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Paul E. Spector

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Industrial and Organizational

RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
Seventh Edition

Paul E. Spector
Department of
University of South Florida

VP AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

George Hoffman

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Veronica Visentin

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Ethan Lipson

EDITORIAL MANAGER

Gladys Soto

CONTENT MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR

Lisa Wojcik

CONTENT MANAGER

Nichole Urban

SENIOR CONTENT SPECIALIST

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PRODUCTION EDITOR

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PHOTO RESEARCHER

Billy Ray

COVER PHOTO CREDIT

This book was set in 10/12 ITC New Baskerville Std Roman by SPi Global and printed and bound by
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ISBN: 978-1-119-30470-8 (PBK)
ISBN: 978-1-119-29907-3 (EVALC)
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data:
Names: Spector, Paul E., author.
Title: Industrial and organizational psychology : research and practice /
Paul E. Spector.
Description: Seventh edition. | Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons Inc., [2016]
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016033492 | ISBN 9781119304708 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: , Industrial. | Personnel management.
Classification: LCC HF5548.8 .S625 2016 | DDC 158.7—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016033492
The inside back cover will contain printing identification and country of origin if omitted from this page. In
addition, if the ISBN on the back cover differs from the ISBN on this page, the one on the back cover is correct.

To Gail and Steven Spector

PREFAC E

Industrial/organizational or I‐O psychology is an exciting field that has been enjoying
continual growth in the United States and throughout the industrialized world during its
almost 100‐year history. In fact, in 2015 the U.S. Department of Labor listed I‐O as the
fastest growing occupation in the United States. What began as a tiny subspecialty of psychology, known only to a few practitioners, human resource professionals, and professors,
has grown to be one of the major specialties in psychology worldwide. This attention is
due to two factors. First, I‐O is concerned with the workplace, so its findings and principles are relevant to everyone who holds a job. Second, I‐O has developed proven methods
that organizations find of value. I‐O psychologists are often called on to help organizations develop a more efficient and healthier workforce.
The field of I‐O psychology has a dual nature. First, it is the science of people at work.
This aspect ties it to other areas of psychology, such as cognitive and social psychology.
Second, I‐O psychology is the application of psychological principles to organizational
and work settings. There is no other area of psychology in which a closer correspondence
between application and science exists, making I‐O a good example of how society can
benefit from the study of psychology.
The field of I‐O is a large and diverse one. Many topics are covered, ranging from
methods of hiring employees to theories of how organizations work. It is concerned with
helping organizations get the most from their employees or human resources, as well as
helping organizations take care of employee health, safety, and well‐being. For this reason, a single text can provide only an overview of the major findings and methods that I‐O
psychologists use. The goal of this book is to provide such an overview, as well as a comprehensive understanding of the field. Each of the major areas that comprise I‐O psychology is covered.
Part One of this book provides an overview of the I‐O field. Chapter 1 covers the nature
of the field and its history. I‐O psychology is discussed as both a practice and a science.
The chapter describes what a career in I‐O psychology involves and what it takes to
become an I‐O psychologist. Chapter 2 is an overview of the basic principles of I‐O
research methods.
The remainder of the book is divided into four parts. Part Two focuses on assessment.
Chapter 3 discusses the assessment of jobs—called job analysis; Chapter 4 focuses on the
assessment of employee job performance, and Chapter 5 explores the way in which
employee characteristics are measured. Part Three contains two chapters. Chapter 6 deals
with the methods that organizations use to hire new employees. Chapter 7 follows those
new employees, as well as experienced ones, through their training programs.
The four chapters in Part Four discuss the relationship between the individual and the
organization. Chapter 8 covers theories of motivation. Chapter 9 focuses on how people
feel about their jobs—their attitudes about the job and the emotions they experience at
work. The topic of Chapter 10 is productive and counterproductive work behavior.
Chapter 11 deals with occupational health psychology, a rapidly emerging field that is
concerned with worker health, safety, and well‐being.

vi Preface
The final part of the book, Part Five, is concerned with the social context of work.
Chapter 12 explores small work groups and work teams and their effect on the individual.
Chapter 13 discusses leadership and supervision in the workplace. Chapter 14, the last
chapter, takes an organization perspective. It covers organizational development and
organizational theory.

Special features
In each chapter of the book, there are “Learning by Doing” exercises that actively
engage the student with the material in the chapter. All of the exercises ask the student
to address an I‐O issue or answer a particular question. Some involve interviewing working individuals about an aspect of their work experience. Others require observations
of a public work setting, such as a retail store or restaurant. Still others are accomplished through the Web. These experiences are designed to enhance the student’s
knowledge of how information can be used to address a problem.
In all but the first two chapters, there are three special features. First, there is a detailed
summary of a research study from one of the major I‐O journals. Each “Research in
Detail” summary was chosen to give added insight through a study that is relevant to topics covered in the chapter. The implications of each study for the practice of I‐O p
sychology
are also discussed. Second, a case study describes how a practicing I‐O psychologist was
able to help an organization with a problem. These “I‐O in Practice” cases
were chosen to represent the wide variety of settings and applied work that involve I‐O
psychologists.
At the end of each “I‐O in Practice” case are discussion questions. The purpose of these questions is to encourage students to think about the principles discussed
in the book. They require students to apply the chapter principles to a real situation. The
questions can be used in a variety of ways. They can be assigned to groups of students or
to individuals. They can be used for in‐class debates, discussions, oral presentations, or
written assignments. The cases themselves are provided to help show students the connections between practice and research in the I‐O field. Students often have a difficult
time seeing the relevance to their lives of much of what they study in college. I‐O psychology is a field that is relevant to almost everyone.

Changes to the Seventh Edition
My goal with all seven editions is to provide a text that is as current as possible, covering
both the traditional core material of the field as well as exciting, new emerging areas and
findings. The first major task I had with the revision was to update the material and add
important new developments. The science of I‐O psychology is rapidly developing, with
new findings and insights emerging almost daily. I added more than 100 new references
with almost all of them from 2011 or later. The overall organization of the book retains
the original 14 chapters.

Content Changes in the Seventh Edition. Although almost all of the topics covered in the first six editions are still here, some have been expanded or modified, and
new ones have been added. Of particular note are the following new or substantially
updated topics:
Abusive supervision (Chapter 13)
Computer adaptive testing for noncognitive tests (Chapter 5)
Credit checking (Chapter 5)
Experience sampling (Chapter 2)

Acknowledgments vii
Illegitimate tasks (Chapter 11)
Justice climate (Chapter 8)
Research integrity (Chapter 2)
Respites (Chapter 11)
Veteran reintegration (Chapter 7)
Underemployment (Chapter 9)
In order to make room for new material, a few old topics were deleted. In chapter 1
I deleted the section on Internet resources. When this section appeared in the first edition, the Web was new and so a guide to where online resources could be found was
timely. That is no longer true as students today have access to a wealth of online information that we could not have imagined in the early 90s. I deleted functional job analysis
and the long discussion of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles that is mostly of historical significance. Its replacement, the O*NET is more prominent. In Chapter 7 I condensed the section on overlearning to focus mainly on new developments showing that
overlearning doesn’t necessarily result in long‐term retention. In Chapter 10 I deleted the
short section on labor unrest. Although this topic is important, it is given little attention
within the I‐O literature. In Chapter 11 I deleted the section on noise exposure, as it has
more to do with physical than psychological issues, and I deleted the section on machine
pacing, which is old and receives little attention today. Finally, the appendix on applying
to graduate school has been removed, and it can be found on the Wiley textbook support
website for this book.

Acknowledgments
In writing all seven editions of this book, I was lucky to have had advice and assistance
from many people. I express my sincere thanks to the many colleagues and students who
provided such help, as well as the Wiley people who did a superb job.
First are the members of the University of South Florida I‐O psychology group who
provided ideas and information on all sorts of I‐O issues:
Tammy Allen
Wendy Bedwell
Walter Borman
Michael Brannick
Michael Coovert
Russell Johnson, now at Michigan State University
Edward Levine
Carnot Nelson
Winny Shen, now at University of Waterloo
Steve Stark
There are colleagues and friends from around the world who provided feedback and
information:
Seymour Adler, Assessment Solutions, Inc.
Julian Barling, Queens University, Canada
John Bernardin, Florida Atlantic University
Stephen Bluen, Gordon Institute of Science, South Africa
Peter Chen, Auburn University
Eunae Cho, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Yochi Cohen‐Charash, Baruch University
Steven Cronshaw, University of Guelph, Canada

viii Preface
Donald Davis, Old Dominion University
Dov Eden, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Barbara Ellis, Charleston, South Carolina
Michael Frese, National University of Singapore
Yitzhak Fried, Texas Tech University
Barbara Fritzsche, University of Central Florida
Joan Hall, Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division
Alexandra Ilie, Illinois State University
Paul Jackson, University of Sheffield, England
Richard Jeanneret, Valtera Corporation
Steve Jex, Bowling Green State University
Boris Kabanoff, University of New South Wales, Australia
Chee Wee Koh, University of South Florida
Filip Lievens, University of Ghent, Belgium
Laurenz Meier, University of Fribourg
Lakshmi Narayanan, Dubai
Maura Negrao, Brazil
Brian O’Connell, ICF International
Mike O’Driscoll, Waikato University
Richard Perlow, University of Lethbridge
Laura Petitta, University of Rome
Mark Peterson, Florida Atlantic University
Ivan Robertson, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, England
Juan Sanchez, Florida International University
Oi‐Ling Siu, Lingnan University
Dirk Steiner, Universite de Nice‐Sophia, France
Paul Taylor, University of Waikato, New Zealand
Zhiqing Zhou, Florida Institute of Technology
In addition, 12 I‐O psychologists provided the “ in Practice” cases:
Joan Brannick, Brannick HR Connections
Jonathan Canger, Marriott
Janis Cannon‐Bowers, University of Central Florida
Jeanne Carsten, JP Morgan Chase
Amy Carver, Wachovia Bank
Stephen Cohen, Strategic Leadership Collaborative
Anna Erickson, Questar
Chuck Evans, Jackson Leadership Systems
Charles Michaels, University of South Florida
Stacey Moran, Moran Realty Company
Lynn Summers, North Carolina State Personnel
Tom White, Changelink, Australia
The reviewers of the various drafts of the book did a superb job, and the comments of
every one of them were a tremendous help.
Robert B. Bechtel, University of Arizona
John Binning, Illinois State University
Valentina Bruk Lee, Florida International University
David V. Day, Pennsylvania State University
Janet Barnes Farrell, University of Connecticut
M. Jocelyne Gessner, University of Houston

