Consultation psychology's role in organizational success and workplace diversity

Organizational Behavior (Psychology)

Applied Comprehension

Organizational Psychologists continually seek the creation of relevant approaches for the application of organizational psychological principles. Central to the application of Industrial Organizational psychological principles, as an emergent approach, has been the elevation of consultation psychology as a primary approach for the application of organizational psychology. Theoretically, the tension between business, clinical psychology and Industrial or Organizational Psychology has occasionally thwarted the effective application of psychological principles that could otherwise guide the successful resolution of issues between people and systems.

This paper will review the role that consultation psychological services can play in organizations, particularly as it may apply to facilitating organizational movement towards increased strategic success. As a case example, this paper will use a mental health organization to demonstrate the role, or roles, that consultation psychology can play within the organization. Specifically, the case example holds that a director of mental health services for an organization makes a request for consultation psychology services to her organization. Specifically, she request consultation psychology services that focus on the issue of gender and ethnic factors that may influence or impede organizational movement towards strategic success. This paper will explore the aspects of consultation as it applies to issues of ethnicity and gender that may be critical for a mental health organization consultation.

It is believed that the implementation of consultation psychology into a business operations strategic plan will lead to more effective and efficient movement to the organization achieving its stated goals for success.

This paper will begin with providing thorough definitions of the relevant subject matter. First, the paper will take a general look at the field of clinical psychology. Next, the sub-fields of Industrial and Organizational psychology will be reviewed, followed by a defining and examination of consultation psychology. Next, there will be a brief discussion of how clinical psychology and industrial/organizational psychology creates an impeding tension and how consultation psychology can be used to overcome this success-stopping conflict. Finally, these principles will be applied to the case sample as a means of demonstrating the use of consultation psychology as a means of creating business success.

Clinical Psychology

Clinical psychology is the scientific study and application of psychology for the specific purpose of understanding, preventing and relieving psychologically-based distress and dysfunction.

Further, clinical psychology also works at promoting the general subject of mental and personal well-being and development.

Central procedures and tools in providing clinical psychological services include psychological assessments and psychotherapy. Other typical methods utilized by clinical psychologists include research, teaching, consulting, forensic examinations and program development. Clinical psychology is a professional practice developed around the time of World War One. A licensed clinical psychologist is able to provide such psychological services as psychotherapy and assessments, conduct psychological research, provide psychology-based consultations to schools and business and provide expert testimony on the area of forensic psychology.

The field of clinical psychology is made up of four general perspectives, or approaches to psychology: psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive behavioral and systems or family therapy. The approach of psychodynamic psychotherapy, developed largely by Sigmund Freud, focuses on making the unconscious conscious by assisting the client in becoming aware of their own primal drives. Humanistic psychology, on the other hand, was developed by Carl Rogers and went about providing therapeutic improvement by focusing on congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathetic understanding. Cognitive behavior therapy focuses on discovering the biased or irrational thinking that causes emotional problems and thus helps the client gain control over their own thinking process so as to crate increased levels of well-being. Finally, systems of family therapy focuses on group therapy and the interaction and relationships that occur within a group and the positive and negative effects these relationships may have on one's psychological health. The focus of such an approach is generally on interpersonal dynamics and how these dynamics can affect communication, roles, narratives and behaviors. Systems therapy is the general premise of organizational and industrial psychology.

Organizational and Industrial Psychology

Industrial and organizational psychology, also referred to as I/O or work psychology, focuses on the application of basic psychological theories, methods of research and strategies for intervention to various workplace and employment issues. The purpose of industrial and organizational psychology is to make an organization both more productive and ensure that organization members are able to live healthy lives both physically and mentally. Basic areas of interest to an individual practicing in industrial and organizational psychology include motivation and leadership, personal psychology, employee selection and training, organizational development and behavior, and the resolution of work and family issues.

According to the official definition of industrial and organizational psychology as provided by Guion (1965), it has a more restricted definition that psychology as a whole. According to Guion, "industrial and organizational psychology is the scientific study of the relationship between man and the world of work...in the process of making a living." (Guion: 1965, p. 817). Blum and Naylor, on the other hand, define the field as, "simply the application or extension of psychological facts and principles to the problems concerning human beings operating within the context of business and industry." (Blum and Naylor: 1068, p. 4).

To accomplish their job, industrial and organizational psychologist often utilize the tool known as job analysis. The purpose of job analysis is to identify essential characteristics associated with a particular position. In order to make this characteristic identification, the psychologist uses interviews, subject matter experts and reviews job descriptions. Another common tool used in the field is psychometric tests. Psychometric testing measures the abilities and personality traits of employees or potential employees. Recently, the technique of meta-analysis has been introduced into industrial and organizational psychology as a method of correcting the statistical errors typical of using a single study. Meta-analysis is a method that averages results across numerous studies in order to identify, and draw conclusions from, trends.

