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Industrial psychology

Industrial-Organizational psychology

By Learn to DevelopPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
Industrial psychology
Photo by Victor on Unsplash

An industrial psychologist is an expert who can provide help with team building, leading a group and fostering productivity. They work on the strategies that can motivate people towards a goal. It's not about what you do, but about how you do it. It's about the process and how to initiate the process.

There are many people who want to learn about industrial psychology and you can see why. Human behavior is very important to the success of any business. Without understanding human behavior we cannot understand why people do what they do.

Industrial Organizational Psychology (I/O) is a branch of applied psychology that studies how we can improve the performance of people in their jobs. I/O psychologists take a scientific approach to performance improvement by examining the individual (human), the work environment (organizational) and how the two interact. I/O psychologists are able to do this because they are trained to be statisticians, industrial engineers, and organizational behavior experts. I/O psychologists specialize in three areas: Selection, Training, and Performance Improvement.

A business is a living entity that feeds on the minds of its employees. The way a business is run and the nature of the employees working in it can have an effect on the output that is produced. The employees in a business can be the company’s best asset but at the same time, they can be its biggest liability, if the employer does not understand how to motivate them. Industrial psychologists are specialists in the human mind and are trained to study, analyze and understand human behavior in the workplace. They can use their expertise to help businesses achieve the output they desire from their employees.

Human beings are the most effective resource an organization can have. Since the world is becoming more competitive, organizations cannot afford to make mistakes in the recruitment process or the training and development of their employees. Industrial psychologists make sure you hire the right people and provide the right training.

The idea of workplace psychology was born in the late 19th century, when the concept of a "job" was still new. Industrial psychology began to take shape in the early 20th century as a way to improve worker productivity, safety and satisfaction. While the term often evokes mental images of time-and-motion studies and employee-assessment tests, the practice of industrial psychology today is more sophisticated and multifaceted. Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologists are in high demand as the workplace becomes more complex, the workforce more diverse, and the job market more competitive.

Industrial psychology refers to the applied organizational psychology used to study, analyze and understand human behavior in the workplace. The industrial psychologists are concerned with the mental processes, methodologies and strategies used by the human beings related to the job. In order to understand the industrial psychology, it is important to know the history of the field.

it is the study of individual and group behavior, in the workplace. A human resource manager may use this discipline to determine what type of job is right for a particular individual, or to select and train workers who will be able to perform specific tasks and functions.

The development of industrial psychology began with the advances in scientific management, which was a system of manufacturing that began with the introduction of the assembly line in the United States. Frederick Winslow Taylor is credited with developing scientific management. This system of manufacturing included the use of time-motion studies and the use of stopwatches to educate workers on the most efficient ways of completing tasks. Through time-motion studies, Taylor and other industrial psychologists found that workers could be trained to perform their jobs in the most efficient way possible. The efficiency created through these studies is often referred to as "Taylorism." Taylorism, as it was called, also resulted in the increased use of labor-saving machinery. Read more

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