Personnel Psychology: I.O. Psychologist's Role in Workplace Growth

This assignment delves into the multifaceted role of Industrial and Organizational (I/O) psychologists within organizations. It examines how I/O psychologists address critical factors like diversity, bullying/harassment, work-life balance, talent management, workplace culture/climate, and performance management to facilitate growth and change. The paper explores each factor, providing definitions, relevance to the I/O psychologist's work, and research examples. It emphasizes the importance of I/O psychologists in creating positive organizational climates, providing leadership training, and promoting professional development. The assignment highlights the challenges of a diverse workforce, the impact of workplace mistreatment, the significance of work-life balance, and the need for effective talent management strategies. The paper also discusses the role of I/O psychologists in developing and implementing interventions to improve workplace dynamics and organizational outcomes, using peer-reviewed literature to support its arguments.

PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY
Personnel psychology involves all aspects of working with human capital within an organization
including creation of organizational climate, leadership training, professional development,
assessments and testing in the workplace, etc. How do the following factors relate to the work of
an I.O. Psychologist, and how does the I.O. Psychologist address each of the issues in order to
positively facilitate growth and change within an organization? Cite at least one research
example for each factor.
a) Diversity
b) Bullying/harassment
c) Work/ Life balance
d) Talent management
e) Workplace culture/climate
f) Performance management
PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY/ I.O. PSYCHOLOGY
Introduction
Industrial and organizational (I/O) psychologists play an increasingly important role in all
types of organizations. They are well versed with every aspect of operations to identify potential
problems and find correct solution. Their job role ranges from inducing a minor workplace
changes to a broad structural shifts to increase the efficiency. They work by focusing on the
development of the principles of individual, group and organizational, and applying this to the
solution of problems at work (Kitayama, 2017). This paper will research the work of an I.O.
Psychologist at the workplace and look into factors that challenge their work profile (Rosenberg,
2017). An I.O. Psychologist address challenges and positively facilitate growth and change
within an organization for its success.
Work Role of I/O Psychologists

I.O. Psychologist work on designing, execution, and interpretation of human psychology.
They work by applying their findings to address human and organizational problems in the
context to improve the work condition (Gibson, Payne, Morgan, & Allen, 2018). The frame
work of I.O psychologist can be divided into development of training program for employees;
Recruit and select talent for organization; design and enhance work quality life for employees;
they evaluate the effectiveness; general coach to employees; developing criteria to evaluate
organizational performance; and to assess customer preferences, consumer satisfaction, and
market strategies (Oswald, Behrend, Putka, & Sinar, 2020).
The role of an I.O psychologist is to work for positive organizational climate, giving
leadership training, over all professional development, finally testing the model in the work place
A company is made up of a diversified crowd that may be difficult to handle. These diversified
crowds work together in teams that put the efficiency of the organization at stake. Work-life
balance, talent management, harassment, and work climate is a part of a normal workplace
(Chan, 2018). A workplace should have a balanced work environment for everyone. To study the
impact of the I.O psychologist on the working of the employees, employer and themselves we
shall review some peer-reviewed papers on influencing factors of the workplace.
Factor and Element to support the study
Office Diversity
The continuous immigration from one country to another specially in the ethnic
minorities group has led to an increase in varied work force specially, in U.S, UK and UAE
(Chrobot-Mason, Ruderman, & Nishii, 2014). In addition, according to the experts, the
demography of work place will see an increase in women employee and disabled employees

