Several types of Psychologists you say?: The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

So by now, you have heard about the Sport Psychologist and the Health Psychologist and you may be getting the gist of the variety and breadth of our work. If you haven’t, you need to check out the previous issues.

In this issue, we highlight the work of the industrial-organizational psychologist or I-O psychologist for short. In the words of Richard Branson, entrepreneur par excellence, “Clients do not come first, Employees come first…. People are our greatest asset”. I-O psychologists (and psychologists in general) have always known this and with their focus in the workplace setting, they aim to keep these assets happy and healthy. Therefore, their daily job duties may involve resolving interpersonal conflicts, assisting with hiring and promotional decisions, determining the best personality fit of an individual to a team and to job duties, helping to change organizational culture for greater productivity / efficiency, help to motivate individuals and teams, and study consumer behaviour.

So in short, a company may call on such a psychologist when there is a merger / take-over in order to help smooth the transition; to consult on how to improve the absenteeism in the workplace; to meet with a long-standing employee for an exit interview upon retirement or redundancy; to improve morale and motivation amongst workers; to examine interpersonal relations between management / supervisors and employees to resolve problems that are impacting business negatively. There are but a couple trained I-O psychologists in Jamaica but a number of other psychologists work in these very areas bringing their skill sets about psychology in general to the labour marketplace.

I hope you are getting a clearer and clearer picture that psychology is not all about mental illness!

Dr. Kai Morgan is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and is the Immediate Past President of the Jamaican Psychological Society. She teaches and runs a private practice where she and her associates specialize in a number of mental health and life transition issues. She may be contacted at kadmorganpractice75@gmail.com

Office number: (876) 869-7657