Industrial/Organizational Psychology is the fastest growing occupation in the United States, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Unfortunately, this discipline is not receiving the required acknowledgment in Pakistan as compared to other countries. Another dilemma is that, functionality of Industrial/Organizational Psychologists and Human Resource Managers are considered to be equivalent in Pakistan.
I/O psychology differs from human resources as in I/O psychology field’s emphasis on science and metrics. I/O psychology people are the “geeks” of management. They like science. They like rigor. They design interventions or improvements for organizations on the basis of facts, research, and scientific methods. They can devise tests that measure job-related skills or knowledge without being discriminatory or unfair to people in protected groups. I/O psychology addresses issues of recruitment, selection and placement, training and development, performance measurement, workplace motivation and reward systems, quality of work life, structure of work and human factors, organizational development and consumer behavior.
In a nutshell, I/O psychologists should be given space in industries or companies because of their expanded roles and they should not be compared with HR managers.

(Maria Zaffar is the student of BS Applied Psychology,PU)