CORE PSYCHOLOGY
Behaviour Change
Creativity
Critical Thinking
Culture
Emotional & Social Intelligence
Judgment, Risk & Decision-making
Mental Health & Wellbeing
Motivation & Goals
Personality
Problem-solving
Resilience
The Senses
BUSINESS PSYCHOLOGY
Assessment
Board Evaluation
Careers
Coaching
Entrepreneurship
Innovation
Leadership
Organizational Effectiveness
Performance & Productivity
Team Effectiveness
Training Skills
Work Design
BUSINESS FUNCTIONS/SKILLS
AI
Customer Service
Cyber-securuty
Diversity & Inclusion
Finance
Marketing
Negotiation
Process Design & User-Experience
Product Design & Usability
Project Management
Sales
Social Media
Talent Management
Trading
BUSINESS SECTORS
Automotive
Aviation
Construction
Creative Industries
Financial Services
Games
Life Sciences
Manufacturing
Retail
Sport
Software
Science & Technology
Tourism
AI is increasingly being used in business. Psychologists who are experts in cognitive science help develop systems that work effectively with people. For example, how can an AI detect and categorise emotion in a face or voice? What is the best way for an AI customer service chatbot to converse with someone who needs help? How can you retain engagement when a person is supposed to be monitoring an automatic process?
Following a number of 'pilot error' incidents related to mental health issues, European Union regulations now require Aircraft Operating Certificate Holders to ensure that a Psychological Assessment of all pilots is conducted prior to their commencement of flying duties. Over the years human factors research has played a significant role in the design of aircraft cockpits.
A key question for many people is: what is the best career for me? One perspective is to look at your strengths and interests. Another question is: what is the best way to navigate the career landscape? One perspective we bring is that of the human resources professionals who are involved in making decisions about hiring and promotion. How can you take their perspective into consideration when planning your future?
The UK excels in the creative industries (film, TV, theatre, music, publishing etc). An understanding of Career Psychology can help people who work in these fields grapple with the gig economy. Psychology has had a very long relationship with the arts, both in terms of understanding aesthetics, understanding performance and informing artists with regards to the human condition.
Organizational culture seems to mean different things to different people. One perspective is an international view. We share insight from the Globe study of over 60,000 people in 150 countries. Another perspective is instilling certain values e.g. safety behaviour, ensuring compliance and controlling risk-taking, in other organizations, encouraging innovation and risk-taking. How can you find the right balance between a strong culture and a sense of personal freedom?
How can organizations and managers ensure their teams include talent regardless of background? How can they find people outside of the normal recruitment channels? How can they ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect at all times? What are the demonstrable benefits of a more open approach? What are the challenges that may be faced?
An understanding of psychology is useful in avoiding the numerous cognitive biases that arise in decision-making. It is also useful in helping leaders get the best out of their teams. There is more to effectiveness than spreadsheets!
The Games industry is now as large as the film industrt. It is as big as the movie industry. Psychologists work with games designers to heighten the appeal of games. There are some games that take mental health seriously and support the well-being of young players.
Understanding how we make decisions is a fundamental aspect of Psychology. Judgment underpins many business activities. How do we generate and weigh up different courses of action? How do we handle risk? What are the dynamics involved in group decision making?
The UK is still the world's 9th largest manufacturing nation. Apart from design, core functions and ensuring a safety culture one of the most significant areas to which Psychology makes a contribution is Work Design.
Understanding Motivation is key to business success e.g. What are your drives? What makes you get out of bed in the morning? What are the best ways to motivate other people? Money? Sanctions? Clear goals? Intrinsic satisfaction?
Productivity in the UK lags behind that of other industrialised countries, and there was little growth in productivity in the last decade. How can what we know about Psychology help boost output? Areas include innovation, motivation, work design etc.
Solving problems is an important part of business life. Do people have different styles? Are there generic approaches that work across a range of domains? This topic also relates to Creativity.
Accountancy, Law and Management Consultancy contribute billions to the UK economy. Psychology is widely applied in Talent Management e.g. graduate recruitment and executive recruitment.
'Bricks and mortar' retail is still one of the largest sectors of the UK economy. The Psychology of Consumer Behaviour is widely applied (e.g. placement of products, creating an atmosphere, staff training etc). Psychology is also widely used in online retail.
Sales covers a range of activities from retail, through inbound and outbound call-centres, field sales, and corporate sales. Whilst some people may be 'born salespeople', sales is a skill that can be learned. Asking the right questions, product knowledge, understanding a customer's needs and influencing are skills that can be learned and developed.
An understanding of psychology is important in the design of social media platforms.
Psychologists play a significant role is devising and managing assessments to identify the best people for organizations to hire. Traditional structured interviews, personality and cognitive ability tests and assessment centres are now supplemented by Strengths-based approaches, situational judgment tests, video interviews and game-based assessments.
Advances in the understanding of how we learn should enable us to improve the effectiveness training, professional development and education.
