From then to now: The development of industrial-organizational psychology in the United States.

Abstract

This article reviews the development of industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology in the United States since its beginnings at about the turn of the century. The history is divided into periods, within which are described topics, roles, and forces, with the goal of explaining as well as describing developments. Among the conclusions are that I-O psychology is a dynamic field that has been making contributions both to the science of behavior and to industrial society and that those contributions have been underestimated by some and possibly overestimated by others. Among the problems still facing the field is the disjunction between science and practice. However, in principle, that and other bipolarities can be made complementary.

To prosper, organizational psychology should… expand the values of organizational psychology to match the quality of its ethics

“…Or, as expressed recently in TIP: ''Good Science-Good Practice'' (Madigan & Dickson, 2007 The S-P model in organizational psychology is regularly the object of a fair amount of concern and/ or criticism (e.g., Hays-Thomas, 2006;Rupp & Beal, 2007). Those critiques, however, usually entail complaints such as the model fails to articulate the nature of the relationship between the two components, or it fails to effectively guide graduate training in that professional practice issues are given short shrift (Katzell & Austin, 1992). The issues that concern me are rather different.…”

Organizational psychology: a look backward, outward, and forward

“…It basically sprang from its parent field, ''industrial psychology.'' Industrial psychology had its origins in the first decades of the 20 th century and grew as a definite domain of inquiry through the end of World War II (Katzell & Austin, 1992). Up to that time, the adjective ''organizational'' was seldom-if ever-used in describing the existing field.…”

“…Thus, by the following decade of the 1960s, the proportion of research being carried out by industrial psychologists on organizational-type topics was increasing relative to the more traditional, but still prominent, personnel selection and other individual-focused topics. Furthermore, the nature of the overall U.S. economy and the types of companies that composed it, were also changing rapidly (for an overview of the field's history, see Katzell & Austin, 1992).…”

On the Interface Between Operations and Human Resources Management

“…A great deal of the variance in behavioral and HRM studies is unexplained, even when effects are statistically significant. Typical HRM criteria reflect broad individual behaviors, performance ratings, or high-level outcomes such as manufacturing or service output or sales (Katzell andAustin 1992, Spector 2000). Incorporating OM principles would produce more precise and granular criteria and perhaps enhance the predictive power of such research.…”