that fits in with others but who may be lacking in skills. Skills can be taught, but personality cannot be easily changed.

One of the examples of Taylor’s theory in action involved workers handling heavy iron ingots. Taylor showed that the workers could be more productive by taking work rests. This method of rest increased worker productivity from 12.5 to 47.0 tons moved per day with less reported fatigue as well as increased wages for the workers who were paid by the ton. At the same time, the company’s cost was reduced from 9.2 cents to 3.9 cents per ton. Despite these increases in productivity, Taylor’s theory received a great deal of criticism at the time because it was believed that it would exploit workers and reduce the number of workers needed. Also controversial was the underlying concept that only a manager could determine the most efficient method of working, and that while at work, a worker was incapable of this. Taylor’s theory was underpinned by the notion that a worker was fundamentally lazy and the goal of Taylor’s scientific management approach was to maximize productivity without much concern for worker well-being. His approach was criticized by unions and those sympathetic to workers (Van De Water, 1997).

Gilbreth was another influential I-O psychologist who strove to find ways to increase productivity ( Figure 13.7 ). Using time and motion studies, Gilbreth and her husband, Frank, worked to make workers more efficient by reducing the number of motions required to perform a task. She applied these methods not only to industry but also to the home, office, shops, and other areas. She investigated employee fatigue and time management stress and found many employees were motivated by money and job satisfaction. In 1914, Gilbreth wrote the book, The Psychology of Management: The Function of the Mind in Determining, Teaching, and Installing Methods of Least Waste , and she is known as the mother of modern management. Some of Gilbreth’s contributions are still in use today: you can thank her for the idea to put shelves inside refrigerator doors, and she also came up with the concept of using a foot pedal to operate the lid of trash can (Gilbreth, 1914, 1998; Koppes, 1997; Lancaster, 2004). Gilbreth was the first woman to join the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1926, and in 1966 she was awarded the Hoover Medal of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Taylor and Gilbreth’s work improved productivity, but these innovations also improved the fit between technology and the human using it. The study of machine–human fit is known as ergonomics or human factors psychology.

From World War II to Today

World War II also drove the expansion of industrial psychology. Bingham was hired as the chief psychologist for the War Department (now the Department of Defense) and developed new systems for job selection, classification, training, and performance review, plus methods for team development, morale change, and attitude change (Katzell & Austin, 1992). Other countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, likewise saw growth in I-O psychology during World War II (McMillan, Stevens, & Kelloway, 2009). In the years after the war, both industrial psychology and organizational psychology became areas of significant research effort. Concerns about the fairness of employment tests arose, and the ethnic and gender biases in various tests were evaluated with mixed results. In addition, a great deal of research went into studying job satisfaction and employee motivation (Katzell & Austin, 1992).

The research and work of I-O psychologists in the areas of employee selection, placement, and performance appraisal became increasingly important in the 1960s. When Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VII covered what is known as equal employment opportunity. This law protects employees against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, as well as discrimination against an employee for associating with an individual in one of these categories.

Organizations had to adjust to the social, political, and legal climate of the Civil Rights movement, and these issues needed to be addressed by members of I/O in research and practice.

There are many reasons for organizations to be interested in I/O so that they can better understand the psychology of their workers, which in turn helps them understand how their organizations can become more productive and competitive. For example, most large organizations are now competing on a global level, and they need to understand how to motivate workers in order to achieve high productivity and efficiency. Most companies also have a diverse workforce and need to understand the psychological complexity of the people in these diverse backgrounds.

Today, I-O psychology is a diverse and deep field of research and practice, as you will learn about in the rest of this chapter. The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) , a division of the APA, lists 8,000 members (SIOP, 2014) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics—U.S. Department of Labor (2013) has projected this profession will have the greatest growth of all job classifications in the 20 years following 2012. On average, a person with a master’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology will earn over $80,000 a year, while someone with a doctorate will earn over $110,000 a year (Khanna, Medsker, & Ginter, 2012).

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5 Trends in Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Effects of 5 workplace trends on industrial-organizational psychology, globalization, sexual harassment, automation and artificial intelligence, internet recruiting, work-life balance and employee health.

Industrial-organizational psychology is the scientific study of the workplace. It looks at how people behave individually and in teams in that environment. Identifying trends in the field means looking at some of the major changes ahead in the workplace and how they will affect workers in that context.

Workplaces are becoming more globalized. This means there will need to be a greater awareness of cross-cultural issues in the workplace. The more diverse workforce means that rather than imposing a set of organizational standards throughout global companies, it will be more effective for teams to have standards that are reflective of local practices. Along with globalization comes an increasingly remote workforce. This presents challenges that industrial-organizational psychologists may wish to address, including:

• collaboration
• communication
• building a sense of teamwork

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology has identified sexual harassment in the workplace as the top trend at present. A majority of American women voters have experienced sexual harassment, and most of them experienced it at work. From an industrial-organizational psychology standpoint, organizations will need to look at their:

They must start to address the conditions that lead to workplace sexual harassment.

Over the next decade, a growing number of jobs will be automated. This is expected to lead to widespread disruption in the workplace. Organizations may need to address issues such as morale and training. As artificial intelligence begins to perform increasingly sophisticated tasks, organizational psychologists may begin to look at whether and how people form relationships with the AI they work with. The increasing use of big data that will be able to improve performance and track a number of other things. These technological innovations may also raise ethical questions that psychologists will examine.

Employees are now largely recruited through the internet rather than the help wanted section of newspapers. Although older populations are increasingly comfortable using computers, this type of recruitment might still tend to skew toward younger workers. This may be something organizations need to address. Computer-based job applications can provide feedback to applicants.

Organizations may want to consider how they can make the best use of the opportunities offered by online recruiting and information gathering combined with interviews and other more traditional methods of recruiting and selecting people for employment. The use of social media in selecting or rejecting candidates might also come under increased scrutiny.

Unhealthy employees mean:

• lower productivity
• more time missed from work
• possibly even more turnover

When an organization addresses work-life balance and employee health, it benefits both the employee and the workplace. However, there may be privacy and other implications for workplace health and wellness programs that organizational-industrial psychologists will examine.

Rapid innovations in technology mean that workplaces are changing rapidly. All of these have implications for how people work within organizations. For the field of industrial-organizational psychology, it means new ways of conceptualizing the workplace and the effects on employees.

Related Resources:

• 30 Great Scholarships, Grants & Awards for Industrial-Organizational Psychology
• What are the Prerequisites for Master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology
• Is an Online Master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology Respected in the Field?
• How Long Does it Take to Become an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist?
• What is the Difference Between Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Human Resources?
• What are the Most Important Elements of an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist’s Job?
• Why is Industrial-Organizational Psychology Important?
• What Can I Expect From an Industrial-Organizational Psychology Ph.D. Program?
• Top 10 Most Affordable Online Master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology
• Top 9 Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology Online
• Top 10 Master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology Online
• Top 10 Ph.D. Programs in Industrial-Organizational Psychology
• 10 Most Affordable Top-Ranked Master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology
• Top 10 Bachelor’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology 
• Top 25 Campus Based Industrial-Organizational Psychology Master’s Degree Programs
• Top 15 Industrial/Organizational Certificate Programs
• 10 Most Affordable Top-Ranked Master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology
• What Are Psychomotor Skills?

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Psychology Master’s Theses Abstracts Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Psychology master’s theses abstracts industrial/organizational psychology.

Click on authors’ names below for abstracts (lists goes back to 1999/2000)   

Summer 2021

Lyman, Kyle    Work to Live, or Live to Work?  Work-Life Programs and Career Consequences: The Role of Supervisor Perception  

Summer 2019  

Rehmann, Catherine     Benevolent Sexism in the Workplace: The Impact on Affect, Behavior, Cognition, and Performance   

Fall 2018  

Cheban, Yuliya         The Impact of Cultural Resilience on Affect and Performance in Organizational Settings     

Summer 2018    

Oleman, Whitney      The Effect of Leadership Development Interventions on Engineering Program Alumni     

Spring 2018    

Kautz, Brian      The Self-Correcting Workplace: The Impacts of Continuance Commitment and Job Autonomy on the Relationship between Job Dissatisfaction and Creativity      

Fall 2016    

Gergis, Christina    Perceived Effectiveness of the O*NET Skills Search Tool in Identifying Potential Occupations for Individuals with High Functioning Autism    

Good, Stephanie     Expanding the Typical Employment Options for High-Functioning Individuals on the Autism Spectrum using Occupational Interest Theory and a Web-Based Job Search Tool     

Spring 2016

DeYoung, Mindy Does Giving Contingent Rewards Improve Training Effectiveness and Change Professional Social Website Behaviors

Odom, Brianna Helping or Hurting?  The Effects of Manipulated Levels of Sexism on Third Party Perceptions of Interviewee Hireability and Managerial Potential

Summer 2015

Gentz, Rachel The Effect of Non-Engaging vs Engaging Training Methods on the Acceptance of Sexual Harassment Myths

Kim, Eugene           Displays of Counterproductive Work Behaviors on Facebook: An Observation of Possible Predictors Including Mood, Stress, and Gender     

Manderson, Cameron        Life Stress, Work Stress, and Job Performance: Does Conscientiousness Make a Difference?

