Industrial/Organizational

Training Based Internship

Module-I

Facilitator: Ankita Rani Bhuyan

Meaning and Nature of
I/O Psychology
● I/O stands for industrial-organisational psychology.
● It is characterised by the scientific study of human behaviour in organisations
and the workplace. T
● his area of psychology focuses on deriving principles of individual, group and
organisational behaviour and applying this knowledge to the solution of
problems at work.
Industrial-organisational psychology applies psychological theories and principles to
organisations.

This field focuses on increasing workplace productivity and related issues such as the
physical and mental well-being of employees. The overall goal of this field is to study
and understand human behaviour in the workplace.
This speciality is known to have two major sides -

- The industrial side involves looking at how to best match individuals to specific job
roles.

- The organisational side involves understanding how organisations affect individual

behaviour.
How did it develop?
Organisational psychology developed from the human relations movement in
organisations. It is concerned with understanding behaviour and enhancing the
wellbeing of employees in the workplace. Organisational topics include employee
attitudes, employee behaviour, job stress and supervisory practices.

The major topics of the field, however, cannot easily be characterised as strictly
Industrial or Organisational.
I/O Psychology is a smaller, but more rapidly growing
psychology subfield that is concerned with the development
and application of I/O Psychology scientific principles to the
workplaces. I/O psychologists do not deal directly with
employees' emotional or personal problems.
For instance,

-Principles of learning are used to develop training programs and incentive plans

-Principles of social psychology are used to form work groups and understand
employee conflict

-Principles of motivation and emotion are used to motivate and satisfy employees.
History of I/O Psychology
Pre WWI- Industrial Revolution
● The term ‘Industrial Psychology’ first appeared in a 1904 article of [William Lowe] Bryan’s APA [presidential] address.
Ironically, it appeared in print only as a typographical error. Bryan was quoting a sentence he had written five years
earlier in which he spoke of the need for more research in individual psychology. Instead, Bryan wrote industrial
psychology and did not catch his mistake. (Muchinsky, 1999. p.10)

● Fredrick Taylor(1911): Taylorism – The Principles of Scientific Management. Earlier called ‘Shop Management’, he
thought of manual workers ‘ to be stupid, slow and unintelligent, with little or no thinking abilities. ’ and believed that
we need to use scientific methods to see the best way to complete a task, workers should be constantly monitored,
managers job is to tell them what to do (thinking). The time studies. Increased unemployement, removed the joy and
any individuality in working, exploited workers etc

● Lillian and Frank Gilbert: Built on the motion studies. Here, instead of only looking at the time required to complete a
task, they also looked into reducing the no. of motions required to complete a task.
Henry Ford was
one of the firsts
to use an
assembly line
in factories
History of I/O Psychology
Pre WWI- Industrial Revolution
•Walter D. Scott: He gave a talk to Chicago business leaders on the application of psychology to advertising, which led to
books on the topic published in 1903 (The Theory of Advertising) & 1908 (The Psychology of Advertising). The Theory of
Advertising dealt with suggestion and argument as means of influencing people and The Psychology of Advertising aimed at
improving human efficiency with tactics such as imitation, competition, loyalty and concentration.

