IO Psych vs OB Psych?

[Jackie1987]

I was wondering what the main differences are between the two? Which has more earning potential? Which is easier to find a job with? My main concern right now is providing for my entire family, as my husband has MS, is unable to work, and only receives around $500/mo disability. I currently have a BA from U of M in Psychology, but I am considering getting my master's in one of these fields, or possibly a doctorate. Looking to get any advice that I can before I make the leap. Thanks!

[ILuvPsych2013]

IO Psych is a psych degree while OB is generally a business degree. Essentially what I have been told is that they explore the same kinds of issues, but while OB has more of a "profit" motive to implementing change IO has more of a "human" focus. I think it really just comes down to looking at topics through a psych lens vs a business lens. All of that being said, the person advising me about this ended with this: "Ultimately, both IO and OB do the same thing...but OB earns about $30k more per year."

[Engali]

From my research, OB programs are much more focused across the board in producing academicians, while I/O programs try (heh) to be balanced in producing people who are both academicians and practitioners. All you have to do is look at OB programs and note that they all generally say they are focused on producing researchers and people who will pursue careers in academia.

OB tends to focus more on drilling down in one company and drawing conclusions from doing case studies while I/O programs tend to go for breadth across companies using quasi-experiements. If you google something like "OB vs I/O psychology", you'll find an article where researchers do a meta analysis of articles in both fields and point out this difference. That article is actually pretty informative and you should check it out.

The comment ILuvPsych2013 is true only afaik only in academia and only because OB people *tend* to teach in business schools and I/O people *tend* to teach psychology department. The salary differs largely because of funding sources from what I understand. People pay some serious, upfront cash to earn MBAs (many more going for this than doctorates in business) while psychology departments tend to need to fund their students from research grants and such. Having said that, there's nothing stopping people who receive their doctorate in I/O from teaching in business schools. Victor Vroom received his I/O degree from U of Minnesota and teaches in the business school at Yale and I believe Gary Latham got an I/O degree and teaches at the Rotter School of Business at U of Toronto.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Engali