Industrial Organizational Psychology Specialization

This course focuses on the application of psychological principles to the workplace and how psychologists can facilitate the improvement of work environments, conditions, employee performance, and interpersonal/team functioning. In addition, the course provides a review of the basic theory, research, and practice in organizational training, development, and behavior. Topics covered include job performance and attitudes, work motivation, personnel selection and classification, group influence, and training and development. There is an emphasis on the contribution of specific psychological skills in organizational consultation.

This course addresses the key relationships among organizational culture, executing business strategy, structuring organizations into teams and workgroups, and aligning these with culture. The role of leaders in creating, maintaining, and changing culture gets special emphasis. The course includes current theories on the role of culture in organizational success and the role of leadership in guiding the organization and its culture toward successful outcomes.

This advanced seminar examines enduring issues in business and professional ethics and applying proven approaches to ethical professional practice and organizational operations to contemporary organizational environments and issues.

This advanced graduate seminar explores theories of motivating adult performance in the workplace. The exploration includes theories and application of methods for leaders to influence and persuade others in ways that motivate and engage them in their work and their organization's mission.

This advanced graduate seminar explores issues and models for leveraging human resources to execute business strategy. Topics include succession planning, leadership development models, workforce staffing models, compensation models, and training and development strategies.

This highly experiential course explores current issues and practices in the application of leadership and organizational development processes and systems. Topics include succession planning, facilitation skills, leading across global cultures, strategic planning, transforming organizational cultures, implementing effective leadership development programs, and other current topics. Learning methodology include simulated organizational environments and the development of realistic strategic plans, systems, and processes that address the issues that impact the performance of organizations viewed as a whole.

Due to the rapidly and continually changing nature of industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology, it is important for scholars, researchers, and practitioners to stay abreast of current and emerging issues in the field. Given that many of the changes occurring in the field of I/O are due to the globalization of the business would, particular emphasis will be focused on the role and practice of I/O in the complex environment of global organizations. In this advanced seminar, students explore current and global issues that attract the attention of researchers and practitioners in I/O psychology, as evidenced by the published literature, with an emphasis on learning the application and implementation of best practices and emerging theories in the field. Topics in the seminar will evolve along with the issues that appear most often in the I/O literature, issues that receive the most attention in the professional and business press, and current lines of research having the most impact on the field.