•Hugo Munsterberg: Along with Scott, is considered as the father of Industrial Psychology. Studied and wrote about how to
select individuals that fit the job, using psychology in sales, designing work situations etc. His book ‘ Psychology and
Industrial Efficiency’ (1913) is one of the first books in the field of I/O. He cautioned managers to be concerned with ‘all the
questions of the mind like fatigue, monotony, interest, learning, work satisfaction, and rewards.’
History of I/O Psychology
World War I
•Robert Yerkes: was the psychologist who was most influential in getting psychology into the
war. As the then president of APA, he maneuvered the profession into assignments in the war
effort
•He and a team of psychologists developed two tests for recruiting army officers – Army Alpha
and Army Beta (for those who were not literate). However, it did not have any substantial impact
at that time as the final authorization for the tests came in 1918.
Meanwhile Walter Dill Scott was doing research on best placement of soldiers in Army. He
classified and placed enlistees, conducted performance evaluations of officers, and developed
and prepared job duties and qualifications for over 500 jobs.
SAMPLES
 By now,
The field was gaining more popularity
and many organizations such as The
Psychological Corporation (Cattell),
The Bureau of Salesmanship Research
(Walter Bingham) popped up. And so
did degree programs specifically in
this field.
History of I/O Psychology
Between wars 1918-1938
●Hawthorne Studies (1924-35):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7RHjwmVGhs&ab_channel=
HaresNeme
●The Hawthorne Effect -- change in behaviour following the onset of a
novel treatment (new or increased attention, most commonly). Effect
eventually wears off (behaviour returns to original) as the ‘novelty’
dissipates. Spearheaded by Elton Mayo and Franz.J.R
●Finally people realized that there can be informal work groups,
importance of worker attitudes, the influence of an empathetic
supervisor etc.
History of I/O Psychology
World War II
●By 1940’s, the field had garnered more interest and a better standing among the scientific
society
●This time the army approached the psychologists first. One of the committee’s earliest
assignments was to develop a test that could sort new recruits into five categories based on
their ability to learn the duties and responsibilities of a soldier. The test that was finally
developed was the Army General Classification Test (AGCT), a benchmark in the history of group
testing.
●Psychologists also worked on the development and use of situational stress tests, a project
undertaken by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
History of I/O Psychology
World War II
●Psychologists were also called upon to create and use employment tests for
selection, training, machine designs, measuring soldier morale and attitude etc.
● Soon after, during the 1950’s, researchers and psychologists began to realize the
social influences on behaviour at workplace. Terms such as Organizational change
etc came about. And APA officially renamed the division to Industrial and
Organizational Psychology (1973) from Industrial Psychology (1946)
History of I/O Psychology
After the 1950s
●1964 Civil Rights Act passed. Title VII, section 703a states: ‘it is unlawful to discriminate in any
employment practice on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin.’
●The emerging schools of psychology such as The Behaviour School of Thought, Cognitive and
Socio-Cognitive School of thought began to have its influences on the field. For instance, in 1971,
B.F. Skinner, in Beyond Freedom and Dignity, advocated behaviour modification strategies to
motivate people in organizations.
●In the later 1980’s and 1990’s, topics such as work stress, work-life balance, workplace
aggression/violence etc were getting more importance.
History of I/O Psychology
In India
●A section of Applied Psychology within the department of Psychology in
Calcutta University was first established in 1993 and some first papers on
industrial psychology were read at the Indian Science Congress held in
Bombay in 1934.
●Nearly 380 papers have been published on the subject between 1950 and
1970
Role of I/O Psychologist
I/O psychologists work with companies to help them resolve workplace problems, hire efficiently,
and set protocols that benefit their employees. They play an intricate role in activities such as:
Labor disputes.

● Hiring practices.
● Employee training.
● Wellness programs.
● Consumer research.
● Marketing.
● Team building.
● Brand building.
Scope and Research in I/O Psychology
•Not clinical at all. Very research and application oriented. And applying those research
findings and theories in workplace. Takes a scientist-practitioner model in the application of
psychology to all types of organizational and workplace settings, such as manufacturing,
commercial enterprises, labor unions, and public agencies.
•Some of the roles include- testing/assessment, leadership development, staffing,
management, teams, compensation, workplace safety, diversity, and work-life balance.
•Corporate Counselling- although a part of it, the role is taken up by counselors and not I/O
Psychologists.
•Scope: what roles can you take up, what do those roles entails. HR, HRD, HRM, Talent
acquisition, Talent Management, Trainer, Diversity specialist etc.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
Globalization
Globalization is the process of interconnecting the world’s people with respect to cultural, economic,
political, technological and environmental aspects of their lives.

