Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology is a subfield of psychology that studies all aspects of mental activity and behavior in organizations to increase organizational efficiency and create favorable work conditions and individual development. The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the American Psychological Association is one of the leading communities of I-O psychologists. They note that the main task of industrial-organizational psychology is to develop a methodology and theory of psychology that contribute to solving problems of people and groups and the organizations of which they are members (Eno et al., 2020). Awareness of the importance of industrial and organizational psychology’s formal unification into a single scientific direction occurred half a century ago. In 1973, the American Psychological Association (APA) recognized it necessary to give the section “industrial psychology” a new name, “industrial-organizational” (as cited in Eno et al., 2020, p. 501). Besides, the Hawthorne studies showed that performance depends more on human interaction and group climate rather than on physical factors (as cited in Eno et al., 2020). Thus, the new psychological subfield’s formal recognition was not so much the design of a new direction. It was rather the development and “completion” of industrial psychology to the organizational level, without which labor cannot be regarded as an integral system.
However, in my opinion, there is a gap between fundamental and applied I-O psychology. For example, an analysis of the hiring organization’s needs is central to the subfield. Nevertheless, such an analysis is rarely carried out in real life because companies do not want to spend money on it. To understand the purpose of I-O psychology and the tasks it faces, students have to learn the fundamental theories and models, methods of conduct, and research results that exist in this discipline. However, they should also be aware that I-O psychology as a science is forced to reckon with the conditions and requirements of organizational life, the major one of which is gaining profit.
Reference
Eno, C., Coleman, C., & Edahl, C. (Eds.). (2020). Industrial-organizational psychology. In Introduction to psychology (pp. 496-528). Hawkes Learning.