Industrial-Organizational Psychology

UW Industrial-Organizational Psychology Faculty (from left to right): Professors James Beck, Ramona Bobocel, Doug Brown, Annika Hillebrandt, Jay Michela (Professor Emeritus), and Wendi Adair.

The mission of the Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology program is to provide students with a well-rounded education that will both afford them flexibility in their future career path and enable them to positively impact the workplace. This is accomplished by exposing students to psychological theory, research, and methods through coursework, as well as providing students with hands-on opportunities to conduct research with faculty. In short, our goal is to develop exceptional researchers and practitioners who can make a difference to organizations, to workers, and to the I-O field broadly.

The I-O area offers two different degree programs: 

• There is a two-year MASc program, from which approximately half of our students graduate and go on to employment in the private and public sector.
• The further PhD program usually draws from our own MASc students who choose to continue graduate study immediately after completing their master's degrees.  However, some PhD students come to study here after receiving master's degrees elsewhere (and some of our master's students continue graduate studies elsewhere).

The I-O graduate program is founded on the principle that effective practice depends on solid research. Our faculty and students work collaboratively to conduct cutting-edge research that contributes to the scientific literature, which in turn can serve as the basis for evidence-based application. Some students may choose to supplement their training by obtaining a one-term internship involving full-time work in a corporate human resources (HR) department, government HR department, or in a management consulting firm. Graduates of the I-O graduate program are consistently successful in the pursuit of both academic (e.g., professor) and applied (e.g., consultant) careers. We facilitate outstanding skill development toward whichever career path a student chooses.