UMBC Mic'd Up
UMBC Mic'd Up
What Is I-O Psychology? Careers, AI & the Future of Work
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What exactly is industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology—and what can you do with a career in the field?
In this episode of UMBC Mic’d Up, host Dennise Cardona, M.A. '23 talks with Dr. Henri Maindidze, Interim Graduate Program Director of UMBC’s I-O Psychology Graduate Program, about how I-O psychology uses research, data, and evidence-based practices to improve the workplace.
They explore the difference between I-O psychology and human resources, career opportunities for I-O psychology graduates, and the growing role I-O psychologists can play as organizations navigate generative AI and other changes shaping the future of work.
Dr. Maindidze also discusses UMBC’s applied approach to graduate education, including the capstone experience, where students put their skills to work solving real organizational challenges.
Learn more about UMBC’s graduate program in Industrial-Organizational Psychology through the links below. #IOPsychology #IndustrialOrganizationalPsychology #FutureOfWork #PsychologyCareers #UMBC
Connect with Dr. Henri Maindidze:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/henri-maindidze
Website: https://www.henrimaindidze.com/
Dennise Cardona 0:00
Hey! Thanks for tuning into this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up Podcast. I am Dennise Cardona, your host, and I have the pleasure of being here with the interim graduate program director of our IO Psychology Graduate Program, Dr. Henri Maindidze. Thank you so much, Henri. It's wonderful to have you
Speaker 1 0:20
here. Happy to be here. Happy to be here, Dennise.
Dennise Cardona 0:23
Let's have a conversation about I/O psychology. What UMBC offers, some industry, a little bit of industry, just to kind of let folks know who are listening in who may not be aware of the program we have, or maybe are interested in the field and want to learn more. So, could you please tell us first of all a little bit about you and what drew you to the field of I/O psychology?
Speaker 1 0:50
Yeah, very excited to to be here to talk about all things I/O psychology with you, as well as about the program. In terms of me, I am returning to UMBC, so I received my bachelor's in psychology from from UMBC, and am very excited to to be supporting the program now. In my time during my PhD program, a lot of my work focused around workplace recruitment, selection, training, and discrimination related things, and so you know that looked like thinking around applicant reactions to recruitment materials, bias in hiring systems, training motivation, developments, and evaluation, as well as anything around assessment and survey tool development and invalidation, and so touched a few different aspects of the field, and my passion for asking questions has meant that getting a PhD in it was very fitting, and so very very excited to have done this work in terms of what initially drew me to IO psychology, I always wanted to help people and improve their lives. And with work being such a key part of our lives, I wanted to find a way to help people enjoy work. And so, with with IO psychology, the opportunity to support those organizational systems and to make use of data and evidence-based practices to inform that work was really exciting to me.
Dennise Cardona 2:34
Oh my gosh, there's so much to unpack with what you just said, but the thing that piqued my curiosity the most was helping people to enjoy going to work like that, right there, you hit the nail on the head. There are so many people who struggle with that, and the fact that there is a team out there in organizations, experts like yourself, who help organizations figure out how they can make those make it make the workplace a more enjoyable, productive place for for folks. Now, for somebody hearing the term I/O psychology for the first time, what exactly is it, and what does an I/O psychologist actually
Speaker 1 3:17
do? So, so I appreciate this question partially because a lot of times when I introduce myself as a neopsychologist, I often either get people who are really excited about it because they're well aware of the work, or people who are mentally trying to figure out what exactly it means and what exactly it entails. So the the way that I think about it is that it's a scientific study of employee behavior, and it's we're trying to understand how employees are thinking and behaving, and how to improve the organizational systems that they're interacting with. So whether that is improving the hiring tools used in a selection system, whether that is designing new training programs, or if that's implementing a new performance management system, depending on you know different organizational realities and everything in between in supporting the employee lifecycle, in terms of what like more things about what what might be done and you know what it might look like on on a day to day basis. You know this could look like anything around for designing a new training program, for example, having to consider what are the skill sets of the current employees that that are there. What is the desired outcome of the proposed training. So, are you being taught about a new program or skill, or you know, gaining the knowledge, and then using prior data or collecting new data to look at which roles are best suited to. To being in that training program, so we in our psychology we think of something like a job analysis where you can you can look at the kinds of knowledge, skills, and abilities someone has in a particular role. You know, lift from there to to map onto whatever thing you're designing, and then interacting with stakeholders around those key objectives, designing evaluation tools, so for training preparation and evaluation after the fact, and everything in between.
