Author: Ronald E. Riggio; Consulting Editor: Lyman W. Porter  
Publisher: Pearson – 534 pages
Book Review by: Paiso Jamakar

This book provides readers, particularly students, an introduction to the interesting and down-to-earth field of industrial and organizational (frequently referred to in short as “I/O”) psychology. This book also deals with the many issues that executives charged with recruiting, hiring and training new employees, deal with. This book is also a valuable resource for personnel managers as well as human resource (HR) professionals, who interact with people in organizations.

The author points out two themes of this book that guided him in developing it:

  1. It demonstrates the connection between a strong scientific base and an applied orientation, which I/O psychology has.
  2. It was written with the student in mind, so it draws on examples from the real world in relating to psychological concepts. The examples come from service industries such as retail chains and fast food restaurants, and Web-based organizations, rather than traditional office or factory worker settings.

This book covers a wide range of subjects in industrial/organizational psychology, as you will note from its table of contents below. This is provided to you below so that you can get an overview while making a purchase decision.

  1. Introduction
    1. Introduction: Definition and History
    2. Research Methods in Industrial / Organization Psychology
  2. Personnel Issues
    1. Job Analysis
    2. Employee Recruitment, Selection, and Placement
    3. Methods for Assessing and Selecting Employees
    4. Evaluating Employee Performance
    5. Employee Training and Development
  3. Worker Issues
    1. Motivation
    2. Positive Employee Attitudes and Behavior
    3. Worker Stress, Negative Employee Attitudes and Behaviors
  4. Work Group and Organizational Issues
    1. Communication in the Workplace
    2. Group Process in Work Organizations
    3. Leadership
    4. Influence, Power, and Politics
    5. Organizational Structure, Culture, and Development

Change is always happening, especially in the world of work, which industrial / organizational psychology primarily deals with. Books must discuss these changes and incorporate them in the latest editions, otherwise they become anachronistic. So what is new in this the sixth edition of this book?

  • A focus on the broader construct of job engagement, with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and other positive employee attitudes and behaviors as components of engagement
  • More student-oriented features
  • New and expanded coverage of international issues
  • Cutting edge topics such as workplace bullying, virtual teams and organizations, and web-based training and assessment
  • Thoroughly updated. The latest research on each key topic has been included. There are more than 250 new references in this edition, most published within the last five years. Again, students will find this an excellent resource for term papers and in their future coursework
  • Expanded instructor’s manual and ancillaries. The instructor’s manual and test bank has been expanded and updated and includes exercises and additional material

Organization of content in chapters facilitates learning with the following features:

  • Chapter Outline – at the beginning of each chapter, it presents the main topics in it
  • Inside Tips – a must-read to get the maximum benefit from that particular chapter
  • Key Words – presented and defined on the left and right margins of the pages
  • Tables – provide useful data and lists, such as I/O journals in Table 1.1
  • Up Close – detailed answers to queries, e.g. “What Does an I/O Psychologist DO?”
  • Stop& Review – icons on margins that prompt you to do something testing your memory
  • Study Questions and Exercises – these prompt you to write brief answers
  • Web Links – resources for further exploration and study available on the Internet
  • Suggested Readings – Lists of books and other sources of information

All in all, this is a very well planned, organized, developed, and written work in the field of industrial / organizational psychology by Ronald E. Riggio.

Author:
Ronald E. Riggio is affiliated with Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College.

Consulting Editor:
Lyman W. Porter is affiliated with the University of California at Irvine.