INDEX NO: 10226160 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INDUSTRIAL / ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.

Whenever I answer the question of what course am pursuing for my masters, I am asked questions like what is industrial and organizational psychology (I/O psychology). I find myself usually saying it is like human resource management (HRM) and yet not like HRM. Funny as it may sound there seems to be a little truth in this answer.

To answer this question, we need to know what I/O psychology and HRM are. Aamodt (2007) says Industrial/organizational psychology is a branch of psychology that applies the principles of psychology to the workplace. Jex (2002) goes further to define Industrial/Organizational psychology is a field that utilizes scientific methodology to better understand the behavior of individuals in organizational settings. This knowledge is also applied, in a variety of ways, to help organizations function more effectively. HRM is also defined by Beer, Lawrence, Quinn Mills & Walton (1984) as involving all management decisions and actions that affect the nature of the relationship between the organization and its employees - its human resources. General management makes important decisions daily that affect this relationship.

Although there are quite a few overlapping areas between Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management (HRM), there are fundamental differences between the two. From the definition, it goes without saying that the first and most obvious distinction between the two is the application of science in the methodology of I/O psychology as against that of HRM. The knowledge foundation and work of psychologists is heavily based on science. It is built upon the scientist-practitioner model, which emphasizes on both research and practical skills and stipulates that practice must be supported by scientific evidence; all work has to be backed up by empirical data and statistics. In

contrast, HRM is essentially a business study, which emphasizes more on the practical side, with less focus on the scientific side. I/O Psychologists focus more on the design and development of procedures, tools and principles while HR professionals work more on the operational level, such as implementation of selection systems and applying training principles in real training scenarios. Sally Carless and colleagues pointed out that although there are important advancements in HR-related research, the everyday HR practice have benefited from it to a minimum level. They found that this is due to the lack of knowledge among HR professionals, especially when the training of the HR professionals emphasizes on general skill and knowledge at the expense of science. Having closely related working areas, the I/O psychologist work is actually complementary to each other. Without Organizational Psychologists in the design and development work of various HR processes and tools, the HR professional would not be enjoying these scientific and highly effective products.

Also, another obvious distinction will be in the mode through which the overlapping principles that both professions share are applied. The application of psychological principles is what best distinguishes I/O psychology from HRM. The topics covered during the course programs of both fields are usually very similar, such courses include, selection, training, career development and performance management, but work here is done on different levels and under different perspectives. The difference usually lies in the techniques and the motives behind the application of these various overlapping areas. During selection for example, many HRM texts advocate the unstructured interview as an excellent solution for selecting the best employees. I/O psychologists, however, consider unstructured interviews to be of less value than more suitable alternatives such as psychological tests, behavioral interviews, work samples, biodata, and assessment centers (Berry, 2003). Training in I/O psychology when applied to the organization is applied with principles of learning. This learning principle, indicates how people learn and how people learn the best. In designing and delivering training courses, scientific human learning theories and training principles are followed, but not just by gut feelings or experience only as the HRMs do but

rather by applying factors like, transfer of learning, specific needs of the organization and maintenance of learning after training.

Again, I/O psychology is usually very concerned with organizational behaviour, the main objective here is to obtain a balance between management and staff, aiming to attain optimum satisfaction between the two parties while working together. HRM however, is more concerned with the management and their optimum goal is increasing the satisfaction of management and less concerned with the individuals in an organization. They deal with the broader aspects of running an organization such as marketing channels, transportation networks, and cost accounting (Kimbrough, Durley, & Munoz, 2005).

HR professionals are our partners in projects where we provide them with the technical skills and knowledge while they take care of the operational part. Furthermore, HR professionals are experts of their company; therefore we work side by side during consulting jobs where we need them to assist us with internal matters as well as providing us with an insider view. Besides the above mentioned supplieruser relationship, HR professionals are also partners, advisors and sometimes suppliers for Organizational Psychologists by providing valuable data and participants for us to carry out scientific studies (e.g. validation of assessment tools). Therefore to conclude, all in all, I/O psychologist and HRMs are inter-dependent parties with entwined relationships rather than independent parties or competitors.

REFERENCES Aamodt, M. G. (2007). Industrial/Organizational Psychology: An Applied Approach (5th edition). Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.

Beer, M., Spector, B., Lawrence, P. R., Mills, D.Q., Walton, R. E. (1984). A Conceptual View of HRM. in Managing Human Assets. Free Press, New York Chap.2

Berry, L. M. (2003). Employee selection. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Carless, S., & Taylor, P. (2006). Australian Psychologist: Industrial and Organisational Psychology Training in Australia and New Zealand. Vol, 14(2), 120-129.

Jex, S. M. (2002). Organizational psychology: A scientist-practitioner approach. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Kimbrough, A., Durley, J., & Munoz, C. (2005). TIP-TOPics for students. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 42(3), 107114.