Reasons- better technology, liberal trade laws, developing countries opening their doors to
investments and exports, mushrooming of Multinational Enterprises etc.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
Globalization
Challenges Opportunities
Threat to local organizations, increase in Remote working (digital nomads), gig
monopolies, literal nomadic life?, lack of economy, multicultural, better products,
job security, unsteady income, limited more job opportunities,
tenure/employees are replaceable,
promoting Eurocentric culture, increase in
sweatshops, lack of accessibility to
technology, hyper-supervising of
employees
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
A highly flexible, temporary organizations
formed by a group of companies that join forces
to exploit an opportunity. For eg, creating a film,
Tata Starbucks (Starbucks Coorporation + Tata
Global Beverages, Uber + Volvo to develop self
driven cars
Challenges and Opportunities for OB

Networked Organisations

Lipnack and Stamps:

"where independent people and groups act as independent nodes, link across boundaries, to
work together for a common purpose; it has multiple leaders, lots of voluntary links and
interacting levels."
Example- H&M, Starbucks
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
Telecommuting

The practice of using communications technology so as to enable work to be

performed from remote locations.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
Leaner Organizations

•Downsizing or Rightsizing- adjusting the number of employees required in newly designed

organizations.
•Outsourcing - The process of eliminating those parts of organizations that focus on noncore sectors of
the business (i.e., tasks that are peripheral to the organization), and hiring outside firms to perform
these functions instead. Eg, call centers of major companies being outsourced to India and Manila,
maintenance work etc
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
Workforce Diversity and Empowerment
•Blurring of boundaries between employers and employees. Giving employees more autonomy to work how
they want. Eg, changes in terms ‘human capital’, ‘associates’, ‘coaches’, flexible timings, compressed
workweeks (four day work week but 10 hours per day)
Examples from Greenberg-
•Individual employees at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel chain are empowered to spend up to $2,000 of the
company’s money per day to resolve any customer problem they find. Instead of getting approval, they can
make arrangements directly with the appropriate individuals in the company to fix the problem.
•At Disney World, empowering employees to deal with customers is the rule rather than the
Exception. “Cast members,” as they are called, are given the authority to do whatever it
takes (within reason, of course) to make customers happy on the spot. Management interference
is discouraged.
Challenges and Opportunities for OB
Workforce Diversity and Empowerment
Based on Gender and sexual orientation, Caste/race, age, language spoken, religion, marital status,
disability etc

Researchers working on the business case for inclusion of diversity in workplaces believe that diverse
workforces bring in different views and perspectives based on their demographic and cultural differences,
enabling higher productivity, better problem-solving capabilities and growth for organizations that fabricate
diversity inclusion strategies in their policies and business practices as they are more adept at handling
business contingencies based on an understanding of diverse markets through the knowledge base of their
diverse workforces (Harvey 2012).
Work-Life Balance

Let’s talk..
Work-Life Balance
•More than balance- a harmony between work life and personal life
•Better productivity, better social life, physical and mental health, lesser chances for attrition,
stress, burnout etc
•It should involve providing flexibility to the employees as well as promoting a healthy work
atmosphere.
•Switching off your work devices, keeping aside time for specific tasks/duties, setting boundaries,
delegating tasks,
•Personal support policies- providing a creche or other child-care facilities, sleep pods, on-site
laundry, transportation, free food, maternity/paternity leave, vacation days etc.
•Different generations seem to have varied preferences on achieving work life balance.
Corporate Social Responsibility
•Business practices that adhere to ethical values that
comply with legal requirements, that demonstrate respect
for individuals, and that promote the betterment of the
community at large and the environment.
•Involves making charitable contributions to the
society/communities, preserving the environment, socially
responsible investments and promoting the welfare of the
employees etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pF55yy0H3g&ab_chann
el=CampusJobber
Gender Diversity

How has it affected

today’s
organizations?