Affirming psychology in industrial psychology

M.Comm.Industrial psychology is an applied sub-discipline of psychology, and industrial psychologists are trained to be behavioural specialists in the workplace. As such, industrial psychologists approach workplace problems or enhance organisational functioning from a behavioural perspective. Industrial psychologists also function as human resource management practitioners within organisations. An investigation was conducted to determine how behavioural science could ideally be applied by industrial psychologists in the human resource management domains. The importance of investigating this research question was to enable or enhance the practise of industrial psychologists when functioning in the human resource management domains. The aim of this study was to create a socially constructed futuristic framework that could inform industrial psychologists on how they could practically apply psychology in human resource management. A qualitative approach was utilised to explore the research question. Industrial psychologists (21) that function in the realm of human resource management were involved as participants through personal semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus groups to provide an informed perspective on the behavioural scientific role of psychologists in the human resource management domains. The main contribution of this study is that industrial psychologists may be better able to position themselves in order to embed behavioural science in the human resource management domains. The implications of the findings are discussed. Keywords: industrial psychology, human resource management, behavioural scienc