Dennise Cardona 5:36
So I/O psychology and human resources-they they sound pretty similar. What is the difference, and when do they overlap?
Speaker 1 5:46
So they can overlap in a in a lot of different ways. I would say in terms of ways to differentiate between them, because you know, with with both being about helping the organization run smoothly and you know, supporting employees in the work that they're doing with HR, you can think of it as you know helping the helping move along key functions day to day. So you know, you might have HR professionals, you know, enacting selection processes, doing interviews, running payroll, managing benefits programs, or you know, be interfacing with different training programs and doing performance reviews. You can think of IO psychologists in that in some spaces, IO psychologists might also be running selection programs, or you know, interfacing with training training programs. There's also the the scientific underpinning of those processes is where it really comes comes into its fore. So you know anything around you know designing a hiring system. So, a company saying we've been hiring this way for 20 years. Now we want to see if there's you know newer and fresher ways to do that. So an IO psychologist might come into that space and look and see you know what kind of roles is the company hiring for what kinds of characteristics would make a an applicant most successful into the organization if they were selected? What kind of supports might be needed around that? And then how do you pick the best selection tools to identify that? Whether that is an interview, whether it is a job knowledge test, you know, producing work samples, you know, individual one-on-one interviews compared to group interviews, and anything like that. So it's it's about the pulling on more of the the research and also making use of extra, you know, data to to help the organization move along.
Dennise Cardona 8:05
So, folks listening in are probably going to be very curious about career paths, and that's always the big question we have that we hear from prospective students, folks interested in maybe career change or getting into the field, so what kind of career paths can someone pursue with a master's degree in I/O psychology?
Speaker 1 8:28
So the the beauty of I/O psychology is that the skills are very transferable. So what that means is even beyond specific roles, that you can find out psychologists in a variety of industries, and so whether that's from private industries or from in terms of the private sector, in internal facing roles, in external consulting facing roles, in in government within the public sector, nonprofits, higher education, and across the board, there there's a variety of spaces in which this work can be done well. And my biased take is that all organizations would benefit from having a psychologist. And and so in terms of example, you know, kind of career paths, you can think about, you know, anything around some of those more specialized HR-related roles, for example. So, like an HR business partner, where you might be interfacing with different organizational functions to support the work that they're trying to do, consulting work or other sort of management consulting firms. So whether that's internal or like larger external companies, like you think about McKinsey or Deloitte or organizations like that that have you know large groups of our psychologists working in in different teams. There's. Working within learning and development specifically, so designing and delivering those programs, facilitating workshops, anything like that. I have psychologists who are specifically doing any people analytics related things, which is where you're pulling more on the the data analysis and management skills that that you're getting, and with a master's degree in I/O psychology, and making use of those skills to ask meaningful questions about the employee experience data you're getting to inform key stakeholder decisions. So saying, okay, we've done this annual survey of employee perspectives. What is the story being told here, and what can the organization do to address these things and to make sure everyone's being supported in the way that they might need to? So whether someone would want to be more data heavy and like a people analytics related role, more client facing and consulting-heavy and other kinds of roles. There's a variety of options for how someone can be successful at this.
Dennise Cardona 11:11
It sounds like it's amazing. So many different skill sets can be like honed in on, and so many different pathways. It's amazing. Now the workplace is obviously changing, and it seems to be changing pretty rapidly. What are some of the changes that are happening right now in that make I/O psychology especially relevant?
