Work Settings: Working Critically within the Status Quo

Abstract

Depending on country and continent, psychologists employed by organizations to improve effectiveness have been called industrial/organizational, occupational or work psychologists. Under these rubrics, psychologists have been recruited to help organizations to increase productivity and improve human relations for almost a hundred years (Hollway, 1991). Although psychologists in the fields of industrial/organizational, occupational or work psychology have been typically employed by profit-making companies, psychologists and organizational consultants have more recently been hired to help not-for-profit agencies as well. In this chapter we deal with the roles of psychologists in both types of organizations, in profit-making corporations and in human services.