participants (Chrobot-Mason, Ruderman, & Nishii, 2014). Diversity is based on characteristic
likes are gender, race, ethnic background, and country. Other factors that influence diversity are
personality, education, organizational tenure, and socioeconomic background to name some
(Chan, 2018).
Landy and Conte (2016) proves that diverse groups bring a variety of talent together. A
diverse group has a broader base to approach critical problems; they can produce a vast variety
of solutions for the same problem. This helps in a quality decision making and a better critical
analysis of the any solution. Diversity is essential as it improves the cognitive and informational
standards of employees (Lyons, & Kuron, 2014). Many researches strongly support that people
of the same race, ethnicity, or demography increase interpersonal attraction and liking to work
together in a team. Whereas a diversified team does less social integration, employees are less
attracted to each other, they may be not very comfortable and satisfied with the group. These
cases are becoming very normal at the workplace creating a lower efficiency (Lyons, & Kuron,
2014). According to Singh and Gupta (2015), diversity has become a global agenda of the
professional system where workers are taking up assignments outside their own country.
Organizations are making new rules and laws to deal with diversity related disputes. An I/O
psychologist works in coordination with the management and tries to minimize the culture
differentiation between expatriate employees (Sabharwal, 2014). For Example, In a work place
cultural diversity may play an important role, but culture is ethnocentric; it means that everyone
will use their own culture as a standard for judging other cultures. So when it comes to judge
their co-worker they definitely measure the differences in their culture with the other one. This
can create a biased environment.

The task of the I.O Psychologist is to work in the hiring process along with manager and
HR. They try to understand the different hiring process and tries to fit the best for any
organization. They make a proper list of questionnaire that defines the job role, work culture and
diversity that are in the work place (Sabharwal, 2014). They have experience to hire candidates
based on diversity and specializes in selection of right candidates. This kind of hiring will
definitely minimize the conflict at work place and guides each of them to work towards the
growth of the organization. Ultimately they have to meet the diversity goal of the organization. It
is their work to develop an accessible workspace that has impact on the overall efficiency of the
environment. For this they are given access to resources, equipment and information, for making
the required change (Downey, van der Werff, Thomas, & Plaut, 2015). Thus, they are
considered an important part of hiring, development and training process.
Bullying / Harassment
Workplace mistreatment is an interpersonal situation involving two-party one initiates
counters normative negative actions or stopping normative positive actions toward another
member. Workplace mistreatment can be of several types like rudeness, incivility, aggression,
bullying to physical aggression (Hodgins, MacCurtain, & Mannix-McNamara, 2014).
Mistreatment is intentionally harming the target and violating the mutual respect at the
workplace. Workplace aggression can be nonphysical behavior or physical behavior that harms
employees' emotions. Bullying is a situation where the target gets abused and faces offensive
acts repeatedly (McDaniel, Ngala, & Leonard, 2015). The intensity of these types of
mistreatment may differ incivility being the lowest intensity, nonphysical aggression, bullying
comes in between incivility and physical aggression has the highest intensity.

According to U.S. national survey findings 41% of employee’s annually experience
nonphysical aggression, whereas 6% of the employees have been physically attacked at the
workplace. As much as 15% of the employees face bullying at the workplace in Europe and
North America (Hughes, & Durand, 2014). The consequences of bullying and harassment are
directly seen in employees and their decreased interest in work. They develop stress and health
problems affecting their performance and quality of service, overall indirectly affecting the
company’s outcome and performance. The task of an I/O psychologist becomes very crucial in
these circumstances. They must see if the employees are following the application of
psychological principles (Leo, Reid, Geldenhuys, & Gobind, 2014). They develop a scientific
approach, after a qualitative observation and quantitative measurement of the intensity of the
problem. I.O Psychologists works on the multilevel model, they understand the factors that
influence the individual behavior and attitudes, team motivation and work efficiency decrease
factors.
I.O Psychologists research the situation and implement effective methods to improve the
dysfunctional behavior. Yang et al.,(2014) proves that policy in the company can also be
challenged to bring order to the particular department or team. For example, an intervention
study shows evidence that improved civility climate among the intervention group reduced re-
occurrences incivility, improving performance and job satisfaction (Leo, Reid, Geldenhuys, &
Gobind, 2014). I/O psychology who are responsible for all potential stakeholders and increased
organizational commitment and reduced stress.. They are more focused on the cost-benefit
approach and the efficiency of the operation. The top management considers employees as
important only to an extent only to fulfilling the goals of the company. The policies are

