Professional Work and Actual Work: The Case of Industrial Psychologists in South Africa

Abstract

In this study we sought to answer the question: What work activities do industrial psychologists perform on a daily basis? Our results, based on the responses of a sample of 129 registered industrial psychologists, showed that they spent most of their time performing general human resource work. We also found that industrial psychologists identified strongly with their profession and less strongly with voluntary associations like SIOPSA. We found no significant relationship between psychological acts performed by industrial psychologists and their identification with the profession. More men than women indicated that they performed psychological assessment activities in their daily work. Moreover, women tended to perform the more routine psychological assessment activities (e.g., test administration) and men the more high-level assessment activities (e.g., interpretation of test results). The results are explained in terms of social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and specifically the social creativity strategies used by a group whose high status is under threat.