Acknowledgments ix
Sigrid Gustafson, American Institutes for Research
Jane Halpert, De Paul University
Leslie Hammer, Portland State University
Joseph Horn, University of Texas at Austin
David Kravitz, George Mason University
Marjorie Krebs, Gannon University
Karl Kuhnert, University of Georgia
Dan Landis, University of Mississippi
Terese Macan, University of Missouri–St. Louis
Karen Maher, California State University at Long Beach
Patrick McCarthy, Middle Tennessee State University
John Meyer, University of Western Ontario
Susan Mohammad, Pennsylvania State University
George Neuman, Northern Illinois University
Kimberly O’Brien, Central Michigan University
Diana Odom‐Gunn, University of California
Stephanie Payne, Texas A&M University
Gerald L. Quatman, Xavier University
Ann Marie Ryan, Michigan State University
Steven Scher, Eastern Illinois University
Susan Shapiro, Indiana University East
Kenneth Shultz, California State University at San Bernardino
Steven Stern, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
Ladd Wheeler, University of Rochester
H. A. Witkin, Queens College
Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Gail Spector, for helping in many ways, including
helping me structure my time to spend working on the book.

BRI EF C O N TE N TS

Preface

Part 1 Introduction
1 Introduction2
2 Research Methods in I‐O

Part 2 Assessment of Jobs, Performance, and People
3 Job Analysis

4 Performance Appraisal

5 Assessment Methods for Selection and Placement

102

Part 3 Selecting and Training Employees
6 Selecting Employees

132

7 Training

160

Part 4 The Individual and the Organization
8 Theories of Employee Motivation

184

9 Feelings About Work: Job Attitudes and Emotions

203

10 Productive and Counterproductive Employee Behavior

230

11 Occupational Health

253

Part 5 The Social Context of Work
12 Work Groups and Work Teams

280

13 Leadership and Power in Organizations

303

14 Organizational Development and Theory

330

References

349

Glossary

378

Author Index

387

Subject Index

397

CONT E N TS

Preface v

Part 1 Introduction
1 Introduction 2
What Is I‐O ? 4
Activities and Settings of I‐O Psychologists 4
I‐O as a Profession 6
I‐O as a Science 7
History of the Field of I‐O 8
I‐O Beyond the United States and the United Kingdom
What It Takes to Become an I‐O Psychologist 16
Ethics of the I‐O Field 20
Humanitarian Work 21
Chapter Summary 21

2 Research Methods in I‐O 23
Research Questions 24
Important Research Design Concepts 25
Variables 26
Research Setting 26
Generalizability 26
Control 27
Random Assignment and Random Selection
Confounding 29
Research Designs 29
Experiments 29
Survey Designs 31
Experience Sampling 32
Observational Designs 32
Qualitative Studies 33
Measurement 34
Classical Measurement Theory 34
Reliability 36
Validity 37

xiv Contents
38
Descriptive 38
Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion 38
Correlation 40
Regression 42
Inferential 43
Meta‐Analysis 45
Mediator and Moderator Variables 46
Research Ethics and Integrity 46
Research Ethics 46
Research Integrity 47
Chapter Summary 48

Part 2 Assessment of Jobs, Performance, and People
3 Job Analysis 52
What Is Job Analysis? 53
The Job‐Oriented Approach 53
The Person‐Oriented Approach 55
Purposes of Job Analysis 56
Career Development 57
Legal Issues 57
Performance Appraisal 58
Selection 58
Training 59
Vocational Counseling 59
Research 59
How Job Analysis Information Is Collected 60
Who Provides the Information? 60
Approaches to Collecting Job Analysis Information
Perform Job 60
Observe 61
Interview 61
Administer a Questionnaire 61
Multiple Approaches 61
Methods of Job Analysis 61
Job Components Inventory 62
Occupational Information Network 63
Position Analysis Questionnaire 65
Task Inventory 66
Choosing a Job Analysis Method 68
Job Analysis Methods for Work Teams 69
Reliability and Validity of Job Analysis Information 69
Reliability 69

Contents
Validity 70
Job Evaluation 71
Comparable Worth 72
Chapter Summary 73
I‐O in Practice 74

4 Performance Appraisal 76
Why Do We Appraise Employees? 77
Administrative Decisions 77
Employee Development and Feedback 77
Research 78
Performance Criteria 78
Characteristics of Criteria 78
Actual Versus Theoretical Criterion 78
Contamination, Deficiency, and Relevance 79
Level of Specificity 81
Criterion Complexity 81
Dynamic Criteria 83
Contextual Performance 83
Methods for Assessing Job Performance 84
Objective Measures of Job Performance 84
Subjective Measures of Job Performance 86
Graphic Rating Forms 86
Behavior-Focused Rating Forms 86
Development of Behavior-Focused Forms 89
Cognitive Processes Underlying Ratings 90
Models of the Rating Process 90
Content of Subordinate Effectiveness 91
Rater Bias and Error 92
Control of Rater Bias and Error 93
Other Factors That Influence Job Performance Ratings
360‐Degree Feedback 96
The Impact of Technology on Performance Appraisal 97
Legal Issues in Performance Appraisal 98
Chapter Summary 99
I‐O in Practice 100

5 Assessment Methods for Selection and Placement 102
Job‐Related Characteristics 103
Psychological Tests 104
Characteristics of Tests 105
Group Versus Individually Administered Tests 105
Closed-Ended Versus Open-Ended Tests 105
Paper and Pencil Versus Performance Tests 105

xvi Contents
Power Versus Speed Tests 106
Ability Tests 106
Cognitive Ability Tests 106
Psychomotor Ability Tests 108
Knowledge and Skill Tests 109
Personality Tests 110
Emotional Intelligence Tests 112
Integrity Tests 113
Vocational Interest Tests 114
Other Forms of Testing 115
Credit Checking 115
Drug Testing 115
Biographical Information 116
Interviews 118
Work Samples 121
Assessment Centers 121
Electronic Assessment 125
Electronic Administration of Psychological Tests
Computer Adaptive Testing 126
Chapter Summary 127
I‐O in Practice 128

125

Part 3 Selecting and Training Employees
6 Selecting Employees 132
The Planning of Human Resource Needs 133
Recruiting Applicants 134
Selecting Employees 137
How Do Organizations Select Employees? 137
Conducting a Validation Study 138
Step 1: Conduct a Job Analysis 138
Step 2: Specify Job Performance Criteria 139
Step 3: Choose Predictors 139
Step 4: Validate the Predictors 140
Step 5: Cross-Validate 140
Validity Generalization 141
How Predictor Information Is Used for Selection 141
Multiple Hurdles 141
Regression Approach 142
Alternatives to Conducting Validation Studies 144
Getting Applicants to Accept and Keep Jobs Offered 145
The Utility of Scientific Selection 146
How Valid Selection Devices Work 147
Baserate 147

Contents
Selection Ratio 147
Validity 148
How Valid Predictors Increase Success Rates 148
Computing the Utility of Scientific Selection 149
International Differences in Selection Practices 150
Legal Issues 151
Legal Selection in the United States 152
Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection 153
Essential Functions and Reasonable Accommodation
Affirmative Action 155
Legal Selection Outside the United States 157
Chapter Summary 157
I‐O in Practice 158

7 Training

160

Needs Assessment 161
Objectives 162
Training Design 162
Trainee Characteristics 163
Design Factors That Affect Transfer of Training
Feedback 164
General Principles 164
Identical Elements 165
Overlearning 165
Sequencing of Training Sessions 166
Work Environment 167
Training Methods 168
Audiovisual Instruction 168
Autoinstruction 169
Conference 169
Lecture 169
Modeling 169
On-the-Job Training 169
Role-Playing 170
Simulations 170
Electronic Training 170
Mentoring 171
Executive Coaching 172
Veteran Reintegration 173
Delivery of a Training Program 173
Evaluation of a Training Program 174
Set Criteria 174
Choose Design 176
Pretest–Posttest Design 177

164

155

xvii

xviii Contents
Control Group Design 177
Choose Measures of the Criteria 178
Collect Data 178
Analyze and Interpret Data 178
Chapter Summary 179
I‐O in Practice 180

Part 4 The Individual and the Organization
8 Theories of Employee Motivation 184
What Is Motivation? 185
Work Motivation Theories 185
Need Theories 186
Need Hierarchy Theory 186
Two‐Factor Theory 187
Expectancy Theory 188
Self‐Efficacy Theory 190
Justice Theories 192
Goal‐Setting Theory 195
Control Theory 198
Action Theory 199
Chapter Summary 200
I‐O in Practice 202

9 Feelings About Work: Job Attitudes and Emotions 203
The Nature of Job Satisfaction 204
How People Feel About Their Jobs 204
The Assessment of Job Satisfaction 206
Job Descriptive Index (JDI) 206
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) 208
Job in General Scale (JIG) 208
Is Global Satisfaction the Sum of Facets? 209
Antecedents of Job Satisfaction 209
Environmental Antecedents of Job Satisfaction 210
Job Characteristics 210
Pay 212
Justice 213
Personal Antecedents of Job Satisfaction 213
Personality 213
Gender 215
Age 216
Ethnic Differences 216
Person–Job Fit 217

