Themes & Theo of I/O Psyc Week 1 Discussion 2 Response:
INSTRUCTIONS: Respond to one colleague who selected a different historical development than you did. In your response, offer additional support for the significance of the historical development, an alternative perspective, or questions to consider.
Madeline M
Main Question
Post:
Industrial Psychology Vs. Organizational Psychology
The industrial side of I/O Psychology is more of the behind-the-scenes work. Behind-the-scenes, meaning, these are the small movements happening to add to the larger picture; like: analyzing jobs and their design, gathering research on the recruitment and selection process, reviewing the physical space and its impact on work performance, evaluating how people work both in their individual roles and with their department/team (Walden University, 2015). Organizational psychology is what brings the behind-the-scenes work to life and in motion; this is where a practitioner gets to take the research, statistics, data, and results they have collected and then works with the organization to make improvements based on the findings. This can happen by way of training, strategic implementation, and so on (Walden University, 2015).
Historical Development in I/O Psychology
During the global economic crisis from 1971-1990, there was (what I see as) a breakthrough on the organizational side of I/O Psychology. Many research findings from Edwin Locke and Gary Latham published about the power of goal setting in business proved an increase in job performance (i.e., maintaining motivation to continue the work of one’s job) (Zickar & Austin, 2018). Not only that, but when employees are given goals and achieve those goals, this echos the message they are good at what they do. J. Richard Hackman and Greg R. Oldham proposed a job characteristic model for those in leadership roles in hopes to further understand and increase employee motivation in their jobs: job autonomy, skill variety, feedback, task identity, and task significance (Zickar & Austin, 2018).
From here we have now shifted from utilizing assessments to place people in jobs [as a common practice from WWI and still utilized in today’s military job placement, and then adopted as practice during the second industrial revolution (Zickar & Austin, 2018)]. From this point in I/O Psychology history, these tools can be used to help organizations know how to empower employees in their roles and how to help them feel valued to increase job satisfaction and essentially longevity.
Historical Impact in I/O Psychology
The developments of Locke, Latham, Hackman, and Oldham have impacted the contemporary practice of I/O Psychology due to the nature of how it has paved the way for us future practitioners to show up in spaces with appropriate tools to elicit desired change of an organization. These developments catapulted putting the human back in the job, meaning, recognizing it is humans going to do a job rather than a cog in a machine. Most people may spend at least the whole light of day at their jobs, or more than half of their days at their jobs. Someone who works forty hours per week would typically spend around two-thousand hours at work each year (standard holidays accounted for). This is a lot of time to be somewhere rather than one’s home, spending time with their family, sleeping, resting, enjoying hobbies and life.
This development is near to me as I am leaning towards my dissertation being along the lines of job satisfaction and burnout in the workplace. If it were not for these developments in I/O Psychology, this would make the work I set out to do much harder and potentially less attainable.
Refrences
Walden University, LLC. (2015).
I v. O in I/O psychology [Video]. Walden University Canvas.
Zickar, M., & Austin, J. (2018). History of industrial work and organizational psychology in North America. In D. S. Ones, N. Anderson, & H. K. Sinangil (Eds.),
The SAGE handbook of industrial, work and organizational psychologyLinks to an external site.
Links to an external site.
. (2nd ed., Vol. 3, pp. 3-42). London, UK: SAGE Publications, Ltd.
