Discussion Question on Spector

WEEK 1 Day 2 Discussion Question 1

Spector (2006) mentions the fact that Hugo Munsterberg is one of the founders of I/O Psychology. In his book, Business Psychology, Hugo Munsterberg wrote:

The business house may be installed with a splendid equipment…yet success and failure depend upon the achievements of those who sit at the desks or who walk the floor or who stand behind the counter, and these achievements depend ultimately upon the mental powers of the employer and employee (Munsterberg, 1914, p. 5)

This statement suggests that an organization's success (or performance) rests on the thinking power of its employees (and employers). If we accept this supposition, then it seems the primary task of an I/O psychologist is to determine the skills and aptitudes of persons within an organization.

Do you think I/O psychologists should focus primarily on employee skill and aptitude for work? Is Munsterberg’s idea applicable to the conditions of modern organizations?

When focusing on an employee’s natural abilities or skill the vision of his or her work abilities are important. In businesses this is where I think I/O psychologist should keep his or her focus on because of the many businesses that seek into hiring individual’s that may not have the proper skills in viewing of hiring the most experienced or qualified person to do the job. When the I/O psychologists focuses on an employer’s learning abilities, he or she will share information with the employer if the individual (Possible employee) is or is not capable to perform the job that needs to be done. Managers of businesses, who do the hiring, may not have the ability to understand how to figure this information out to hire an individual. Also, I/O psychologist needs to focus on the skills of employee’s. If any employee has no skill or cannot learn the skills, he or she will run into extreme problems and difficulties to where he or she will not be able to perform. In my opinion Munsterberg’s way...