Psychological Foundations Thesis

Psychological Foundations Thesis

Introduction 

For this assessment, you will assume the role of an I-O consultant who has been brought in to speak with a management team by the human resources department of a potential client. You will create a 12–15-slide PowerPoint presentation integrating I-O psychology theory and scientific evidence in a business-friendly way to promote your services to the management team.

The ability to explain I-O psychology in a business-friendly way to business executives brings an I-O psychologist down out of the “ivory tower” and onto the same playing field as a business person. When you can speak the language of business instead of the language of psychology with your business clients, it is much easier to do your job.

As organizations encounter an increasingly complex global environment, the personnel psychologist is seen more and more as a strategic partner.

From screening individuals for overseas assignments to developing selection instruments and designing the managerial and leadership training platforms, psychological practitioners—often Industrial/Organizational (I-O) psychologists— are becoming more and more ingrained in the strategic plan development of organizations.

Much of the practice, science, and theory surrounding personnel and human resource management is founded in psychological theory. From compensation to training, workplace relationships, and identification of successful leaders, the ability to find, place, and retain high-quality, talented individuals is a challenge for every organization or business.

Organizations from professional sports and Fortune 500 companies to nonprofit organizations struggle with finding the best individuals to contribute to the success of the organization.

Many larger organizations today have expanded human resource management into a strategic role. Organizations look to HRM to ensure they have sufficiently talented staff placed in the right jobs, and that the staff is compensated well enough to be retained.

The role of HRM today may also be to address shifts in organizational direction and strategy. Downsizing strategies for determining which jobs should remain and which jobs should be eliminated are also a concern in HR. The psychological practitioner may be called into play in all of these areas.