Contents
Underemployment 218
Potential Effects of Job Satisfaction 219
Job Satisfaction and Job Performance 219
Job Satisfaction and Turnover 220
Job Satisfaction and Absence 220
Health and Well‐Being 221
Job and Life Satisfaction 221
Organizational Commitment 222
Assessment of Organizational Commitment 223
Organizational Commitment and Other Variables 223
Emotions at Work 225
Causes and Consequences of Emotions at Work 226
Emotional Labor 226
Chapter Summary 227
I‐O in Practice 228

10 Productive and Counterproductive Employee Behavior

230

Productive Behavior: Task Performance 231
Ability and Task Performance 232
Motivation and Task Performance 232
Personal Characteristics and Task Performance 232
The “Big Five” and Task Performance 233
Locus of Control and Performance 233
Age and Performance 234
Environmental Conditions and Task Performance 235
Job Characteristics and Task Performance 235
Incentive Systems and Performance 236
Design of Technology 237
Organizational Constraints 241
Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) 242
Counterproductive Work Behavior: Withdrawal 244
Absence 244
Lateness 245
Turnover 246
Counterproductive Work Behavior: Aggression, Sabotage, and Theft
Chapter Summary 250
I‐O in Practice 251

11 Occupational Health

253

Occupational Health and Safety 255
Accidents and Safety 255
Infectious Disease Exposure 257
Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) 258
Harmful Substance Exposure 259

248

xix

xx Contents
Workplace Violence 261
Work Schedules 262
Night Shifts 262
Long Shifts 264
Flexible Work Schedules 265
Occupational Stress 265
The Occupational Stress Process 265
Job Stressors 267
Role Ambiguity and Role Conflict 267
Workload 268
Illegitimate Tasks 269
Social Stressors 269
Organizational Politics 270
Control 270
The Demand/Control Model 272
Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism 272
Recovery 273
Work–Family Conflict 273
Burnout 275
Chapter Summary 276
I‐O in Practice 277

Part 5 The Social Context of Work
12 Work Groups and Work Teams

280

Work Groups Versus Work Teams 281
Virtual Teams 282
Important Group and Team Concepts 282
Roles 282
Norms 283
Group Cohesiveness 284
Team Conflict 284
Process Loss 285
Team Commitment 285
Team Mental Model 286
Group and Team Performance 286
Performance in the Presence of Others 286
Group Versus Individual Performance on Additive Tasks
Brainstorming 289
Group Problem Solving 290
Group Decision Making 290
Group Polarization 291
Groupthink 292
Team Innovation 293

287

Contents
Team KSAOs 294
Group Diversity 295
Interventions With Work Groups in Organizations
Autonomous Work Teams 296
Quality Circles 298
Team Building 299
Chapter Summary 300
I‐O in Practice 301

13 Leadership and Power in Organizations

295

303

What Is Leadership? 304
Sources of Influence and Power 304
French and Raven’s (1959) Bases of Power 304
Yukl’s (1989) Political Action 306
Political Skill 307
Abuse of Supervisory Power 307
Abusive Supervision 307
Sexual and Ethnic Harassment 308
Approaches to the Understanding of Leadership 310
The Trait Approach 311
The Leader Behavior Approach 311
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory 314
Path–goal Theory 317
Leader–member Exchange (LMX) Theory 318
Transformational Leadership Theory 320
Vroom–Yetton Model 321
Women in Leadership Positions 323
Gender and Leadership Style 325
Cross‐Cultural Issues in Leadership 325
Chapter Summary 327
I‐O in Practice 328

14 Organizational Development and Theory
Organizational Development 331
Employee Acceptance of Change 332
Management by Objectives 332
Survey Feedback 335
Team Building 335
T‐Group 336
Effectiveness of OD Programs 337
Organizational Theories 337
Bureaucracy Theory 338
Division of Labor 338
Delegation of Authority 338
Span of Control 339

330

xxi

xxii Contents
Line Versus Staff 339
Theory X/Theory Y 340
Open System Theory 341
Sociotechnical Systems Theory 343
Comparison of the Theories 345
Chapter Summary 346
I‐O in Practice 347

References

349

Glossary

378

Author Index

387

Subject Index

397

Rob Melnychuk./Getty Images, Inc.

PA R T 1

Introduction

CHAPTE R 1

Introduction
Most people in the industrialized world come into direct or

OUTLINE
What Is I‐O ?
Activities and Settings of I‐O
Psychologists
I‐O as a Profession
I‐O as a Science
History of the Field of I‐O
I‐O Beyond the United
States and the United Kingdom
What It Takes to Become an I‐O
Psychologist
Ethics of the I‐O Field
Humanitarian Work
Chapter Summary
Learning by Doing

indirect contact with organizations every day. If you go to a
supermarket to buy groceries, that store is part of an organization. On a given day, you might encounter a few employees,
such as the produce manager who helps you find some fresh
grapes, the checker who rings up your order, and the bagger
who puts your items in bags. The organization, however, might
employ thousands and even tens of thousands of individuals
who are collectively responsible for seeing to it that the products you wish to purchase are continually available at each
of its stores. This requires the coordinated action of many individuals, likely from many countries. Needless to say, managing
such a complex enterprise is extremely difficult. The managers
responsible hire a great many specialists to assist them. They
often turn to industrial/organizational (I‐O) psychologists for help
with many of their employee‐related problems. For example,
I‐O psychologists have helped:
AT&T develop assessment centers to choose the
best managers.
General Electric (GE) develop systems to provide job
performance feedback to employees.
The U.S. Army use psychological tests to place recruits in
the appropriate jobs.
The U.S. Postal Service develop procedures to reduce
assaults by employees.
If you go to work for a large organization, there is a good
chance that your work life will be affected by I‐O psychology.
An I‐O psychologist may have designed the application form
that you will fill out to get the job, the salary and benefit package that you will be offered, the training that you will receive,

Chapter 1 Introduction 3
and the structure of the tasks that will comprise your job. I‐O psychologists are involved
in issues related to employee health, job performance, motivation, safety, selection
(hiring), and training. They can also deal with the design of equipment and job tasks.
This book discusses all of these areas, and more.
There are two equally important aspects of the I‐O psychology field. First, I‐O
psychology involves the scientific study of the human side of organizations. Many I‐O
psychologists, particularly those who are professors at universities, conduct research
about people at work. Second, I‐O psychology includes the application of the principles and findings of I‐O research. Most I‐O psychologists are involved in practice, either
as consultants or as employees of organizations. What distinguishes the practice of
I‐O psychology from that of many other fields is that I‐O psychology is an evidence‐
based field, meaning that the things practitioners do are based on scientific methods
and principles. This book reviews the major findings from I‐O science and explores
how practicing I‐O psychologists apply those findings in organizational settings.
I‐O psychology is an eclectic field that has borrowed and expanded concepts,
ideas, techniques, and theories from many other disciplines. Experimental psychology provided the historical foundation of the I‐O field. Its principles and techniques,
such as psychological testing, were applied by several early experimental psychologists to the problems of organizations. As we will discuss later in this chapter, one
of the earliest American examples occurred when psychologist Robert Yerkes convinced the army to use psychological tests during World War I. Influences on the I‐O
field outside of psychology have come from ergonomics, industrial engineering,
management, and sociology. Although I‐O psychology had most of its beginnings in
the United States and the United Kingdom, it has become an international activity,
especially in industrialized countries.
This chapter contains an overview of the I‐O field, and covers the major activities
and employment settings for I‐O psychologists and presents a brief history of the
field. The chapter discusses what training is needed to become an I‐O psychologist
and where that training is offered, not only in the United States but also throughout
the world. The research process will be discussed, and the major publication outlets
for I‐O research will be listed. I‐O psychologists are very concerned with the ethical
treatment of people, which is another topic that we will cover.
Chapter 2 contains a discussion of the research methods used in I‐O psychology. Chapters 3 to 14 cover the major topics of the field, beginning with a focus on
the assessment of jobs and people in Chapters 3 to 5. Covered in Chapters 6 and 7
are two major areas that are relevant to developing productive employees—
selecting good people and training them to do their jobs well. Chapters 8 to 11 are
concerned with the individual in the context of the organization and they cover
motivation, how people feel about their jobs, employee behavior, and employee
health and safety (i.e., occupational health psychology). Chapters 12 to 14 deal
with the individual employee in the social context of the organization. Major topics
discussed include groups and teams, leadership, techniques to change organizations, and theories of organizations.

4 Chapter 1 Introduction

What Is I‐O ?

OBJECTIVES

is the science of human (and nonhuman) behavior, cognition, emotion, and motivation. It can be subdivided
into many different specializations, some of which are conDefine I‐O psychology.
cerned primarily with psychological science (experimental
Describe the major activities of I‐O
psychology) and others of which are concerned with both
psychologists.
psychological science and the application of that science to
Summarize the history of the I‐O field.
real‐world problems outside of the research setting. I‐O psychology (along with clinical psychology and human factors)
Explain the importance of research
falls into the latter category of being concerned with both
and how it relates to practice.
psychological science and its application.
As its two‐part name implies, the field of I‐O psychology
contains two major divisions: the industrial (or personnel)
and the organizational. Although the contents of the two major divisions overlap
and cannot be easily separated, each developed over time out of different traditions.
Industrial psychology, which was the original name for the field, is the older branch
and tends to take a management perspective of organizational efficiency through
the appropriate use of human resources or people. It is concerned with issues of
efficient job design, employee recruitment and selection, employee training, and
performance appraisal. Organizational psychology developed from the human relations movement in organizations. It is concerned with understanding behavior and
enhancing the well‐being of employees in the workplace. Organizational topics
include employee attitudes, employee behavior, job stress, and leadership. The
major topics of the field, however, cannot easily be characterized as strictly industrial (I) or organizational (O). Motivation, for example, is relevant to the I‐concerns
of employee efficiency and performance, but it is also relevant to the O‐concern
with the happiness and well‐being of employees, as well as understanding human
behavior in organizational settings. Even though the I‐ and O‐areas cannot always be
clearly distinguished, together they suggest the broad nature of the field.
The largest subarea of psychology concerned with the application of scientific
findings is clinical psychology. Clinical psychologists deal with the study and treatment of psychological disorders and problems. Industrial/organizational psychology
is a smaller, but more rapidly growing psychology subfield that is concerned with the
development and application of scientific principles to the workplace. I‐O psychologists do not deal directly with employees’ emotional or personal problems. This
activity falls into the domain of clinical psychology. An I‐O psychologist, however,
might recommend hiring a clinical psychologist to help with such problems as
employee alcoholism or post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The student who studies this chapter
should be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Activities and Settings of I‐O Psychologists
I‐O psychologists do many different jobs in a wide variety of settings. We often divide
I‐O settings into those that are concerned with practice and those that are concerned with scientific research. The practice activities involve the use of psychological principles to solve real‐world problems, such as excessive job stress or poor job
performance. Research provides principles that can be applied in practice. Both
practice and research are equally important within the I‐O field. One major o
bjective
of I‐O psychology is to help organizations function more effectively. In order to do
so, the field must have research findings on which to base practice. Not all research

