How to become Industrial-Organizational Psychologist in 2024

Industrial-Organizational Psychologist Apply principles of psychology to human resources, administration, management, sales, and marketing problems. Activities may include policy planning; employee testing and selection, training, and development; and organizational development and analysis. May work with management to organize the work setting to improve worker productivity.

Industrial-Organizational Psychologist is Also Know as

In different settings, Industrial-Organizational Psychologist is titled as

  • Consulting Psychologist
  • I-O Practitioner (Industrial-Organizational Practitioner)
  • I-O Psychologist (Industrial-Organizational Psychologist)
  • Industrial Psychologist
  • Management Consultant
  • Organizational Consultant
  • Organizational Development Specialist (OD Specialist)
  • Organizational Psychologist
  • Personnel Research Psychologist
  • Research Scientist

Education and Training of Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

Industrial-Organizational Psychologist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

Training Required for Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Industrial-Organizational Psychologist in different industries are

What Do Industrial-Organizational Psychologist do?

  • Develop and implement employee selection or placement programs.
  • Analyze job requirements and content to establish criteria for classification, selection, training, and other related personnel functions.
  • Observe and interview workers to obtain information about the physical, mental, and educational requirements of jobs, as well as information about aspects such as job satisfaction.
  • Write reports on research findings and implications to contribute to general knowledge or to suggest potential changes in organizational functioning.
  • Advise management concerning personnel, managerial, and marketing policies and practices and their potential effects on organizational effectiveness and efficiency.
  • Identify training and development needs.
  • Conduct research studies of physical work environments, organizational structures, communication systems, group interactions, morale, or motivation to assess organizational functioning.
  • Formulate and implement training programs, applying principles of learning and individual differences.
  • Develop interview techniques, rating scales, and psychological tests used to assess skills, abilities, and interests for the purpose of employee selection, placement, or promotion.
  • Assess employee performance.
  • Study organizational effectiveness, productivity, and efficiency, including the nature of workplace supervision and leadership.
  • Facilitate organizational development and change.
  • Analyze data, using statistical methods and applications, to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of workplace programs.
  • Counsel workers about job and career-related issues.
  • Study consumers' reactions to new products and package designs, and to advertising efforts, using surveys and tests.
  • Participate in mediation and dispute resolution.
  • Conduct presentations on research findings for clients or at research meetings.
  • Provide expert testimony in employment lawsuits.
  • Review research literature to remain current on psychological science issues.
  • Conduct individual assessments, including interpreting measures and providing feedback for selection, placement, or promotion.
  • Write articles, white papers, or reports to share research findings and educate others.
  • Develop new business by contacting potential clients, making sales presentations, and writing proposals.
  • Train clients to administer human resources functions, including testing, selection, and performance management.
  • Coach senior executives and managers on leadership and performance.
  • Provide advice on best practices and implementation for selection.

Qualities of Good Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.

Tools Used by Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

  • Data input scanners
  • Desktop computers
  • Laptop computers
  • Liquid crystal display LCD video projectors
  • Personal computers
  • Universal serial bus USB flash drives

Technology Skills required for Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Assessment Systems Corporation XCALIBRE
  • Google Sheets
  • Human resource information system (HRIS)
  • Hypertext markup language HTML
  • IBM SPSS Statistics
  • Learning management system LMS
  • Mentimeter
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Visio
  • Microsoft Word
  • Muthen & Muthen Mplus
  • Oracle PeopleSoft
  • Padlet
  • Psychometric testing software
  • SAS
  • Scientific Software International BILOG-MG
  • Scientific Software International HLM
  • Scientific Software International LISREL
  • Scientific Software International MULTILOG
  • Scientific Software International PARSCALE
  • Scientific Software International TESTFACT
  • Web browser software
  • Winsteps