Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology is the branch of psychology that applies psychological principles to the workplace, covering personnel selection, performance appraisal, training, motivation, leadership and organizational culture, with roots in the early twentieth-century Hawthorne studies of worker behavior. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Disputed
Key DebateWhether the field's tools and research agenda have served employers' interests in productivity more than workers' interests in fair treatment and protection. 1 I-O psychology has been criticized, particularly for its mid-twentieth-century record, as being responsive mainly to the concerns of management rather than workers; the industrial psychologist Arthur Kornhauser was noted as largely alone among his contemporaries in focusing on protecting workers rather than raising their productivity. Key DebateWhether the productivity gains attributed to the Hawthorne studies reflect a genuine psychological effect of attention and social relationships on workers, or are better explained by other confounds in the original experimental design; the question is now folded into the broader replication and interpretation debates that surround early twentieth-century organizational research. 1 The Hawthorne studies were never designed as tightly controlled experiments by later standards, so the field itself disagrees about how much of the productivity effect named after them is real. Central QuestionHow do psychological principles explain and improve employee behavior, motivation and performance within organizations? 1 Connections
Associated With
The Hawthorne studies are the founding case study of the branch.
Source Wikipedia: Industrial and organizational psychology
Includes
Source Wikipedia: Elton Mayo
Repointed from Social Psychology (branch 1389): the Hawthorne studies are the founding case of I-O psychology, not social psychology.
Source Wikipedia: Industrial and organizational psychology
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Industrial and organizational psychology
WikipediaDefinition and Scope
an applied discipline within psychology
Notable Criticisms
being responsive only to the concerns of management
View the Source Wikipedia: Elton Mayo
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Elton Mayo, IntroductionQuote, Includes: Elton Mayo, Introduction
His field research in industry had a significant impact on industrial and organizational psychology.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Key Debate
Economists Steven Levitt and John List re-examined the original Hawthorne Works illumination-experiment data directly in 2011 and found only modest, inconsistent evidence for an observation effect of the size and reliability the traditional "being watched changes behavior" account describes, once other changes to the work, lighting schedules, pay incentives and the day of the week, were accounted for. Their reading does not deny that something changed at Hawthorne; it denies that a clean observation effect is what the original data actually show, folding the Hawthorne studies' own productivity claims into psychology's broader replication and interpretation debates rather than settling them.
A dissenting reading, from Steven Levitt and John ListWikipedia: Hawthorne Effect, Wikimedia Foundation
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