Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Field applying psychology to work: selection, motivation, leadership, and the design of jobs and organizations.
Specifications & Metrics
- focus
- Personnel selection, performance measurement, motivation, teams, and organizational change
- pioneer
- Hugo Münsterberg (Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, 1913)
- method
- Validity studies of selection procedures, employee surveys, field experiments in organizations
Core Principles & Analysis
- Hugo Münsterberg's 1913 Psychology and Industrial Efficiency launched the applied study of work behavior.
- Structured interviews and cognitive-ability tests are among the strongest validated predictors of job performance.
- The field grew alongside the Hawthorne studies, whose human-relations reading reshaped management thought.
Sources