Organizational Psychology Data

What Is Organizational Psychology?

Organizational psychology is the study of workplace behavior and employee satisfaction. It has many other names, as well: industrial and organizational psychology, I/O psychology, and occupational psychology, and more.

Where Does Organizational Psychology Come From?

This data comes from field and lab research as well as self-reported data, as from surveys. Companies also hire specialists to train or coach employees and these specialists collect internal organizational data for the company.

What Types of Columns/Attributes Should I Expect When Working with This Data?

The first aspect of organizational psychology data encompasses all official, peer-reviewed, and published studies. These consist of information on personality types, career aptitudes, group theory, and industry-specific attitudes.

The second aspect of this data category consists of internal company data generated when a trained IO professional or researcher enters a workplace to manage, coach, or study workplaces and employees.

What Is This Data Used For?

As noted above, researchers, HR teams, and other professionals use this data to manage, coach, or study workplaces as a whole and employees individually. At the most fundamental level, organizational psychologists work to improve workplace dynamics, ensuring all employees work together smoothly and safely, for the improvement of the department or company as a whole and for the advancement of individual careers.

How Should I Test the Quality of Organizational Psychology Data?

While collecting IO data from published sources ensures the quality of the data, working within a company presents challenges unique to that organization. However, since this is an applied field, you will see measurable results of the data, usually within weeks. Thus, in order to make a decision about which organizational psychology data provider to work with, you need simply to look at their previous successes.

Interesting Case Studies and Blogs to Look Into

SIOP: Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
The British Psychological Society: Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology Articles

Tangible Examples of Impact

A century ago, Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management laid the foundations for modern HR. His central premise was that organizations should turn their workplaces into real-world psychology labs, measuring and monitoring employees’ every move in order to boost their performance and reduce their stress levels. The paradigm was revolutionary, and led famous industrialists like Henry Ford to unprecedented innovations in human engineering, with the creation of the seminal assembly line, and a science-infused formula for optimizing roles, tasks, and job design to enhance employee productivity. Big companies, such as the Ford Motor Company, became a testing ground for applied psychology, and evidence-based HR was born.

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