Industrial Organizational is an interdisciplinary field that draws not only from all of psychology, but also from business, engineering, health science, education, design and other behavioral sciences. What are the three most relevant fields (outside of psychology) to the field of organizational behavior?

1.    Industrial Organizational is an interdisciplinary field that draws not only from all of psychology, but also from business, engineering, health science, education, design and other behavioral sciences.  What are the three most relevant fields (outside of psychology) to the field of organizational behavior?

    Psychology as a discipline helps in understanding the mental and behavioral functions of persons from a scientific perspective. As such, understanding these traits helps in evaluating the needs and developing a conceptual model for the organization. On the other hand, industrial organization is a discipline that incorporates, a range of disciplines. From my opinion and based on the research I carried out, I believe that the disciplines involved include, and not limited to the following. Economics and in particular the area of finance has a model that fits well in the industrial organization. It is evident that any organization must have a financial department in order to perform efficiently and effectively. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a conceptual model for the financial model was developed known as the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). The model circulated more widely through the field of economics profession. The model had an insight that utilized a psychology aspect. For example, it is argued that in the context where investors would hold a diversified portfolio of assets rationally, the measure of the riskiness of the asset was a covariance of its returns. Here the broad market returns would be used rather than just the own variance of the returns of the asset.

    Business and in particular the area of marketing is another area where the principles of psychology come into play. Marketing is more than just convincing the buyer on why they should buy a certain product and forego another. Outlining and offering the benefits of the products is not the only effective baseline of winning new clients. The need to maintain a constant influx of returning customers is essential in promoting the brand in the sale and the market of the product. Therefore, the principles of psychology where playing with the mind of the consumer prove to be important. A good example in this case is evaluating multinational brands such as Coca-Cola. It is engraved in the minds of the consumers that the brand is superior as compared to its competitors. The psychological influence that comes with a superior brand is a major reason this brand has been performing extremely well in the market as compared to its competitors. The effect of psychology in the industry cannot be overlooked.

    Organizational behavior is also affected to a great extent by design principles and ergonomics. The production of goods and service have to meet certain standards. It is this standards that in most cases influence the decision of the buyers. The benefits that they will deduce from buying the product are paramount to the process of decision making. Design as a behavioral science applies the principles of physiology in incorporating the needs of the consumer to the output of the final product. The above is achieved through an evaluation of the needs of the client and incorporating these needs to the expected performance of the designed product. A good example of this incorporation is the design of products such as clothes, shoes and office furniture.

2.    Human factors are one of the fastest growing areas of psychology and are one of the few areas where a master’s degree is considered the standard for getting a senior level appointment in industry.  You are asked to describe the field and its relationship to more traditional areas of psychology (e.g. social, developmental, cognitive, clinical, physiological, etc.) to psychology majors who do not want to go on to a doctorate and are considering other career options.

    As one of the fastest growing areas of psychology, human factors are a discipline that any psychology major should consider advancing. Compared to other areas of psychology, traditional forms in the field have not been scrapped from the field. Areas of social, development, clinical, cognitive and physiological among others have been incorporated in the model of human factors. Areas of design and in particular comfort design, user-friendly systems and functional design are also aspects in the human factors consideration. As an area in psychology, the practice of designing systems and products must be effective and provide an interaction between the people that use them and the ergonomics of designs. As a multidisciplinary discipline, human factors borrow largely from the field of psychology and as such; the field marks a proper foundation for the development and advancement in one’s career.

    The understanding of the interaction between humans and systems and proper effectiveness is studied in this field. The discipline has a variety of application since it is evident that systems are being developed in all fields. The student can engage in the development process and curve their way in either studying the internal or external factors that influence the development of the systems.  Human factors and ergonomics involves an evaluation of the fit between the environment, the user, and the system. As such the discipline does not compress the area of study of the student making it a good fit, study area and undertaking.  The ability of the field to offer interaction of the users, systems, and the environment can be explicitly compared with the traditional aspect of social and developmental studies in psychology.

    A reliable academic pursuit is determined by the opportunities it offers the students after a successful completion of the course. Human factors are an effective undertaking as they offer a variety of applicable areas making it an effective undertaking. As compared to traditional disciplines in the field of psychology, it is evident that the study incorporates these studies making it an effective area of study.

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