Meaning of Industrial and Organizational Psychology

INTRODUCTION

Industrial Psychology as a
sub-field of Psychology dated to the work of some notable writers such as Hugo
Munsterberg, Fredrick Taylor, Eton Mayo, Abraham Maslow and so many others
whose works are focused on the issues of man at work, functioning either as
individuals or in groups. Our lives as individuals revolve around industries
and organisations from where we sojourn either as workers or owners of
businesses to make ends meet. 

Since the home, church, marketplace, shopping
malls, and schools are all forms of organisation, there is no escaping the grip
of the rules, relationships that range from the very simple to complex forms and
the conforming structures and processes that are features of organisations. In
the same vein, industries are forms of organisation and although they are
commonly associated with machines and equipment, man is an important
component.

Because of
the pervasiveness of industries and organisations, Industrial/Organisational
Psychology as a scientific discipline seeks to study the impact of
organisations on man and vice versa.

MEANING OF PSYCHOLOGY

Human behaviour holds a lot of
charm for all and sundry. Philosophers such as Socrates and Plato speculated a
lot about human behaviour. There are many puzzles as well as several rightly or
wrongly held myths and believes about human behaviour.

Puzzles such as:

i.     
How do we remember things?

ii.     
Why do we dream?

iii.     
How and why do drugs alter human consciousness?

iv.      
What will cause someone to taking his/her own
life, via suicide, or take the life of others via gun shots or what is the
origin of extreme behaviour like suicide bombing?

v.        
What makes individuals such as Boko Haram
members become social misfits?

vi.     
Why will several ranks of the military continue
to obey Abacha even when murderous orders were involved?

vii. 
Why will a sergeant Roger pull the trigger on
eminent civilian like Kudirat Abiola in the name of order from above?

Also myths
and widely held believes that are either right or wrong such as:

i.     
Intellectual ability declines rapidly with
ageing,

ii.     
People with exceptional abilities or IQ are
often poorly adjusted to society,

iii.     
Consistent use of rod can correct errant
children’s behaviour,

iv.      
Whistling in the afternoon summons demons or
snakes, and

v.        
Anyone standing in the doorway during rainfall
risks being thunderstruck.

Many people carry some of these
puzzles and held believes into their daily lives and interactions with others.
In extreme cases, prejudices and stereotypes are built on faulty premises and
assumptions about other natives, ethnic groups and nationalities. Psychology,
as a scientific field of study, is aimed at interrogating these believes and
assumptions, making meaning out of human thinking, dreams, puzzles and
prejudices by means of empirically verifiable methods and logical proofs.

The term Psychology is a
combination of two words; Psyche which means the mind and Logos
which means word. In the past, psychology is deemed as the study of the mind
and mental life. At the turn of the1920s however, many psychologists such as J
B Watson began to view the mind as something that is unobservable and difficult
to subject to scientific study. Within the same ambit of time however, Sigmund
Freud (1934) proposed a method for the study of human mind called
psychoanalysis. The implication of which is that both covert (unobservable) and
overt (observable) behaviours can be studied. Modern Psychology according to
Kosylin & Rosenberg (2001) is the scientific study of human behaviour and
mental processes.

Psychology
as a field of study has grown in leaps and bounds, especially in developed
countries such as Germany, Russia and America where several fields of practice
have been identified and classified. There are over 50 fields of practice and
subdivisions and by the turn of the 20^thcentury psychology rated as
one of the topmost professions in America ranking with education, political
science and philosophy (Ruckmich, 1912). The growth had continued unhindered in
developed countries. In developing countries like Nigeria, the study of
psychology has continued to gain appreciable ground both as academic discipline
and profession.

 MEANING OF INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Industrial
Psychology as a subfield of study initially focused mainly on individuals at
work. The principal concern was about individual differences at work. This
focus was as a result of the concept of man as mere factor of production. This
approach was influenced by Taylorism whose mechanistic conception of work pitch
man as sharing narrow roles in productivity after work has been divided and the
one-best way was found to improve productivity through appropriate connectivity
between productivity and reward (Taylor, 1911). It was common to dig around
issues such as staffing and training and traditional psychological studies of
individual differences covering intelligence, personality, sensation,
perception, learning and abnormal work behaviour.