Solhjou, Maryam       The Effects of Cognitive interventions on Well-Being in the Workplace

Quigley, Jennifer Let’s Work: Employment Experiences of Adults with Developmental Disabilities

Tucker, Kvon The Effects of Ethnic Identity, Ethnicity and Ethnic Identifiers on Job Suitability Ratings

Summer 2014

Galleta, John Andrew            From Injustice to Retaliation: The Mediating Role of Identity Threat     

Smith, Matthew      Employment Affect of Working Adults with Developmental Disabilities      

Spring 2014

Kruk, Allix        The Impact of Theoretical-Based Training Method of Performance on Training Professional Social Networking Use

Nam, Sophia      Do You Agree with This Critique?  An Analysis of the Impacts of Feedback, Feedback Acceptance, and Fairness Perceptions of Performance      

Ramirez, Cinthia      Perceived Efficacy of the O*Net Skills Search Tool Among Individuals with High Functioning Autism      

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Miller, David Outcomes of Psychological Contract Breach and Violation

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Walters, Sarah Ethnicity, Job Experience, and Interview Ratings

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Maguin, Jennifer A Meta-Analysis of Interpersonal Trust and Team Performance

Norton, Sharon The Effects of Leadership-Efficacy and Personality on Reactions to Stress

Ahnefeld, Karoline The Development and Validation of a Nonviolent Communication Situational Judgment Test (NVC-SJT) for the Workplace

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Kurtis, Kimberly Minority College Student Attitudes Towards the Geological Sciences: Unearthing Barriers to Enrollment

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Venegas, Jennifer Effectiveness of an Intervention to Increase Employees’ Awareness of Frequency and Seriousness of Cyberloafing

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Abulhusn, Karla A. The Effects of Exposure, Cognitive Ability and Interview Self-Efficacy on Employment Interview Performance

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Escobedo, Matthew Applicant Anxiety and Selection Interview Performance: A Meta-Analysis

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An Instructor’s Guide for Introducing Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Prepared by the education and training committee of the society for industrial and organizational psychology.

Dear Instructor:

This instructor's guide was created by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) in the hopes that more teachers of psychology might introduce Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology to their students. Interest in I-O psychology has grown among students, yet relatively few introductory psychology textbooks cover the topic. Therefore, we have designed modules that will complement many of the other topics you might cover in your course.

I-O psychology entails the application of psychological concepts to work settings. This guide begins with a short introductory lecture segment providing an overview of I-O psychology that serves as a lead-in to any of the modules listed below in the table of contents. For each module we've included a sample lecture (in PowerPoint), an activity and/or discussion to supplement the lecture material, and background information and key references for the topic area. The PowerPoint overheads also include notes to help with the material (you'll need to print out overheads as Note Pages for this information).

The goal of each module is to address key themes/goals in I-O psychology:

• I-O psychologists help employers deal with employees fairly.
• I-O psychologists help make jobs more interesting and satisfying.
• I-O psychologists help workers be more productive.

We hope that you will discuss I-O psychology with your students. We also hope that weve provided you with the materials you need to make that discussion an easy, interesting, and informative one.

The modules were developed and implemented by the Education and Training Committee of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. The Education and Training Committee members responsible for preparing this instructors guide include: Elise Amel, Peter Bachiochi , Carrie Bulger , David Day , Todd Harris, Martha Hennen , Michael Horvath , Laura Koppes , Kurt Kraiger , Geula Lowenberg , Debra Major, Morrie Mullins, Joan Rentsch , Jeffrey Stanton.

The committee would like to thank Mike Burke, Georgia Chao, Angelo DeNisi, David Miller, Elaine Pulakos, Ann Marie Ryan, Jeff Schippmann, Nancy Tippins, Craig Vickio , and several other Introductory Psychology instructors for their recommendations and suggestions on previous versions of this guide. They helped to significantly improve the final product.

Copyright 2002 by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Inc. All rights reserved. This guide is designed to be downloaded and copied in its entirety to use for educational purposes. It may not be changed or altered without the written consent of SIOP.

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology is Division 14 of the American Psychological Association and an organizational affiliate of the Association for Psychological Science.

Click the link to download content:

Table of Contents

1. introduction to industrial and organizational psychology.

Supplemental Materials  Here PowerPoint Version Here

2. Leadership And Gender Stereotypes

3. leader-member exchange theory , 4. workplace diversity  , 5. sexual harassment , 6. evaluating work performance, 7. motivation and performance.

Supplemental Materials Here PowerPoint Version Here

8. Work Teams

PowerPoint Version Here

9. Judgment and Decision Making

10. job attitudes, 11. work-family balance, 12.  training in organizations, 13. selection, 14. justice, 15. personality and work.

Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

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Industrial-Organizational Psychology

The Industrial and Organizational (I-O) Psychology Research Interest Group (RIG) studies human behavior in organizational and work situations. Faculty expertise address research problems in this discipline such as motivation at work, the aging workforce, discrimination in the workplace, job performance, and team training. Students receive solid training for careers in both academic and applied settings.

I-O Psychology at Rice University from Rice University on Vimeo .

Margaret Beier Mikki Hebl Danielle King Eden King Fred Oswald Eduardo Salas

Primary contact: Fred Oswald

Master's Candidacy Requirements

Please visit the Forms page to access the required paperwork to establish candidacy.

Core Courses (all required) 1. PSYC 502 - Advanced Psychological Statistics I 2. PSYC 503 - Advanced Psychological Statistics II 3. PSYC 530 - Foundations of I-O Psychology 4. PSYC 533 - Weekly I-O Research Seminar (every semester) 5. PSYC 634 - Personnel Psychology 6. PSYC 636 - Organizational Psychology

One of the following courses is required 1. PSYC 507 - Research Methods 2. PSYC 601 - Multivariate Statistics 3. PSYC 602 - Psychometrics 4. Other approved methodology course

Course Requirements for Provisional Admission to Master's Candidacy

The following are required before you can defend your Master's thesis. 1. PSYC 502 - Advanced Psychological Statistics I 2. PSYC 503 - Advanced Psychological Statistics II 3. PSYC 530 - Foundations of I-O Psychology 4. Any other of the required master's courses as listed above

Doctoral Candidacy: Course Requirements

Important Information about Ph.D. Candidacy in I-O

Core Courses (all required) 1. PSYC 502 - Advanced Psychological Statistics I 2. PSYC 503 - Advanced Psychological Statistics II 3. PSYC 530 - Foundations of I/O Psychology 4. PSYC 533 - Weekly I/O Research Seminar 5. PSYC 634 - Personnel Psychology 6. PSYC 636 - Organizational Psychology 7. PSYC 660 - Professional Issues

Three of the following substantive courses are required 1. PSYC 511 - History and Systems of Psychology 2. PSYC 520 - Foundations of Cognitive Psychology 3. PSYC 540 - Foundations of Human Factors/ Engineering Psychology 4. PSYC 550 - Foundations of Social Psychology 5. PSYC 631 - Foundations of Individual Differences

Two of the following statistical courses are required 1. PSYC 507 - Research Methods 2. PSYC 601 - Multivariate Statistics 3. PSYC 602 - Psychometrics 4. Other approved methodology course

Additional courses for breadth and depth Three courses to be selected according to students' individual interests from the set of special topics courses taught by I-O faculty and other advanced courses taught by other psychology faculty.

I-O RIG Annual Review

As part of the I-O program, all students will meet with the entire I-O faculty at the end of every academic year to review progress. Students will complete the Progress Report for Rice’s Psychological Sciences Department , which is due to the Graduate Administrator and the student's advisor by the last day of classes during the spring semester .

Each student’s review meeting will be held in late April/early May (after the annual SIOP conference) and will be about 20 minutes long. Students should expect to receive suggestions about additional projects/activities for the coming year at this meeting (e.g., develop a review paper, run an experiment, look for an internship, etc.).

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The Basics of Industrial-Organizational Psychology

How Organizational and Industrial Psychology Explain Workplace Behaviors

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk,  "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

Verywell / James Bascara

• Subject Areas
• Historical Figures

Industrial-organizational psychology is the branch of psychology that applies psychological theories and principles to organizations. Often referred to as I-O psychology, this combination of industrial psychology and organizational psychology focuses on understanding workplace productivity factors and issues related to the physical and mental well-being of employees.

Industrial-organizational psychologists perform a wide variety of tasks, including studying worker attitudes and behavior, evaluating companies, and conducting leadership training. The main goal of this field is to study and understand human behavior in the workplace, and it can be utilized across a variety of industries.

What Is Industrial-Organizational Psychology?

You can think of industrial-organizational psychology as having two major sides: industrial psychology and organizational psychology.

Industrial Psychology

The main role of the industrial side of industrial-organizational psychology is to learn how to best match individuals to specific job roles. This segment of I-O psychology is also sometimes referred to as personnel psychology.

People who work in this area might assess employee characteristics, then match these individuals to jobs in which they are likely to perform well. Other main focuses that fall on the industrial side of I-O psychology include training employees, developing job performance standards, and measuring job performance.