reconstructed for the cost and benefit of the organization ultimately benefiting the organization
rather than individuals.
Work/ Life balance
According to Russo, Shteigman, and Carmeli, (2016) work-life balance is as important as
any other work factor. A balanced work-life in employees contributes to better performance. A
concept of organizational schizophrenia has developed in the recent generation. It is a condition
in which the employee tries to oppose the needs of the job requirement to have a personal life
when the company wants them to work on a constant basis. As the world has moved into a
completely competitive era the demand to invest more work hours is very authentic demand from
the side of the employer (Michel, Bosch, & Rexroth, 2014). This interference has resulted in
workload, depressive mood, and health complaints. It negatively affects the relationship between
the employee and the employer. The employee starts to see their work as a burden which impacts
their efficiency. The non-working hours are especially for their personal life where they can
develop themselves. An employee needs emotional work demand, work-home balance, and
relaxation in their nonworking hours (Kim, 2014).
I–O psychologist provide organizational support to employees to have a work and family
life balance. They implement changes in the work-family policies to minimize social conflicts
(Karkoulian, Srour, & Sinan, 2016). I–O psychologist modify the job condition, structure of
work by modifying the working hours, giving more power to the employee to plan their working
time, place and manner. For example, employees working in inflexible work schedules like to
work in a non- traditional schedule improves their intensity and productivity overall. The
employees have more working desire for complex tasks and minimize absenteeism. To make the

work culture sustainable they modify the management to balance work and non-work
relationships (Haar, Russo, Suñe, & Ollier-Malaterre, 2014). Progressive employers pay more
attention to work-family policies. This helps not only men but also women so that they can have
their own personal life benefits. These works create resilience and positive outcomes for the
organization.
Talent management
Talent management is all about increasing performance. It works by motivating,
engaging, and retaining employees to perform better. This builds a sustainable competitive
environment to outperform their competitors in an integrated system. Talent management is
rigorous process that identifies the skills and expertise of suitable person for correct position. It
works by developing the skills and retention of the employees to achieve long-term business
objectives (Mone, & London, 2018). People are working in diverse teams to perform efficiently.
According to Kravariti and Johnston (2020) employees are quickly transforming their methods to
adapt to a high technology-based environment. Everyone is working in a heterogeneous
compositions made of highly talented minds to support the competitive market (Mone, &
London, 2018).
According to recent research by Lui et al (2020) it has become necessary that company’s
focus on talent management so that employers see them as an effective organizational asset.
High-potential employees are an opportunity to train others. They are frequently reassigned to
meet company needs. They are continuously trained to be a global asset for the company, located
in temporary assignments that sharpen their agility (Huang, Ryan, Zabel, & Palmer, 2014). It has
been proven that companies are successfully able to tackle complex problems when working
with a talented team. For example, An organization performs well only when they are able to

increase the enthusiasm in employees. A skilled employee will always be able to perform
outstanding (Huang, Ryan, Zabel, & Palmer, 2014).
An I/O psychologist works in coordination with the mission of the organization to
develop talent in the employees. They identify talent in each person which is unique and
enduring and develop their strength from the first day. The I/O psychologist has the duty to test
the level of development that is necessary for each employee (Aguinis, & O'Boyle 2014). I/O
specialist help companies to hire talent; they are also responsible for developing hiring process.
They are highly involved with the Hr team and managers to hire suitable talented candidates. All
the skills required for the position are scanned by them. A set of interview question and activities
helps in testing the efficiency of the employees (Liu et al., 2020).
Workplace culture/climate
Work place Culture is a personality of an organization. This makes the place unique from
others. It is also a sum of organizational values, traditions, beliefs, and attitudes. It is one of the
main keys in developing a disciplined workplace. A positive, cheerful workstation has more
number of satisfied employees. It’s a combination of leadership, mission, vision, beliefs,
tradition, attitude and behavior of the organization and the employees together (Ryan, & Wessel,
2015). For example, when an organization spends time building a strong workplace, developing
positive environments all around it gets a positive outcome. They attract talented staff that is
willing to spend more time every day at work and they enjoy working for a happy company and
team. According to research done by Ryan, & Wessel, (2015) it has been found that culture and
engagement were the priority company agenda as employees got attracted to the strongest
positive cultures. It also contributes to the emotional and rational environment of the workplace