MEANING OF ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Industrial Psychology as an
academic discipline started with the pioneering works of Musterberg (1913) who
published the first known book about managing human behaviour in industrial
organisations and Gilbret& Gilbreth (1917) who writing about the same time
as Fredrick Taylor reported their studies on motions studies. By the scope and
results from Elton Mayo and colleagues work in the 1930s, it was soon apparent
that man’s contribution to work is regulated by factors beyond the
individual(Mayo, 1933). 

Equally of note was the application, as far back as
1920s, of classical conditioning to advertising where TV commercials and logo
are paired with attractive models and celebrities as promoted by J. B. Watson.
Informal groups at work and such issues as group morale, social conformity,
attitudes and the generally observable changes that both physical and social
aspects of the work place represents and other scenarios such as structure,
processes and people became topical issues which are codified as Organisational
Psychology. Organisational Psychology thus began as a separate field of study
different and independent of Industrial Psychology.

Another
influence at this point is the contributions and application of Social
Psychological studies to work places. While Industrial Psychologists were
focussing on individuals at work, Organisational Psychologists shifted concerns
to influence of group and group processes at work. The American Psychological Association,
a body regulating the practice of psychology in America however merged the two
set of psychologists into what is now the Industrial/Organisational Psychology
Division 14 in 1990s. The sub-field is now simply referred to as ‘I/O
Psychology’. It is one of the several sub-fields of psychology and its goals
are basic as in general psychology, which are to measure, describe, explain,
predict and control human behaviour at work for the overall benefit of man,
entrepreneur and society in general.

Industrial/organisational
psychology, also called workplace psychology, is a systematised and specialised
body of knowledge about human behaviour in industries and organisations. It is
germane to ask the question at this point, what then is work? The array of goods
and services generated as a result of organised effort, called work, is
awesome. Work involves the deliberate use of physical, emotional and mental
energy to produce utilities. 

Harnessing these energies have led to production
of tangible goods such as agricultural products putting food on tables,
automobiles for mobility, energy as bare bone for domestic and industrial uses,
telecom equipment for communication, textiles for clothing and such a wide
varieties of other goods; also intangible goods such as legal, social
psychological or counsel, health care, security, education and so forth. To do
this certain basic inputs such as land, raw materials, energy, information,
capital, equipment/technology and people. 

Work produces jobs which are
organised or deliberately designed group of activities composing of units of
tasks, duties, responsibilities within the context of peculiar conditions and
rules which significant amount of influence on performance and gives coherence
to attainment of set goals and objectives.

According
to Cascio and Aguinis (2005) organisations are all around us as businesses,
hospitals, political parties, government (civil and public service)
international and nongovernmental organisations, military/defence formations,
social clubs, churches, Boy and Girl Scouts and schools. Industries on the
other hand are organised body of people, structure, equipment/technology and
processes aimed at manufacturing utilities for human consumption. 

Organisations
basically offers services whether tangible or intangible, the outcome of which
societies of man depend upon to achieve the important objectives of modern
living which includes attainment of fundamental rights to decent food, water,
shelter, education, protection and other life’s socio-political, psychological
and career aspirations. Whether as industries and organisations, the common
denomination is the presence of people acting, thinking and feeling in
particular ways that are significant to the attainment of the goals and
objectives of the entities in which they are a part of the whole.

BASIC ISSUES IN I/O PSYCHOLOGY

With the background already
provided, the rest of this article will now focus on salient issues that engage
the attention of I/O psychologists. The issues are many and can only be briefly
touched upon in an introductory course of this nature. The issues selected for
brief discussion are:

i.    
Assessment of human attributes at work

ii.   
Work and Job design

iii.   
Selection and placement of people on jobs

iv.    
Training and learning at work

v.      
Performance appraisal

vi.   
Organisational change and development

vii.    
Ergonomics, equipment design and man-machine fit

viii.    
Attitudes, attitude measurement, job
satisfaction, pay satisfaction, organisational commitment, organisational
citizenship, work motivation and performance