Organizational Psychology

The organizational side of I-O psychology is more focused on understanding how organizations affect individual behavior. Organizational structures, social norms, management styles, and role expectations are all factors that can influence how people behave within an organization.

By understanding such factors, I-O psychologists hope to improve individual performance and health while at the same time benefiting the organization as a whole.

While industrial-organizational psychology is an applied field, basic theoretical research is also essential. With roots in experimental psychology, I-O psychology has a number of different sub-areas such as human-computer interaction, personnel psychology, and human factors .

Key Subject Areas in I-O Psychology

According to Muchinsky's book,  Psychology Applied to Work: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology , most industrial-organizational psychologists work in one of six major subject areas:

• Employee selection : This area involves developing employee selection assessments, such as screening tests to determine if job applicants are qualified for a particular position.
• Ergonomics : The field of ergonomics involves designing procedures and equipment designed to maximize performance and minimize injury.
• Organizational development : I-O psychologists who work in this area help improve organizations, often through increasing profits, redesigning products, and improving the organizational structure.
• Performance management : I-O psychologists who work in this area develop assessments and techniques to determine if employees are doing their jobs well.
• Training and development : Professionals in this area often determine what type of skills are necessary to perform specific jobs as well as develop and evaluate employee training programs.
• Work-life : This area focuses on improving employee satisfaction and maximizing the productivity of the workforce. I-O psychologists in this area might work to find ways to make jobs more rewarding or design programs that improve the quality of life in the workplace.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Topics

Here are some of the specific topics addressed by industrial-organizational psychology experts:

• Employee motivation : Professionals in this field may also use psychological principles to help keep workers motivated.
• Employee testing : Psychological principles and tests are often used by I-O psychologists to help businesses select candidates that are best suited to specific job roles.
• Leadership : I-O psychologists may work to help leaders develop better strategies or train managers to utilize different leadership skills to manage team members more effectively.
• Product design : Some I-O psychologists are involved in the development of consumer or workplace products.
• Workplace diversity : Within the area of organizational psychology, professionals in this field may help businesses develop hiring practices that foster greater diversity as well as train employees on diversity and inclusion.
• Workplace performance : I-O psychologists often study behavior in the workplace in order to design environments and procedures that maximize employee performance.

Important People in I-O Psychology History

There have been several prominent figures in the field of I-O psychology, including:

• Frederick W. Taylor : Taylor was a mechanical engineer who published an influential book on improving industrial efficiency.
• Hugo Münsterberg : Munsterberg was an applied psychologist who wrote an early text on how psychology could be used for industrial, occupational, and organizational purposes. His work had an important impact on the early development of the field. 
• James McKeen Cattell : Cattell was an early proponent of looking at how individual differences influence human behavior. 
• Kurt Lewin : Lewin was an influential applied psychologist who described a number of leadership styles that people may exhibit. His work also focused on looking at all of the forces that influence a situation rather than just taking individual behavior into account.
• Robert Yerkes : Yerkes was a psychologist known for his work in the field of intelligence testing. He developed the Alpha and Beta Intelligence Tests for the U.S. Army, which were used to evaluate military recruits during WWI. Scores on the tests were used to determine respondents' capabilities, including the ability to serve and leadership potential.

Careers in I-O Psychology

Interest in industrial-organizational psychology careers  has grown.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that I-O psychology would be one of the fastest-growing careers, and wages have been rising over 10 percent per year.

According to employment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean annual wage for I-O psychologists as of May 2016 was $109,030. The bottom 10% of I-O psychologists earned around $51,350 and the top 10% earned an average of $184,380, with a median annual wage of $192,150.

As with other specialty areas, wages vary depending upon a variety of factors including geographic location, educational background, area of employment, and years of experience in the field. Individuals with a master's or doctorate degree also command higher yearly salaries.

In general, those in large urban areas will find more employment opportunities as well as higher wages, although such benefits are often accompanied by a higher cost of living.

States employing the most I-O psychologists include Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and New Jersey. Professionals working in Virginia earned an average of $126,220, while those employed in Massachusetts earned an average of $75,660.

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that wages also vary considerably depending upon the industry in which industrial-organizational psychologists are employed. The mean annual wage for various industries is as follows:

• Colleges, universities, and professional schools: $70,360
• Management, scientific, and technical consulting services: $95,470
• Scientific research and development services: $149,780
• State government: $66,600

Who Should Study Industrial-Organizational Psychology?

Students who are interested in applying psychological principles to real-world settings should consider industrial-organizational psychology. If you have a strong interest in psychology as well as related subjects such as product design, computers, statistics, and engineering, this may be the ideal field for you.

Muchinsky PM. Psychology Applied to Work, An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology . Thomson Wadsworth; 2006.

Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Industrial-Organizational Psychologists.  Occupational Employment Statistics.

• Bureau of Labor Statistics. Industrial-Organizational Psychologists. Occupational Employment Statistics.
• Hockenbury SE, Hockenbury DH. Discovering Psychology . New York: Worth Publishers; 2016.
• Muchinsky PM. Psychology Applied to Work: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology . Summerfield (N.C.): Hypergraphic Press; 2009.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

PSYC 826 Contemporary Topics in Industrial/Organizational Psychology

• Course Description

Exploration of contemporary topics in Industrial/Organizational psychology. Empirical research, current trends, and a special focus on ongoing research in the field will be highlighted.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the  Academic Course Catalog .

Course Guide

View this course’s outcomes, policies, schedule, and more.*

Requires a student login to access.

*The information contained in our Course Guides is provided as a sample. Specific course curriculum and requirements for each course are provided by individual instructors each semester. Students should not use Course Guides to find and complete assignments, class prerequisites, or order books.

This course is designed to keep students aware of the most current themes and topics within industrial/organizational psychology today. This is an i/o concentration course that gives students an opportunity to be on the cutting edge of both research application that is both current and even anticipates future trends and events.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations/notes.

No details available.

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations , the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview. 

Discussion (8)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to provide a thread in response to the provided prompt for each discussion assignment. Discussion threads that answer the question(s) presented must be at least 500 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the initial main post, the student is required to reply to two other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be 250 words.  Discussion assignments are assigned in Modules 1-8.  Please see instructions for each discussion assignment. (CLO’s: A, B, C, D, E)

Research Presentation Assignments (4)

Annotated Bibliographies (3)

In preparation of the Research Presentation: Part 4 – Narrated PowerPoint Assignment, the student will prepare three annotated bibliographies of articles that will be used in their presentation. Each annotated bibliography submission will include a minimum of 7 articles (for a total of 21 articles on their topic).  The first annotated bibliography submission will also include a one-sentence description of the topic chosen.  This assignment is expected to be in annotated bibliography format and should include 7 journal articles per submission. Please see the instructions for the Annotated Bibliographies in the classroom. These assignments are due in Modules 1-3.  (CLO’s: A, B, C, D, E)

Narrated PowerPoint (1)

For this presentation, the student will prepare a narrated PowerPoint presentation on their research topic.  In the PowerPoint presentation, the student will describe the area of research they have researched, evaluate the current state of the research (including areas that need more research), a biblical discussion of the topic, and introduce a proposed study to further the research area. The presentation will include sources cited and referenced in current APA style.  The student will also narrate the presentation. Please see the instructions for the Narrated PowerPoint for more information. (CLO’s: A, B, C, D, E)

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Why is i-o science not reaching the public, how do we bring i-o science and evidence to the public, what are some of the keys to translation and public consumption, how we can bring i-o psychology science and evidence-based practices to the public.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2022

It is our contention that industrial-organizational (I-O) science can do many great things for the world of work, but we must first get it out there more readily and fully into the hands of decision makers, policy makers, and the public. This focal article addresses the following topics: (a) Why isn’t I-O science reaching the public? (b) What are good mechanisms to bring I-O science to the public? (c) What are some keys to translation and public consumption? Specific public-facing activities discussed include writing a trade book, writing for trade magazines (e.g., Harvard Business Review [ HBR ]) and online blogs (e.g., Fortune ), leveraging social media (e.g., LinkedIn), submitting op-eds, doing podcasts as a producer and/or guest, and joining a speakers bureau. We also discuss barriers to these activities such as time, reward structures, and skill deficits.

Have you ever watched or read business news and thought to yourself, “This advice does not align with what we actually know from our industrial-organizational (I-O) science?” or, worse, “This is a total misrepresentation of our science!” Have you ever listened to National Public Radio (NPR) and asked yourself why they do not have more I-O psychologists commenting on and discussing work-related issues? Have you ever been to an event or conference outside our discipline and thought there was a missed opportunity to share and connect with what we I-O psychologists know—in fact, they did not even realize we existed? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are among a growing number of I-O psychologists seeking to connect I-O psychology with the broader world of data consumers. Although this group is growing, it is clear many conditions are necessary to enable consistent appeal on a broader level. In this paper, we strive to identify the core conditions needed for broad appeal and what I-O psychologists can do to enhance their prospects.

