Custom «Industrial/Organization Psychology» Essay Paper Sample

Industrial and organizational psychology is a method of incorporation of psychological practices and principles in work places in an effort to solve its problems. Psychology's main concern is to solve problems that affect human performance in the work place or those that arise due to human performance. according to Lichtman (2010) Industrial and organizational psychology deals with cases relating to; proper techniques of employee recruitment and selection, training of newly hired employees, employee motivation and productive leadership strategies, studies related to worker and organizational behavior and management interactions, guiding and advising management on the impacts of their policies on employees both socially and psychologically among others. This process is usually handled by trained industrial and organizational psychologists who use their knowledge on human capabilities, motivation and the way they perceive work and learning new tasks to help them improve and guide employees towards achieving organizational goals (Fontaine, 2010).

Arousing Hanisch, (2008) Organizations employ industrial and organizational psychology in the selection of new employees or most commonly referred to as the hiring process. Employers put their candidates through a very detailed process of evaluation before hiring them. The first step in the hiring process is known as job analysis. Job analysis basically involves the identification of elements that are vital in a job. it involves analysis of tasks in a job, the qualifications needed and the general conditions within which a job is done. Job analysis is mainly done through interviews, questionnaire completion or the general observation of candidates. This process performs other tasks other than selection including human resource training and planning. The selection process also involves candidate testing. Applicants are assessed to measure their abilities and skills using sample questions and a replica of tasks they will be requires performing in their jobs. Testing assists employers to choose employees that would perform better and add most value to their organizations. Organizations prefer to use employee interview tests because they posses a personal touch and immediate response is obtained. Employers have the responsibility to abide to legal issues such as laws that protect candidates against discrimination in the hiring process. The law requires them to give each candidate an equal chance and opportunity to avoid litigation. According to Haniche (2008) organizations also go through recruitment processes in order to select favourable candidates to fill certain positions. Employers might opt to select people within their organization to fill certain positions or advertise the vacancy for to get candidates who are not from within the organization. There is a growing trend within employers to use social networking sites to find candidates as it gives them an opportunity to learn more about them. Employers finally need to make the decision whether or not to employ candidates. Candidates are selected after going through various test processes to get those most suited for the job.

Training is another sector that organizations employ industrial and organizational psychology. Newly hired employees are generally not well versed with the tasks they need to perform in their new job. Job analysis techniques are used in this sector in order to create a training program that is most effective (Litchman, 2010). Training programs usually use evaluation methods such as formative and summative evaluations. Formative evaluation is a process done by psychologists to discover and correct problems facing recruits during the training program. Summative evaluation is a process done at the end of the training program to assess the effectiveness of the training program and its achievements. Evaluation processes ensure that trainees understand the organization's objectives and the performance standards required of them as employees.

Organizational socialization is an important component of ensuring the success of businesses. New employees need to be socialized with the already existing ones for the smooth running of any organization (Hanisch, 2008). Organizational socialization allows new employees to get absorbed into the organization and lets them learn the culture of their work place. it involves learning the operations of an organization through management instructions, colleagues and documents about the company such as handbooks. Companies in the recent years have engaged electronic communication as a means of socializing their worker, this done basically through the internet. Coworkers also play an integral role in socialization of new worker. Mentoring which involves pairing of long term workers with new employees has been seen means that allow recruits to adapt faster to their jobs and also makes them more successful. Managers need to make sure that their new employees get to learn their organization's culture as fast as possible to enable them work towards common goals. Learning an organizations culture helps improve the relationship between workers as well as employers as both parties behave and work in a manner that is in line with norms of the organization. Encouraging the formation of work groups an organization promotes its culture socialization and teamwork among employees.

Industrial and organizational psychology plays a major role in the identification of leaders among workers. Employees' personality traits have been used over the years to determine if one is capable of leading others and the organization as a whole to success. Great leaders should be honest in both their speech and when performing duties assigned to them, self confident and self motivated towards achieving beyond what is expected of them.

Companies that have employed proper industrial and organizational psychology in running of their activities record higher success rates compared to others that don't. Most managers are looking towards incorporation of skilled psychologists to help them attain both economic success and establishment of an enticing working environment for their employees. Google which in 2007 was rated as the best company to work for by Fortune magazine owes its tremendous success to efficient industrial and organizational psychology management.