Careers in Occupational and Organisational Psychology Ruth

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Careers in Occupational and Organisational
PsychologyRuth MullallyOrganisational
PsychologistAllied Irish Banks (AIB)www.aib.ie
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Overview

• What is Org/Occ Psychology?
• Masters Courses
• Subjects covered in Masters course
• Possible Careers
• What do Org/Occ psychologists do
• Other careers open to occupational psychologists
• More Information

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What is Org/Occ Psychology?

• Referred to variously as Occupational /
  Organisational / Work / Industrial Psychology
• Org/Occ psychology is mainly concerned with 2
  things
• (i) maximising the performance and efficiency
• (ii) maximising the level of satisfaction
  engagement
• Why Organisational/Occupational?

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Masters Courses in Org/Occ Psych

• Dublin City University - MSc Work and
  Organisational 2 year part-time. Next intake
  2009.
• University of Limerick - MSc in Work
  Organisational Psychology (1 year full time and
  2 years part time options)
• University of Cork Proposed MA in Occupational
  Organisational Psychology (1 year full time and
  2 years part time options)
• University College Dublin MA Social and
  Organisational 1 year full-time (no intake for
  2009)
• Entry requirement 21 honours degree plus work
  experience preferable. (22 plus 3 years
  experience also considered)
• UK courses contact www.bps.org.uk
• e.g. Leicester 2 year MSc by distance learning
• www.le.ac.uk/graduateoffice/pgprospectus/courses/
  distance/psychology/occupational.html

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What Masters subjects do you study?

• Organisational Behaviour Psychology
• Human Resources Development
• Psychometric Testing
• Recruitment, Selection and Assessment
• Performance Appraisal Career Development
• Counselling and Vocational Guidance
• Social Psychology
• Industrial Relations / Employee Relations
• The Changing Face of Work New Technology
• Health Psychology and Stress
• Design of Environment and Work Health and Safety
  / Ergonomics

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Career Opportunities for Occ/Org Psychologists

• large multi-nationals Banking / Financial
  Services often work in the areas of Human
  Resources or Learning and Development
• Public Sector Departments such as the Public
  Appointments Service, (manages recruitment of
  Civil Servants)
• Private sector consultancy / management
  consultancy
• Associates / Consultants (self-employed)

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What do Org/Occ Psychs do?

• Work with individuals and organisations at each
  stage of the career life cycle designing and
  delivering programmes including
• Recruitment and Selection Programmes
• Career Development Programmes
• Ongoing Professional (and Personal) Development
  including Coaching, Mentoring and Leadership
  Programmes
• Induction Training / Training and Development
• Workplace Counselling including Stress Management
• Employee Assistance Programmes
• Redundancy Counselling / Outplacement Programmes
• Workplace Research and internal consultancy
• Organisational Change / Organisational
  Development

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Some real examples of workplace projects
include

• Designing a selection centre with a job analysis
  of role appropriate questions
• Developing conducting training programmes,
  evaluating their effectiveness
• Responsible for talent management succession
  planning within an organisation
• Coaching and mentoring employees
• Teaching the skills necessary for leadership,
  teamwork, negotiation, assertiveness, conflict
  management
• Assessing how individuals cope with unemployment,
  redundancy, retirement or job seeking helping
  them to deal with such changes
• Assisting with industrial relations between
  management employees
• Evaluating job performance to give a person a
  deeper understanding of their strengths,
  weaknesses and special interests
• Ergonomics - exploring the interactions of people
  with their working environment to ensure it is a
  safe, healthy and effective one
• Diversity - increasing awareness of ethnic
  minorities, women people with special needs

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How do they do this?

• Using psychological theory and research, occ/org
  psychologists work in much the same way that
  psychologists from other disciplines operate
• Typically, they
• Investigate the situation
• Diagnose the issue
• Develop/design an appropriate intervention
• Deliver the intervention
• Monitor and evaluate the outcome / result
• And then start again!

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Other careers open to Org/Occ Psychologists

• Human Resource Management
• Ergonomics design of the Workplace
• Marketing / Market Research Consumer Behaviour
• Research Workplace Research
• Graduate / Management Careers including Sales,
  Retail, Hospitality and Business Management

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More information on Occ/Org Psych

• PSI
• Visit www.psihq.ie for further information
• Get involved.with DWOP, the Division of Work and
  Organisational Psychology www.psihq.ie/MEMBERS_DWO
  P.asp
• Also a new Coaching Psychology Group as part of
  DWOP
• BPS - See www.bps.org.uk

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• Thank you!