It is our contention that our science can do many great things for the world of work if we could get it out there more readily and fully into the hands of decision makers, policy makers, and the public. Namely, our science can be used to improve individual, organizational, and societal health, well-being, and effectiveness. For example, it is not a stretch to say that insights from our I-O science can improve team effectiveness, selection, socialization, leadership development, work safety, and performance assessment to name just a few practice areas. At the same time, doing so benefits I-O psychology through increased visibility, greater demand for our services, and more partners for our research. Conversely, if we fail to get our evidence-based messages out there, the void will likely be filled by nongrounded sources that have potentially negative or nonoptimal effects on employees and organizations.

In this focal article, we address the following topics:

What are good mechanisms to bring I-O science to the public?

What are some keys to translation and public consumption?

To aid us in our efforts and expand our thinking, we sent an anonymous open-ended exploratory survey to the 30 members of the editorial board of Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice ( IOP ; 13 responses received). The questions asked about bringing I-O psychology to external audiences—benefits, barriers, what the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) can do to help, and personal motivation. Quotes identified throughout the manuscript were highly illustrative of the respondent pool’s shared and unique perspectives on any given topic.

We postulate that there are a variety of barriers, both structural and individual, to I-O science reaching the public. With respect to the former, the natural mechanism for connection is our scientific journals. In the ideal world, practitioners and the general public would read our journals, learn new insights, and apply them to their working worlds. But this is not happening for a host of reasons.

Assuming that our tables of contents are even seen by potential users of the science (which we fear is not a reasonable assumption), firewalls exist around journals preventing nonsubscribers from accessing the science. Also, subscription costs for academic journals are generally prohibitive, towering over costs of other mainstream periodicals. For example, the annual subscription cost for the Journal of Applied Psychology for non-APA-members is a whopping $590 at last look. For context, this is over four times the annual cost of the very popular Harvard Business Review .

Although it can certainly be argued that readership of most periodicals will be on the low side given changes to how managers receive information (e.g., podcasts), the firewall and lack of accessibility of our published reports may account, in part, for the readership findings presented by Rynes et al. ( Reference Rynes, Colbert and Brown 2002 ). Rynes et al. asked human resource managers how often they read various publications using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 ( never ) to 5 ( always ). A c ademy of Management Journal (1.11), Journal of Applied Psychology (1.19), and Personnel Psychology (1.22) all received ratings near the floor of the scale. For context, Human Resource Magazine received a rating of 4.28 and the Wall Street Journal received a rating of 2.72. This is consistent with the results of a survey of SIOP members reported by Highhouse et al. ( Reference Highhouse, Zickar and Melick 2020 ); the journals that I-O practitioners rated as highest in terms of relevance were also those that were accessible via SIOP membership— IOP and The Industrial Psychologist (TIP).

Even if we had open access to our science and the public indeed found our work, the question becomes whether managers would effectively consume our research and translate it into practice. We would argue that our published articles do not make much attempt to truly connect and translate. Take, for example, our efforts to enumerate the implications of our research. Bartunek ( Reference Bartunek 2007 ) analyzed all Academy of Management Journal articles published in 2006. More than one third—36%—of articles did not even have a section on practical implications. For the articles that did have such a section, the content shared was extremely banal. Namely, the two most common recommendations by far were (a) managers need to be aware of X and (b) managers should receive training on X. Overall, implications sections are becoming increasingly similar in form and function. Increasing emphasis on “theory,” using dense academic language, and so forth all play a role in diminishing utility to our own practitioners let alone other audiences. It is not just that we put our words in the wrong places, it is also that we perhaps do not even use the right words.

Bottom line, the expectation that stakeholders will seek us out and come find us is flawed. Furthermore, the assumption that the stakeholders who find our work will derive value is equally as flawed. Given the above obstacles, the onus on reaching the public starts to fall on individual I-O psychologists taking matters into their own hands. However, this path is also fraught with challenges.

Individual skills and confidence deficit

To our knowledge, the preparation or training of I-O psychologists for this kind of work does not really exist. I-O graduate programs are explicitly designed to teach students how to write for academic audiences, and little to no attention is paid to nonacademic audiences. It is unsurprising, then, that our survey respondents indicated that I-O psychology does not reach the public because of “ lack of knowledge, motivation, and skill in this area .” Indeed, another survey respondent noted the challenge of, “ turning the I-O psychology language into a communicative one to the ordinary folks .” Our unpreparedness may be exemplified by another respondent’s statement that, “ we sound like eggheads .”

Relatedly, this unpreparedness extends beyond the style of communication to knowledge of the processes by which we might bring our science forward. Without formal or informal exposure to communication with nonacademic audiences, graduates from I-O psychology programs do not know “ how to access appropriate media or venues .” I-O psychology lacks formal tools through which to achieve such goals: “ I-O [psychologists] don’t have a structured vehicle for bringing science to the masses in places like SXSW, SHRM, or TedX .”

Reward structures are insufficient

I-O psychologists are not really rewarded in tangible ways for engaging in this kind of outreach. There is rarely a section on the annual performance report or performance management plan to indicate the number of op-eds or podcasts in which we participated. Indeed, one respondent to our survey suggested that reward structures were a barrier to broader communication for both academics and practitioners: “ Academics: don’t get rewarded for it, or we don’t know how to do it; practitioners: have to get legal’s approval or someone else and they don’t do it fast enough or are worried about sharing proprietary knowledge .” Another respondent extended this line of thinking by articulating that, “ I - O’s sense of energy and motivation is directed to better payoffs (like getting tenure, more pay, drinking beer) ,” and that there is, “ little incentive to go to external audiences .”

It is also worth noting that, in most cases, incentivization for this kind of outreach usually only comes from sources external to our immediate chain of command. Academics who achieve this sort of outreach might be appreciated by the president’s office, administrators, or perhaps alums who favor visibility for the institution. Rarely is it the case that the department chair is interested in fostering this type of outreach. For practitioners, the same is also true. Rarely is your direct supervisor enamored with the notion of extrarole behavior bringing light to your expertise unless it benefits the organization more broadly.

Lack of time

Another barrier that goes hand in hand with reward structures that a number of survey respondents noted is that their jobs do not provide sufficient time to engage in communication with external audiences. There is simply not a formal accounting of or budget for time spent working to connect with the public. Consistent with this, respondents listed barriers such as “ too busy with work ,” “time and energy—hard to just do the jobs we have ,” and “ lack of time .”

Even with these barriers, so many of us still want to reach the public, and for good reason. In the next section, we provide insights into reaching the public.

The bigger and more vexing question is this: What can we as I-O psychologists do to reach an extended audience? Although public attention spans are stretched and overwhelmed with information and media opportunities, what are the right vehicles for doing so? Addressing these questions will provide greater insight into making the leap beyond our own community and, with some concerted efforts, yield greater visibility for our discipline as the science of work.

Trends for content consumption should come as no surprise. It is safe to say that digital media consumption had overtaken traditional media consumption with every increasing minutes spent on video, radio, social media, and podcasts. With this in mind, it is critical for I-O psychologists seeking to reach beyond the I-O community to explore a range of outlets. The following represent a smattering of effective mechanisms for bringing science to the masses:

Writing a trade book

Writing for trade magazines ( Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review ) and online blogs ( Fortune )

Leveraging social media (more LinkedIn than twitter)

Submitting op-eds

Podcasts as a producer and/or guest

Joining a speakers bureau

Next, we provide practical guidance for I-O psychologists seeking to use one or more of these outlets in the next section. The hope is not only to educate but also to help I-O psychologists find the approaches that they are most comfortable with trying.

Writing some type of book can be found on the CV or goals list of many I-O psychologists. This often takes the form of a scientific tome, replete with chapters written by subject matter experts and edited for consumption by the next generation of I-O psychologists. Although this is a common path, others seek a path more designed to reach the masses. More often than not, this means finding a topic with broad appeal and developing everyday, relatable prose built upon good science. Although absolutely far from exhaustive, here are some examples of popular press books from I-O psychologists:

Alex Alonso, a coauthor for this manuscript and author of The Price of Pettiness , explored the depths of petty behavior in the workplace using more than 1,500 anecdotes from human resources (HR) professionals.

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, researcher in the world of personality and leadership, wrote Confidence: Overcoming Low Self-Esteem, Insecurity, and Self-Doubt .

Jennifer Deal has written several guides to understanding generational perspectives using an interdisciplinary approach.

Michele Gelfand wrote Rule Makers, Rule Breakers , discussing the science around human cultures and how tightly or loosely social norms are adhered to.

Adam Grant wrote Give and Take that brings evidence forward to understand why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom.

Stefanie Johnson wrote Inclusify that examines team success leveraging an inclusion lens.

Steven Rogelberg, a coauthor for this manuscript and author of The Surprising Science of Meetings , boiled down key scientific findings from his research and practice to provide guidance on a topic every person encounters daily: the meeting.

David L. Van Rooy wrote Trajectory , a guide for managing career missteps and how to recover from them.

Mike “Woody” Woodward wrote a practical guide for career change success, The YOU Plan .

Producing a popular press book with a trade publisher is a very different process than most of us have ever been experienced. Although there is certainly variability in paths to success, what is listed below is perhaps the most typical model when considering the major trade publishing houses like Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster.

