Business psychology

The field of business psychology (in some contexts and industrial psychology , occupational psychology or industrial psychology called;. English business psychology , Industrial and Organizational Psychology , or in the British area occupational psychology ) deals with the subjective experience and the behavior of people in the economic environment and the social contexts . Another definition aims to encompass that area of ​​the psychology of economic issues that does not deal with the production side ( industrial and organizational psychology ) but with the consumption side.

History of Business Psychology

Business psychology developed in three "waves":

• Hugo Münsterberg (1863–1916) is known in the German-speaking world as the "father of business psychology". With his book Psychologie und Wirtschaftsleben (1912), he founded work and organizational psychology and placed the focus on empirical-experimental research.
• The second wave was initiated by George Katona (1951) in the USA and PL Reynaud (1954) in France , who were primarily concerned with macroeconomic processes. Above all, Reynaud emphasized the importance of theorizing and criticized the “department store character” of the business psychology of his time.
• In addition to the Anglo-American "economic psychology" in the Katona tradition, an economic psychology has developed in the German-speaking area since the 1980s that primarily uses socio-psychological knowledge to explain and predict economic behavior.

Areas of application for business psychologists

Business psychologists have a wide range of possible uses. Typical areas of application for business psychologists are in personnel management , in market research and marketing , in personnel and management consultancies or as an independent consultant, trainer or coach.

The areas of responsibility of the business psychologist include:

• Coaching , training and further education
• Marketing advice
• Market research
• Distribution and sales
• Advertising and market communication
• Organizational development , change management
• Personnel selection
• Personnel development
• Business consulting

Course offers

Business psychology is a branch of applied psychology and can be studied at many universities. There is either the option of choosing business psychology as a focus within the framework of a psychology degree or of taking business psychology as an independent master's / bachelor's degree. Both public and private universities offer full-time or various forms of part-time studies.

The training in accredited universities for business psychology includes a well-founded basic training in general psychology, social and personality psychology as well as methodology and statistics. In business psychology courses, business management and psychological content are taught in equal parts.

In view of the great demand for academics with additional psychological training, further training courses for business psychologists are also offered. These range from individual seminars to certified curricula to part-time continuing education courses at Master’s level. They offer people from other professions such as lawyers, economists, computer scientists or natural scientists the possibility of additional psychological training. In Switzerland, under certain conditions, there is also the possibility that working people without a first academic degree can complete further training as a Master of Advanced Studies.

In the Anglo-Saxon-speaking area (especially the United States ), business psychologists are mostly trained as economists with additional psychological qualifications.

Sub-areas

The major areas of business psychology include:

• The organizational psychology in the context of the economy (including industrial psychology called) as a field of research that deals with the experience and behavior of staff at work and in organizations with the subregions among other things human resource development , personnel selection , staffing , staff evaluation , organizational development (including change management), Coaching.

• The market psychology (or consumer psychology) deals with the experience and behavior of people participating in a market. This includes, among other things, trading psychology , psychology of selling and advertising psychology .
• The economic psychology is a field of research which deals with the fundamental nature of consumption and decision making in the economic context.

• The industrial psychology as a research field that deals with psychological analysis, evaluation and design of work involved, including health promotion, application consulting, assessment, work tasks, work organization. In the case of the sub-area of engineering psychology , the focus is on the human-machine relationship.

• The leadership psychology as an independent field of research from the experience and behavior of people within the target and situational influence of executives in leadership process . The main goal of leadership psychology is to generate meaningful leadership theories. Leadership psychology also includes group psychology , communication psychology , motivational psychology and personality psychology .

• The financial psychology as a junior research field of experience and behavior of people in financial markets, among other things, the behavior of small and large shareholders in the stock market behavior of managers in investment decisions.

A more economically oriented perspective is the psychology of macroeconomic processes.

See also

• Business education
• Economic sociology
• Neuroeconomics

literature

• C. Fichter (Ed.): Business Psychology for Bachelor . Springer, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-662-54944-5 .
• P. Mehlich, T. Brandenburg, MT Thielsch (Hrsg.): Practice of business psychology. Volume III: Topics and case studies for study and practice. Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-95645-289-5 .
• EM Kirchler: Business Psychology . 3. Edition. Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-8017-1252-4 .
• B. Klauk, T. Stäudel (Ed.): Study Guide Business Psychology. Pabst Science Publishers, Lengerich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89967-346-3 .
• K. Moser: Business Psychology. Springer, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-71636-5 .
• L. Pelzmann : Business Psychology . 4th edition. Vienna u. a. 2006.
• HO Schenk: Psychology in Retail. 2nd Edition. Munich / Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58379-3 .
• T. Stäudel, U. Günther: The FH courses in business psychology have proven their worth. In: Business Psychology Current. 4, 2004, pp. 60-65.
• L. von Rosenstiel, FW Nerdinger: Fundamentals of organizational psychology. 7th edition. Stuttgart 2011.
• G. Wiswede: Introduction to Business Psychology . 4th edition. Munich / Basel 2007, ISBN 978-3-8252-8090-1 .

Web links

• German Society for Psychology (DGPs), Section Work and Organizational Psychology
• Professional Association of German Psychologists (BDP), Business Psychology Section
• Professional Association of Austrian Psychologists (BÖP), Section Work, Business and Organizational Psychology
• Society for Applied Business Psychology (GWPs)
• Business Psychology Today - Online Magazine

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Area overview business psychology In: DORSCH Lexikon der Psychologie.
2. ↑ Dorsch, 1994.
3. ^ G. Wiswede: Business Psychology . 4th edition. Stuttgart 2007, p. 15.
4. ↑ C. Graf Hoyos et al. 1987.
5. ^ T. Melles: Areas of activity of psychologists in institutional market research. In: T. Brandenburg, MT Thielsch (Ed.): Practice of business psychology: Topics and case studies for study and practice. Monsenstein and Vannerdat, Münster 2009, pp. 27–42. ( PDF ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ))
6. ↑ www.wirtschaftspsychologie.com Section Types of Study, last seen November 7, 2016
7. ^ H. Schuler (ed.): Textbook of Personalpsychologie. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2006.
8. ^ AB Weinert: Organizational and Personal Psychology. 5th edition. Beltz, Weinheim / Basel 2004.
9. ↑ G. Felser: Advertising and Consumer Psychology. Spectrum, Heidelberg 2001.
10. ^ Journal of Economic Psychology . ( elsevier.com [accessed November 12, 2018]).
11. ↑ K. Moser: Business Psychology. Berlin 2007.
12. ^ G. Wiswede: Business Psychology . 4th edition. Munich / Basel 2007, p. 267.
13. ↑ Liebel 1978.
14. ^ O. Neuberger: Lead and let lead. UTB, Stuttgart 2002.
15. ↑ D. Frey , L. von Rosenstiel , CG Hoyos (Ed.): Business Psychology. Beltz PVU, Weinheim 2005.
16. ↑ Kirchler 1995.