IV. Consultation Psychology

Consultation psychology is an emerging sub-field of industrial and organizational psychology. In general, consultation psychology, as applied to industrial and organizational psychology, takes the basic elements of psychotherapy and brings them into the workplace setting. Thus, the goal of consultation psychology is to increase the workplace's sense of well-being while reducing subjective discomforting experiences. To do this, consultation psychology focuses on such things as experiential relationship building, dialog, communication and behavior change among the members of the organization.

The general purpose of consultation psychology is to work with a group of individuals, either as a group, as individuals, or a combination of the two, in order to improve the dynamics of the group as an organization and thus make the organization more productive. To do this, consultation psychology focuses on finding personal issues that may impede the organization's overall success by improving each individual's mental well-being as it applies to the organizational setting. In consultation psychology, the consulting psychologist will utilize a wide-range of techniques to influence the clients to adapt and change their personal ways so as to better relate to the ways of the organization.

Relationship Between the Fields and the Methods

As can be seen from the above cited definitions, clinical psychology, industrial and organizational psychology and consultation psychology are all interrelated. These three fields are interrelated in that they each are influenced by the philosophies and procedures of each other. More so, the three fields are interrelated in that they all have the similar goal of creating increased well-being to those they serve.

However, although all three of these fields are related to each other, they also create conflict when used together. For example, when clinical psychology is used as a primary tool in industrial and organizational psychology, often times the goal of the program, namely to improve the productivity of the organization, is impeded. In other words, when clinical psychology is utilized as the primary tool in providing industrial and organizational psychology, all too often the results are the opposite of what is intended in that the organization actually becomes less productive.

There are many possible reasons for explaining this impediment. Chief among these explanations is the belief that clinical psychology has a certain connotation that attaches to it and that this connotation does not match the needs of industrial and organizational psychology. For instance, clinical psychology has the connotation for being for those individual's who have mental or emotional issues. In the workplace, an organizational member will resent having this connotation forced on him or her. More so, this focus on the individual is not the purpose of industrial and organizational psychology. Thus, the result is that the use of clinical psychology as a tool for industrial and organizational psychology actually works against the group by focusing on the individual when all too often the individual does not want the attention.

To solve this impediment to progress in the organizational setting, a possible solution is to replace clinical psychology with consultation psychology as the primary tool used in providing industrial and organizational psychological services. Whereas clinical psychology focuses on the individual, consultation psychology concentrates on the individual as a member of a group and thus views the group as an individual. With this approach, consultation psychology focuses on the issues of the group as a whole and therefore typically uses group discussions, interviews and observations as opposed to singling out specific individuals. The result is that, by using consultation psychology in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, the focus is on the group and the roles the individuals who make up the group play. With this focus, industrial and organizational psychology is better able to meet its goals of increasing organizational productivity, well-being and success.

Case Example

In the case sample cited in the introduction of this paper, the issue was how consultation psychology could be utilized as a method for providing industrial and organizational psychological services to a mental health related organization. From the overview provided in the previous section, it can be seen that utilizing consultation psychology, as opposed to clinical psychology, will be the best method of obtaining the goals of making the organization more productive.

To accomplish this, it will be proposed that the organization in question implement a system of organizational psychology that allows for the regular meeting of the group for group sessions. Initially, the purpose of these groups will be to allow the organizational and industrial psychologist to observe and listen to the dynamics of the individuals of the organization. This will allow the psychologist to come to a conclusion on the diagnosis, or needs of the group. From here, the psychologist will treat the group as an individual, focusing on working out the areas that are preventing the organization as a whole from reaching its goals of production.

Specifically, in the case at hand, these obstacles are issues pertaining to race and gender. Once this problem is identified, the providing psychologist will be able to organize a treatment plan for improving these areas. To accomplish this, he or she will consult with the group, as if it were an individual, in order to work out the issues as they apply to the group (as opposed to the individual members' personal feelings). The result will be that the organization will take on a group attitude and thus allow them to leave behind any personal issues so as to better the success of the organization as a whole.

Conclusions

In conclusion, it can be said that the utilization of consultation psychology as a tool for providing industrial and organizational psychology in a work environment will lead to better success rates at increasing the organization's levels of productivity and well-being. Further, it can be concluded that consultation psychology is a better tool to accomplish these goals than clinical psychology is because consultation psychology focuses on the group as an individual in and of itself, as opposed to clinical psychology's focus on the group as being composed of individuals.

Theory Comprehension

Introduction

Organizational culture has emerged as one of the critical issues of emergent business, non-profit, government and other entrepreneurial efforts at achieving strategic targets in the world of work. Numerous theorists, especially psychologists, as being the central role of employment, further perceive organizational culture. As the central role of employment, organizational culture can advance the agenda of both the leaders and the followers, or the employers and employees, found in the workplace environment.

Organizational culture is able to play this central role in the working world because it provides an operational lens, built on the theoretical tenets of the field of organizational psychology, that can enhance one's understanding of the issues of culture and their effect on the organization.