Activities and Settings of I‐O Psychologists 5

is done with practice in mind, however. Some psychologists study work behavior just
to learn why people do the things they do at work. As with all forms of basic research,
often the findings of such activities can be applied to important human problems.
Although settings can be classified as either practice or research, there is considerable overlap in activities across the two. Many I‐O psychologists in research settings get involved in practice, and psychologists in practice settings do research.
Furthermore, some practice activities require research to determine the best
approach to solve the problem at hand. Existing principles might not be available
in all cases. In fact, I‐O psychologists often don’t have ready‐made answers, but
rather they have the means of finding answers.
Most research settings are the colleges and universities at which I‐O psychologists
are professors. Practice settings include consulting firms, government, the military,
and private corporations. Consulting firms provide I‐O services to organizations
that hire them. Large consulting firms might have hundreds of employees providing services to organizations throughout the world. I‐O psychologists often work for
governments (city, county, state, or national), the military (usually as civilian specialists), and private corporations. I‐O psychologists in each of these practice settings
might be doing the same sorts of activities. Figure 1-1 shows the percentage of I‐O
psychologists found in each of the major settings.
Many I‐O psychologists are college or university professors. Most are in psychology departments, but frequently they can be found in colleges of business administration or other places on campus as well. Although they spend much of their time
doing research and teaching students, they do far more than that. Many are involved
in practice as consultants to organizations, and some have started their own consulting firms to pursue this interest. The following list describes the major activities of
professors:
Teach courses,
Do research,
Write research papers and present them at meetings,
Publish articles in scientific journals,
Provide consulting services to organizations,
Write textbooks,
Mentor graduate and undergraduate students,
Provide information to the public,
Develop courses,
Keep up with their field,
Help administer the teaching function of their university.
Other
5.8%
Consulting firms
31.2%
Universities
39.4%

Go
ver
n

Private
companies
14.3%

nt 9

.3%

FIGURE 1-1 Percentage of I‐O psychologists who work in various settings. Source: From Society for
Industrial and Organizational 2011. SIOP 2011 Membership Survey Report. Bowling Green, Ohio.

6 Chapter 1 Introduction
The basic functions of a professor are to create and disseminate knowledge. Each
activity in this list is concerned with one or both of these functions.
Practicing I‐O psychologists do many of the same things as their academic colleagues, including conducting research and teaching college courses. The major
focus of a practice job, however, is the application of the findings and principles of
the field. The following list of activities shows what practicing I‐O psychologists do:
Analyze the nature of a job (job analysis),
Conduct an analysis to determine the solution to an organizational problem,
Conduct a survey of employee feelings and opinions,
Design an employee performance appraisal system,
Design an employee selection system,
Design a training program,
Develop psychological tests,
Evaluate the effectiveness of an activity or practice, such as a training program,
Implement an organizational change, such as a new reward system for employees
who perform well.
Much of the effort of I‐O psychologists is directed toward enhancing the effectiveness and functioning of organizations. They do so by focusing on several aspects,
including selecting people who are better suited to a job, training people to do a job
better, designing jobs that can be done better, and designing organizations to function better. I‐O psychologists also attempt to change organizations so that they are
healthier and safer places for people to work, even if the effectiveness of the organization is not improved.

I‐O as a Profession
According to the United States Bureau of Labor (2015), I‐O psychology is
the fastest growing occupation on a percentage basis in the United States. It is a
profession that is in many ways like accounting or law. Some states in the United
States require that I‐O psychologists be licensed, but in other states, only clinical
psychologists must be licensed. Likewise, some countries require licensure (e.g., the
United Kingdom), whereas others do not. Many I‐O psychologists work for consulting firms that provide services for a fee to client organizations. These services are
provided in much the same way that an accounting firm or law firm provides them.
I‐O psychologists belong to several professional/scientific societies. The Society
for Industrial and Organizational (SIOP), which is a division of the
American Psychological Association (APA), is the largest organization in the United
States that is comprised entirely of I‐O psychologists. It has more than 8,684 members, with about 46% of them being student affiliates. Although SIOP is an American
association, it is rapidly becoming international, with about 12% of its members
from other countries, which represents a doubling in the international membership
since 2006. The Academy of Management is a larger organization than SIOP, but
the majority of its members are not psychologists. It is comprised of people who
have interests in the broader field of management, mostly professors from colleges
of business administration. Many I‐O psychologists, primarily those who are college
professors, are active members of this organization. In addition to the national associations, there are many regional (e.g., Southern Management Association) and
metropolitan associations of I‐O psychologists. These metropolitan associations can
be found in many areas, including Michigan, New York City, Ottawa, San Francisco,

I‐O as a Science 7

and Washington, DC. The newest American organization relevant to I‐O psychology
is the Society for Occupational Health (SOHP), which was established in
2006. More than half its members are I‐O psychologists who are interested in issues
concerning employee health, safety, and well‐being.
There are also professional associations of I‐O psychologists in many other countries throughout the world. The Australian Psychological Society has the College of
Organisational Psychologists, Canada has its own Society for Industrial and Organi
zational , the British Psychological Society has its Division of Occupational
, and many similar associations exist throughout Europe. Over a dozen of
them have formed the European Association of Work and Organizational
(EAWOP). Also very relevant to I‐O psychologists is the International Association of
Applied , Division of Organizational , which is the largest division. I‐O psychologists from around the world, and especially those with interests in
cross‐cultural and international issues, are members.

I‐O as a Science
Research is one of the major activities of I‐O psychologists. Research can develop
new methods for such activities as selecting and training employees. Often research
is conducted for a specific organization to solve a particular problem—for example,
for a company that has a high employee turnover (quitting) rate. Other research
focuses on understanding some organizational phenomenon, such as the cause of
employee theft or the effect of job attitudes. Results of these sorts of research studies are presented at professional meetings and published in scientific journals.
The national and international associations noted earlier all have conferences,
usually annually, where results of research are presented. The annual meeting of
SIOP, for example, attracts thousands of practitioners and researchers who learn
from one another by discussing and sharing their research findings and ideas.
Practitioners often find such meetings to be a good place to learn about new solutions to their organizational problems. Researchers can find out about the latest
findings before they are published in the scientific journals, and they can find out
about the issues that are of concern to practicing psychologists.
Scientific journals represent the major outlet for research results. Some journals
are produced by professional associations, whereas others are published by private
companies. For example, the Journal of Applied is published by the APA,
and the Journal of Occupational and Organizational is published by the
British Psychological Society. The Journal of Organizational Behavior is published by
John Wiley & Sons, the company that publishes this textbook. Table 1-1 lists the
major journals that publish research on I‐O topics. Most are magazines that publish
four to six issues per year.
I‐O researchers, most of whom are college professors, submit articles for possible
publication to these journals. Their work is then sent to experts in the field for critique. Articles are revised based on the critiques, and often several rounds of revision and resubmission will be necessary before an article is accepted for publication.
Only the 5% to 10% of submitted articles that survive a rigorous peer-review process
will be published in the best journals. Peer review helps maintain high standards for
published work so that the best research makes it into print.
Publication of research papers is a competitive and difficult endeavor. College professors, particularly those without tenure who are at research‐oriented universities,
are under tremendous pressure to be successful at publication. I‐O programs at most

8 Chapter 1 Introduction
TABLE 1-1

Journals That Publish I‐O Research and Theory
Academy of Management Journal
Academy of Management Review
Administrative Science Quarterly
Applied : An International Review
Human Factors
Human Relations
Human Resources Management Review
International Journal of Selection and Assessment
International Review of Industrial and Organizational
Journal of Applied
Journal of and
Journal of Management
Journal of Occupational and Organizational
Journal of Occupational Health
Journal of Organizational Behavior
Journal of Vocational Behavior
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Organizational Research Methods
Personnel
Work & Stress

universities have a “publish or perish” system that requires professors to be active
researchers who contribute to the knowledge base of the field. This is true of all scientific disciplines in most research universities. A publication record in the best journals is a major determiner of career success for a professor, as reflected in the ability
to find a job, earn tenure, get promoted, and receive raises. Keep in mind, however,
that one of the major functions of a university is to create and disseminate new knowledge for the benefit of society, so there is a good reason to emphasize research.

History of the Field of I‐O 1
I‐O psychology is a twentieth‐century invention, with roots in the late 1800s and early
1900s. It has existed almost from the beginning of the psychology field. The first
psychologists to do I‐O work were experimental psychologists who were interested in
applying the new principles of psychology to problems in organizations. Early work
in the United States focused on issues of job performance and organizational efficiency and in the United Kingdom on employee fatigue and health (Kreis, 1995). As
the field matured during the first half of the century, it expanded into most of the
areas that it covers today. Figure 1-2 shows the major events both inside and outside
of the field that contributed to the development of American I‐O psychology.
Two psychologists are credited with being the main founders of the American I‐O
field. Hugo Münsterberg and Walter Dill Scott were both experimental p
sychologists
and university professors who became involved in applying psychology to p
roblems
of organizations. Münsterberg, who immigrated to the United States from Germany,
1

Unless otherwise noted, this section is based on Katzell and Austin’s (1992) history of the I‐O field.

