OEHS 6830 - Topics in Industrial and Organizational Psychology

OEHS 6840 will introduce you to the subdiscipline of industrial/organizational psychology, which is psychological science applied to the workplace. I-O psychologists “help develop strategies that build better organizations” and “contribute to an organization’s success by improving the performance and well-being of its people” (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, n.d.). I-O psychology is divided into a number of content areas. This course provides an overview of industrial (personnel) psychology with a focus on the major topics that include methodology, employee selection, performance appraisal, organizational attitudes and behavior, motivation, and leadership. Organizational psychology will focus on the application of psychological principles to group and organizational levels of analysis, with emphasis on work teams and business organizations and topics that include group dynamics, teams and empowerment, organizational culture and diversity, and organization development and change. All the while, we will work within the context of the scientist-practitioner model; that is, our discussions will be centered on content that is both grounded in scientific inquiry and practically relevant to organizational processes.