Industrial/Organizational (I-O) psychology
This is a division of psychology that applies psychological philosophies and ethics to organizations. This field primarily focuses on growing workplace output as well as other associated subjects like the psychological and physical welfare of workers. Industrial-organizational psychologists do several tasks comprising the study of conduct and attitudes of employees, assessment of companies to measure the performance of workers relative to their responsibilities, besides organizing and undertaking training sessions for company leaders (Gelfand et al, 2017). However, the general objective of this branch is to learn and to understand human conduct in the workshop. The I-O branch is distinctive from other subfields of psychology because it uses psychological practices to identify and solve organizational problems, thus helping to advance affairs between workers and the administration in a workplace targeting at increasing their competence and gratification.
The distinction between industrial and organizational psychology is that industrial psychologists explicitly assess the variances amongst individual workers and evaluate particular jobs. They can advise the organization on the right category of employees they should hire, and reveal the competence of workers, suggest the kind of skills they require, and offer training to them (Grand et al, 2018). On the other hand, organizational psychologists seek to understand how employees perform in an organization and how the organization functions in society.
Industrial psychology is most interesting to me because industrial psychologists specifically use psychological principles and research methods in solving problems in the workplace and improves the quality of life. Moreover, they study the productivity and management of the workplace, as well as employee working styles (Wheeler et al, 2018). This aids in understanding the self-esteem and character of employees. However, they work directly for the organization, whereby they provide advisory and counseling sessions to employees to improve their competence and performance, hence increasing the productivity of the organization. Again, industrial psychologists offer advice on finding and employing the right workers in an organization, therefore improving the amount and quality of output.
References
Gelfand, M. J., Aycan, Z., Erez, M., & Leung, K. (2017). Cross-cultural industrial-organizational psychology and organizational behavior: A hundred-year journey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 514. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-06954-001
Grand, J. A., Rogelberg, S. G., Allen, T. D., Landis, R. S., Reynolds, D. H., Scott, J. C., … & Truxillo, D. M. (2018). A systems-based approach to fostering robust science in industrial-organizational psychology. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 11(1), 4- 42.https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-09947-002
Wheeler, J. L., Gelfand, M. J., Hong, Y. Y. & Chiu, C. Y. (2018). Culture, work, and the self: The mutual influence of social and industrial-organizational psychology. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-03167-010