Develop your prospectus

A prospectus has at minimum the following components: your concept/vision, your table of contents, a sample chapter, and how it fits into the marketplace/competition. What is important to recognize, however, is that just because you may have identified a gap, it does not mean anyone will be interested. The gap has to be fundamentally intriguing to people. Test whether your concept is compelling. For example, it is very easy to glean perspectives on a book topic from the general public by chatting with friends and family outside the profession. The key is sharing the concept idea with the actual people you want to be reading the book, not just other I-O psychologists.

Get an agent

We checked with editors from most of the top trade publishers. The majority indicated they will not accept unsolicited proposals. For those that will entertain it, they indicate it is just a very small percentage of the time. One editor wrote, “ the only unagented submissions I really see are people I meet at conferences. I don’t accept unagented people who just email me, the industry just does not work like that .” The smaller trade houses might, and academic publishers will, but the major trade houses—which tend to be critical to the book’s success and penetration into the public—generally do require agents.

There are many agents available, but finding a highly respected one is critical. In terms of finding a good agent, writers could research online and check out the agent’s website to look for successful books they represented, go to writer’s conferences to meet agents, and, perhaps most useful, talk to people they know who have published trade books to get recommendations. The prominent agents likely will only take on a small percent of the proposals they receive. But, the agent taking it on is pretty much the biggest predictor of the book ultimately being picked up by a house. The agent is extremely discerning as they will only invest time if they see a big future for your concept. The right agent knows how to develop the prospectus. Their reputation and credibility get you access to top publishers for the auction. Agents typically receive a 15% commission on your share of the sales.

Preparing for the auction

A good agent will work with your prospectus, giving lots of feedback to get it ready for a trade publisher auction of sorts. Basically, they will send it out simultaneously to a large number of trade publishers that publish work related to your topic. Interested houses will make a bid. They may even revise the bid based on others’ bids. You will then review all offers and pick a publisher. This entire process can take just 2 or 3 weeks.

Picking a publisher

This is extremely important. Big trade publishers have the reach and access to stores and the media. Academic publishers typically do not. Getting the right publisher is essential to a book having legs. If your goal truly is visibility, it cannot be emphasized enough how important the publisher is. Therefore, examine their track record with trade books.

Writing the book

After ideation has been completed, it is time for refinement and writing. For some, this process is lengthy lasting over a year, whereas for others it can happen in less time. Regardless of your writing tempo, it is important to engage in consistent development and review. Constantly get feedback to be sure your writing is accessible and to be sure your stories are engaging and compelling. This feedback should come from the audience you are trying to connect with and not necessarily from I-O colleagues.

As you finish writing the book, you have to decide on whether you want to hire a publicist. A publicist is responsible for publicizing your book and pitching your content to a variety of different media. Their contacts are large, and they know how to position the book in a way that can appeal readily to journalists. Trade publishers will, and some academic publishers may provide some broad-based publicist services if built into the contract. Some authors hire their own publicist to supercharge the promotion process. It is not cheap, but it can yield great returns if the publicist is strong. It is important to note that many academic publishers do not have these publicist services. As a result, your book will get little exposure. This could be the difference between a book that collects dust in a warehouse for eternity and a book everyone is dying to read.

Although trade or airport-read books are a powerful dissemination mechanism, they do suffer from being older “technology” and very few will catch on. As a result, their reach is limited by design.

Writing for trade magazines

This is a host of reputable trade-type magazines that would be good homes for our I-O science- and evidence-based practices. Harvard Business Review is perhaps the highest profile outlet, but there are other meaningful sources such as Sloan Management Review , HR Magazine , Fast Company, Inc ., and Forbes . The most appealing component of magazine articles or columns is their mass appeal. For example, the Data Watch column in HR Magazine is read by more than 400,000 individuals every quarter. The advantages extend beyond reach, however, with ease of format and consistent expedient reviews playing an important role. The disadvantages include difficulty gauging what is viable in terms of reader interests, which can often feel like fishing without bait, and the remarkably quick pace of editorial requests. In some cases, columnists have been asked to completely rework their columns in a matter of days. This appeals to some but deviates widely from our typical editorial review in peer-reviewed journals.

Writing a column in magazines and trade publications certainly has overlap with what we talked about above with respect to trade books. However, there are several considerations when pulling together a column that one may not consider when publishing in traditional venues:

It is typically an editor-driven process. Namely, you would create some type of one-to-two-paragraph pitch that you can send to one of the editors of the outlet in question. They will then indicate interest and potential next steps. Some editors may want to see a complete piece prior to indicating interest or lack thereof.

Most editors will work to enhance the novelty and relevance of their content to readers. In many cases, this means being attuned to the needs of readers and their preferences. This calls for us as I-O psychologists to think like a reader and focus on audiences broader than our own.

Most of the periodicals have an online version and a print version. Standards and processes can differ for each with paper publications typically receiving a more rigorous review.

Be sure you are aware of any related pieces the magazine in question has published on the topic. They will implicitly or explicitly want to be convinced this is an important addition to what they have already done and is often more important than what other outlets have done on the topic.

Editors engage in an iterative process. Editors will be heavy handed in their feedback and will not hesitate to rewrite sections of your paper (you will be asked to bless all suggestions of course). Iterations can be as few as a couple to double digits. It is also typical to be asked for URLs for any research you cite, which more often than not, are checked for accuracy.

In many instances, the final paper will go through one last review by the senior editor of the publication prior to acceptance.

You will create a working title of your paper. If there is a novel way of presenting your research or practical learnings in 10 words, this is the avenue for you. Placing yourself in the shoes of the reader or reporter is not an art most I-O psychologists have mastered, but that is not to say we cannot do it with ease. With that being said, interestingly, the senior editor makes the final call on the title they think is best.

Leveraging social media and online blogs

There are many tools for generating reach and influence in social media including (but not limited to) Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter represent the majority of social media influence traffic—each with at least 330 million users worldwide (HootSuite, 2019 ). The key to building reach is focusing on the importance of packaging relevant content to your network. To that end, there are two main sets of behaviors potential influencers must develop: (a) generating pithy, relevant content AND (b) building a big network. For example, Paul Thoresen, I-O practitioner and @SurveyGuy2, is a thought-provoking influencer, often cataloguing other influencers in the world of workplace sciences social media. Yet another large influencer in the world of I-O psychology is Sy Islam, @IOSyIslam, who specializes in disseminating provocative content around workplace trends and talent analytics. The following are some important steps for ensuring success as an I-O social media influencer:

Start with a few practice tweets or posts. Building social media influence is a lot like testing your material as a stand-up comic. You need to try your hand at posting or tweeting and see what generates interest.

Focus on building a regular cycle of posting or tweeting. Using a set schedule allows you to generate time in your calendar while creating expectations from your audience.

Use humor where you can and if comfortable. There is no greater thought-provoking tool than irreverence and humor. It may be counter to our tendencies as scientists, but it is an invaluable tool for examining tough topics while building an audience.

Friend everyone in sight. The low bar for admission into the influencer space is returning a follow. People will follow you if you follow them. This is how you go from 40 connections to 4,000 in no time.

Crash other people’s parties! When possible make sure to comment and engage others. For example, don’t be afraid to join TweetUps or LinkedIn Groups. One such example is to join @SIOPChat or @NextChat from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). These monthly topical meetings of user groups provide an opportunity to join a community and build your audience all while also testing your quick reactions and content.

Detach yourself from reactions. The Internet (and social media) is the universe of trolls. People will find ways to evaluate you and seek to destroy your perspectives. This is a fact of life as a social media influencer (just ask Alex about the follower who called him and dropped 63 F bombs in the span of a 2-minute voicemail over his take on overcoming bias in the workplace). In the end, we as potential influencers need to ignore these types of reactions and remember that interest (positive or negative) still generates more interest.

Another form of quick content for social media consumption is the now well-known blog. Blogs are typically a medium for sharing insights in a less formal venue. They first took the world by storm when they developed followerships for salacious gossip content like those on PerezHilton.com or TMZ. However, blogs soon evolved to include more practical guidance and opinion-based educational content. Today, blogs run the gamut from do-it-yourself content to entertainment tracking to advice on parenthood and beyond. In the context of I-O psychology and its appeal to the masses, several blogs are currently under development, including the Workplace Futures Blog and the Advocacy@Work blog. Very visible is the HR blog hosted by SHRM, where contributors like Steven Rogelberg, Woody Woodward, and Alex Alonso have provided quick hits on organizational topics. Some pointers for making the most of blogs include

Be pithy. Blogs are not intended to be a work of art. They are intended to be five paragraphs at most. The most effective bloggers hit you hard with information and share their personal accounts. Leveraging humor can be helpful at times.

Even when talking about science, personalization matters. When writing a blog, many strive to share how their experience shaped their learning and, in turn, their practice. Blogs are often intended to be a look into the blogger’s psyche.

You can post your blogs in a number of places including several media platforms like a LinkedIn article, a Tumblr topic thread, or on several magazine open comment sections for major publications like Time or Newsweek . In addition, you could opt to submit guest blogs on sites like TheMuse.com or HubSpot.com .

