Five currents of organizational psychology:from group norms to enforced change

In: Nickelsen , N C M 2017 , ' Five currents of organizational psychology : from group norms to enforced change ' , Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies , vol. 7 , no. 1 , pp. 87 - 106 . https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.v7i1.81402

Abstract

Organizational psychology was established as a particular discipline in the context of the Great Depression and the two World Wars, and was thus present from the beginning of the international history of psychology. The appearance of organizational psychology was partly related to a need for recruitment and selection principles and job design. After the Second World War, a need arose in addition to the treatment of war trauma and the collective processing of the painful experiences from the Holocaust. Kurt Lewin's term "resistance to change" and his interest in norms, values and dynamics of the small group stands centrally in organizational psychology's contribution to the study of organizations. In this article I present and discuss the impact and significance of five strands in organizational psychology: A social psychological strand, a psychodynamic strand, an occupational psychology strand, a humanistic strand and a systemic-constructionist strand. I present some of the most noteworthy authors and concepts. The strands I present make up neither a complete nor unequivocal description of the field. I use them as a founding structure to create an overview of a number of more or less coherent theory forms which collectively constitute what we mean by organizational psychology. I argue that organizational psychology as a discipline has been influenced by a number of paradigms and strands, but that the notions of resistance, the small group and process consultation, although they have variegated meaning go through all the strands and continues to be central in organizational psychology. Key words: Organizational psychology, resistance to change, the small group, process consultation, basic assumptions ; Organizational psychology may be seen as consisting of a number of mutually conflictual currents developed over several decades. This article discusses five currents in organizational psychology that have both been dominant in Scandinavia and have had particular significance in relation to the field of organizational development: The social psychological, the socio-technical, the humanistic, the work psychological and the social constructionist currents. Central arguments and works from leading scholars are discussed. It is argued that although treated differently the notions of the small group, group dynamics, resistance to change and process consultation constitute pivotal and through going tenets in all the currents. These notions, it is argued, link the discipline of organizational psychology together into a mutually discordant, but anyway relatively consistent research area. The discussion in the article illustrates that while the early contributions to organizational psychology were explicitly focused on interpersonal process based on egalitarian dialogue in the small group for the sake of democracy, satisfaction and efficiency; the latter rather focus on involving organizational participants in reflection and movement as a goal in itself. Moreover, the analysis exposes a decrease over time of strict analytical interest in group norms and contextualized tasks and also an increasing general socio-cognitive focus on providing flexible mindsets and reversing ready bodies for the sake of continual organizational change. It is argued that this latest budding in organizational psychology has negative implications both for the fineness of the scientific discipline and for the credibility in practice. A firmer ethics is demanded. Keywords: Organizational psychology, group dynamics, resistance to change, basic assumptions, relations, currents