Chapter 13 Project

Purpose

Industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology is a branch of psychology that studies how human behavior and psychology affect work and how they are affected by work. Organizational psychology specifically focuses on how the relationships between workers impacts business and how organizational culture impacts individual behavior and employee satisfaction. The purpose of this project is to better understand what organizational psychology is and how it is effectively employed in a professional setting to maximize success.

Directions

Imagine you are starting your own small business and want to employ the best practices of organizational psychology to maximize your success. Your business can be anything as long as you have multiple employees and a fixed, physical setting in which they interact, such as an office, store, factory, etc.

Write a mission statement that outlines what your business aims to accomplish and how you plan to go about achieving the optimal work environment to do so. Your mission statement should describe your goals as an organization (beyond making your product/providing your service) and the type of work environment you need to achieve to meet those goals. The mission statement should also describe what the organizational culture is like and what your organizational values are. Imagine this mission statement as a way for people to learn about your company and an important tool for recruiting your new employees.

In developing your mission statement, feel free to be creative! Consider how design elements such as colors, fonts, images, layout, etc. may4 be employed to "say" something about your company or organizational values. Final submissions should be approximately one page of textual information and should be typed, but otherwise may vary in format.

As you think about what should be included in your mission statement, consider the following themes/questions from organizational psychology. It is not required that you address all of these questions; however, they should serve as guiding principles for what is included in your mission statement.

  • What types of employees do you need to be successful, and how will you recruit them?

  • What traits should your employees possess?

  • What types of training will you provide for your employees (and will they be suited to it)?

  • How will employees be evaluated?

  • What will the organizational culture of the company be like?

  • What is the role of teamwork?

  • What are the benefits of working for your organization? What is the role of employee satisfaction in your company?

  • How will human factors impact the workplace design/environment?

Materials

None required.

Checklist