While core I/O psychology courses establish the science of workplace behavior, PSY6740 focuses on applying that science within the operational structures of human resource management — the systems, policies, and legal frameworks through which organizations actually manage their workforce day to day.
Recruitment and staffing strategy
Strategic staffing begins with workforce planning — forecasting future labor needs based on organizational strategy and analyzing internal supply (succession planning, promotion pipelines) against external supply (labor market conditions). Recruitment sourcing strategies span internal sourcing (job postings, internal promotions — preserves institutional knowledge and signals career growth opportunity) and external sourcing (job boards, employee referrals, campus recruiting, recruiting agencies, social media/LinkedIn recruiting). Employer branding — the organization's reputation as a place to work — increasingly shapes applicant attraction in competitive labor markets. Realistic job previews (giving candidates accurate information about job demands, not just selling points) improve post-hire retention by reducing unmet expectations.
Compensation and benefits design
Core compensation system components
- Job evaluation: Systematic process for determining the relative worth of jobs within an organization (point-factor method, job ranking, job classification) — the foundation for internally equitable pay structures
- Pay structures: Pay grades and ranges built from job evaluation results and market pricing data (salary surveys), balancing internal equity (fairness relative to other jobs in the organization) against external competitiveness (fairness relative to the labor market)
- Incentive pay systems: Individual incentives (commission, piece-rate, merit pay), team incentives (gainsharing), and organization-wide incentives (profit sharing, stock options) — each carries tradeoffs in motivating the targeted behavior while managing unintended consequences (e.g., individual incentives can undermine teamwork)
- Benefits: Health insurance, retirement plans (defined benefit vs. defined contribution), paid leave, and increasingly, flexible/cafeteria benefit plans that let employees select benefits matching their individual needs — benefits represent a substantial and growing portion of total compensation cost
- Pay equity analysis: Statistical analysis to identify unexplained pay disparities by gender, race, or other protected characteristics, increasingly required by state pay transparency and equity laws
Employee and labor relations
Employee relations encompasses the policies and practices governing the employment relationship outside of a unionized context — discipline and grievance procedures, employee engagement initiatives, and conflict resolution. Labor relations specifically addresses the unionized employment relationship — collective bargaining processes, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) framework governing union organizing and unfair labor practices, grievance arbitration, and the dynamics of labor-management cooperation versus conflict. I/O psychologists contribute particularly to understanding employee engagement and voice mechanisms, organizational justice perceptions (distributive, procedural, and interactional justice — Colquitt's 2001 framework), and the psychological dynamics of organizational conflict.
Legal compliance in HR practice
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964): Prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; established disparate treatment and disparate impact theories of discrimination
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, 1990): Requires reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities and prohibits discrimination; directly relevant to I/O psychologists involved in job analysis (determining "essential functions") and accommodation decisions
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA, 1967): Protects workers 40 and older from age-based discrimination
- Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA, 1993): Provides eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA, 1938): Establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, and exempt/non-exempt employee classification rules
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): The federal agency enforcing most workplace anti-discrimination law; I/O psychologists must understand EEOC guidelines, particularly the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, when designing or validating selection systems
HR analytics and the strategic HR business partner role
Contemporary HR practice increasingly relies on people analytics — using workforce data to inform decisions about turnover prediction, engagement drivers, performance patterns, and the ROI of HR programs. This data-driven orientation reflects HR's evolution from a primarily administrative/compliance function toward a strategic business partner role, where HR professionals (often I/O psychology-trained) work directly with business leaders to align workforce strategy with organizational strategy — a shift formalized in Ulrich's (1997) HR business partner model, which distinguishes strategic partner, change agent, administrative expert, and employee champion roles within the HR function.
PSY6740 assignments include compensation system design, legal compliance case analyses, and HR strategy projects
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Compensation design projects, legal compliance analyses, staffing strategy papers, HR analytics applications.
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Frequently asked questions
This distinction is a cornerstone of employment law content in PSY6740 and is essential for I/O psychologists involved in designing or defending personnel selection systems. Disparate treatment refers to intentional discrimination — an employer treats an individual less favorably specifically because of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Proving disparate treatment requires evidence of discriminatory intent, which can be established through direct evidence (an explicit discriminatory statement or policy) or, more commonly, through the burden-shifting framework established in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green (1973): the plaintiff establishes a prima facie case of discrimination, the employer must articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the action, and the plaintiff must then show that reason is pretextual. Disparate impact, by contrast, does not require proof of discriminatory intent at all. Established in the landmark case Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971), disparate impact theory holds that a facially neutral employment practice (one that doesn't mention any protected characteristic and isn't intended to discriminate) can still violate Title VII if it has a disproportionately negative effect on a protected group and cannot be justified as job-related and consistent with business necessity. Griggs itself involved a power company that required a high school diploma and passing scores on two aptitude tests for certain jobs — requirements that disproportionately excluded Black applicants and that the Supreme Court found were not shown to be related to successful job performance. This is precisely why I/O psychologists' validation work is legally critical: when a selection procedure (a cognitive ability test, a physical fitness requirement, an educational requirement) produces adverse impact against a protected group — commonly assessed using the four-fifths rule from the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) — the employer's legal defense rests entirely on demonstrating, through rigorous validation evidence (criterion-related, content, or construct validity tied to actual job requirements), that the procedure is job-related and necessary for safe and efficient business operation. Without that validation evidence, even an employer with no discriminatory intent whatsoever can be found liable under disparate impact theory — making the validity evidence covered throughout the I/O psychology curriculum (PSY6710, PSY6740) a direct legal compliance requirement, not merely a scientific nicety.