Expectations of Organizational Psychologists

As a manager of an organization that is directly involved in the day to day operations of the organization there are certain aspects of the staff chemistry, personnel policies and leadership effectiveness that it would be tough to measure while being directly involved. The goal of bringing in an organizational psychologist is to receive feedback on the personality differences within the staff and how best to utilize the differences for the overall success of the organization. The organizational psychologist can also interview staff and observe staff to measure the effectiveness and adherence to personnel policies. Most importantly, as a manager, the psychologist can give direct feedback to myself and other leadership staff on our effectiveness with dealing with and handling the personnel challenges we face.

While the benefits of an organizational psychologist are great the cost can also be high. To measure the need of an organizational psychologist strictly off of the financial feasibility is to miss the point of their worth. Organizational psychologists are not typically staff personnel but rather contract personnel that are brought in when needed. Because of the role of organizational psychologists to keep them on staff, while financially unfeasible, is also not a benefit to their functionality in the organization because if they are involved in the daily operations of the organization they will be at a disadvantage to analyze the organization in an unbiased manner.