This paper will focus on how organizational culture applies to the field of organizational psychology and the effect they can have on the success of the organization. It is this paper's position that when efforts of organizational psychology take into considerations the tenants of organizational culture, organizational psychology will have a higher rate of success in increasing both the well-being and the productivity of the organization.

To demonstrate this positive relationship between organizational culture and the practice of organizational psychology, this paper will begin by defining and providing examples of organizational culture, particularly as it applies to the work place. Next, the paper will define, with examples, the field of organizational psychology and the role of the organizational psychologist. The paper will then explore both the positives and negatives of applying the characteristics and concepts of organizational culture to the goals of organizational psychology. The paper will then conclude by addressing how organizational culture is central to the role of the organizational psychologist.

The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate to the reader the important role that organizational culture plays in providing successful organizational psychology services to an organization or place of employment. Further, the paper serves the purpose of outlining how an organizational psychologist can understand organizational culture and thus incorporate it into his or her organizational psychology methods and procedures.

Defining Organizational Psychology

Organizational psychology is a sub-discipline of psychology that focuses on the application of basic psychological theories, methods of research and strategies for intervention to various workplace and employment issues. The purpose of organizational psychology is to make an organization more productive. Basic areas of interest to an individual practicing in organizational psychology include motivation and leadership, personal psychology, employee selection and training, organizational development and behavior, and the resolution of work and family issues.

According to the official definition of organizational psychology as provided by Guion (1965), it has a more restricted definition that psychology as a whole. According to Guion, "organizational psychology is the scientific study of the relationship between man and the world of work...in the process of making a living." (Guion: 1965, p. 817). Blum and Naylor, on the other hand, define the field as, "simply the application or extension of psychological facts and principles to the problems concerning human beings operating within the context of business and industry." (Blum and Naylor: 1068, p. 4).

To accomplish their job, organizational psychologist often utilize the tool known as job analysis. The purpose of job analysis is to identify essential characteristics associated with a particular position. In order to make this characteristic identification, the psychologist uses interviews, subject matter experts and reviews job descriptions. Another common tool used in the field is psychometric tests. Psychometric testing measures the abilities and personality traits of employees or potential employees. Recently, the technique of meta-analysis has been introduced into organizational psychology as a method of correcting the statistical errors typical of using a single study. Meta-analysis is a method that averages results across numerous studies in order to identify, and draw conclusions from, trends.

Application of Organizational Culture into Organizational Psychology

As can be seen by the definitions and examples provided in the proceeding two sections, understanding organizational culture is essential to providing organizational psychology services to a work related organization. If an organizational psychologist is to truly understand the dynamics of an organization, he or she must begin by studying and understanding the foundation of the organization. This foundation is the organizational culture of the group.

In order to understand the organizational culture of an organization, the organizational psychologist must begin with observations and research. For example, before providing any group related consultations, the organizational psychologist must first know how an organization operates and thus can be improved and made more productive. By observing the day-to-day dynamics of the organization, along with reviewing job descriptions, organizational documents and articles, and interviewing various organization members on the sole subject of what there role is and who they are accountable to, the organizational psychologist will be able to discover the underlying organizational culture of the business or group.

The advantages of bringing the theories and concepts of organizational culture into the practice of organizational psychology is that it allows the organizational psychologist to have a better understanding of the organization's ways of doing things. Culture plays an influential and significant role in the way individuals interact, or fail to interact, with one another. One of the leading reasons for the need of organizational culture is because often times organizations do not function properly as a group. The reason for this is that the individuals have personal cultural differences with the culture of the group, or with the other members of the organization.

In order to successful assist the organization through these issues, it is highly beneficial for the organizational psychologist to first understand the general culture of the organization. He or she can then work to assist the organization in functioning more successfully within the organization's established culture.

Further more, making organizational culture a central part of organizational psychology has the further advantage of allowing the organization to compare the type of organization they want to be (one that more closely matches the culture of its members) to the culture of the organization as is (often previously established by the articles of incorporation).

For instance, just because an organization has adopted a particular organizational culture does not mean that that particular culture is right for the organization. The organizational culture may be a result of nothing more than the established organizational structure used since the company was incorporated. In such an instance, the best advice an organizational psychologist can give the organization is to review its culture and adapt its organizational structure to a structure more compatible with the organization's desired culture. The result is that the organizational psychologist facilities the organizational self-assessment that allows for a change in culture and thus a more productive organization.

Conclusions

As has been demonstrated, the area of organizational culture plays an essential and fundamental role in the practice of organizational psychology. Without at least a basic understanding of an organization's culture, the organizational psychologist is unable to see the entire picture of what may be either the cause of, or the solution to, the organization's lack of productivity. However, with this basic insight, the organizational psychologist can better evaluate the causes of conflict within the organization and either recommend changes within or without of the currently established culture.