Industrial and organizational psychology

Industrial and organizational psychology (short form I/O psychology) is also known as work
psychology. It is concerned with the systematic and in-depth study of workplace behaviour.
Improving the workplace and performance, satisfaction and wellbeing of people is a major
contribution of industrial and organizational psychologists to an organizations research.An
industrial and organizational psychologist investigates and identifies that how employee
behaviour and attitudes can be improved they also aid organizations by helping them recruit the
right type of employee needed for the job. This field is primarily related to human capital and
organizational behaviour.
As psychological approach differs from person to person, similar is the case with the
psychologists.
Guion (1965) defines I/O psychology as:
The scientific study of the relationship between man and the world of work: ... in the process of
making a living"
Blum & Naylor (1968) describes I/O as:
"Simply the application or extension of psychological facts and principles to the problems
concerning human beings operating within the context of business and industry"
This branch of the field elucidated during World War 1, in response to the need to rapidly assign
new troops to duty station. Walter Dill Scott was elected as the president of American
Psychological Association (APA) in 1919 and was definitely the most prominent I/O
psychologist of that era. Although there are psychologists like James McKean Cattell (1895) ad
Hugo Mnsterberg (1898) who gained prominence in World War 2.

This field of psychology has and is making a great contribution in the success of an organization
by improving its workplace and increasing efficacy, performance, satisfaction and wellbeing of
its people it is also a major part of human resource management studies. By far it has the
following sub-disciplines.

Personnel recruitment and selection

Performance appraisal/management

Individual assessment and psychometrics

Remuneration and compensation

Training and training evaluation

Motivation in the workplace

Organizational culture

Group behaviour

Job satisfaction and commitment

Productive behaviour

Counterproductive work behaviour

Leadership

Organizational change/development (wikipedia)

Personnel psychology
It is an offshoot of industrial and organizational psychology and deals mainly with the
appointment and assessment of the employees, some of the other aspects it covers are group
satisfaction, determination, and development of a good relation between the management and
workers. But it chiefly concentrates on selection, fair assessment, and rewarding of employees.

Some of its fields are job analysis and definition and measurement of job performance,
performance appraisal, employment tests, employment interviews, employee selection and
employee training, and human factors. It emerged at the end of 19th century with a goal to study
and understand work behaviour. One of the most influential figure in this field is a German
Psychologist Hugo Munsterberg who was a student of Wilhelm Wundt and had also worked
with William James. He wrote a book in this field named, Psychology and Industrial Efficiency
in which he proposed experimental methods as a solution to business problems.
This report will cover some two of its basic factors involved in hiring employees and those are:1. Selection
2. Placement

Selection
As the success of an organization depends upon the output of its employees. They want to hire
the correct type of employee in the first place to avoid a chance of loss in the future.

What are employees?

The term "employee" denotes a specific andwell defined association of an individual with an
organization. Or simply a person who works under a contract of employment, whether oral or
written, and has accepted privileges and duties imposed under that contract is called an
employee. An employee contributes labour. The term labour latterly means a social group that
works for wage. It is one of the three main elements of production i.e. land, capital and labour
and is the combination of all human effort bothmental and physical used in the production
of goods and services. (the free dictionary) There are two main types of labour.
Skilled labour:It is any labour that has a specific skill or knowledge. A person belonging to the
skilled labour group might have attended a university or technical school or could have gained
those skill by experience.
Un-skilled labour: It is the part of labour related with a low skill level.A person belonging to
unskilled labour group has low education level.(Wikipedia)

Why does the industry hire employees?

Employees are needed to run an organization. As employees provide labour. The division of
labour is the basic needed in every organization as it is one of the three main elements of
production and there can be no production without labour or employees.To reach the goal of the
business organizations perform specific and main tasks and the employs perform the individual
tasks. The successful completion of the main task is directly dependent upon the performance

and success of the individual tasks. The performance and work of the employees directly suggest
that how well an organization is going to perform.
Hence organizations must be able to select the right type of labour to succeed in their goals.
Personnel psychology aids a lot in this aspect as employee selection is one of its primary part.
The main steps taken to select the right type of employee are

Job analysis

Job application

Tests

Interviews.

