Organizational Change and Development

Chapter 9 discusses organizational change and development, the procedures and methods intended to change the character of an organization and improve its performance, and how change efforts may be directed at selected groups, such as executive teams, certain units, locations, or the entire organization. It covers Organizational Development (OD), Process Consultation (PC), teams and team building, survey feedback and action research, externally imposed change, mergers and acquisitions, and planning and managing change.

Legal and Professional Standards Related to Assessment and Personnel Decisions

No other area of practice in organizational and business consulting psychology is as contentious as the development, validation, and collection of information used in personnel decisions. The competent OBC psychologist working in this arena must be cognizant of laws, regulations, court cases, and professional standards. This chapter outlines this area of knowledge but does not attempt to provide a definitive presentation of all these areas.

Conceptual and Scientific Foundations

Chapter 2 discusses how organizational theory has used force field analysis and systems theory as conceptual frameworks for understanding the development, evolution, and effects of changes in organizations. It also covers how theories originating in social psychology have influenced concepts of small work group and team dynamics, and how, at the individual level, several theories of personality, cognition, human abilities, and attribution are influential. It does address that there are no universally recognized conceptual framework for groups and individuals, and that the OBC psychologist must be an expert at job or work analysis and in comprehending organizational culture and climate. It also covers how some forms of work done by OBC psychologists are constrained by legal and professional standards.

Training and Development

Chapter 7 covers the steps in developing training programs and the competencies and ethics of development activities, along with a discussion of how OBC psychologists work with organizations on problems related to dysfunctional employee behavior.

Professional Identity

Chapter 14 discusses the profession identity of the OBC psychologist, including professional affiliations, and licensure and certification.

Ethical Behavior and Competencies

Chapter 11 discusses ethical behavior and competencies in OBCs, including the APA Code of Ethics, beneficence and non-maleficence, fidelity, responsibility, integrity, justice, and respect, as well as informed consent, confidentiality, improper personal relationships, impairment, and duty to warn.

Business and Consulting Skills

Chapter 10 discusses how a number of competencies needed for success in organizational and business consulting psychology are not specific to the field, and can include psychology, personnel and human resources, education and training and mathematics, English language, customer and personal service, administration and management, communications and media, and clerical. It also covers the characteristics needed for forensic work, personal qualities in demand by consulting firms, and business skills.

Assessment of Performance

Chapter 5 discusses analysis of performance, and how the outcomes from performance measurement activities fall into four main categories: between individual comparisons, within individual comparisons, system maintenance, and documentation. It also addresses how performance measures used for comparing between individuals contribute to decisions on salary, promotion, termination, and similar actions, how those intended for within-individual comparisons are primarily used for identifying training and development needs and giving individual feedback. It also examines how performance appraisal systems intended for systems maintenance have outputs involved with goal attainment and clarification, evaluating the personnel system, and identifying organizational development needs, and that documentation results in recording personnel decisions, meeting legal requirements, and providing criteria for validation research.

Interpersonal Interactions

Chapter 13 covers some areas of interpersonal competence that are not often recognized in the OBC psychology literature, including maintaining appropriate role boundaries with clients and their families, working with and supervising new psychologists, working with professionals from other disciplines, competency in working with individuals and groups over long distances using a variety of technologies (internet, etc.), travel, and practice organization.

Individual and Cultural Diversity

Chapter 12 presents some of the critical issues and competencies related to diversity in OBC, and how the requisite competencies depend on the nature and scope of the psychologist–s practice.