Organizational psychology

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The Organizational Psychology is a neighboring field of business psychology that deals with the interaction of individuals and organization. This includes describing and changing the experience, behavior and attitudes of people in organizations as well as the conditions that influence these states and changes. In contrast to organizational sociology, psychology in this context primarily deals with structures and processes at the individual level. The human engineering is an application-oriented neighboring field of organizational psychology, which is limited in the analyzes in an economic environment.

The analysis relates to people in both for-profit companies ( industry , craft ) and in non-profit organizations ( hospitals , universities , etc.).

Subject areas

In terms of content, organizational psychology u. a. covers the following subject areas:

Industrial, industrial and organizational psychology (ABO)

Due to the close logical connections with two adjacent areas, organizational psychology is taught in Germany as part of the so-called ABO (industrial, industrial and organizational psychology). However, industrial psychology primarily includes the analysis, evaluation and design of human work activities as well as the interaction between man and machine ( engineering psychology), the latter, for example, with the analysis of psychological conditions for safe work . Furthermore, the performance possibilities of organizational psychology in connection with the pragmatically oriented technical inventory of industrial psychology to discuss that is systematically subordinated turn of reaching beyond the economic context organizational psychology.

Research methods in industrial and organizational psychology

Industrial and organizational psychology (AO psychology) uses various methods of empirical science, including laboratory, field and action research. In AO psychology there are essentially no differences to empirical studies . However, there are often minor differences in important details of the procedure.

A difference compared to basic disciplines can be seen in the fact that in AO psychology the reason and goal of the investigation do not correspond to one's own interests, but are given from outside. As in empirical research , the aim is to formulate a specific research question in order to then set up a testable hypothesis . The further research process runs according to the principles of empirical research . Meta-analyzes are one of the most important components of the research process in industrial and organizational psychology.

Subfields of work and organizational psychology

There are several sub-fields of work and organizational psychology:

Personnel Psychology

Personnel psychology deals with the principles of the selection and evaluation of workers. To do this, she uses various psychological methods . Personnel psychologists have the task of recognizing suitable applicants, inviting them and employing them. So you assign people to certain jobs, you can identify skills for the job and decide on selection methods. It is also part of their job to introduce new employees to the respective job and to train them. Personnel psychologists develop new training programs and evaluate them . In the personnel area, psychologists often work together with lawyers and business economists . The three core areas of personnel psychology include personnel selection , personnel appraisal and personnel development .

Engineering Psychology / Human Factors Psychology

The engineering psychology investigate and human factors psychology, such as machinery and employee environments must be designed to fit the human capacities optimally.

Organizational psychology

Organizational psychology in the narrower sense considers the interaction between the given work environment and its leadership styles and the motivation , satisfaction and productivity of workers. So, an organizational psychologist wants to maximize job satisfaction and worker productivity by changing jobs and control in a certain way.

History of work and organizational psychology

Long before the development of the subject, there were theoretical and practical approaches to solving the problems of organizational psychology, as these have always been very important for mankind. The historical development of AO psychology and its sub-area as an independent sub-discipline of psychology essentially relates to the last 100 years. In North America, scientific organizational psychology is often set to begin in 1901, with Walter Dill Scott giving a lecture in Chicago on the application of psychology to advertising. However, this dating is doubted in science, as there are still some older examples.

The founder of the actual organizational psychology is the sociologist Max Weber . He provided a rationale for imagining an organization as a smoothly functioning machine. In addition to early physiological investigations into work psychology, the origins of scientifically founded AO psychology lie in particular in occupational aptitude diagnostics .

In the 1920s, Kurt Lewin investigated work psychological issues. He dealt intensively with the development of self-image, with procedures in organizational development and with educational and leadership styles . It was only after the Second World War that work and organizational psychology emerged in its current form.

See also

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. See Veronika Tacke : Organizational Sociology. In: Georg Kneer , Markus Schroer (Hrsg.): Handbuch special sociology. VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-15313-1 , pp. 341-359.
  2. See Günter Endruweit : Organizational Sociology (= UTB . 2515). 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8252-2515-1 , p. 16.
  3. Bernd Marcus: Introduction to work and organizational psychology. 2011, p. 29.