Defining organizational psychology
Organizational psychology refers to the scientific study of organizations, workplaces, and employees ( Jex & Britt, 2008). The success of an organization is improved when the well-being of the people operating inside organizations is improved. It is therefore the responsibility of an organizational psychologist to research and identifies how the attitudes and behaviors of people within an organization can be improved. They do this by ensuring that the training programs, hiring practices and feedback systems are in line with the expectations of the people within an organization. They do this to increase the productivity of an organization. They ensure that employees are selected based on the jobs that they perform best. In many organizations, psychologists work directly with the human resources department to give valuable input on who is best suited to occupy a certain position and what skills different people can bring to the organization.
Role of research and statistics in organizational psychology
Research and statistics play a very essential role in organizational psychology research. There are very many tools and means for accumulating and determining statistics in organizational psychology. These tools provide a means through which the information and answers to the questions that organizational psychologists pose can be answered. When collecting data, researchers must be aware of the issues that can influence their research. For example, generalizing information across different organizations often leads to mistakes in research. Therefore research methods vary and should suit the question at hand.
Various research methods exist in organizational psychology. For example, archival data is a method of organizational psychology research ( Ganly, 2010). It represents data that is compiled for purposes other than the purpose for which the research is being conducted. Survey methods are also common types of organizational psychology research and they go along with observational studies. This form of research is very helpful while it comes to helping researchers determine information about the employees in an organization.
Statistics also play an essential role in organizational psychology in that it helps researchers to determine the variables that they can base their data analysis on and also provides a means for measuring the information gathered. Descriptive statistics is one form of statistics adopted in organizational psychology. It is used to measure the central tendencies and dispersion by using the mean of the information ( Ganly, 2010). Meta-analysis on the other hand is the most popular in organizational psychology. It involves a quantitative summary of the research findings. It is mostly used in analyzing research domains where several studies have been conducted. Though statistics play an essential role in organizational psychology, there are issues in statistics that normally need consideration. Statistical power is one of them. This is used to reflect the strength of statistical information based on certain influential factors such as sampling size and effect size ( Jex & Britt, 2008).
Because of the influence that research and statistics have on organizational psychology, the data and conclusions obtained need to be used carefully to give valid results that would reflect the real influence of organizational psychology in organizations. Research and statistics are used to determine and analyze data and they, therefore, increase the effectiveness and success of an organization when they are used appropriately and accurately.
How organizational psychology can be used in organizations
Organizational psychology plays a very essential role in influencing how an organization operates. Many organizations, therefore, have psychologists whose role is to ensure that all the processes within the organization are streamlined by ensuring that the employees selected are capable of performing the tasks assigned, the employee training process is professional, and how employees relate with each other and with the management is improved as well ( Aamodt, 2009).
Before hiring new employees, an organization must be sure that the employees being selected can perform the tasks that are thoroughly assigned to them. However, it is not always possible for the human resources team to know which candidate to hire. This is where psychologists come in. They can evaluate the skills of the employees and their psychological backgrounds. They are therefore able to assist the human resources team to select the employees who have the greatest potential ( Aylsworth, 2009).
Organizations are always looking for ways through which they can optimize the productivity of the employees. One of the means they can achieve this is by adopting new technology. The psychologists, therefore, come in and evaluate how employees handle the new means of production. Organizational psychology, therefore, helps employees to handle any challenge that can be posed by the new means of production since psychologists are always there to interact with the employees and know what challenges are facing them.
Organizational psychology also involves interacting with the employees. In this context, the employees may not have the adequate skills required to work in an organization. When the culture of organizational psychology is implemented in an organization, it becomes easy for the employees to interact with other employees, the management, or even the psychologist such that they can acquire the right skills to become productive inside the organization. This develops competencies among employees such that their productivity to the organization they work in increases.
References
Aamodt, M. G. (2009). Industrial/Organizational Psychology: An Applied Approach. New York: Cengage Learning.
Aylsworth, J. (2009). How organizational psychology can be used at work. Web.
Ganly, S. (2010). The roles of research and statistics in organizational psychology. Web.
Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2008). Organizational psychology: a scientist-practitioner approach. New York: John Wiley & Sons.