I/O psychologists are professionals who study people at work. They use psychological methods and principles to help improve both the performance and well-being of employees. I/O psychologists do their jobs in many different settings.

These are broadly divided into two main areas:

  1. Practice 
  2. Research

Research settings and activity: 

Research in I/O psychology focused on studying how people behave at work. This research provides information and principles that can be used in practice. One major objective of I/O psychology is to help organizations function more effectively. For this, the field must have research findings on which the practice is based.
Most research settings are the colleges and universities at which many I/O psychologists are professors. They are usually found in psychology departments and can be found in colleges of business administration or other areas.

Although they spend much time doing research and teaching, they may also work in practice, as a consultant to organizations and some start their own consulting firms.

Their common activity includes:

  1. Teach courses.
  2. Conduct research.
  3. Write research papers and present them at meetings.
  4. Publish articles in scientific journals.
  5. Write textbooks.
  6. Provide consulting services to organizations.
  7. Supervise graduate and undergraduate students.
  8. Provide information to the public.
  9. Oversee research.
  10. Keep knowledge base solid.
  11. Help understand the teaching functions of their universities.

Practice settings and activity: 

Practice means applying psychological principles to solve workplace problems. I/O psychologists in practice settings focus on helping organizations work better.

Practice settings include:

  1. Consultancy firms: These firms provide expert advice I/O services to organizations that hire them. Some are very large and work with the best all over the world.
  2.  Private Corporations: Many large corporations hire I/O psychologists, do work.
  3. Government: They may work for city, state and national government offices to improve how public services are delivered.
  4. Military: They usually work as civilian specialists.

Practicing I/O psychologists do many of the same things as their academic colleagues. But the major focus of practice jobs is the application of the findings and principles of the field.
Their work includes:

  1. Analyze the nature of a job.
  2. Conduct an analysis to determine the solution to an organizational problem.
  3. Conduct a survey of employee feelings and emotional opinions.
  4. Design an employee performance appraisal system.
  5. Design an employee selection system.
  6. Design a training program.
  7. Develop psychological tests.
  8. Evaluate the effectiveness.
  9. Implement an organizational change.

Although we talk about research and practice separately, the truth is they often overlap. Many I/O psychologists in research settings get involved in practice, and psychologists in practice settings do research. I/O psychologists' work enhances the effectiveness and functioning of organizations. They do this by selecting the right people, training them well, creating better job designs, and designing organizations to function better. They also attempt to change organizations to create healthier and safer places for people to work.

Readings:
Spector, P. E. (2006). Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc..