Business Psychology: Benefits And Application

In the business world, it is important to get to know the work environment thoroughly and all the factors that affect it. For this reason, it is essential to be aware of both the capabilities of the work teams and any problems that may arise. Business psychology deals with these and other similar issues. It is thus a branch of psychology that focuses on the study of human behavior in the workplace.

This area of ​​psychology specializes in examining all of the factors that can have an impact on the performance of work tasks. This can be studied at both the individual and group level. The goal is to correctly identify all possible courses of action to improve employee performance. Let’s take a closer look at this.

The origins of business psychology

The first definition of business psychology appeared as industrial psychology. It dealt mainly with scientific work in Europe in the late 16th century.

A detailed description of the beginnings of this area of ​​research can be found in The Examination of the Ingenuities for the Sciences , published by Juan Huarte San Juan in 1575. Experts consider this to be the first work to deal with business psychology in an effective way.

Several centuries later, World War II and the ensuing global economic crisis sparked a new interest in business psychology. The main reason for this was that many companies naturally needed to recover from these world-revolutionary events, the consequences of which could be felt both financially and at the organizational level.

Take the armed forces, for example. During World War II, training camps were in dire need of new recruits with the ability to develop more advanced tasks at the technological level. All of these people were assigned a certain status with this in mind.

After the war

After the war ended, all these former soldiers had to return to other types of missions. Problems related to adjustment gave rise to growing mental distress and high levels of unemployment.

Research conducted in those years to address the employment crisis helped industrial psychology evolve into business psychology as we know it today. This was because the studies extended to all work environments other than just industry.

One particular change was how industrial psychology began to be applied to the analysis of individual behavior in groups, rather than simply analyzing the behavior of individual workers. This type of group research can be applied effectively in a business environment.

How do business psychology and human resource management differ?

The field of business psychology should not be confused with human resource management in any organization. The first is the branch of psychology, and its practice requires proper training.

It is true that business psychology may involve work related to human resource management. But it also deals with motivation, stress and culture, for example.

Training in the field of psychology is not absolutely necessary to work in the human resources department. It mainly prepares and analyzes budgets, staff costs, contracts and legal issues. For this reason, the skills required there are more related to economics and law than to psychology itself.

Business psychology: tasks

Business psychology can play many roles in a business organization. We describe these tasks in more detail by dividing them into the following areas:

• Staff orientation. This is probably the most important aspect in this branch of psychology. Its main task is to plan the tasks of the work teams and clearly define their objectives.
• Staff Development. One goal of business psychology is to determine the needs of employees in relation to their training. To this end, the best methods must be put in place so that company staff can obtain all the information they need to do the job properly. It also helps them advance in their careers and develop new skills.
• Marketing. This area consists of conducting surveys and working on group dynamics. In addition to this, it conducts research on the image of a product or company and how potential consumers view it.

• Administration. Business psychology also handles administrative tasks related to company practices. These include personnel management and the definition of responsibilities for each position. In particular, this aspect of psychology is designed to help a company lead its various work teams effectively.