History of the Field of I‐O 9

1990

Americans with Disabilities Act passes

1970

APA adopts the name, Division of Industrial and Organizational

1964

Civil Rights Act passes

1941

World War II war effort begins

1924

Hawthorne studies begin

1921

First I-O Ph.D. is awarded; Psychological Corporation is founded

1917

Mental tests for job placement are developed

1913

First I-O textbook is published

FIGURE 1-2 A time line of major events in the history of American I‐O psychology.

was particularly interested in the selection of employees and the use of the new psychological tests. Landy (1992) posits that Münsterberg’s inability to gain the respect
of colleagues at Harvard University was the motivation for his shift to the emerging
field of industrial psychology. Scott was interested in many of the same things as
Münsterberg, as well as the psychology of advertising. Scott wrote a pioneering textbook, The Theory of Advertising (1903), and Münsterberg wrote the first American I‐O
textbook, and Industrial Efficiency (1913).
A major influence on the I‐O field was the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor, an
engineer who studied employee productivity throughout his career during the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Taylor developed what he called Scientific
Management as an approach to handling production workers in factories. Scientific
Management includes several principles to guide organizational practices. In his
writings, Taylor (1911) suggested the following:
1. Each job should be carefully analyzed so that the optimal way of doing tasks
can be specified.
2. Employees should be selected (hired) according to characteristics that are
related to job performance. Managers should study existing employees to
find out what personal characteristics are important.
3. Employees should be carefully trained to do their job tasks.
4. Employees should be rewarded for their productivity to encourage high levels
of performance.
Though refined over the years, these same ideas are still considered valuable today.
Another influence from the field of engineering can be seen in the work of Frank
and Lillian Gilbreth, a husband‐and‐wife team who studied efficient ways of performing tasks. They combined the fields of engineering and psychology (Frank was
an engineer and Lillian a psychologist) in studying how people perform tasks. Their
best‐known contribution was the time and motion study, which involved measuring
and timing people’s motions in doing tasks with the goal of developing more efficient ways of working. Although the basic ideas were Taylor’s, the Gilbreths refined
and used their new technique to help many organizations (Van De Water, 1997).
Some historians claim that Lillian was the first to receive an American I‐O Ph.D.
(Koppes, 1997) in 1915, although most historians give this distinction to Bruce V.
Moore in 1921. The Gilbreths’ work served as the foundation of what would later
become the field of human factors, which is the study of how best to design technology
for people. In later years, Lillian turned her attention to designing consumer products and invented the foot‐pedal trash can and refrigerator door shelves, among

10 Chapter 1 Introduction
other things (Koppes, 1997). However, the Gilbreths themselves are best known as
the subjects of the popular movie Cheaper by the Dozen, which chronicled their lives
as working parents of 12 children.
World War I saw the beginning of the use of I‐O psychology to assist in the war
effort in both the United Kingdom and the United States. The beginning of I‐O
psychology in the United Kingdom is marked by the establishment of the Health of
Munitions Committee (HMC) in 1915 in order to deal with issues of employee
health, safety, and efficiency that were exacerbated by productivity demands due to
the war (Kries, 1995). In the United States, on the other hand, entry into the war in
1917 encouraged a number of psychologists, led by Robert Yerkes, to offer their
services to the army. The best‐known accomplishment of the group was the development of the Army Alpha and Army Beta group tests for mental ability. One of the
biggest problems for the army was placing new recruits in jobs for which they were
best suited. The newly invented psychological tests seemed to the psychologists to
be an efficient way to solve that problem. This was the first large‐scale application of
psychological testing to place individuals in jobs. It provided a foundation for mass
testing that has been used ever since in educational settings (e.g., the Scholastic
Aptitude Test, SAT) and employment settings.

Charles Myers
(Library of the London
School of Economics &
Political Science, NIIP
Collection)

Hugo Münsterberg
(Stock Montage/Contributor/
Getty Images)

Walter Dill Scott
(Science Source Images)

Frederick Winslow Taylor
(Jacques Boyer/RogerViollet/The Image Works)

Robert Yerkes
(Bettmann/Getty Images,
Inc.)

During the decades between the two world wars, I‐O psychology expanded into
most of the areas that we see today. As organizations grew in size, they began hiring
I‐O psychologists to address many of their increasing employee problems, particularly those that were relevant to productivity in the United States. At the same time,
research on I‐O topics began to accumulate. In 1921 in the United Kingdom, psychologist Charles Myers co‐founded the National Institute of Industrial
(NIIP), an organization devoted to improving efficiency and working conditions of
British employees. Its focus on employee well‐being follows the work of the earlier
HMC and characterizes not only British but also European I‐O psychology from the
early development of the field (Kwiatkowski, Duncan, & Shimmin, 2006). At the
same time, in 1921 Penn State University awarded what many consider the first
American Ph.D. in what was then called industrial psychology to Bruce V. Moore.
I‐O psychologists began organizing into consulting firms that would provide services to organizations for a fee. The most well‐known of these was the American
company Psychological Corporation, founded in 1921 by James McKeen Cattell,
which today is called Harcourt Assessment. One of the most important events of this
period was the Hawthorne studies, which continued for more than 10 years at the
Western Electric Company in the United States.

History of the Field of I‐O 11

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth

(UPI/Corbis Images)

Before the Hawthorne studies, American I‐O psychologists focused almost exclusively on issues of employee productivity and organizational efficiency, including
the assessment of employee abilities and the efficient design of jobs. Although the
Hawthorne researchers set out to study these topics, they quickly discovered what
their British colleagues had previously found (Kwiatkowski et al., 2006): It is difficult
to separate employee productivity from social aspects of organizational life. Their
study of supervision and work groups helped draw attention to the O or organizational side of the field.
The best known of the Hawthorne studies was the investigation of lighting‐level
effects (Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1939). The objective of this study was to determine the lighting level that would produce optimal performance on a factory task.
The researchers conducted an experiment in which a group of employees was taken
to a special room where lighting levels were changed. Lights were made brighter
and dimmer from day to day to see the effects on productivity. The researchers were
surprised to find that over the course of the experiment, productivity increased and
seemed to have little to do with lighting levels. Many explanations of these results
have been advanced and debated. The most frequently discussed is that knowledge
of being in an experiment, or what has come to be called the Hawthorne Effect,
caused increases in performance. Whatever the reason, it seems clear that social
factors can be more important than physical factors in people’s job performance.
World War II had a tremendous stimulating effect on the development of the I‐O
field for countries on both sides of the Atlantic, most notably the United States and
the United Kingdom (Warr, 2007). Psychologists dealt with problems that spanned
the entire scope of both I‐ and O‐work, including the selection of recruits, placement of recruits in different jobs, training, morale, performance appraisal, team
development, and equipment design. Prior to World War II, the APA limited its
interests to experimental psychology and rejected attempts by I‐O psychologists to
make practice, which was considered nonscientific, part of its mission. As a result of
the war, however, the APA opened its doors to applied psychology, and Division 14 of
Industrial and was formed in 1944 (Benjamin, 1997). After the
war, the two areas of industrial and organizational psychology continued to expand.
For example, Arthur Kornhauser conducted research on how work conditions can
have effects on both the mental health and the personal life of employees, thus

12 Chapter 1 Introduction
roducing some of the early American work on what is now called occupational
p
health psychology (Zickar, 2003). In 1970, Division 14 of the APA changed its name
to the Division of Industrial and Organizational and is today called the
Society for Industrial and Organizational (SIOP). The society’s website
(http://www.siop.org) is an important resource for information about the field,
including information about graduate schools, job postings, and society business.
Another event in the United States that helped shape the field of I‐O psychology
was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act set into motion forces that
have had a tremendous impact on how organizations hire and treat employees—not
only in the United States. When discrimination against minorities and women
became illegal, organizations had to change many of their employment practices.
I‐O psychologists were called upon to help develop procedures that would eliminate
discrimination in the workplace. The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) in 1990 extended protection against discrimination to persons with disabilities. Here again I‐O psychologists have been called upon to find ways to eliminate
unlawful discrimination.
The history of the field is full of examples of how I‐O psychologists have helped
improve organizations and work conditions for employees. The field has grown tremendously from an initial focus on efficiency and productivity (especially in the
United States) to include the many diverse areas we find in the field today. I‐O psychology has much to contribute to the operation of organizations and the well‐
being of employees. Its future looks bright, as organizations continue to need help
with employee issues, as discussed throughout this book.

