Chapter 13 - Industrial & Organizational Psychology

Industrial and Organizational Psychology (I/O)

a branch of psychology that studies how human behavior and psychology affect work and how they are affected by work 

Industrial Psychology

describing job requirements and assessing individuals for their ability to meet those requirements

Job tasks: hiring, training, and evaluating employees

Organizational Psychology

interested in how the relationships among employees affect those employees and the performance of a business 

Job tasks: assessing leadership, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, motivation

Unstructured Interviews

not based on information from the job analysis and often asks different job candidates different questions making it hard to systematically compare candidates

(ex: where do you see yourself in 10 years?)

Structured Interviews

asks questions based on the job analysis, ask the candidates the same questions and assign scores to their responses

(ex: a position you apply for requires heavy use of statistical software → how many years of experience?)

Job Satisfaction

the degree to which individuals enjoy their job

Transactional Leadership

focuses on supervision and organizational goals, which are achieved through a system of rewards and punishments

Transformational Leadership

characteristic of leaders who are charismatic role models, inspirational, intellectually stimulating, and individually considerate and who seek to change the organization 

Hawthorne effect

increase in performance of individuals who are noticed, watched, and paid attention to by researchers or supervisors; considered by researchers across multiple fields