I/O psychology and organizational development have a lot in common. Both have to do with improving the overall performance of a company or workplace by utilizing different tactics to suit a particular business. However, due to some key differences, they can’t be used interchangeably. To clarify, I/O psychology is most concerned with the study of effective work environments whilst OD is most concerned with developing effective people. In this article, we define these two approaches and look at how their differences make them complementary, rather than competitive.

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Organizational Behavior is what people do in organizations (in particular what you can see and measure what they do). In other words, it’s action stuff.

Organisational Behaviour is an understanding of how the structure of the organisation impacts / affects the individuals and teams within the organisation; principally at the employee level. The knowledge and appreciation of organisation behaviour is typically intended to assist and support the managers and supervisors of the business to better understand effects of organisation on employees and so better manage their organisation.
The body of knowledge comprising Industrial/Organsational psychology comes to us from the profession of Industrial/Organisational Psychology. The professionals in this domain may be termed I/O psychologists, Occupational psychologists, Work psychologists, Organisational psychologists in various jurisdictions. Practitioners are experts and skilled in treating with diagnosing and improving the well-being of the members of the organisation (eg motivation, stress, defensiveness, prosocial and antisocial behaviours, engagement, commitment, satisfaction, attitudes, team dynamics etc).

Traditionally, industrial psychologists have assessed differences among individual workers and have evaluated individual jobs. Organizational psychologists generally seek to understand how workers function in an organization, and how the organization functions in society.

what is organizational psychology

Organizational Psychology is a field of study that includes understanding what people think, feel and do in organizations. In other words, it’s brain stuff.

organizational psychology vs organizational development

Organizational Development

Organizational development (OD) is a field of professional practice focused on facilitating organizational change and improvement. The theory and practice of OD is grounded in both the social and behavioral sciences. The field originated in the 1960s and has been evolving ever since. This evolution has been influenced by a wide range of disciplines including social psychology, group dynamics, industrial-organizational psychology, participative management theory, organization behavior, the sociology of organizations, and even clinical psychology.

As a result, the application of OD tools and methodologies (of which there are many) are carried out by a wide range of professionals. For example, although some I/O psychologists also consider themselves OD practitioners, there are many others practicing OD with for-profit and nonprofit client organizations with educational backgrounds as diverse as education, philosophy, training, the military, and human resources. In part, this level of diversity of backgrounds is because of an initial lack of agreement and formal training regarding the nature and boundaries of the field. Today, however, formal training in the field does exist, in doctoral and master’s-level programs as well as professional development curricula, including professional certification groups and training firms. In any case the value of the field of OD to continually embrace new perspectives, practitioners, and approaches is one of its defining characteristics; however, it is also a source of discussion among those currently practicing in and writing about the field.

Although there has been some debate over the last few decades as to what is and is not included under the definition of OD, many practitioners agree that the following definition captures the essence of the field: Organizational development is a planned process for driving humanistically oriented, system-based change in organizations through the use of social science theory and behaviorally based data collection and feedback techniques. This definition clearly reflects a number of specific assumptions. These include the importance of data and feedback to OD efforts, the notion of having a social systems perspective, and the humanistically oriented values-based nature of the field. Each assumption is described in more detail in the following text.