What are Industrial-Organizational psychologists?

Good question Calvin! You might find them as part of the Human Resources Dept of a large company involved in Coaching, Leadership and talent selection Maybe training and counseling or Strategic Advisors in the development of policies and procedures that focus on employment issues, employee morale issues, career enhancement issues. Some may be involved at a senior leadership level contributing a perspective on future employee and employment issues having to do with age, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, equal pay, future hiring, talent needs and family leave. Organizational Psychology would suggest playing a larger role in the overall employee well being and working on a structural level rather then doing work with one on one work with individuals, Executive coaching, employee coaching, initial talent selection, hiring and talent promotions are additional roles they might be involved in. Many will find themselves working for Consulting firms that offer Organizational Development services that assist in restructuring or change in companies that are experiencing problems or looking to reignite a a company gone stale. Some day to day activities might be teaching classes, counseling or coaching individuals, interviewing and testing new hires, attending meetings, leading meeting and reviewing candidates for promotion, firing and discipline issues.

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The two previous responses are good ones, Calvin. I would expand upon the testing "angle." That is, the creation of customized, assessment devices/programs for the selection and promotion of employees in various occupational groups. That is what I did for the better part of 25 years, working for either a local government (City of Philadelphia) or state government personnel office (State of NJ). In order to create valid assessment devices, one must first conduct a job analysis which may involve interviewing of persons currently holding a job, e.g., police officers, observing incumbents performing their jobs, and the dissemination of surveys for the purpose of identifying the critical knowledge, skills, abilities and personal characteristics to be successful in a particular occupation. So, in this role I was working with people and working with numbers (analyzing the data from the interviews and surveys and observations). I loved doing this type of work, especially when I was training new HR employees on how to perform a job analysis and write simulations for selecting employees (and then analyzing the results in order to validate the assessment device). Personnel selection is but one of the many areas in which an I-O psychologist can work.

Good luck.

Hi Calvin!

You asked a very important question!
Here are some sites that will give you much information regarding this very interesting and important field.
http://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/industrial.aspx
https://www.siop.org/
http://careersinpsychology.org/becoming-an-industrial-or-organizational-psychologist/