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Discuss the scope of Industrial Psychology.
Posts: 615
Threads: 461
Joined: Oct 2010
The term Industrial Psychology stands for the psychology applied to industry. It deals with the aptitude, attitude and interests of the people at work. The term 'Industrial Psychology' is a combination of two words—'Industrial' and 'Psychology'. 'Industrial' we mean that part of social life whose function is to provide civilised man with the material goals that his condition of life demands. The other word 'Psychology" in etymological sense, may be defined as the science of minds, i.e., accurate and systematic knowledge of the mind what it does. Thus, Industrial Psychology is the systematic study of the state of mind of the people at work so that several industrial problems may be solved without much difficulty. It studies how the social, industrial, economic, political and other factors affect the state of mind of the people at work.
Scope
Industrial psychology is concerned with the entire spectrum of human behaviour. Industrial psychology is practised by all the managers when they are making any sort of contact with the people. The scope of industrial psychology is the same as that of personnel management, that is, the entire process of management is dealings with people at work. There are three important areas in which industrial psychology cuts across:
(1) Human Relations
(2) Individual Differences
(3) Human Engineering
Human Relations— Human relations may be defined as the relations among individuals in organisations and the group behaviour that emerges from these relations. Understanding human relations is an important part of industrial psychology. This would help in developing concepts and techniques of effective leadership, communication, supervision, motivation, etc.
Individual Differences—Industrial psychology is based on the assumption that every person is different from every other. As a consequence, every person should be selected, trained and treated on the basis of the kind of person he is. Modern managers realise the need to know the persons for their effective selection and placement. Understanding of the behaviour of the subordinates is equally important for providing them effective supervision. It may be noted that people differ in many ways including in their physical characteristics, in knowledge, in aptitudes, in interests, in temperament and in character. There may be many possible combinations of these characteristics. A manager has to visualise all possible combinations of these characteristics in order to manage people effectively and efficiently.
Human Engineering—Human engineering is the study of man machine system in order to have the design of machines and equipment intelligently based on the capabilities and limitations of users' behaviour. The main purpose of human engineering (or ergonomics) is to assist in designing and operating man machine environmental system which will ensure physical and mental case to the human beings. Man has always tried to design machines and equipment he uses in such a manner that he can use them more effectively and with minimum effort on his part. This part of industrial psychology also includes the work environment as a source to stimulate the employees, to contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives. Equipment design, pacing of work, hours of work and providing working conditions should be based on human considerations. These will lead to improve productivity and job satisfaction.