ix.   
Social and interpersonal skill; self-esteem,
self-efficacy, locus of control, leadership, assertiveness, negotiation,
communication, mentoring

x.     
Self-Assessment, Career choice and development

xi.    
Industrial accident, safety and health

GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Understanding human behaviour,
from a scientific point of view, is the overall goal of Psychology. This broad,
all-important goal involves five basic activities:

i.     
Measurement of behaviour: Much of the
work of psychologists involve measuring of concepts, attributes, characteristics
or variables that impact or conditions human behaviour The psychological
processes, concepts or attributes that are regularly measured are; anxiety,
learning attitudes, abilities, intelligence, creativity, interest, perception,
sensation, emotion, and so forth. Measurement

ii.   
Describing: Attributes or concepts
that are so measured are classified, identified, or categorized in terms of
their salient features, or characteristics. While doing this, the
concept/attribute is being described.

iii.   
Explanation: This mean adducing
reason(s) to why people think, feel, or act the way they do. It is one of the
major goals of any scientific discipline and this may be achieved through
formulation of theories. A theory provides explanatory framework, by organizing
facts in a meaningful pattern that lend itself to logic and reasoning.

iv.    
Prediction: The goal of predicting
behaviour is underscored by the need to take decisions that will be valid for
now and in the future. This effort relies heavily on objective and accurate
measurement of attributes to be so predicted.

v.      
Control: Another equally important
goal is the need to; based on predicted behaviour, encourage frequent
occurrence of desired behaviour and stoppage of undesired ones. The
professional psychologist, just like physiologist uses knowledge from medical
research to treat illness, seeks to apply knowledge from Psychology to bring
about changes in behaviour.

SUB-FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY

According to
Jayeoba (2008), Psychologists apply their training in different areas of endeavour.
For anybody to practice as a psychologist in any field he requires at least an
M.Sc degree in psychology. The fields of practice are outlined and briefly
explained below.

(i)     
Clinical Psychologist: The clinical
psychologist comes close to many people’s idea of what a psychologist is. They
are “doctors’ who diagnose psychological disorders and treat them using
psychotherapy. The clinical psychologist is different from a psychiatrist. The
main difference being that the psychiatrist holds a degree in medicine while a
clinical psychologist holds an M.Sc, M.Phil or PhD. In addition, the
psychiatrist uses drug in treating behaviour disorder while the clinical
psychologist uses psychotherapy in psychology. A clinical psychologist may
practice privately or work in government hospital or mental homes. Both
clinical and counselling psychology have been described as healing professions
since both diagnose and treat abnormality in human behaviour.

(ii)    
Counselling Psychologist: This work is
almost similar to that of a clinical psychologist. Also in terms of training
they are similar. The main difference is that counselling psychologists work
with people of milder emotional problems. He uses tests to measure traits like
intelligence, interest, aptitude and personality characteristics based on which
he has insight into people’s problem and counsel on adjustment strategies. The
counselling psychologist may be involved in private practice or employed in
schools or public service. They have different areas of focus depending on the
category of problem they choose to tackle; adolescents problems, marital
problems etc.

(iii)   
Experimental Psychologist: The
experimental psychologist is primarily engaged in research using experimental
method. His work need not directly apply to practical problems. The value of
his work lies in others finding useful application of his theories and
propositions. They are found in universities, social research centres, etc.

(iv)    
Physiological Psychologist: The
psychologist is a specialist in research into physiological problems. His focus
is on issues bothering on physiological basis of behaviour e.g. the brain, and
the nervous system as they affect behaviour. His method is basically
experimental and may use animals, such as rats and monkeys to infer human
behaviour.

(v)      
Industrial-Organisational Psychologist:
As the name implies, the psychologist applies psychological principles,
procedures, theories and insight to tackling industrial and organizational
problems especially as they relate to the human aspect of the organization. He
is involved in personnel recruitment, training, motivation, business
administration, marketing strategies, communication, job counselling, as
researcher and lecturer in universities, consultancy, etc. He is sometimes
referred to as Personnel psychologist and functions in administrative
management position in both public and private sectors of the economy. In
America, the I/O Psychologists is in high demand especially because of flexible
application of their skills and earns a mean annual salary of 125,980 USD
annually, only next to the Psychiatrist.

