Masters in Organizational Psychology | Online and Distance Learning

Campus-based and Online Masters in Organizational Psychology Programs

Submitted by admin on Wed, 08/04/2010 - 21:43

A masters in organizational psychology can assist you to obtain a prestigious career in industry. This page will help you to find out more about industrial organizational psychology and to locate suitable university online programs.

Education for organizational psychologists

The role of an organizational psychologist is to assist in maintaining harmony, good working relationships and a positive working environment in an organization. In a masters in organizational psychology, you study human behaviour in an organizational setting in order to learn how to do this.

Online masters organizational psychology programs are very popular amongst working students. Such students are very often unable to attend on campus classes and so take distance learning degrees instead. This page is specifically for those students. If you wish to explore the on-campus programs available, go to the on-campus programs page.

Where can you take a masters in organizational psychology online?

There are several schools where you can take a masters in organizational psychology (or related masters) online. Here are a few selected ones:

Capella University Online
- MS - Industrial / Organizational Psychology
- MS - Leadership Coaching Psychology

American InterContinental University Online
- MBA - Organizational Psychology and Development

Argosy University Online
- Master of Arts in Industrial / Organizational Psychology

The University of the Rockies Online
- Master of Arts in Psychology
  - Business Psychology
  - Executive Coaching
  - International Leadership
  - Mediation and Conflict Resolution
  - Non-Profit Management
  - Organizational Consulting
  - Organizational Diversity
  - Organizational Leadership
- Graduate Certificates
  - Business Psychology
  - Organizational Leadership

What do you study?

In a career as an organizational psychologist you need the generic skills that are required in many of the "helping" professions:

Knowledge of how to improve the work place environments and workplace communications;
Ability to understand how groups function;
Knowledge of negotiations strategies, problem solving, and group cohesion.

In addition to learning these skills and knowledge, in an industrial organizational psychology masters you also learn how to examine the culture of a given organization and evaluate the effect it has on the business so as to create work environments conducive to better performance.

A typical masters might include: Communication, management, team building, motivational psychology, analysis and evaluation, leadership psychology, and critical thinking.

What jobs do graduates get?

With a masters degree in industrial organizational psychology or organizational behavior, you can begin a career in human resources or organizational development as a facilitator in team building, corporate communications, or coordinating professional development and training programs. You could also work in executive search firms, or as a research consultant, or in universities.

And prospects are good. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts an increase in organizational psychology jobs over the next several years, mainly because of concern over worker productivity, retention rates, workplace diversity, and anti-discrimination.

Salaries are high among some of the jobs that organizational psychologists take, but vary widely depending on the job type, geographical location, company size, education level and experience. For example, as an HR Manager with 5-9 years experience, you would earn over US57,000 per annum (PayScale.com). Some other job titles to look for are: Employee Relations Manager, Human Resources Consulting Assistant and Senior Research Consultant.