forming positive bonds with the colleague. It has a direct relation on the employee's performance
and progression.
According to Pilch and Turska (2015) when the work culture is not as per the industry
standards or if they are not able to follow the basic sanctity of the work, they lose employees. A
company may see low attrition if they are high on work culture aspect. For example, the attrition
rate in Google Inc, is less because they invest in good office culture. Their employees always
give a positive review of their company and enthusiastically participate in all activities done in
the office.
An I.O psychologist seeks to balance the work culture environment between the company
and the employee. IO professionals apply their skills to improve the structure of an organization
to match the culture that prevails and matches with the objective of the company. This can
include coaching for the employees specially, in leadership positions. They also adjust job
responsibilities to properly match individual abilities. Sometimes pushing for extra training or
development for benefit all parties involved. They work to convert the culture in favor of
positive environment. I.O also review employee behaviors and report it to the senior for
organizing training for particular employee (Corritore, Goldberg, & Srivastava, 2020). This
creates a satisfied employee, who is constantly developing themselves along with enhanced
company performance.
Performance management
Performance management is a management tool that fascinates the managers to monitor
and evaluate employees work. It is used to create an environment for their employees to perform
the best of their abilities with efficiency. Organizations have measuring standards to evaluate the
performance of the people (Vijay, & AishwaryaGanbote, 2020).

According to DeNisi, and Smith, (2014) every organization has its own standard of
performance, they keep these standards high so that employees always try to improve their
performance. Some of the traditional tools are yearend review, quarterly review, on-site training
and manager’s review about their subordinates. As per Cappelli and Tavis, (2016) the new
methods have been developed which eases the recording method and bring employee at
transparent marking paradigm. For example, managers should be more transparent about how
they rate their employees. The best output is gained when managers honestly share weakness of
their subordinates. The method of evaluation should be equal for everyone across the team.
I.O psychologist designs method to test the performance of employees, when they find
some gap in input and output they review it with action. They work with the managers on the
communication process by clarifying expectations, setting objectives and goals, providing
regular feedback, and reviewing results. They try to minimize the gap by defining new programs
for the employees. IO expert is always able to solve each issue, they help leaders identify key
problems that are impacting the overall output. To minimize the flaws they review hiring
process, work culture for mitigating stress and work balance for productivity (Fletcher, &
Williams, 2013). This upgrades the performance of the company and its ability to grow smoothly
in a competitive environment (Le, 2020). These set standards and goals are very helpful in
determining their future promotion and appraisal as they meet the performance standards.
Conclusion
I.O psychologist develops leadership qualities, stability for works, and influences the
superior performance of employees at the workplace (Koppes, 2014). They manage the
performance of employees to achieve their career goals and their personal goals. A diverse
workstation with work-life balance along with a positive work environment and excellent

performance becomes possible only when they work together and in the transparency of thoughts
towards one goal.
An IO psychologist also works for customer satisfaction for the success and survival of a
company. Psychologists leverage their knowledge of business and human behavior to minimize
friction between people, product and organization (Gibson, Payne, Morgan, & Allen, 2018).
Industrial-organizational psychologists make numerous precious contributions to organizations,
including emerging business plan, massive decision making for the corporations, and
government agencies. They not only work on set goals but they prepare new goals for every
single person responsible for the overall achievement of the company.

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