A professionally accredited qualification in Business & Organizational Psychology
Why is business and organizational psychology important?
Business psychology and organizational psychology are two important sub- fields in psychology. “Business psychology” is an applied science that investigates how to make people and organizations more effective. This branch in Psychology is a budding field in Sri Lanka which has been introduced by Colombo Institute of Research and Psychology. It uses social scientific research methods to study people, workplaces and organizations in order to better align their multiple and sometimes competing n e e d s. “Organizational psychology” is the study of psychology within organizations, particularly on the job.
The blending of the two subfields in psychology will enable the competent and skillful middle to senior management and corporate professionals of Sri Lanka to deliver strategic optimal results within and outside the periphery of their prestigious organizations.
Acquiring knowledge in terms of business and organizational psychology will enable corporate professionals to excel in careers linked with corporate training, coaching, business consultancy, psychometric testing, consumer, human resources and market research or to practice as a business psychologist. Organizational psychologists, through the acquisition of such knowledge, may offer management training and study group dynamics.
How is the program delivered?
This is a 180 credit, level 7 Master’s qualification as per the regulated qualifications framework of UK and is quality assured and validated by ABE, Association of Business Executive in UK, an internationally recognized professional body.
The primary goal of this programme is to provide professional training to corporate leaders interested in finding an upward path of mobility in the corporate ladder. This is a part time course designed for the convenience where teaching takes place during weekends. There are two intakes each year (February/September). At the end of this course students will receive an internationally accredited professional title, Master Practitioner in Business & Organizational Psychology
What are the modules and what do they cover? Understanding Human Behaviour & Thinking
Application of Psychological concepts to an organizational context requires thorough knowledge in fundamentals of psychology. This module aims at providing you a solid foundation in the essential theories and models of psychology, so that you are able to understand human behavior and thinking patterns from a scientific perspective. You will learn about classical theories of Freudian Psychology that emphasizes on the importance of your unconscious mind to the recent discoveries of how our brain functions that are revealed through neuroscience.
Training, Development & Coaching
Organizations spend millions upon millions on training and development of their staff. Some training methods seem effective while other have no beneficial outcome. Some people could easily be trained while it is very difficult to change some. Thus the idea that anyone could be trained to do anything and the notion that some training methods are always effective is slowly dying. We are entering the era of coaching that is identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals and working on one on one basis to enhance the strengths. Psychological applications play a vital role in identifying ones strengths and weakness and customizing strategies for improvement.
Well-being at Work
Wellbeing at work is a state in which we are able to realise our own potential, cope with the normal stresses of life and work prod u c t ive l y and f ru i t f u l l y. Psychological and physical aspects of well- being are both equally important as they strongly influence each other. As a result many organizations now actively engage in programs that enhances employee well- being. By mastering the concept of well-being you are not only able to design and execute programs, policies and projects aimed at making the place you work a healthy, happy and a positive place but also reflect on yourself to improve your wellbeing that positively affects you, your career and your relationships with loved ones.
Psychology of Strategic Leadership
Inter-generational differences in attitudes and expectations of employees, rapidly changing socioeconomic environment, multi-cultural work places and political and financial instability around the world has made leading organizations more challenging than ever before. This module would expose you to a range of models of strategic leadership found to be more reliable and effective as opposed to everyday leadership theories.
Research Methods for Business
Working in the corporate sector is becoming more and more based on numbers and scientific approaches in decision making. If you are to progress in the organizational ladder, you need to become an expert in analyzing data using statistical applications and making decisions based on the interpretations of these data. Therefore knowledge and skills in research is essential for the modern day corporate management and leadership. This module will assist you understand business related statistics and methods of researching human behavior and thinking in a simplified manner.
Dissertation
This is the module where you can make an impact in the field of your work. You are able to combine what you have observed in your field during your career; questions about how and why people behave in such ways that triggered your curiosity and your assumptions based on your experience and convert it to a scientific research project. This would provide you the opportunity to engage at a postgraduate level research and publish your findings.
On successful completion of this dissertation, You could publish your paper in a journal and share your findings with the world, Present your paper at a conference and bring recognition to you and your organization, Be recognized as an academic as well as a professional in your field and become an authority in your field as an expert in the selected area.
Consumer Psychology
Marketing is all about the ability to understand, predict and influence human behavior. Individuals who are able to understand preferences of people and how these preferences vary based on age, culture, socio-economic class and with time are able to predict consumer behavior. Other areas that support marketing such as consumer research, advertising and branding heavily depend upon psychological concepts. During this module you will be exposed to the wellresearched scientific psychological theories applicable to consumer research, advertising, branding, sales and marketing.
Psychometric Testing for selection and Assessment
Corporate sector is moving away from intuition and experience based decision making and becoming more and more dependent on evidence based, scientific and objective decision making. In a world where employee retention has become a challenge, it is vital to recruit right people for the right job. This module would give insights for HR professionals to reflect on current traditional methods of screening and selecting and make the required changes including psychological methods of assessing and selecting people for work.
Cyber Psychology
World has moved from face to face interaction to social networking and press advertising to digital marketing. IT has infiltrated almost every aspect of our life. To cater to this increasing demand IT industry has become more competitive and understanding human perception, their mental processes, how they perceive signs and colors and how preferences vary from one generation to another is vital to make IT applications user friendly and appealing to people. This module will introduce one of the latest branches of psychology, Cyber and IT psychology and is ideal for professionals in the IT sector to understand the human factors that affect their products.
Effects of Change – Organisational & Personal
Change and ability to adapt to change is vital for survival in the corporate sector. Organizations change much more common now a days and changes such as restructuring causes great deal of stress in employees, sometimes making them leave organizations. On the other hand people change jobs more frequently, move to completely different organizational cultures that tests their ability and they adapt fast. These are ones understanding of themselves and other could be a definite advantage. This module would talk about psychological processes that make us adapt as well as resist change. Understanding them could make us guide others through change and personally gain from change than losing.
Psychology of building and maintaining teams
Whether we are at work, contributing to a charity project or running a family it is all about working with teams. People are different and they have different personalities, abilities and very different goals. Our success in managing these small teams would depend upon how well we understand dynamics at play. Team work is definitely a good way to achieve goals but research has shown that it is not the remedy for all situations. This module will give you psychological insights in terms of how to select people for teams, how to allocate roles that suit their personality, how to manage conflicts and most especially when to create teams at work and when not to.