I‐O Beyond the United States
and the United Kingdom
Our discussion of the history of I‐O has focused largely on the United States and to
a lesser extent on the United Kingdom, where the field had its beginnings and most
(but not all) of its early development. However, I‐O psychology exists throughout
the world, and many of its findings and principles have come from other countries.
One indication of both the rapid spread of the field and its globalization can be
seen in the nationalities of authors who publish in what are considered the leading
journals in the field, the U.S.‐based Journal of Applied and Personnel
. Cascio and Aguinis (2008) showed that the percentage of non‐U.S. authors
of papers published in these two journals increased fivefold, from 5% in the mid‐
1960s to 25% in the mid‐2000s. We are seeing increasing numbers of journal articles
coming from Australia, Canada, Greater China, Germany, Israel, Korea, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Scandinavia, and Singapore, just to mention a few
places. Another indication of the spread of I‐O psychology beyond the United States
and the United Kingdom is the increasing number of I‐O master’s and Ph.D. programs outside of these two countries (see Table 1-2). Through the seven editions of
this textbook, the list has continued to grow as new programs are established
throughout the world. Another trend is for researchers to partner across countries
to conduct cross‐cultural research. This work is important because not all principles
used in the West will necessarily work in other countries or cultures. We will discuss
some of these studies throughout the book.
An interesting aspect of the I‐O field internationally is that cultural, historical,
and political conditions helped shape the nature of the field and the sorts of things

I‐O Beyond the United States and the United Kingdom 13
TABLE 1-2

A Sample of Universities Outside the United States That Offer
Graduate Degrees in I‐O
Country

University

Australia

Curtin University
Griffith University
Macquarie University
Monash University
Murdoch University
University of South Australia
University of New South Wales
University of Queensland

Belgium

Free University of Brussels
University of Ghent
University of Leuven
University of Liege
University of Louvain

Brazil

Federal University of Minas Gerais
University of Sao Paulo

Canada

Queen’s University
St. Mary’s University
University of Calgary
University of Guelph
University of Moncton
University of Montreal
University of Quebec in Montreal
University of Waterloo
University of Western Ontario
University of Windsor
Wilfrid Laurier University

China

Beijing Normal University
Beijing University
China Eastern Normal University
Institute of , Chinese Academy of Science
South China University
Southwest University
Zhejiang University

Costa Rica

Latin University of Costa Rica
University Autonoma Monterrey
(continued)

14 Chapter 1 Introduction
TABLE 1-2

(continued)

A Sample of Universities Outside the United States That Offer
Graduate Degrees in I‐O
Country

University

England

Exeter University
Liverpool John Moores University
Queen’s University of Belfast
University of Gloucestershire
University of Hull
University of London Birkbeck College
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
University of Nottingham
University of Sheffield
University of Surrey

France

University of Bordeaux
University of Paul Valéry Montpellier
University of Provence Aix‐Marseille

Germany

Technical University of Dresden
University of Frankfurt
University of Giessen
University of Konstanz
University of Mainz
University of Mannheim
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
University of Potsdam

Hong Kong

Chinese University of Hong Kong
Lingnan University

Ireland

University College Dublin
University of Limerick

Israel

Bar‐Ilan University
Technion—Israel Institute of Technology

Italy

University of Bologna
University of Padova
University of Rome Sapienza

Korea

Hoseo University
Kwangwoon University
Sungkyunkwan University
Yonsei University

Latvia

University of Latvia

Lithuania

Mykolas Romeris University

I‐O Beyond the United States and the United Kingdom 15
TABLE 1-2

(continued)

A Sample of Universities Outside the United States That Offer
Graduate Degrees in I‐O
Country

University

Netherlands

Free University of Amsterdam
University of Amsterdam
University of Groningen
University of Nijmegen
University of Tilburg

New Zealand

Massey University
University of Auckland
University of Canterbury
University of Waikato

Philippines

Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology

Portugal

ISCTE Lisbon University Institute

Puerto Rico

Carlos Albizu University
Interamerican University of Puerto Rico
Pontifical Catholic University

Romania

Alexandru Ioan Cruza University
Babes‐Bolyai University
University of Bucharest
West University

Russia

Moscow State University

Scotland

Heriot‐Watt University/University of Strathclyde
University of Aberdeen

Singapore

Singapore Management University

South Africa

University of Stellenbosch
University of Witwatersrand

Spain

Complutense University
University of Barcelona
University of Santiago
University of Valencia

Sweden

Stockholm University
University of Lund

Switzerland

University of Bern
University of Fribourg
University of Neuchatel
University of Zurich

Taiwan

National Chengchi University
National Taiwan University

Turkey

Koc University
Middle East Technical University

16 Chapter 1 Introduction
that are studied, giving each country its own I‐O flavor (Warr, 2007). Zickar and
Gibby (2007) noted that American I‐O psychology has historically focused on
employee productivity and the assessment of individual differences that can be used
for employee selection (see Chapters 5 and 6). Warr (2007) contrasted the American
perspective with that of the United Kingdom, noting that the latter had a much
greater focus on employee health and well‐being. In recent decades, the rapid globalization of the world economy and widespread electronic communication have
meant cross‐fertilization of the field across countries and a greater convergence of
ideas and methods. Some of the large American I‐O consulting firms, such as
Development Dimensions International and PDI Ninth House, established offices
around the world, which both introduced American I‐O methods overseas and
introduced the methods from overseas to the United States.

What It Takes to Become an
I‐O Psychologist
The most common route to becoming an I‐O psychologist in the U.S. is to earn a
graduate degree (master’s or Ph.D.) in I‐O psychology from one of the many I‐O
psychology graduate programs. Many people who do I‐O work have other backgrounds, such as in other areas of psychology or in business administration. Some
of these people consider themselves to be I‐O psychologists and may hold jobs with
that title. In the United States, practitioners might have an M.A. or Ph.D. degree,
but opportunities and salaries are better with a Ph.D. To become a college professor,
however, one must have a Ph.D.
In some countries, such as Canada, the situation is similar to that in the United
States. However, in other places, as in much of Europe, the Ph.D. is not as common
as the master’s degree. Rather, the master’s degree is considered a practice degree,
whereas the Ph.D. is a research credential. An individual who wishes to be a practitioner will likely have only the master’s degree. If one continues on to earn a Ph.D.,
he or she is most likely to be interested in research and will be found in a research
institute or a university. It is possible for a practitioner to have a Ph.D., but it is not
considered as important as in the United States and Canada.
Table 1-3 lists master’s and Ph.D. programs throughout the United States, and
Table 1-2 lists a sample of graduate programs (both master’s and Ph.D.) from other
countries. As the size of the lists may suggest, the United States is the world leader
in terms of the number of programs, but there are many fine I‐O programs throughout the rest of the world. I‐O psychology has spread throughout the world—mainly,
but not exclusively, in developed countries that have large organizations.
Admission to American graduate programs is quite competitive, especially for the
well‐established Ph.D. programs. (A guide to graduate school preparation and application is available online at www.wiley.com/college/spector.) Most base admission
largely, but not exclusively, on undergraduate grade point average (usually just the
junior and senior years) and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores. Prior
applied and research experience can be important, especially for top Ph.D. programs. Letters of recommendation from faculty members are usually required. I‐O
graduate programs are challenging and require skills in both communication
(verbal and written) and mathematics. Thus to do well, a student should properly
prepare as an undergraduate. A solid background in basic mathematics (i.e., algebra)
and statistics is a good start. Good basic communication skills, especially writing, are
also valuable. It is always wise to take a course in I‐O psychology before making the

What It Takes to Become an I‐O Psychologist 17
TABLE 1-3

Universities in the United States With Graduate Programs in I‐O
State

M.A. Program

Ph.D. Program

Alabama

University of Alabama in Huntsville

Auburn University

California

California State University
Long Beach
Sacramento
San Bernardino
Golden Gate University
San Diego State University
San Francisco State University
San Jose State University
Sonoma State University

Alliant International University

Colorado
Connecticut

Colorado State University
Fairfield University
University of Hartford
University of New Haven

District of Columbia

University of Connecticut

George Washington University

Florida

Carlos Albizu University
Florida Institute of Technology
Florida International University
University of Central Florida
University of West Florida

Florida Institute of Technology
Florida International University
University of Central Florida
University of South Florida

Georgia

Valdosta State College

Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Georgia

Illinois

Adler School of Professional
Chicago School of Professional
Elmhurst College
Illinois State University
Roosevelt University
Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville

Chicago School of Professional

DePaul University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Northern Illinois University
Roosevelt University
University of Illinois Urbana‐Champaign
Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Indiana

Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis

Purdue University

Iowa

University of Northern Iowa

Kansas

Emporia State University

Kentucky

Eastern Kentucky University
Northern Kentucky University
Western Kentucky University

Louisiana

Louisiana Technological University

Louisiana State University
Louisiana Technological University

Maryland

University of Baltimore

University of Maryland

Massachusetts

Salem State University
Springfield College

Michigan

University of Detroit–Mercy
Wayne State University
Western Michigan University

Kansas State University

Central Michigan University
Michigan State University
University of Michigan
Wayne State University
(continued)

18 Chapter 1 Introduction
TABLE 1-3

(continued)

Universities in the United States With Graduate Programs in I‐O
State

M.A. Program

Ph.D. Program

Minnesota

Minnesota State University
St. Cloud State University

University of Minnesota

Mississippi

William Carey College on the Coast

University of Southern Mississippi

Missouri

Missouri State University

St. Louis University
University of Missouri–St. Louis

Nebraska

University of Nebraska at Omaha

New Jersey

Fairleigh Dickinson University
Kean University
Montclair State University

New York

Baruch College, CUNY
Columbia University, Teachers College
Hofstra University
Iona College
New York University

Baruch College, CUNY
Columbia University, Teachers College
Hofstra University
University of Albany, SUNY

North Carolina

Appalachian State University
East Carolina University

North Carolina State University
University of North Carolina–Charlotte

Ohio

Cleveland State University
University of Akron
Wright State University
Xavier University

Bowling Green State University
Ohio University
Union Institute and University
University of Akron
Wright State University

Oklahoma

University of Tulsa

University of Oklahoma
University of Tulsa

Oregon

Portland State University

Pennsylvania

West Chester University

Penn State University
Temple University

South Carolina

Clemson University

Tennessee

Middle Tennessee State University
University of Tennessee–Chattanooga

University of Memphis

Texas

Angelo State University
Lamar University
Saint Mary’s University
University of Houston Clear Lake City
University of Texas Arlington

Rice University
Texas A & M University
University of Houston
University of Texas Arlington

Virginia

George Mason University
Radford University

George Mason University
Old Dominion University
Virginia Technological University

Washington

Central Washington University
Seattle Pacific University

Seattle Pacific University
Washington State University

West Virginia

Marshall University

Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin–Stout

Source: Retrieved May 23, 2013, from Society for Industrial and Organizational website: http://www.siop.org/gtp/gtpLookup.asp.
Note: Includes applied psychology, organizational psychology, and other similar psychology programs.

