The Practice of Industrial/ Organisational
Psychology in New Zealand
Donald A.J. Cable, The University of Waikato
Michael P. O'Driscoll, The University of Waikato
A survey of 75 industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology practitioners
in New Zealand was conducted to determine the actual work practices of
those in the field.From the comparison of the three
studies referred to above, participation
rates in the traditional fields of work,
deemed by industry as areas that I/O
psychology practitioners can contribute
(Hansson & O'Driscoll, 1993; Hines,
1972), remain major activities engaged
in by practitioners. Some activities have
emerged more strongly, for example
leadership development, change
management, and quality of work life,
whilst others, for example interpersonal
relations, labour/industrial relations,
and work motivation, are areas of work
that possibly remain underdeveloped,
providing opportunities for practitioners
to widen their scope of practice. Contributions and Limitations
The results of this survey provide
information not only to current
practitioners but also to students
considering I/O psychology as an
occupational choice and how they may
maximize their career opportunities
through that choice. Current practitioners
may also consider realigning the
services they provide to capture work
opportunities within areas of I/O
psychology that may be perceived
as under-supplied or untapped. This
survey may also have implications for
the on-going training and development
of I/O psychology practitioners. As
well as providing direction to current
practitioners seeking to pursue their own
New Zealand Journal of Psychology Vol. 39, No. 3, 2010
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Donald A.J. Cable & Michael P. O'Driscoll
development, this information may also
be useful to universities in New Zealand
seeking to align their I/O psychology
programs with current work practices. We must, however, record one
limitation to the survey. Given that only
56% of participants were New Zealand
registered psychologists, we cannot
necessarily claim that the sample is fully
representative of I/O psychologists in
New Zealand. Nevertheless, as a diverse
range of work settings was included our
findings could be considered indicative
of the work practices of I/O psychologists
in New Zealand. Conclusion
At a higher level of analysis,
the more popular fields of work of
I/O psychology practitioners may
be seen as differing little from those
engaged in by other practitioners. This
may be a reflection of available work
opportunities. However, at a more
detailed level of analysis, the work
activities of I/O psychology practitioners
may be seen as more reflective of the
application of the principles of the
behavioural sciences, embracing the
humanistic model of organizational
functioning. It is at this level of analysis
that I/O psychology practitioners may
best differentiate themselves from other
practitioners by extending their scope of
practice into what may be perceived as
opportunities for the further application
of the behavioural sciences. Industrial
and organisational training in Australia and
New Zealand. Research in industrial and organizational
psychology from 1963 to 2007: changes,
choices, and trends. Industrial-Organizational psychology
in New Zealand: Who are we and
where we are going? The Australian and
New Zealand Journal of Organisational
Psychology, 1, 12-21. Human Resource Selection (6th
ed.).39, No. 3, 2010
The Practice of Industrial/ Organisational Psychology in New Zealand
summary report for I/O psychologists
(O*Net code 19-3032.00), proffers
another answer to that question:
"Apply principles of psychology
to personnel, administration,
management, sales, and
marketing problems. Activities
may include policy planning,
employee screening, training and
development, and organizational
development and analysis. May work with management to
reorganize the work setting to
improve worker productivity."Hansson and O'Driscoll
(1993) surveyed 116 managers from
15 organizations, seeking their views
on the potential engagement of I/O
psychologists, and concluded that
"there has been little diminution of the
"gap" between the profession and its
consumers" (p. 16).the COP considered the following
to best answer that question:
"Organizational Psychology is
the science of people at work. Organizational psychologists
specialise in analysing
organizations and their people,
and devising strategies to recruit,
motivate, develop, change and
inspire."Participants who
responded affirmative were then asked
"Which of the following activities do
you engage in, in this field of work?" Space was provided for participants to
add fields of work and/or activities not
listed. Finally, participants were asked
to indicate "Typically, and on average,
what percentage of your working time
would you spend in this field of work?"Finally, to assess the extent to which
I/O psychology has made progress in
establishing a place in industry, the
findings of the present study were
compared to the findings from three
previous studies (Cooper-Thomas &
Wright, 2008; Hansson & O'Driscoll,
1993; Hines, 1972) (Table 3).Extending the work of other researchers on
the role of I/O psychology practitioners, the present study investigated the
extent to which participants engaged in nine areas of work, and assessed
the current role of the I/O psychology practitioner.The challenge, as explained by
Drury, was for responses to the question
to be within the scope of what was