Broadcast far and wide. Blogs only work if you broadcast them across every medium you can think of. This means blogs have to be ready for transmission across content aggregator sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. The ultimate achievement in the blogger’s life is being featured by LinkedIn’s editorial team. This means you have hit the big time with a potential large exposure to countless LinkedIn users. For example, a blog post on the science behind meeting agendas yielded over 800,000 views.

An “op-ed” is an opinion or perspective piece written by authors who are not associated with a particular newspaper but that appear on the pages of newspapers opposite the editorial board commentaries. Anyone can write an op-ed, and most publications have an online portal or publicly available email address for op-ed submissions. So, from a practical perspective, submitting an op-ed can be as simple as writing an email.

Of course, not every submission is published (far from it). Three elements seem to be particularly important when it comes to op-eds: timeliness, a unique perspective, and expertise. This means that I-O psychologists have somewhere around 750 words (plus a brief “pitch” in a cover letter/email) to articulate a unique and timely idea or issue about which they have clear expertise. Here is an example of a cover email that met with success:

Dear Editor,

Fathers’ Day is an opportunity to recognize dads who transcend stereotypes. In this piece, I argue that public policies and social norms make it difficult for dads to be equal partners in parenting. Yet, it is precisely these equal partnerships at home that will give rise to gender equality at work.

[Insert brief bio to convey your legitimate expertise.]

Thank you in advance for considering these ideas.

Eden King, PhD

A good pitch message should include the following components (numbers added for clarity). Note, these are quite similar to what you see at other outlets:

(1) Briefly summarize your story idea.

(2) Briefly explain why you’re the right person to write the piece. What’s your relevant expertise or experience?

(3) Briefly explain why this argument or story matters. What are the stakes here?

(4) Briefly outline how the piece will start and end. If you have a draft, include it in the body of the email.

(5) Use a clear, informative headline as the subject line. Specify in the subject line if your pitch is timely.

(6) Include a short description of your previous writing experience and links to published clips, if relevant .

In addition to these components, it is standard procedure to submit pitches sequentially (not concurrently). That is, like journal submissions, it is poor form to flood a dozen news outlets with the same idea. Unlike journal submissions, however, it is also standard practice that you can move on to another outlet after 48 hours (unless otherwise specified). This is important if you are making a pitch that is timely (e.g., about a particular date or event); you need to budget time for multiple pitches, so planning ahead is important. For a pitch about paternity leave, one of the current authors (Eden King) constructed the idea well in advance of Fathers’ Day.

There are pros and cons to this particular strategy for engaging with the public. On the plus side, the written format of op-eds allows authors to write precisely what they want in precisely the way they want. This means you do not have to think on your feet (as you would in other forms of media) or answer another person’s questions. An op-ed is supposed to represent the writer’s perspective, so this is explicitly an opportunity to share your point of view. Of course, some outlets will suggest (or will require) changes before a piece is published, but your voice should nonetheless be true.

Another big benefit of op-eds is the audience. The New York Times reported that it had a subscribership of 4.7 million in 2019. The Huffington Post reports more than 115 million readers. That is simply a lot of people. There are contradictory accounts of evidence regarding the average number of readers for a scientific journal article, but any estimate is much, much lower (like by a factor of a million).

It is important to acknowledge that sending an op-ed pitch feels a bit like throwing a penny into a well. It is impossible to know after sending a pitch, particularly as a novice, whether someone is (a) reading, (b) appreciating, and/or (c) likely to publish your work. It may feel frustrating to get a negative response or to never receive a response or feedback of any kind. Of course, throwing a penny in a well might also result in your wishes coming true. The good news is that a large number of possible outlets exist and targeting more local or regional outlets increases your success probability. Persistence, just like in academic publishing, will likely yield the positive outcome you desire.

Podcasts: Producer and/or guest

A podcast is a broadcast designed to provide audiences with a critical look at topics through a recorded (sometimes live) discussion available on mobile and listening devices. The most successful podcasts like Serial or Stu-podity boast multimillion downloads per episode with a large contingent of subscribers. Whereas these podcasts are built for entertainment purposes, I-O psychologists could model their efforts around other popular podcasts like Changemakers or Honest HR , both sponsored by nonprofit organizations seeking to promulgate organizational sciences to the masses. I-O psychologists who are leading the way on podcasts include Ben Baran and Katina Sawyer who provide insights on The Indigo Podcast and Workr Beeing Podcast , respectively.

The essential components of developing a podcast are much less onerous than one might expect. Specifically, a podcast requires some production activities but is less formal than standard broadcast options. True success in the world of podcasts is a function of a few factors: provocative perspectives on relevant topics, good guests, and proper marketing to broad audiences. It takes time to build a listener base, but it can be achieved. A quick Google search on “how to start a podcast” will help you identify key steps and the logistics of the process to create your own podcast. For example, this resource from NPR is particularly handy: https://www.npr.org/2018/11/15/662070097/starting-your-podcast-a-guide-for-students .

Perhaps an easier path is being a guest on a podcast. Some pointers for achieving success as a podcast guest are

Start by sharing your perspectives with podcast producers. Reaching out to podcasters is daunting, but the truth is they will only access the information they hear about from solicitors. Rarely is there an example of unsolicited guests in the world of podcasting.

Podcasts are seeking influencers. Getting a spot as a podcast guest is typically a function of your influence. They are seeking new potential listeners as much as you are seeking greater reach. Build your social media chops first and then bring your audience to a podcast.

Do not be afraid to create your own recording sample. In many cases, it helps to provide other podcasters with a sample of your ability to engage an audience. This may even entail recording yourself in an interaction with others. If engaging, it can often serve as your calling card.

Testing your views and information with others is paramount. Finding the right content requires informal market research. Without audience testing, it is hard to assess what will be effective and appealing to podcasts.

Come with ready-made headlines. Podcasters and producers of podcasts like easy-to-use content; bringing your own provocative headlines and interesting evidence-based ideas to any pitch is critical. Anything that makes their job easier will make your odds of success much greater.

One often-forgotten tool for generating reach and influence is public speaking. Public speaking is something that requires a special proclivity for engaging audiences directly and in person. For example, Alex Alonso, a coauthor for this publication, has spoken publicly now more than 300 times across 40 nations throughout his career. Adam Grant likely represents the high bar of public speaking in our profession and beyond.

I-O psychologists who are seeking to build their profile through public speaking are suitable candidates for speakers bureau services. Speakers bureaus are agencies that serve as scheduling solicitors for public speakers who are interested in making it a career. For example, the famous Washington Speakers Bureau boasts a lineup of nearly 500 speakers on topics ranging from politics to modernizing society. Other organizations, such as ASAE (American Society for Association Executives) and SHRM, have speakers bureaus capable of bringing new talent to the masses in the association space. In short, speakers bureaus represent an ideal option for those who are natural speakers with experience wowing conference audiences. Some fundamental pointers for achieving success with speakers bureaus include

Start with small conferences/events. Speakers bureaus want seasoned speakers who generate interest and revenue. To test yourself, we recommend speaking at other professional conferences and testing the appeal of your content. Nonprofit and community organizations would readily welcome you as well when there is no cost.

Refine your content to various time frames. Speaking engagements are often variable in terms of allotted time and audience characteristics. To be truly marketable, you want to build options based upon length of presentation and context-specific styles for different audiences.

Record yourself and shop it around. Speakers bureaus only hire speakers they know to be engaging via sample presentations or audience evaluations. Sending a taped session is the easiest way to demonstrate your potential appeal and gather some useful feedback.

Bring your metrics to any conversation. Data stories told in approachable fashion are the most compelling options for many speakers bureaus. Working with any bureau will call for you to leverage your role as a researcher and scientist while also demonstrating an uncanny ability to translate it broadly.

Now that we have shared some potential outlets and strategies for leveraging them, we turn our attention to some overarching keys to success that are relevant to whatever path you decide to pursue.

Get comfortable speaking and writing differently than was required during our PhD training. Write so non-I-O folks can truly understand your content. However, understanding is not enough. You have to write in a manner that keeps readers engaged—bring adverbs back, use examples, include metaphors, and so on. This type of writing style takes practice, but, over time, you will learn the skill. The exciting part of learning this skill is that you can get feedback from a much larger pool than what we do with our more scientific writing: friends, family, and other professionals are ideal in this respect.

Think carefully about what topics you will invest your time in. The ideal topics are those that are relevant to stakeholders but also those with strong and consistent scientific messages and ideally consensus. This is not a requirement per se, but this would be the gold standard. At the very least, pick a topic where the evidence appears to be lining up in a compelling and clear way. Counterintuitive and novel conclusions will likely resonate more strongly than content that is incredibly straight forward. Consequential content is important as well. Does the topic truly matter? There are trade-offs among these dimensions. For example, highly consequential topics that are fairly intuitive can get traction (Rynes et al., Reference Rynes, Giluk and Brown 2007 ). We cannot stress enough that SIOP’s uniqueness of having academics and practitioners under one roof makes us ideally suited to take on this challenge. We are poised to have science inform practice—and practice inform science. To do this, practitioners need to commit to and keep engaging with the scientific literature in some fashion. Academics should also actively commit to engaging with practice.

