Workplace psychology is the intersection of psychology and organizational management, developing from Industrial Psychology at the start of the 20th century. Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management (1911) focused on efficiency maximization; Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne studies (1924-1932) discovered social factors’ enormous influence on productivity, launching the “Human Relations Movement”; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory (1959) advanced research on intrinsic motivation; since the 1990s, positive psychology, mindfulness, and Psychological Capital (PsyCap) have entered workplace psychology’s scope.
## Core Concepts: Motivation, Satisfaction, and Commitment
**Work Motivation**: the psychological energy driving people to invest effort in work. Intrinsic motivation comes from the work itself’s enjoyment and meaning; extrinsic motivation comes from external rewards like salary and promotion. Self-Determination Theory (SDT, Deci & Ryan) identifies three basic psychological needs for intrinsic motivation: Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness — employees with all three needs met show higher intrinsic motivation, performance, and well-being.
**Job Satisfaction**: subjective evaluation of various work aspects (tasks, salary, supervisor, colleagues, development opportunities). Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory distinguishes: Motivators (work content, sense of achievement, recognition, growth) affect satisfaction; Hygiene Factors (salary, working conditions, management style) affect dissatisfaction but cannot generate positive motivation. Implication: raising employee pay can reduce dissatisfaction but cannot create enthusiasm; generating enthusiasm requires improving work’s meaningfulness and challenge.
**Organizational Commitment**: employee’s emotional attachment to the organization and retention intent. Meyer & Allen Three-Component Model: affective commitment (stay because they want to), continuance commitment (stay because leaving costs are high), normative commitment (stay because they feel they should). Employees with highest affective commitment create the most value — the core target of talent retention strategy.
## Practical Tools from Organizational Behavior
**Job Design**: Hackman & Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model (1976) identifies five key features that enhance work meaningfulness: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Managers can improve employee motivation through “job enrichment” (increasing responsibility and challenge) and “job enlargement” (increasing task variety).
**Goal Setting**: SMART goals are common knowledge; more advanced is Locke & Latham’s Goal Setting Theory: difficult, specific goals produce higher performance than vague “do your best” goals (provided employees accept the goal and have sufficient capability).
See [Motivation Theory and Work](https://sunqi.org/motivation-theory-work-en/) and [Harvard Business Review Organizational Behavior](https://hbr.org/topic/subject/organizational-culture).