What It Takes to Become an I‐O Psychologist 19

choice to pursue this career. Interestingly, many students enter graduate school
without having taken this course. Finally, a good background in basic psychology
will make things easier. Students who have other undergraduate majors and don’t
have this background find they have a lot of catching up to do, especially in the
first year.
The training of I‐O psychologists includes both the practice and the research
sides of the field. An I‐O psychologist is trained to be a scientist‐practitioner, or
someone who is able to conduct scientific research and apply principles to problems
of organizations. Students are exposed to procedures for applying principles of the
field, as well as to research methodology. The specific content and emphasis can
differ among graduate programs, especially when comparing these programs across
countries. There are many excellent programs offering terminal master’s degrees to
people who do not wish to spend the extra years it would take to earn the Ph.D.
These programs offer training that is usually oriented more toward practice than
science, in part because they do not have sufficient time to cover each side of the
field in depth and in part because they are intended to train practitioners. The
Ph.D. programs can offer a better balance between practice and science because
they take over twice as long to complete. These programs train people to be both
practitioners and researchers.
A master’s degree can be completed in about two years, while a Ph.D. can be
completed in about four to six years by a person who has a bachelor’s degree.
Programs vary, but a master’s program will include coursework on research methodology and the various areas of the I‐O field, which will be discussed in this book.
A Ph.D. program covers the same areas, as well as general psychology and more
extensive research methodologies. For this degree, the Society for Industrial and
Organizational (1985) suggests a list of areas that should be covered that
includes each of the chapters in this book. In addition, there is practicum experience working in an organizational setting with a practicing I‐O psychologist and
research experience (e.g., a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation) done under the
supervision of a committee of I‐O faculty members.
The job market for I‐O psychologists in the United States has been excellent,
although it does fluctuate with general economic conditions. Surveys of I‐O psychologists done by the APA over the years have generally found less than 1% unemployment among those who wish to work. Khanna and Medsker (2010) reported the
results of a salary survey of SIOP members’ incomes in 2009. The median salary was
$74,500 per year for individuals with a master’s degree and $105,000 per year for
those with a Ph.D. Salary varied by region of the country, type of employment, and
industry. For example, individuals with their own consulting firms had the highest
median income ($184,000). College professors working in psychology departments
earned less than those working for business schools, and college professors in
departments that had doctoral programs earned more than professors in departments that did not. The median starting salary for a new Ph.D. was $75,000 per year
and for a new M.A. $55,000. Women earned 16.4% less than men on average, but
this difference was accounted for by factors other than gender itself. For example,
female I‐O psychologists on average have less job experience than males because
until relatively recently I‐O psychology was a predominantly male profession, and
women are less likely to have a Ph.D. Finally, it should be kept in mind that these are
median salaries, meaning that half the people make more and half less than
these numbers.
The gender distribution of I‐O psychology has been becoming increasingly
balanced in the numbers of men and women. In the 1960s, only about 8% of Ph.D.s

20 Chapter 1 Introduction
in I‐O psychology were awarded to women. Interestingly, prior to 1930, women
comprised a much higher proportion of practicing I‐O psychologists than they did
in 1960. Although accurate estimates of numbers are impossible to make (Koppes,
1997), women may have comprised as much as 25% of the I‐O psychologists in the
1920s. In the past few decades, women have entered the field in increasing numbers,
and today they earn about half or more of the Ph.D.s awarded in the United States.
The membership of SIOP in 2006 was 36.7% female, which represents a sizeable
increase over the 1960s. This trend can also be found elsewhere in the world.

Ethics of the I‐O Field
has had a long tradition of concern with ethical behavior and the welfare of people. I‐O psychologists in the United States follow an ethical code that has
been developed over the years by the APA. The code includes both ethical principles and statements of appropriate professional conduct. Although the association
has little enforcement power other than to terminate a psychologist’s membership,
most I‐O psychologists are guided by these principles in their professional work.
The basic philosophy of the ethical code is that psychologists should do their best
to avoid harming other people through their professional work. This means that a
psychologist should avoid committing any illegal or immoral act that might harm
someone either physically or psychologically. On the other hand, psychologists have
a social responsibility to use their talents to help other people. In other words, the
goal of the profession is to improve the human condition through the application
of psychology. For the I‐O psychologist, this means helping to improve o
rganizations
so that they function better and helping to improve the well‐being of employees.
The APA ethical code contains six principles, each of which is listed in Table 1-4.
As you can see from the table, these principles are concerned with basic ethical
standards of honesty, integrity, respect for others, and responsibility. The code also
contains a detailed list of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors; too long to
reprint here, they can be found on the APA website at http://www.apa.org/ethics.
Many psychologists follow the code of ethics of the Academy of Management.
Although it is somewhat different from the APA code, the two codes are compatible. The Academy of Management code deals with standards of behavior for its
TABLE 1-4

Six Ethical Principles from the American Psychological
Association Code
Competence: A psychologist only does work that he or she is competent to perform.
Integrity: Psychologists are fair and honest in their professional dealings with others.
Professional and Scientific Responsibility: Psychologists maintain high standards of
professional behavior.
Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity: Psychologists respect the rights of confidentiality
and privacy of others.
Concern for Other’s Welfare: Psychologists attempt to help others through their
professional work.
Social Responsibility: Psychologists have a responsibility to use their skills to benefit society.
Source: From “Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct,” by the American Psychological
Association, 1992, American Psychologist, 47, pp. 1597–1611.

Chapter Summary 21

embers in three domains of organizational work—practice, research, and teachm
ing. It, too, is based on the principles that one does not harm others and that one
has the responsibility to use his or her talents to benefit society.

Humanitarian Work
For the most part, I‐O psychology is a field that developed in the Western developed
world, where organizations have the resources to hire I‐O psychologists as consultants. In much of the world, however, people live in poverty, work in unhealthy conditions, and have received little benefit from the accumulated knowledge from the I‐O
field or the expertise of practicing I‐O psychologists. The humanitarian work psychology movement is an attempt to remedy this problem by mobilizing I‐O psychologists to use their skills in efficiently running organizations to help reduce poverty
and promote health and well‐being in the workplace in countries where large numbers of people lack access to economic and workplace well‐being (Thompson &
Gloss, 2014). The Global Task Force for Humanitarian Work is a group
of psychologists who are finding ways to link I‐O psychology with development agencies like the United Nations and governments of developing countries so that their
expertise can be brought to bear on these problems (Berry, Reichman, Klobas,
MacLachlan, Hui, & Carr, 2011). M.O.N. Berry et al. (2011) explain that I‐O psychologists have a great deal to offer the humanitarian effort with their expertise in assessing people’s needs for specific programs and interventions, evaluating how well
programs work, developing strategies for implementing programs, and determining
how best to handle a variety of issues concerning people at work. Much of this work
can involve helping humanitarian agencies to work more effectively. For example,
I‐O selection procedures (see Chapters 5 and 6) can be very useful in choosing which
volunteers can be psychologically resilient enough to handle field assignments as aid
workers under adverse circumstances, such as following a disaster (Berry et al., 2011).

Chapter Summary
The field of industrial/organizational (I‐O) psychology is one of the major areas of
psychology. It is a diverse field concerned with the human side of organizations. The
I‐O field can be divided into two major areas. The industrial side is concerned with
organizational efficiency through the appraisal, selection, and training of people
and the design of jobs. The organizational side is concerned with understanding the
behavior of people on the job and protecting their health, safety, and well‐being.
I‐O psychology is both a practice and a science. Most I‐O psychologists can be found
working for organizations to address issues and problems involving people. They are
practitioners who work either as consultants to many organizations or as employees of
a single organization. A little over a third of I‐O psychologists are college professors
(see Figure 1‐1), most of whom conduct research to develop better methods and
procedures to deal with employee problems at work or to understand employee behavior.
An I‐O psychologist needs to earn a graduate degree from an I‐O psychology
program in a university. Many such programs may be found throughout the United
States and the rest of the industrialized world—for example, Australia, Canada,
China, Europe, Israel, New Zealand, and South Africa—with new programs being
added in other places. Although the field began largely in the United States and the
United Kingdom, it has rapidly expanded throughout most of the world. Many of

22 Chapter 1 Introduction
the findings discussed in this book have come from studies done with organizations
and people throughout the world.
There are many associations of I‐O psychologists (and others with similar interests) that allow for the dissemination of ideas and research findings of the field.
This is done by holding conventions and by publishing scientific journals. These
associations also have developed codes of ethical conduct for their members. For
example, both the Academy of Management and the American Psychological
Association have published ethical standards. The basic philosophy in these ethical
codes is that I‐O psychologists should take care not to harm anyone and that I‐O
psychologists have a social responsibility to use their skills to benefit others.

Lea r ni ng by D o i ng
Graduate Study in I‐O

2. How many faculty are in the program?

Go to the SIOP website, http://www.siop.org. Go to
“Graduate Training Program University Listing” and choose
the program of your choice (they are listed by university).
Click on the university name and review the information
provided here, as well as on the program’s own site. Answer
the following questions:

3. How many students are there?

1. What is the focus of the program (i.e., what does the
description say the program is about)?

4. How many of the faculty are cited in this textbook
(check the Author Index)?

Advantages of Association Membership
Go to the SIOP website, http://www.siop.org. From the
material there, list the advantages to psychologists and
students of being a member of the association.