We want to comment a bit more on this latter piece for academics who are interested in this pursuit. Linking with practitioners starts with meeting I-O practitioners in SIOP; your program’s alums may also be ideal. Furthermore, target meeting practitioners in allied fields. Visit or attend an SHRM, Association for Talent Development (ATD), or International Practice Management Association (IPMA) conference. These conferences often have affinity group meetings with a great focus on topics tailored for research. Build your network by joining interest groups across Facebook, Reddit, and LinkedIn. Each of these platforms offer specialty groups looking for more information on given topics. They are unique in that they are affinity around a topic rather than a profession or organization. Still, they are an extremely viable source for access.

Become comfortable with reasonable extrapolations of scientific findings. This is perhaps the hardest element to get our arms around given our training. For any given study there are very direct implications of that research; let’s call that point A. Point A by definition is likely not very far-reaching. We would argue that two more distant points exist; let’s call them point B and point C. Point B is a natural extension of the research. It is a logical extrapolation from the evidence. Yes, you are stretching a bit, but it is reasonable and can be justified especially if this particular study was not just a first of its kind. For instance, Wayne Cascio and John Boudreau have mastered this skill when defining the utility of specific HR interventions based on years of human capital management literature. Then, there is a point C. Point C is such an extrapolation from point A that it is basically just a loosely informed opinion rather than an evidence-based insight. Although point C is certainly fine and there are times where this has great value, it is important to acknowledge the lack of evidence. We are not arguing that I-O practice should go to point C as a goal but instead that to enter into a societal discourse while still staying true to our brand as I-O psychologists, we have to feel comfortable going to point B. We would argue that moving to point B is justified when there is connective evidence and potential harm is, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent.

Another key is being comfortable doing work that in many respects is not usually rewarded. Currently, we (I-O psychologists) typically define influence by thinking about the effects our activities have on our careers or subsets of an audience consisting of applied scientists and/or other I-O psychologists. Although these are important metrics, there is significant evidence supporting the notion of science-to-practice translation beyond the corpus of I-O psychologists (Alonso et al., Reference Alonso, Kurtessis and Waters 2017 ). Reaching an external audience requires work that is atypical in the day-to-day operations of most I-O careers. Although it is atypical, it is not impossible to succeed, and the influence of such work can often exceed that of a book chapter or journal publication. For instance, consider the work done by several I-O psychologists today in the communications space where SIOPers like Dr. Woody Woodward have been sharing I-O research and insights as part of a New York area Fox Business Channel segment for nearly 5 years. We have to take a broader look at what influence means and look to support this broader perspective when making administrative/salary/promotion/tenure decisions. With this all said, we recognize that activities such as those discussed in the article are probably not ideal for early career professionals who likely will benefit the most from succeeding wildly on traditional metrics of success, prior to expanding to more public mainstream metrics.

Related to the above, besides public outreach work not being rewarded, there may even be some colleagues who look down on this type of work. We cannot really address where this animosity may stem from, but it seems to be a very minority opinion, especially when we stick to our brand of evidence-based positions. As a discipline, I-O psychology benefits most from people learning what it is. Sometimes this takes the form of compromising with an editor or book publisher, appearing in television programs where the entirety of our research cannot be laid out, or advocating for policy shifts with unpopular political agents. Although many can critique these activities, their influence on the general awareness of I-O psychology is undeniable. Leveraging these forms of work may not be the norm, but this should not discourage I-O psychologists from embracing them given their reach.

As this is a SIOP journal, we want to conclude this article with things SIOP might be able to do to help SIOP members with our efforts to get science out there. The SIOP Executive Board, Administrative Office, committee chairs, and volunteers have all been working for many years to identify and communicate our value to the world and to enhance the influence of our work. Indeed, explicit strategic goals include “Become the premier and trusted authority on work-related human behavior” and “Increase the awareness and use of I-O psychology.” These goals have been pursued in a variety of forms such as the creation of a branding task force in 2000, efforts by the Visibility committee (such as the “top 10 trends”), in the presidential themes of Adrienne Colella and Doug Reynolds among others, and in our decision to hire a government relations firm to help us advocate at the federal level. These are exciting and important steps toward SIOP’s goals, but we can do more. (And yes, this is coming from both recent and soon-to-be presidents; who better to offer constructive criticism?)

The governance of SIOP is organized in portfolio structure, which means that volunteers are elected to serve in particular areas of emphasis (such as “Professional Practice” and “Diversity and Inclusion”). We have at least three separate portfolios that deal directly with issues relevant to getting I-O science to the public: a communications portfolio, a publications portfolio, and an external relations portfolio. The only committees that are coordinated through the communications portfolio are the electronic communications committee and TIP . Our visibility committee is housed under the external relations portfolio. The publications portfolio has historically focused largely on edited books but also oversees IOP . This disintegrated structure is symptomatic of a lack of coherence in our communications strategy. We have a lot of fantastic staff and volunteers communicating about I-O psychology, but we do not always do so in a clear and coordinated manner. What might that coherent strategy look like?

It may be time to consider a central structure for all communications. This might allow us to create and cultivate a coordinated social media presence promoting content via multiple modes (e.g., blog, podcast, video). A thoughtful approach to promoting I-O science might also involve a variety of strategic investments like the following initiatives:

Generate member media expertise through workshops or invited sessions from which a list of media experts can be updated.

Develop a relationship with existing speakers bureaus.

Establish a relationship with a public relations firm.

Consider creating online periodicals akin to HBR , People & Strategy (publication for CHROs), or HR Magazine specially targeting outside the community.

Forge partnerships with leading online periodicals (such as the above or TED.com , LinkedIn) that facilitate ongoing columns or podcasts.

Expand access to research databases and science–practice translations to a broader community.

Foster science–practice partnerships to ensure relevant science and evidence-based practice.

Create an I-O psychology podcast to demonstrate long-term public relations value.

Offer support to SIOP members by making professional writers available; build this content into our conferences.

These ideas vary in terms of the effort and costs required, but the success of any one of them might depend on the extent to which we are able to coordinate effectively within the current (or potentially updated) governance structure. Articulating a new vision for SIOP communications might be a good place to start.

Nearly 3 decades ago, Academy of Management President Donald C. Hambrick wrote that “If we believe in the significance of advanced thinking and research on management, then it is time we showed it” ( Reference Hambrick 1994 , p. 13). A decade later, Gary Latham lamented that “we, as applied scientists, exist largely for the purpose of communicating knowledge to one another” ( Reference Latham 2007 , p. 1031). Rynes et al. ( Reference Rynes, Giluk and Brown 2007 , p. 999) also noted that “our failure to “matter more” is approaching a crisis stage.” Today, we confirm the persistence of this failure and offer specific strategies for succeeding.

We believe that what we do as a field can truly help people. We can make a difference. But doing so depends entirely on communicating our messages effectively. Every I-O psychologist can play a role. Branch out and give it a try. It truly does not matter which path you try first. Pick what feels most doable/reasonable for you and give it a go. Be part of the solution while staying true to our science and evidence. Try one or more of these strategies. You might hate it, fine. You might like it, fine. It might lead to new opportunities, new challenges, new enjoyment, new ideas, and most importantly, more positive effects. The words of editorial board members of this journal who were surveyed for this paper make these points perfectly:

“I-O has great and important content. With a limited reach, the information gleaned is lost.”

“The public benefits from our knowledge which is pretty useful considering how much time we all spend at work”

“We can make an impact and help real people in organizations. I believe that what we offer is valuable and the more people know about it the better.”

“The more people know about the profession and the work we do, the more we can improve the world of work.”

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• Volume 15, Issue 2
• Steven G. Rogelberg (a1) , Eden B. King (a2) and Alexander Alonso (a3)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2021.142

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70 New Psychology Dissertation Topics for Stellar Papers

This is a massive list of psychology dissertation topics for your future paper.

A bonus also awaits the most attentive and patient readers, so don’t be in a hurry to leave the page!

In this article, you’ll learn what makes for a good topic for a psychology dissertation, understand the principles behind choosing it, and get actual fresh topic ideas for papers in seven different fields of psychology.

No time to read? Scroll down for the topics list, or contact our dissertation writing services for quick help.

Psychology Dissertation: The Basics

A psychology dissertation is a substantial project. Many aspiring psychologists need to write a dissertation in order to get a Master’s or Ph.D.. The dissertation demonstrates the student’s ability to conduct independent research, contribute to the scientific community, and communicate their findings in a comprehensive document.

A dissertation undergoes a rigorous review process by a college committee and may include an oral defense.

Its structure is much more complex than a standard college essay or thesis. When writing a dissertation, get ready to spend months on researching and organizing your future dissertation outline , incorporating the following components:

• A title page
• Acknowledgments to those who helped you prepare the dissertation
• An abstract ( Dissertation abstracts summarize your research so that the audience can understand its relevance and contribution to the scientific community.)
• A table of contents
• An introduction
• A literature review
• A methodology
• Your findings and analysis
• A discussion and conclusion
• References (a bibliography)
• Appendices (any additional information you used to complete a dissertation: tables, graphs, diagrams, etc.)

How long is a dissertation ?

