(Re)Applying social psychology to organizational work, well‐being, and leadership

Abstract

Research on organizational behavior is fundamentally an application of social psychology theory and phenomena. While much of organizational psychology is inherently grounded in social psychological research, these two disciplines are largely disconnected from one another. More visibility of the commonalities may encourage discussion, collaboration, and integration between these two fields—an integration that will only benefit each discipline. The present article briefly reviews the historic overlap between these disciplines, the resulting divide between them, and then discusses recent developments demonstrating the potential power of reconnecting social psychology with organizational‐relevant research. We then examine how the six empirical articles in this Special Issue benefit from applying social psychological theory to organizational research. We will conclude by identifying potential areas ripe for future research.

100 Years of Scientific Evolution of Work and Organizational Psychology: A Bibliometric Network Analysis From 1919 to 2019

“…Currently, this term is used in Psychology in a more restricted way. Works related to this cluster investigated issues related to personality ( Belwalkar and Tobacyk, 2018 ; Gøtzsche-Astrup, 2018 ), leadership ( Rast et al, 2016 ; Scott and Pringle, 2018 ; Madrid et al, 2019 ), social assistance ( Engstrom, 2019 ) and organizational justice ( Lyu, 2016 ) among others. The variety of research related to this topic highlights the efforts of researchers to understand human behavior in work environments.…”