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 Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Filter Results8 entries
Connections
Associated With
The Hawthorne studies are the founding case study of the branch.
Source Wikipedia: Industrial and organizational psychology
Includes
Source Absenteeism - Wikipedia
Source Alice Eagly (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Cognitive resource theory
Source Edwin Locke (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Elton Mayo
Source Wikipedia: Hawthorne Effect
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
Source Honeymoon-Hangover Effect (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Job Characteristic Theory
Source Wikipedia: Loran Nordgren
Source Wikipedia: Miriam Erez
Source Wikipedia: Phyllis Tharenou
Source Queen bee syndrome - Wikipedia
Source Victor Vroom (Wikipedia)
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.
Wikipedia: Cognitive resource theory
Includes: Cognitive Resource Theory, Article leadQuote, Includes: Cognitive Resource Theory, Article lead
Cognitive resource theory (CRT) is a leadership theory of industrial and organisational psychology developed by Fred Fiedler and Joe Garcia in 1987 as a reconceptualisation of the Fiedler contingency model.
Victor Vroom (Wikipedia)
Includes: Victor Vroom, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Victor Vroom, Lead section
Victor Harold Vroom (August 9, 1932 - July 26, 2023) was a Canadian psychologist and business school professor at the Yale School of Management.
Wikipedia: Loran Nordgren
Includes: Loran Nordgren, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Loran Nordgren, Lead section
Loran F. Nordgren is an American professor of psychology who studies the adoption of new ideas and behaviors.
Wikipedia: Hawthorne Effect
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Hawthorne Effect, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Hawthorne Effect, Lead section
The Hawthorne effect is a type of behavioral reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.
Wikipedia: Job Characteristic Theory
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Job Characteristics Theory, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Job Characteristics Theory, Lead section
Job characteristics theory is a theory of work design.
Queen bee syndrome - Wikipedia
Includes: Queen Bee Syndrome, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Queen Bee Syndrome, Lead section
Queen bee syndrome is a social phenomenon where women in positions of authority or power treat subordinate females worse than males, purely based on gender.
Absenteeism - Wikipedia
Includes: Absenteeism, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Absenteeism, Lead section
Absenteeism is a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation without good reason.
Honeymoon-Hangover Effect (Wikipedia)
Includes: Honeymoon-Hangover Effect, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Honeymoon-Hangover Effect, Lead section
In organisational psychology, the honeymoon-hangover effect describes the relationship between voluntary employee job change and job satisfaction.
Edwin Locke (Wikipedia)
Includes: Edwin Locke, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Edwin Locke, Lead section
According to the Association for Psychological Science, "Locke is the most published organizational psychologist in the history of the field.
Wikipedia: Miriam Erez
Includes: Miriam Erez, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Miriam Erez, Lead section
Miriam Erez (born 1943) is an Israeli industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologist and management scholar.
Wikipedia: Phyllis Tharenou
Includes: Phyllis Tharenou, Lead sectionQuote, Includes: Phyllis Tharenou, Lead section
Phyllis Tharenou is an Australian organisational psychologist and management scholar whose research has focused on understanding women's career advancement, training and development effectiveness, and professionals' international careers.
Alice Eagly (Wikipedia)
Includes: Alice Eagly, LeadQuote, Includes: Alice Eagly, Lead
Her primary research focus is social psychology, as well as personality psychology and Industrial 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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