termed an 'elevator pitch', that is, a
response that someone, confronted
with the question while travelling in
an elevator, would have sufficient
time to deliver in a concise, consistent,
and coherent manner.Cooper-Thomas and
Wright (2008) highlighted the struggle
that I/O psychology has, both nationally
and internationally, in establishing an
identity and noted that a lack of clarity
of what I/O psychology can offer is
one of the factors hindering its public
image. Other fields of work, not specifically
included in the survey but mentioned
by participants, included program
evaluation (although this could be seen
as a work activity within a specific
field), employee engagement, issues
related to cultural and ethnic diversity,
and competency development and
measurement.Under both
human factors and ergonomics, and
consumer psychology, the rate that
activities were engaged in reflected
the low participation in these fields.Over the years various studies have
explored the practice of industrial
and organizational (I/O) psychology in
New Zealand.Hines (1972) surveyed
167 personnel managers asking
them in what areas they believed I/O
psychologists could contribute to their
organizations.O*Net (USA
Department of Labour online network
of job information), in the occupational
o 12 o
New Zealand Journal of Psychology Vol.The work activities of policy
d e v e l o p m e n t / i m p l e m e n t a t i o n
and system/program development/
implementation were listed under
all fields of work, with participants
indicating that they engaged in these
activities at similar levels to other
activities in those fields.Program
evaluation, not listed as an activity in
the survey questionnaire, emerged as
a recurring work activity across many
of the nine fields of work.Roles for industrial/organizational
psychologists: A survey of New Zealand
managerial personnel.Corresponding Author:
Donald A J Cable
School of Psychology
The University of Waikato
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton
New Zealand.This is basically
the question we sought to answer by
taking these definitions of the practice
of I/O psychology, and the fields of work
they cover, to a more detailed task and/
or activity level.Results and Discussion
The analysis of the responses
(Table 1) confirmed that practitioners
work primarily in the fields of training
and development, change management
and organization development, and
recruitment and selection.The two
least frequently cited fields were human
factors and consumer psychology.Consumer behaviour, which could
be seen as an activity open to the
input of I/O psychology practitioners,
was only engaged in by 31% of the
participants who practiced consumer
psychology.What did become apparent in
the analysis of work activities were
differences in terminology and the ways
in which work activities were described.Many of the 'other' work activities
listed by participants could be covered
by those included in the survey, or were
covered by activities listed under other
fields of work.Training and development
emerged as the most frequently specified area of work, followed by change
management and organizational development, and recruitment and selection.Hopefully by clarifying what
practitioners of I/O psychology actually
do, what they can offer becomes clearer
and the public image of I/O psychology
will be enhanced. Within training and development the
most common work activities included
leadership development (also included
in change management and organization
development), coaching and mentoring,
and team development. Given that
the outputs of job analysis (position
description, person specification)
strongly support personnel selection,
as well as other fields of work, this result
may not be particularly surprising.Human factors and consumer psychology were reported the least
often.Implications of the findings for the development of the practice of I/O
psychology in New Zealand are discussed.As would be expected, the more
common work activities (Table 2) of
I/O psychology practitioners fell within
the more common fields of work.Organization
culture and climate emerged as
the most common activity within
change management and organization
development, and job analysis emerged
as the most common work activity in
recruitment and selection.Some less obvious activities
included budgeting, within the field of
change management and organization
development, advice to management,
within the field of career development
and management, and critical incident
response, within the field of quality of
work life and occupational safety and
health.Note that
Cooper-Thomas and Wright ordered
their responses based on frequency of
citation.In their study, work areas scored
1 were those cited most frequently, while
work areas scored 3 were those cited
least frequently.Management attitudes
toward industrial psychologists: A cross-
cultural study.Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/Thomson.Organisational Psychology
in Australia and New Zealand.Organisation Development
& Change (3rd Asia Pacific ed.).dcable@waikato.ac.nzThe majority of participants were employees (72%), and
worked in consultancy (49%).These fields
were closely followed by performance
management and appraisal, and career
development and management.Gatewood, R. D., Feild, H. S., & Barrick, M.
(2008).New York; NY:
McGraw-Hill Irwin.O'Driscoll, M. P., Carr, S., & Forsyth, S.
(2007).The
Industrial-Organizational Psychologist,
45(2), 59-64.Australian Psychologist,
41(2), 120-129.(2003).