CH A P TE R 2

Research Methods in I‐O
Imagine that you are a practicing I‐O psychologist working

OUTLINE
Research Questions
Important Research Design
Concepts
Variables
Research Setting
Generalizability
Control
Random Assignment and Random
Selection
Confounding
Research Designs
Experiments
Survey Designs
Experience Sampling
Observational Designs
Qualitative Studies
Measurement
Classical Measurement Theory
Reliability
Validity

Descriptive
Regression
Inferential
Meta‐Analysis
Mediator and Moderator Variables

for a company. You are assigned the task of determining if
a new training program is producing better performance in
employees. Perhaps employees are being trained in the use
of a new Web-based system that is supposed to increase
employee productivity. How would you go about finding out
if the training works? Would you review the program and see
if it looks as if it should be effective, or would you conduct a
research study and collect data on job performance?
The problem with the first approach is that a training
program that looks as if it should be effective does not always
produce the desired results. The only way to be certain that
training accomplishes its purpose is to conduct a research
study. Conducting a study to determine training effectiveness
requires knowledge of research methodology, a topic in
which I‐O psychologists today are extensively trained. Whether
an I‐O psychologist is in a job that involves primarily practice,
or research, he or she needs to know the methods that are
used for conducting studies.
Research is the foundation of both the applied practice
and the science of I‐O. In many applied jobs, I‐O psychologists are hired to provide research skills, so that questions
concerning whether or not programs work can be determined scientifically. This is important for evaluating the success of o
rganizational practices, such as training programs.
Research is also important for the development of new practices, such as procedures for hiring people.
I‐O psychology is a science because the methods
used to expand knowledge of organizational phenomena
are s cientific methods. This means that the I‐O psychologist

24 Chapter 2 Research Methods in I‐O
gathers data or information in a systematic way to address

Research Ethics and Integrity
Research Ethics
Research Integrity
Chapter Summary
Learning by Doing

research questions of interest, such as these:
“Does the training program work?”
“Will the new absence policy result in better
employee attendance?”
Each scientific study begins with a research question,
which defines the purpose of the study. An investigation is
planned using a particular design or structure in which data

are collected. For example, in a simple experiment to test a training program, you
might divide a sample of employees into two groups, only one of which receives the
training. After the training has been completed, the two groups would be compared
on their job performance. This basic experiment defines one of the simplest designs
for an investigation. Data would be collected on performance and analyzed using a
statistical test, which, in this case, would probably be a t ‐ test. (See the discussion of
inferential statistics later in this chapter.) Conclusions would be drawn concerning the
effects of the training by considering statistical results in the context of the investigation’s design. With the training program, it is hoped that the trained group will perform
better than the nontrained group after the training has been completed. If this were
the finding, one feasible conclusion would be that the training worked. In any given
study, however, there can be many competing explanations for results, which must
be addressed with further research. In the training study, perhaps the trained people
performed better because they felt that management was paying attention to them
and not because the training itself was effective, which is similar to what happened
in the Hawthorne studies that we discussed in Chapter 1. With organizational studies
(as well as those in any science), one cannot always be certain why results occurred,
but with proper research design, competing explanations can be eliminated.
This chapter covers the four major components of a research study. First, it
discusses the nature of research questions, and how they
are refined into testable research hypotheses. Second, it

OBJECTIVES
The student who studies this chapter
should be able to:
1. Explain the major concepts of
research design.
2. Describe the major types of research
designs and list their advantages and
limitations.

reviews several types of research designs, and how they are
used as the basis of organizational research studies. Third,
it addresses the basic principles of measurement, which
determine how observations of the phenomena of interest
are collected. Fourth, it shows how statistics are used to draw
conclusions from the data of an investigation. In addition,
this chapter reviews the major principles of research ethics.

3. Discuss the types of reliability
and validity.
4. Explain how inferential statistics
can be used to draw conclusions
about data.
5. State the major principles of
research ethics.

Research Questions
Every study begins with a research question. This is true for
studies done by practicing I‐O psychologists, whose ques
tions address the immediate issues for an organization, such

Important Research Design Concepts 25

as the effectiveness of a procedure or program. It is just as true for I‐O researchers,
whose questions address s cientifically important issues, even if they are not of imme
diate concern to any particular organization.
Research questions can be general or specific. A general question would be
“What causes people to like or dislike their jobs?”
The problem with this sort of question is that it is not sufficiently specific to
rovide the basis of a study. Too many different factors could be studied as possible
p
influences on liking or disliking a job. To be useful, the question should specify
exactly what is being studied. A better question that is more specific is
“Does level of pay affect how much people like their jobs?”
This question specifies the particular factor that might influence liking or dislik
ing a job. It tells the researcher exactly what to study as a possible cause for liking or
disliking a job. To address this question, the researcher needs to assess people’s pay
levels, and their feelings about their jobs.
As we will see in Chapter 9, pay itself is not as important as the fairness of pay poli
cies. People tend to be satisfied when they believe that they have been treated fairly
when it comes to pay. They will be dissatisfied if they believe they have been unfairly
treated, even if their pay is very high. Thus, the amount of pay is not necessarily the
most important factor.
Many investigations go beyond raising questions by stating specific theoretical
hunches, or hypotheses, about the outcomes of a study. A hypothesis is the research
er’s best guess about what the results of a study will be. Rather than merely raising
the question, the hypothesis is a theoretical answer. Thus, one might hypothesize that
“People who are well paid will like their jobs better than people who are not.”
or
“People who are fairly paid will like their jobs more than people who are not.”
The hypothesis is a statement of the results that the researcher expects to find.
Research studies are conducted to confirm hypotheses. In other words, do the
results come out the way they were predicted?
Most hypotheses and research questions come from prior research and theory.
Although occasionally a researcher will have a sudden inspirational research idea,
most studies and theories come from hard work in studying the research literature
of an area. This is the way that all sciences advance and evolve, as individual studies
become the foundations for later work. The best advice one can give a new researcher
is to look to other people’s research for new hypotheses and research questions.
The hypothesis and research question are the basis of the study, and in some ways
its most critical aspect. Without a specific and well‐formulated question, it is difficult
to design a study that will adequately address it. The question defines the goal, or
objective, of the study, as well as the phenomena of interest. When both are known,
the researcher can design the study and choose the measurement techniques much
more easily than when he or she has only an imprecise idea of what he or she is
trying to accomplish.

Important Research Design Concepts
The design of an investigation specifies the structure of the study. A large number
of common designs are used in organizational research. Each has its own particular
strengths and weaknesses, so that no design is necessarily superior to the others.

26 Chapter 2 Research Methods in I‐O
Before discussing the various types of designs, we will define several concepts that
must be understood first.

Variables
Variables are the basic building blocks of a design. A variable is an attribute or char
acteristic of people or things that can vary (take on different values). People’s abili
ties (e.g., intelligence), attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction), behavior (e.g., absence
from work), and job performance (e.g., weekly sales) are all common variables in
organizational research. Every subject’s standing on each variable is quantified
(converted to numbers) so that statistical methods can be applied.
Variables can be classified into one of two types. In experiments, independent
variables are those that are manipulated by the researcher, while dependent variables are those that are assessed in response to the independent variables. In other
words, the independent variables are assumed to be the cause of the dependent
variables. In the training program example, employees were assigned to either a
group that was trained or a group that was not trained. Group assignment (trained
or not trained) is the independent variable. It is manipulated because the researcher
creates the training and decides who does and does not get trained. Subsequent job
performance is the dependent variable because it is not manipulated by the
researcher but is merely assessed after training. In other words, the dependent vari
ables “is dependent on” on the independent variable.

Research Setting
The research setting can be classified as either a field or a laboratory. A field setting
is one in which the phenomenon of interest naturally occurs. Organizations are
field settings in which to study employee behavior. Laboratory settings are artificial
environments in which phenomena of interest do not normally occur. They occur
only because the researcher created them in that setting. The same physical loca
tion can be the setting for either a field or a laboratory study, depending on what is
studied. A university classroom is a field setting in which to study student learning,
but a laboratory setting in which to study reactions to job conditions.
Most I‐O research occurs in organizational field settings, but some of it takes
place in the laboratory as well. Dipboye (1990) reported that 29% of I‐O studies
published in major I‐O journals are laboratory studies, and Shen, Kiger, Davies,
Rasch, Simon, and Ones (2011) found in their analysis of one leading I‐O journal
that 40% of studies used college students as subjects. Most likely, most of the college
student samples were from laboratory studies. Laboratory studies can be used to
address many aspects of work. For example, researchers sometimes create simulated
job conditions to test people’s reactions. Taken together, the results of both field
and laboratory studies help enhance our understanding of organizational pheno
mena (Dipboye, 1990).

Generalizability
Generalizability of results means that the conclusions of a study can be extended to
other groups of people, organizations, settings, or situations. Generalizability is
often a concern with laboratory studies because we cannot be certain that the results
will hold for organizational field settings. The more dissimilar the study is to the

Important Research Design Concepts 27

organizational setting, in terms of both conditions and subjects, the less confidence
there can be in the generalizability of the results. The only sure way to be certain
about generalizability is to replicate the study in the field setting. If the results in the
laboratory are also found in the field, we can have confidence in the generalizability
of the laboratory findings.
Generalizability can also be a concern in field studies, because studies done in
one organization, or with one group of subjects, might not have the same results in
other places or with other groups of subjects. For example, a study done with nurses
in a hospital might have different results from the same study done with physicians.
Furthermore, results found in a hospital might be different from results found in a
factory. Of even greater concern is generalizability across countries and cultures. We
cannot be certain that the findings from all of our American and Western research
will generalize to countries with different cultures, such as China or India. Finally,
even if we wish to generalize only within a single occupation in a single organization,
conditions of the study might hold only for the setting in which the study is con
ducted. A training program conducted as part of a study might differ somewhat
from a program that is implemented throughout an organization. Trainees and
trainers can be affected by knowing they are participants in a research study, just as
in the Hawthorne studies we discussed in Chapter 1. This knowledge can motivate
the trainers to perform their training tasks in a more effective way than they would
if the training was for other purposes. Thus, a training program might work well in
the research phase but not in the implementation phase of a training develop
ment project.

Control
Every study offers several possible explanations for why the results occurred. A control refers to procedures that allow researchers to rule out explanations for results
other than the hypotheses they wish to test. For example, suppose we wish to find
out if salary affects how much people like their jobs. We could conduct a survey of
employees in various organizations, asking them how much they are paid and how
much they like their jobs. We might find that the higher the salary, the greater the
liking. However, with this sort of design, there are many uncontrolled variables that
might be the real cause of liking. For example, perhaps the higher‐paid people are in
different types of jobs than

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