Organizational Psychology Paper

Organizational Psychology Today’s marketplace is full of challenges. Virtually everyday companies are closing their doors because they were unable to compete with the ever-changing demands of their consumers and the business world itself. More and more, companies are battling external winds of change and competition to remain relevant and profitable to their stakeholders sometimes almost blindly. The advent of the information age has left businesses vulnerable to unscrupulous bloggers and other companies who seek to gain an advantage by any means necessary. Yet, while all these external demons can cause the downfall of even the most giant of companies there is a much greater threat that can lead to corporate ruin – organizational ineffectiveness.

Over the last two decades, more focus has been directed to improve the workplace. Companies are becoming more privy to the impact that having the right people and the right behaviors in the workplace has on the success of the organization. This is where the field of organizational psychology comes into play. Although organizational psychology is more commonly associated with industrial/organizational psychology, this scientific method has become more prevalent due to the changing landscape of the workforce among other trends.

What is organizational psychology?

According to Jex and Britt (2008), organizational psychology is “the scientific study of individual and group behavior in formal organizational settings.” However, Guion (1965) gave a much broader definition stating organizational psychology was “the scientific study of the relationship between man and the world of work: The adjustment people make to the places they go, the people they meet, and the things they do in the process of making a living.” For the most part, organizational psychology is directed towards helping understand and improve individual

References: Guion, R. M. (1965). In Industrial psychology as an academic discipline (pp. 815-821). American Psychologist. Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2008). Introduction to Organizational Psychology. In S. M. Jex, & T. W. Britt, Organizational Psychology: A Scientific-Pratictioner Approach (pp. 1-20). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.