A dissertation’s length varies depending on your institution, field, and level of education. While you might need to write 8,000–15,000 words for an undergraduate paper, your Ph.D. dissertation will likely have 70,000–100,000 words.

For a Master’s, get ready to craft a 12,000–50,000 word dissertation.

Why bother with psychology dissertation topics?

The topic you choose for your dissertation can determine the overall success of your research. You need a good one that’s relevant and that you’ll be able to find adequate resources to complete.

Consideration of dissertation ideas psychology takes time. Explore different options, ask tutors and other professionals about relevant topics, and bear in mind your own academic interests and expertise.

Other factors to remember when choosing a dissertation topic:

• A topic’s social influence: Do you have anything new to say about the topic that will add to the field’s general body of knowledge? 
• Research limitations: Do you have sufficient resources to complete the project on your chosen topic? (Relevant data for research and analysis, financial support, faculty advisors available to guide you through the process, etc.)
• Ethical considerations: Do you or would your community have any ethical concerns about the topic?

What Are Good Psychology Dissertation Topics?

“How do I write my essay well?” is a question we often receive from students.  Well, one of the first things you can do is to pick  a good topic.

“How do I know if my topic is good enough?” What makes psychology dissertation topics interesting or worthwhile?

Here are some things to consider when choosing a dissertation topic:

• Relevant. It addresses current issues or gaps in psychology.
• Original. It brings a new perspective to the issue or explores unexamined areas.
• Specific. It’s well-defined and focused on a question in a thorough way. 
• Clear. It’s precisely articulated and maintains focus.
• Feasible. It’s achievable with the available resources and within the given time.
• Ethical. It is ethical and ensures the privacy and welfare of participants.
• Meaningful. It has clear theoretical and practical implications and improves psychological interventions or therapies.

Dissertation Topics in Psychology: How to Choose

Now that you know the features of a good dissertation topic (see above), choosing one for your future paper will be easier.

These steps are here to help you do that faster:

• Pick an interesting topic. It’s your research, and completing the project will be less challenging if you work on something that personally engages your interest.
• Evaluate a topic’s importance for the field. Does it address current issues or gaps? Does it have clear implications? What can it contribute to the field?
• Examine the accessibility to resources. Will you have enough data, funding, and time to conduct research and complete your dissertation on that topic?
• Identify potential challenges with the topic. Is it too broad or narrow for what you want to achieve? Are there any ethical issues related to it?
• Discuss your dissertation topics in psychology with supervisors or colleagues. This can help you gain new perspectives and develop a topic idea that will turn your write my dissertation challenge into a fascinating journey.

Below are 70 fresh psychology dissertation ideas for your paper. Consider the type of psychology you must focus on, and review our list of topics for inspiration.

Clinical Psychology Dissertation Topics

Try these clinical psychology dissertation topics for research:

• Evaluating the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in managing anxiety disorders.
• Investigating the long-term mental health effects of childhood trauma in adults.
• The impact of mindfulness-based practices on depression treatment outcomes.
• Examining the prolonged effects of electroconvulsive therapy in treating severe depression.
• The connection between sleep disturbances and adolescent mental health.
• Evaluating the potency of virtual reality exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.
• How cultural factors influence the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia.
• A comparative study of group therapy and individual therapy for substance abuse treatment.
• The impact of social media on the self-esteem and mental well-being of adolescents.
• Understanding the role of family dynamics in the emergence of eating disorders.

Educational Psychology Topic Ideas

These dissertation topics in education can inspire you to develop yours:

• The effects of inclusive education on children with learning disabilities.
• How teacher-student relationships impact academic achievement.
• The role of parental involvement in children’s educational outcomes.
• Exploring the impact of technology on student engagement and learning.
• The effectiveness of different teaching strategies in fostering critical thinking skills.
• The link between motivation and academic performance in high school students.
• Gender differences in STEM education: Problems, causes and solutions.
• The impact of the school environment on student mental health.
• How standardized testing affects student learning and teacher performance.
• The role of educational psychology in developing interventions for bullying.

Dissertation Topics in Industrial Psychology

Below are ten dissertation topics in industrial psychology that could serve as a basis for your research:

• How different leadership styles influence employee job satisfaction.
• Exploring the relationship between workplace diversity and team performance.
• How remote work impacts employees’ productivity and well-being.
• Assessing the impact of job stress on employee turnover rates.
• How organizational culture impacts employee behavior.
• How training and development programs influence employee performance.
• Exploring the connection between employee motivation and organizational commitment.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of performance appraisal systems in improving job completion.
• Exploring the impact of work-life balance policies on employee satisfaction.
• The significance of EI for effective leadership.

Personality Psychology Ideas to Write About

Some medical education dissertation topics are about personality psychology. Consider these ten to guide you on the way to your own research:

• The influence of personality traits on career choice and job satisfaction.
• The role of character traits in coping with stress and adversity.
• Exploring the relationship between personality and mental health disorders.
• The impact of social media on the development of narcissistic traits.
• How personality traits affect relationship satisfaction and stability.
• Understanding the environmental influences on personality development.
• The relationship between personality and risk-taking behaviors.
• How personality traits influence academic achievement.
• The role of personality in predicting political beliefs and behaviors.
• Exploring the impact of personality on physical health and well-being.

Social Psychology Topic Ideas

These psychology dissertation topics are about the ways individuals behave within social contexts. If it’s the area of your expertise, feel free to consider:

• The role of social influence on decision-making processes.
• Exploring the impact of group dynamics on individual behavior.
• How stereotypes can affect academic performance.
• How social identity influences intergroup relations and conflict.
• The impact of media on shaping societal attitudes and behaviors.
• The role of social support in coping with stress and adversity.
• The influence of cultural norms on prosocial behavior.
• How prejudice and discrimination affect mental health and well-being.
• The role of social comparison in shaping self-esteem and life satisfaction.
• Exploring the psychological mechanisms underlying conformity and obedience.

Cognitive Psychology Dissertation Topics

These dissertation topics for psychology delve into cognitive processes like memory, perception, attention, and problem-solving.

• The influence of attention on the processes of memory formation and retrieval.
• Investigating how aging affects cognitive functions.
• How bilingualism affects cognitive development and functioning.
• The relationship between cognitive load and decision-making processes.
• How sleep deprivation influences cognitive abilities.
• Exploring the impact of cognitive biases on judgment and behavior.
• The role of working memory in problem-solving and reasoning.
• How emotion influences cognitive processes and decision-making.
• The effects of digital media on cognitive development in children.
• Examining the neural basis of cognitive control and executive functions.

Topic Ideas for Dissertations in Behavioral Sciences

The top psychology dissertation examples include engaging topics in this subfield of psychology. By choosing any of the below, you’ll have plenty of room to explore:

• The impact of behavioral interventions on smoking cessation.
• Exploring the relationship between diet, exercise, and mental health.
• The role of behavioral genetics in understanding addiction.
• How environmental factors influence behavioral development.
• The effectiveness of behavior modification programs in treating obesity.
• Exploring the impact of stress on health behaviors and outcomes.
• The role behavioral interventions play in managing chronic pain.
• How cultural factors influence health-related behaviors.
• The relationship between behavioral habits and overall well-being.
• The impact of technology on behavior and social interactions.

It’s Time to Choose!

With so many psychology dissertation topics listed, hopefully there’s one on there that piques your interest ?

If you’re still feeling doubtful or unready to jump into the research, feel free to buy dissertation online from professional academic writers with expertise in the field.

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Admission criteria for graduate psychology programs are changing

There’s less emphasis on standardized testing and more on applicants’ lived experiences

Vol. 55 No. 4 Print version: page 23

Over the last few years, graduate psychology degree programs, both at the master’s and doctoral levels, have shifted their admission criteria from an emphasis on standardized testing to components that reflect applicants’ experiences. According to the most recent edition of Graduate Study in Psychology , 1 for 2022–23 applications, doctoral programs placed the highest importance on letters of recommendation (85%), personal statements (84%), and interviews (74%). Master’s psychology programs, by contrast, placed the highest importance on undergraduate GPAs (72%), letters of recommendation (71%), and statements of goals and objectives (68%).

In general, large percentages of graduate psychology programs reported that the GRE Verbal, Quantitative, Writing, and Subject scores were not criteria used in the admissions process for the 2022–23 admissions cycle. This represents a continuation of the trend of graduate psychology programs prioritizing criteria other than GRE scores in an attempt to remove potential systemic barriers and create a more equitable admissions process. 2, 3

View a full-size version with a detailed description of the importance of admission criteria for psychology doctoral programs infographic

View a full-size version with a detailed description of the importance of admission criteria for psychology Master's programs infographic

1 Data is from Graduate Study in Psychology , an annual survey conducted by APA’s Education Directorate. For the 2022–23 cycle, a total of 332 departments and schools in the United States and Canada provided responses on 893 graduate programs in psychology.

2 Assefa, M., et al. (2023, March). How the pandemic has impacted psychology graduate programs . Monitor on Psychology , 54 (2), 20.

3 Assefa, M., et al. (2024, January). Masters’ and doctoral program applications increase as GRE requirements drop . Monitor on Psychology , 55 (1), 26.

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