(vi)      
Social Psychologist: The social
psychologist applies psychological principles and theories in understanding
human behaviour in social setting. His scope of interest is wide and covers
issues like attitude and attitude change, people perception or perceptual
stereotypes, determination of influence and power, conformity etc. In the
field, he works side-by- side the sociologists and uses psychological
instruments to determine people’s attitude to political, ethnic or racial
issues.

(vii)   
Developmental Psychologist:      Developmental psychologists try to
understand complex human behaviour by
studying the onset of a behaviour pattern and the orderly way in which they
change over time. He may specifically be interested in change as they occur
across ages. Psychologists studying behaviour changes occurring in earlier
years are called child psychologists. 

On the whole, developmental psychologists
are interested, not only in the etiology of behaviour, (normal or abnormal) but
seek to understand its progress, effects and mode of sustaining (if normal) or
terminating (if abnormal) such behaviour. The developmental psychologist can
also focus exclusively on areas like child psychology – e.g. prenatal, neo­natal
and infanthood, adolescence, adult or old age / psychology or ageing. He may
also be concerned with certain features of development e.g. cognitive,
physiological or emotional development.

(viii)   
Engineering Psychologist: The engineering
psychologist or ergonomist is interested in the position and interaction of man
with machines of varied complexities used in industries and organizations. His
concern is how, through anthropomorphic measurements, to match human traits and
attributes to the design and use of machines. In brief, his main focus is on
man-job fit and so his area of concern spans organisational design, designs of
environment of work, job- design and equipment design. He may work directly in
industries and organisations or as consultant ergonomist.

(ix)    
Forensic Psychologist: Involved in
criminology and legal issues relating to the investigation and prosecution of
criminals. That is, using psychological insight to gain confession to crimes
without resort to torture and abuse of human right. They forensic psychologist
also assist in managing after-effects of acquittal and conviction.

(x)      
Military Psychologist: Like the name
implies, the function in military setting in different capacities, as
counsellor, ergonomist or in the use of psychological principles and
procedures, to select, train and deplore military personnel. Indeed psychology
as a discipline, first gained popularity in the use of psychological tests to
select personnel, for military training during the World War II and has since
played important roles in army recruitment, training and other military
operations.

(xi)    
Community Psychologist: A relatively new
area, dealing with use of psychological principles, ideas and procedures to
solve community based problems vis-a-vis helping people to adapt to their work
and living groups. It is a bit difficult to describe one individual
psychologist as a community psychologist; this is because psychologists in
different sub-fields may function to solve community-based problems.

Indeed,
there are as many as 49 sub–fields of Psychology as classified by the AMERICAN
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. These are:

Tablel.1: Fields of
Psychology

General Psychology	Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse
The society for the teaching of psychology Experimental psychology	Psychotherapy Psychological Hypnosis
Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics	State Psychological Association Affairs
Behavioural        Neuroscience         and        Comparative Psychology	Humanistic Psychology
Developmental Psychology	Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities
Society for Personality and Social Psychology	Population and Environmental Psychology
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues	Psychology of Women
Psychology and the Arts	Psychology of Religion
Clinical Psychology	Child, Youth and Family Services
Consulting Psychology	Health Psychology
Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology	Psychoanalysis
Educational Psychology	Clinical Neurophysiology
School Psychology	American Psychology – Law Society
Counselling Psychology	Psychologists in Independent Practice
Psychologists in Public Service	Family Psychology
Military Psychology	Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian and Gay Issues
Adult Development and Aging	Society for the Psychological study of Ethnic Minority Issues
Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychologists	Media Psychology
Rehabilitation Psychology	Exercise and Sports Psychotherapy
Society for Consumer Psychology	Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy
Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology	Addictions
Experimental Analysis of Behaviour	Society for the Psychological study of Men and Masculinity
History of Psychology	International Psychology
Society for Community Research and Action: Community Psychology

 

CONCLUSION

Industrial/Organisational Psychology offers valuable contribution and a repertoire of knowledge of man in work situations. The ranges of issues covered are broad and germane to the understanding, prediction and control of human behaviour at and off work.