Organizational Psychology

Introduction

Organizational psychology is an uncommon branch of psychology that involves working with an organization to achieve human-resource-related objectives. Some of these objectives include improvement of the well-being of an organization’s workforce, improvement of relationships and processes, raising the performance of the organization’s employees, enhancing equity and fairness, etc. Thus, if one wants to help businesses, organizations, and even individuals, it is vital to consider pursuing organizational psychology. The role played by organizational psychologists is therefore incredibly important (“Helping Psychology”, 2009, p. 1). This paper defines organizational psychology, explains the role of research and statistics in organizational psychology, and gives a detailed description of how organizational psychology can be used in organizations.

Role of research and statistics in organizational psychology

Research and statistics are vital in conducting organizational psychology research. Research tools and means of coming up with organizational psychology statistics have already been established and they are normally used during organizational psychology research. One of the statistical principles that are applied in organizational psychology is data integrity. The collection of data should be done with several issues in mind that can affect the credibility of the research. For instance, it is crucial to put in mind that no two organizations are replicas and thus generalizing information in two or more organizations is erroneous. It is also important to note the fact that there are a variety of research methods and that the appropriateness of each of these depends on the situation at hand. Organizational psychologists should thus ensure that they choose the research method that best suits their questions. Some of the most popular methods used in organizational-psychology research include archival data, survey methods, and observational studies. Archival data refers to the use of data collected for unrelated studies while survey methods are applied to the target groups in the organization. Observational studies are also conducted on the individual groups in the organization although the groups do not participate actively in the studies unlike in survey methods where the groups are actively involved (Ganly, 2010, p. 1).

With statistics, researchers can come up with the parts of organizational research. The statistics also provide a means of coming up with variables, which are very crucial during data analysis. Descriptive statistics use measures of central tendencies while meta-analysis, a recently popular method of data analysis in organizational psychology analyses the data by making a quantitative summary of the data. It is thus clear that statistics and research play a major role in practicing organizational psychology (Ganly, 2010, p. 1).

How organizational psychology can be used in organizations

The main role of an organizational psychologist is to come up with the profile of a person who is bound to exceed in a certain job description. This comes in handy during the recruitment process because the organization’s recruitment team will already have the person they want in mind even before the recruitment starts. Potential candidates for the job are therefore evaluated based on the profile that is already developed by the organizational psychologist. The psychologist must form part of the panel because he/she may need to use a variety of psychological evaluation methods to determine the goodness of fit of a certain candidate to the job description (Crosby, 2011, p. 1).

Organizational psychologists also focus their attention on settings where people work in groups. These settings are mostly offices and in factories where people work in groups to streamline a certain process. Psychologists use research, communication strategies, existing theories, and other interventions to make groups in work and non-work settings better. They, therefore, help people in individual groups to understand each other better, which in turn makes the group able to work in unity towards the accomplishment of common goals (Crosby, 2011, p. 1). Organizational psychologists do not always work with groups and thus they are sometimes required to address the needs of individuals within the organization. One of the ways through which they achieve their objective of a better organizational workforce is by holding coaching sessions, conducting training, and even by leadership development. Another way through which they achieve their objective is by persuasion. Organizational psychologists are normally equipped with influence and motivation skills that can help to build team spirit and motivate employees through delivering a speech. Their skills are therefore helpful in conflict resolution meetings, end-of-year parties, and other events (Crosby, 2011, p. 1).

Conclusion

As evidenced in the discussion above, organizational psychologists are crucial in ensuring that organizations achieve their objectives. By doing this, they also help individuals in the organization achieve their objectives since organizational success will automatically translate to success for the stakeholders of the organization. It has been shown that research helps organizational psychologists to come up with reliable information on which to base their decisions, while statistics help to analyze this data to come up with usable information for decision making. Each organization with numerous workers should thus consider having an organizational psychologist.

Reference List

Crosby, D. (2011). Men in Black: Revealing Organizational Psychology Secrets.

Monster Thinking. Web.

Ganly, S. (2010). The Roles of Research and Statistics in Organizational Psychology.

Yahoo Voices. Web.

Helping Psychology. (2009). What is Organizational Psychology? Helping Psychology. Web.