Speaker 1 11:32
So, two come to mind. One, I feel that there there are a lot of questions around the the best way to develop employees and to to also select them to a slightly lesser extent, and you know, organizations thinking about more skills-based or individualized approaches to talent selection and development, and so the opportunity to to help organizations do that work is is really fascinating. So, with respect to high more integration of technology, can think about micro learning opportunities that might be offered in in a given organization, and how you can, depending on how an employee is performing in a given organization or on, you know, their own career goals and plans or organizational needs. You can, you know, try to to offer them certain micro learning opportunities, or they can access those to upskill, or any sort of job rotation opportunities and what that looks like, and so with with an IO psychology, the understanding of the employee behavior and those systems, you know, provides a rich opportunity to not just ask those questions as well, but also help provide answers to that. the The other one is the integration of generative AI into organizations-you know-not just a case of should an organization have generative AI or not, but in a case where an organization might already have it, how can they best integrate it and effectively and ethically make use of it? So I think there there have been a lot of cases of organizations who are rushing to to implement it in certain spaces without always taking the time to to do it prudently, especially in cases like that. It's it's an instance of thinking about okay, so do do my employees in my analytics team, you know, possibly need to be prioritized in terms of making use of AI? Is the sales team, you know, better to to kind of leverage that along the way, depending on the the the shaping of the organization. If there's a lot of encouragement of innovation, like is is that where it might be most useful to make use of? So you know, being able to ask those questions and also be able to recognize that the use of AI isn't an elimination of all the issues, right? It's not a perfect panacea. So you can think of organizations using it in in their hiring processes, where they're saying, "I have, you know, X number of employees being dedicated to do Y number of hours to hire Z number of applicants, and that's costing the organization this this amount of money. And so, if I use an AI tool, then then it's promoting efficiency in that way. And you know, it doesn't need to recognize that in the use of these kinds of tools, having an expert alongside that, a human expert alongside that. Can make it maximally effective, and in in hiring processes, depending on the kinds of data or information that an AI tool might be trained on, it might you know actually perpetuate some of the problems or magnify the problems that already exist. So if there's already bias or discrimination related things, for example, that are existing in the processes excluding AI, and that's the only information you're providing it. Then it's only going to to magnify those issues more. But there are also lots of organizations doing this well, thinking about how to you know best make use of these tools to reduce employee concerns about losing their job or being made redundant, and to have organizations maximize their skills and maximize the ways in which AI can be most useful, especially with process-related things, and is is where I see it all going. So that's where that's where we can be impactful.
Dennise Cardona 16:06
I feel like there's going to be such a need for that as we continue to grow in the technological advancement of AI generative generative AI systems. Is we're going to need humans with the human capacity, the human mindset to be able to ensure those redundancies all of that stuff is not in the place of humans but with humans and so yeah I think I feel like when you just said that to me it made me feel like yeah there's there's a lot of hope in that there's a lot of hope for the humanity in terms of we still need humans to perform and work alongside AI, at least at this moment in time.
Speaker 1 16:50
Yeah, and I think one other note with that is that you know generative AI in this case is is another technological Advancement and without further insight into it, I I wonder about the kinds of questions that were being asked as the internet was being widely introduced and implemented within organizations. Whether there were some of these same worries about replacement of people within different roles, and you know, shifting of different industries and requirements of different skill sets, and so there's there can be lessons that can be learned from some of those prior you know prior key transitional times to you know, make this moment smoother and consider all the perspectives that need to be considered.
Dennise Cardona 17:49
Yeah. Now UMBC's program is very applied, and can you tell us a little bit about the capstone experience, for instance, and the kinds of real-world organizational problems that students might work on.
Speaker 1 18:04
Yeah. So, in in terms of the program, as you mentioned, it is it is designed for for those especially looking to work within industry and to to impact organizations across you know different different aspects of the employee lifecycle, and the capstone experience is the the culminating time in the program. So where all of the skills that you as a student might have been gaining over the the the two or two and a half years that you'd been in the program can be applied within this one experience, where you're working with an organizational partner, whether it is an organization that you, as a student, might be working at, or it's a different organization that you've gone and and found, and you could be helping that organization with anything from redesigning their their selection system, helping them to think about developing new assessments to consider employee experiences, the evaluation of current initiatives, whether it's a training program, whether it's a performance management system, you know things around strategic planning or change management considerations, and you know the opportunity to to do that where you as a student are most driving that experience. But there's also still support from the program, and more specifically from the the given capstone advisor is is a wonderful way to you know cap cap off your experience in in the program and getting to present that that work at the end to the organization and develop key deliverables around you know specific. Reports, presentations, and and other resources to to the client and to to other people in the program is a wonderful developmental experience, and provides wonderful work samples and you know tools to to demonstrate one's credibility in receiving in receiving this degree, so it's a it's it's a cool way to get your feet wet in in applied work if that's not something that you've already done while you're in the program.