Job Analysis
Job analysis is the important part of successful employee selection efforts and performance
management initiatives. It involves the systematic collection about a job. Job-analytic methods
can be divided into two main approaches. One is the task-oriented job analysis. It is an
examination of the duties, tasks, and/or competencies required by a job. The second approach is
a worker-oriented job analysis which involves an examination of the knowledge, skills, abilities,
and other attributes required to successfully perform the work. These two approaches are not
mutually exclusive. Various job-analytic methods include competency modelling, which
examines large groups of duties and tasks related to a common goal or process, and practice
analysis, which examines the way work is performed in an occupation across jobs.
Job analytic data can be collected through both qualitative and quantitative methods. This data
then provides information about job-relevant selection procedures, performance appraisals or

training programs. Additional uses of job-analytic information include job evaluations for the
purpose of determining compensation levels and job redesign.
Establishing Fair and Effective
Hiring Practices
An employers selection practices try to identify and hire the most suitable applicants. Job
analysis information helps employers accomplish this goal by identifying selection criteria, such
as the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed to perform a job successfully. A
corporations managers and human resource (HR) professionals can then use this information to
create the appropriate selection devices (e.g., interview questions, tests). This approach to
selection is legally required.
Hence, when an employer faces discrimination charges, he must convince the court that the
companys selection criteria are job- related. To support this type of claim-relatedness, a firm
must demonstrate that the challenged selection practice was developed on the basis of job
analysis information.

Job application
A job application is something that a person seeking employment fills out that tells the
employers of his aptitude and persuading him that he is the best candidate for the job. It is filled
out on a paper using a pen or pencil but it is now becoming increasingly online. There are
questions in the job application that require a persons responses. A job application has the
signatures of the applicant which assure the employer that all the information is true. It also
contains all the information and contacts of the applicant, education and trainings and any
previous job experiences. It shows the employers what a person has done or can do. It should
contain such information that would encourage an employer to give the applicant an interview. It
is different from a resume because a resume is made by the applicant himself and the job
application is given to the applicant to be filled out by the employer

Interviews
To ask questions from a candidate of his real life experiences that will promote the factual
answers, and focus on future answers, and focus on the future competencies and abilities.
Interview is an art and technique to find a right person for every job. It is never a simple process
meaning that it is like to read a person how he or she respond in the field. Many candidates who
applied for some kind of a job, portrayed themselves as a superhero or a superstar, but didnt
coincide with the figure which they portrayed. To overcome that problem interviews are
designed to judge a person on the basis of their qualities, abilities and future competencies.
There are several kind of interview that are used to judge the different perspectives of a
candidates personality.
There are primarily there are three types of interviews:

Traditional interview

Situational interview

Brainteaser interview

Traditional interview:
These questions are like:
Do you prefer to work alone or in groups?
What kind of book do you read?

If you could invite the three persons living or dead, to lunch whom would you like to invite and
why?
If your life had a theme song, what would it be?
In this kind of interview format it is very easy to answer a question and candidate is very
comfortable with these kinds of questions. But in some cases the candidate may become
frustrated because they feel that their true strength is not coming through.
From an interviewers point of view these questions are so familiar with the answer with the
answer that they can almost recite them word by word with the candidate.
Situational interview:
The interview that contains the traditional questions like situational i.e. scenario, hypothetical
and what or if questions
These are also referred as a scenario based interviewing.
The scenario based questions are like
You and a co-worker are jointly working on a project. The two of you divided up work in a
manner you both agreed to; however your co-worker has not been doing the work she agreed to
do. What would you do?
How would you handle a situation where you had conflicting information with which to make a
decision?
How would you handle an employee who was not performing up to expectation?

There is an advantage of using this technique. A person can match the candidates answer
according to the set standard. This technique is also helpful in telling us that the candidate is well
aware of the process that should be used to address certain situations.
The disadvantage of using this technique is that people might not do what they say. Usually
candidate knows the right way to solve the problem but unfortunately suffers from the condition
of knowing the right path versus walking on it.
Brainteasers interview:
The technique which is used to demonstrate the candidates analytical thinking skills when
practical experiences is not available
This interview technique is usually used to hiring the candidate for the higher rank seats i.e.
manager, technical position etc.
This may include the questions like
Why are manhole covers round?
How would you weigh an airplane without using scale?
What does all the ice in the hockey ring weigh?
The main advantage of using this technique is that it provide the opportunity to gauge the
candidates reaction to the playfulness and innovation that can be inherent in brainteasers
questions. It is like a brain gymnastics and it provides an interviewer the chance to eavesdrop on
candidates thinking processes. It also tell the person that how technical is a person as well as it
highlights the rational and logical thinking problem solving and decision making skills and
facilities.

