Career as a management psychologist

Gauri Chhabra
The competitive world today is laced with mergers and acquisitions, companies that entered into a joint venture yesterday are divorcing their partners, people are being churned in and out of jobs at a very fast pace, departments within the same organization are pitted against one another.The singular fact that becomes a challenge is the complexity of human behavior and relationships when persons, organizations and cultures are juxtaposed against one another.
All this calls for a person who can understand why people behave the way they behave and how can this chaos become cohesion. This is a profile that organizations are becoming increasingly conscious of day after day- the profile of a Management Psychologist. Well, is it the same as Human Resource Manager? Yes and No. It is Human Resource Management’s cousin.
Who is a Management Psychologist?
A Management Psychologist is a person who uses the insights of psychology to improve effectiveness of yourself and your company.In small companies, it is the HR who plays that role and at times a psychologist is called in for expert advice and psychometric testing. In larger organizations, however, you will find a person on rolls or it being outsourced to a Management Consultancy firm.
What does a Management psychologist do?
Deal with the psychological complexities of the employees and organizations:
Simply working in an organization can cause anxiety and a fear of failure that is very difficult to avoid. Companies often focus on setting high goals but underestimate worry, fear, jealousy, rivalry and the risks of narcissistic and strong-arm leadership. Processes of decision-making and cooperation between people and departments are all influenced by emotions and by the fear of losing face. People have a tendency to avoid sensitive issues and fear failure, leading to conflicts and misunderstandings that block high performance.Professionals have become more assertive and want managers to support and coach them. Ultimately, it is effective behavior and creative cooperation between committed people that characterize high-performing companies.
It would be your job to break down the barriers that obstruct effective cooperation. You would encourage relationships in which people feel comfortable enough to give constructive feedback You would bring about a fit and compatibility between the personal goals of the employees and the vision and mission of the company. Ina nutshell, you would be the Go To person for all kinds of intra and inter conflict resolution as you would be armed by a degree in Psychology.
Job profile:
You would be responsible for any/all of the following depending upon the scale and size of the organizations:
* Selection and Assessment
* Organizational development
* Coaching
* Leadership development
* Learning and development
* Talent management
* Employee engagement
* Safe and user-friendly work environments
* Performance management and appraisal
* Culture
* Health and well-being at work
* Psychometric testing
The need:
As of now there is no single formal degree or specialization that takes care of both Management and Psychology. However, there is a growing need in the organizations for a person who is equipped with a complementary degree in HR and Psychology. Some foreign Universities have recognized the need and offer M.Sc in Managerial Psychology. However, in India the route you can take is an M.A/M.Sc in Psychology and a Management degree. You can also dovetail diploma in Psychology and Counseling with your Management degree in HR. However, you would be limited to Counseling and would not be equipped to do any Clinical diagnosis and Psychometric testing.A degree in psychology and management will equip you with a complementary and overlapping skill set.
Institute Scape:
* Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) offering M.A. (Psychology) program with Clinical, Counseling and Industrial Psychology specializations.
* Bangalore University offeringM.Sc Psychological Counseling, with two specializations – Educational Counseling and Human Resource Management
* Masters in Psychotherapy and Counseling offered by Indian Board of Alternative Medicines, Kolkata (Department of Distance and Continuing Education).
* MA in Industrial-organizational (I/O) Psychology, Adler school of Professional psychology USA (Distance mode)
* M.Sc Managerial Psychology, University of Manchester, UK
Area in focus:
After a Managerial Psychology Program, you will learn the key concepts for better understanding the psychological dimensions of human behavior, revealing new ways to unblock situations and encourage mutual understanding and cooperation.
You would also be able to handle and solve complex questions like: How can you observe and interpret people’s behavior? Do you understand the emotions behind your own behavior? Do you see the forces behind the irrational behavior of others? How can you recognize harmful exchanges in interpersonal relations? How can you avoid cliques or factions from forming in the organization? How should you get rid of outdated organizational routines? How does hierarchy affect the way people express themselves?How should you handle underperformers and high performers that threaten the existing culture?
Forking Pathways:
There are a wide range of opportunities available in local authorities, social service departments, voluntary sector organizations, advice centers, health and housing, the civil and public services and private organizations, as well as teaching and research.
Consultant:
The primary career pathway for you is as a consultant for business organizations. You would often meet with business leaders and upper echelons of management to assist with implementing and improving personnel strategies, including hiring methods and training programs, and evaluating the success of the organizational structure. In your efforts to improve a business’s structure and performance, you might analyze trends and perform research to determine the relationship between psychological characteristics, employee performance and organizational success. After assessing a company’s goals and strategy, you could develop tests or interview questions designed to screen potential employees for desirable traits and skills.
You can also work for companies specializing in numerous applications of psychology to business, including pre-hire assessment, leadership development and coaching, CEO succession and consultation, talent assessment through M&A.
Besides, many successful entrepreneurs start up a company easily but then have difficulty in maintaining its growth, because they lack the emotional understanding needed to grow a strong management team and lose contact with the grassroots would come to you for consultancy.
Trainer:
You may associate yourself with a training organization or be a self- employed trainer who creates and developstraining programs to assist current employees with developing latent talents or new skills, advising changes to improve performance and motivation based on the results. You could assist businesses with reorganizing existing employees into positions that best utilize their skills and talents and determine whether gaps in talent or skill exist in the current workforce.

For queries contact gauri_nagpal @yahoo.com

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