Dennise Cardona 20:34
So, what is, in your opinion, one misconception about IO psychology that you wish you could correct.
Speaker 1 20:46
So I think that in a lot of ways the length of the name contributes to a lot of the misconceptions that can come, and the different obviously the different components of the name. So I think that I know you asked for one, but maybe I'll provide you two. So, one being the the thought that I/O psychologists might be, you know, sort of workplace therapists or provide any of that sort of counseling support for for employees in an organization, that is not the training that our psychologists receive at the master's level, or for for those who you know do their PhD in it. That's not the training that they receive either. That is the work of clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists, and other mental health professionals. So recognizing that is being important, and also that there is ethical limitations around being able to provide that support, and then also in relation to a question you asked before, in terms of differences between IO and NHR, the misconception that an IO psychologist, you know, might have similar skill sets to someone in who has an HR background or who might be coming with an MBA or anything like that. Where that's that's not the that's not necessarily the case. There is this understanding of these organizational processes and systems, but but there's also this strong understanding of methodological processes in designing these systems, and especially with with surveys, as I was mentioning, there's there's a whole science behind design designing them in a way that you're asking the right question, and that you are gleaning the answers to the exact thing you're most curious about, and being able to to predict for other things that you might be curious about. So pulling on those research, data analysis, and understanding of organizational processes skills into to To one given employee, which provides a variety of lenses of perspective that can be really useful.
Dennise Cardona 23:09
Yeah, speaking of questions, you you mentioned questions that they might ask for someone who is intrigued by I/O psychology, but isn't sure that you know whether or not this is the right field for them, what should they be asking themselves?
Speaker 1 23:27
Questions. I think that's the that's the first part. But I think coming with a curious mindset is is important to this work. So you know, are you someone who likes data, and you know, statistics, for example, is something that presents a lot of trepidation in in many people, not just people in general society, but also people even within graduate programs of like, like, well, you know, where where are my skill sets at for that, and you know, coming out the other side, being very strong in those things. Anyways, you know, are you able to not just execute given analyzes, but tell the story behind what that means and communicate that effectively to the people? You know, do you like working with people and managing stakeholder relationships? You know, not all IO roles are client-facing or require lots of interaction with other company stakeholders. But you know, in in work where you're supporting employee success, sort sort of more directly, do you appreciate looking at that sort of stuff? Do you appreciate thinking about what the the best evidence based practice is to improve a given company, and you know not just moving with more intuitive sort of approaches of well I've I've seen someone do this for the for the past. Two years, so that's the thing I'm going to do. But being able to ask healthy questions about, okay, this is the process that's been done. Is this, you know, the best process, and what what would that look like going forward? And I think in the case of this program in particular, you know, students getting to learn from instructors who have years of industry experience within the the topic that they're that they're teaching students about, you know, provides that contextualization to understand that, and you know, are they are they excited for for new challenges and to be in all kinds of you know different spaces?
Dennise Cardona 25:50
Well, thank you so much for sharing your insights today. So helpful, and I believe that the audience, viewers, listeners will get a lot from this conversation, so I thank you for sharing space here today with me and sharing your insights into this I/O psychology field.
Speaker 1 26:10
I appreciate your time, Dennise, and getting to to talk a little bit more about psychology and hopefully clear up some questions people might have about it.
Dennise Cardona 26:19
Yes, and thank you, everyone, for tuning into this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about our offerings, look at the links in the description.
Unknown Speaker 26:30
Thank you so much.