The brainteaser interview is like a TORTURE TOOL

Placement
After the employee has been selected and recruited, the confusion of placement arises. Placement
is basically related to the process of assigning and selecting the staff for filling up the vacancies
for the sake of serving in an organization. It a system of assigning a specific job to each
candidates being selected by the firm. It involves giving a particular rank and responsibility to an
individual. It implies contrasting the needs and requirements of a job with the qualifications of
the candidate. Correct placement is no way less important than the perfect and accurate selection.
Even a competent employee may be inefficient and may become dissatisfied with his
performance if out on a wrong job.
Correct placement helps to increase the efficiency and dissatisfaction of employees being hired.
It is proved by experience that placement of an employee on the right place results in
improvement and efficiency of morale and performance, reduces absenteeism and employeeturnover, leads to better use of machines, equipment and materials and keeps the employee
satisfied. While placing employees on job, the requirements of both the firm and the employee
should be taken into account.

A good and effective and worth practicing system of follow-up helps to avoid wrong placement.
That is, follow-up is a process in which the work of the employee is assessed at the regular and
frequent intervals and the performance is recorded in his service record.
Placements are important for employment agencies, especially executive search firms, a type of
Employment Company that is specially made for recruiting executive personal or companies in
different firms.
Placement is very significant in in the HR process because it improves employee morale,
supports in reducing employee turnover, reduces absenteeism, and reduces accident rates, as well
in avoiding a mismatch between the employee and the job. Usually the process starts after an
applicant is selected, the offer is made to him and it is accepted. Once the employee is selected
and placed on an appropriate job, the process of making him aware with the job ant the
organization is known as induction. This process of placement includes

Internship

Personality

Working environment

Decision making

Permanent job.

Temporary job for assessment

It is almost like an internship, the selected candidates get a chance to gain experience and get
tested at work in an office or a firm for a specified period of time. Normally an assessment job is
for periods from one week to three months. These are either part-time or full-time depending
upon the conditions. The selected candidates are placed in different environments to be assess in

which field and under what circumstances they perform best and also to know that they meet the
requirements of the employer. The personality and the effect of working environment are the key
factors determined in the assessment. If the candidate is not given any permanent position even
then the experience gained is valuable to the candidate as, it exposes them to the practical
application of their knowledge in the real work environments, and it can form part of their CV to
attract their future employers.
.Assessment of the effect of working environment
Working environment basically means the conditions and the environment in which an employee
has to work. It involves things such as: the organization of work and work activities; training,
capabilities and acceptability; health and safety; and working time. The salary is also an
important aspect of the working environment. A positive working environment is essential to
ensure the best output by an employee. When you hire a new employee he is not acquainted with
anyone else of the employees you already have so the first thing he needs would be a friendly
environment where he can work and feel at home. You would have to give him enough space in
which he can work comfortably. Establishing trust is another important goal when you hire new
members in your team. Not only the firm but the employees themselves need to do something to
make the environment positive and friendly. For example, each one of the employees must feel
valued and should have his right to question and suggest openly. He would have to stick with
every member the team already has. The employees must not involve their personal life in his
work. A comfortable environment is essential for fair assessment.

Permanent job
Those candidates who pass and fully satisfy the entire selection and placement criteria are then
offered a permanent place in the organization under a contract. It is this point at which the
employment procedure is completed and the candidate becomes an employee and a part of an
organization.

Summary
Selection and placement is a part of personnel psychology and personnel psychology is an
offshoot of industrial and organizational psychology. The main purpose or aim of personnel
psychology is the selection and assessment of the employees. As employees are the labour and
labour is one of the three basic elements of production. So no organization can succeed without
the proper employees. Hence an organization wants to hire the correct type of employee in the
first place to avoid any failure and to successfully meet its goals. Personnel psychology has the
branch of selection and placement to meet this specific need of the organizations.