Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Organizational Psychology Paper
June Forbes-Nixon
PSY 428
21st March 2011
Facilitator - Maria Cuddy-Casey

Defining Organizational Psychology Organizational psychology is a field that utilizes scientific methodology to better understand the behavior of individuals working in organizational settings. In principle, organizational psychology focuses on workplace, including its workers, and organizations that employ them. Organizational psychology gives hiring tests, study the best ways to train employees, investigate how to improve work conditions, and analyze how management and employees can get along better. Organizational psychology should be viewed as a science; it is based on scientific studies of behavior in both organization and laboratory settings. Organizational psychology is part of a broader field of study in its own right; however, it is actually part of the broader field of industrial/organizational psychology, (Jex & Britt, 2008). Industrial psychology is defined as the application of methods and principles of psychology to the workplace using scientific methods to study behavior in organizations. Industrial psychology deals with recruitment, selection, classification, compensation, performance appraisal and training of employees. Whereas, organizational psychology is concerned with socialization, motivation, occupational stress, leadership, group performance and organization development. Historically, organizational psychology was slower to develop than the industrial psychology. The event that is usually considered the historical beginning of organizational psychology was the Hawthorne studies, although many other events and individuals helped to shape the field over the years and will continue to do so. Threading through the history of the organizational psychology is the dynamic