Organizational Psychology
Organizational psychology is defined as the study of humans in the work environment. Because work is a major factor in the lives of most individuals, the study of human interaction in the workplace becomes vital to individual success. Without work individuals are not able to achieve their goals, provide for our families, or attain the basic necessities needed to survive. Individuals also spend much more time in the work environment than they do at home or in any other place (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010) Organizational psychologists study the behaviors of people at work and the organization as a whole. The goal is to increase workplace productivity by focusing on the mental and physical well being of the employees. It is critical to study organizations and the impact they have on their employees since the employees must learn to work as a cohesive group in order to achieve the corporation’s objectives. Employees today must learn to share thoughts, ideas, knowledge, and information in sometimes stressful situations. Organizational psychology helps corporations define the needs of the organization and its employees and helps them mesh to ensure that the expectations and need of everyone involved are met.
Organizational psychology dates back as far as the early 1900’s when Frederick W. Taylor began writing books about redesigning the work situation through use of time and motion which would ultimately achieve both higher outputs for the company and higher wages for the worker (McCarthy, 2002). It was after WWI when the idea of improving the workplace became more popular. There were various studies done that all failed because they were focusing either strictly on the job or just the person, but not meshing the two. During the human relations movement is when organizational psychology became popular. This focused more on keeping people happy through motivation and job satisfaction. This also
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