Industrial Psychology

Essentially, Industrial Psychologists study the behavior of employees in a work setting. Although industrial psychology didn't begin until the 1920's, the discipline has evolved rapidly and revolutionized the workplace within the last century. Because the workplace is a social system, the application of industrial psychology is useful in understanding its complexity.

For years, psychologists have studied how human beings have interacted with their environments and each other, but industrial psychology begins to evaluate the interaction between people and their jobs. Industrial psychologists can be used to improve job satisfaction as well as company productivity and is becoming vital to the success of many organizations.

There are certain things that industrial psychologists focus on when evaluating the relationship a person has with their work. They analyze the way a person works, their skills, duties, obligations, and general satisfaction with their job on a day-to-day basis. This information is extremely helpful to human resources departments and company overseers who must create training programs, feedback and rewards systems, and make hiring decisions as well as engage in recruitment practices. Most companies use industrial psychologists to train their own staff so that the organizations can run smoothly and at peak capacity.