In a business context, most psychological assessments are to help select the best candidate for recruitment or promotion. But they are also used to support development, training and other work-related issues. What are the best assessment methods? We cover personality questionnaires, cognitive tests, situational judgment tests, 360-degree feedback and more. We also look at modes of assessment, including interviews, online questionnaires, gamification and assessment centres.
The ideas that underpin behaviour change are used as part of organizational change programmes A wide range of approaches to behaviour are available from setting and enforcing rules and regulations, to education, role-modelling, peer pressure, rewards and incentives, nudge etc. Some of these methods have been used for example in designing the most effective communication methods to encourage customers to respond favourably.
Coaching is a key skill in managing people. We cover different approaches e.g. setting and achieving goals, developing self-insight, active listening skills etc. We also review different types of accreditation.
We describe a range of techniques for idea generation and evaluation. These can be applied in other activities such as problem-solving and negotiation.
Cybercrime is a major problem for organizations and individuals. Psychologists harness behavioural methods to help people avoid mistakes that can result in serious consequences.
What are the skills we need to effectively work with manage, influence or work for others? Part of the story is understanding our own emotional responses and being able to self-regulate them. Another is to be able to understand the goals and emotional reactions of others, and empathize if possible. There are then the skills required to co-operate, influence, persuade and bring people with you.
The Financial Services sector comprises a huge proportion of the UK economy. An understanding of Psychology is key in understanding consumer behaviour in areas such as Insurance and Wealth Management.
Occupational Psychologists are employed by the NHS and private healthcare providers to support talent management, leadership, culture development, and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing in what can be very stressful situations.
A huge volume of material has been written about Leadership over the years. But much of it is opinion or anecdote. We present results from studies involving thousands of participants and attempt to draw evidence-based conclusions.
All successful businesses have to meet and satisfy customer needs. But what are the best ways to measure and understand customer needs? Sometimes customers find it difficult to articulate what they want. Sometimes what they say they want in an interview or questionnaire does not correspond to their actions in practice. What can we learn from the study of consumer behavior?
Many psychological processes are involved in negotiation: weighing the value of positions or actions, dealing with our own emotions, dealing with the emotions of others, understanding how to influence, understanding how to present effectively.
The Creative Industries is a large sector of the UK economy, from TV and films to the West-end theatre scene and the music scene. Psychology has its role to play in career management in a gig economy as well as mental health and well-being.
Many business processes seem to have been designed from a technical perspective or to save costs, resulting in customer frustration. Psychological principles can help to design services to be user-centred and ultimately more efficient and cost-effective.
Project management isn't the first area one would think of applying psychology, but it has a role to play in effective team building and leading, managing relationships with stakeholders, avoiding the cognitive biases involved in planning and estimating etc.
The UK excels in science and technology companies. The stereotype of such companies is that they are run on technocratic lines. A better understanding of interpersonal dynamics may be of benefit getting teams to operate more effectively.
Psychology has a role to play in the enhancing the management and leadership of high-tech companies; it has a role in project management and design, particularly usability, and it has a role in the selection of highly talented software engineers.
How can we get teams to work effectively? Psychologists have used questionnaires, observation, video and voice data to analyze team function. They also carry out team coaching.
Tourism accounts for large proportions of the economy in many countries including the UK. Psychology has a role to play in regular organizational people-management but also in market research.
Psychology is applied in the design of vehicles for ease of use and safety. It is part of the process for designing auonomous vehicles. It is used in marketing and sales, as well as regular organizational issues such as hiring, teams and leadership.
What are the criteria for evaluating Board Effectiveness? Many relate to generic team effectiveness (e.g. leadership, shared goals, interpersonal dynamics etc.) but at a higher level. There are also considerations such as stakeholder management and governance. We take you through the criteria and the best ways to measure and evaluate them.
Although psychology has been applied in a range of regular business functions within the sector, one of the key areas it has made a contribution has been in the area of encouraging a safety culture.
Critical thinking is a key skill in business decision-making. An understanding of the numerous logical errors and cognitive biases that are possible, can help to improve the quality of decision-making.
Anyone who deals with customers has to apply social skills to the encounter. What are the essential skills require to deliver a high level of customer service? How can they be measured? How can they be developed?
Climbing your way up the corporate career ladder is not the only way to achieve success. Certain people forge their own careers through creating and developing their own businesses. What characteristics and skills predict success? What are the potential pitfalls?
The Food and Drink sector contributes billions to the UK economy. One of the key areas Psychology is applied is in sensory science - to improve the taste and smell of products.
Having a brilliant idea is only the start. How can you turn ideas into real products and services? It is important to assess the viability of an idea in terms of cost-effectiveness, practicality and alternatives. One of the first key steps is securing investment. How can you persuade the skeptical and risk averse? How can you ensure all the resources, financial and human are aligned? How do you get the message out there to people?
The Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences sector is one of the largest in the UK. One area in which Psychology makes a contribution is cognitive assessment of treatments of conditions such as dementia. Other areas are the management of innovation, talent management, career development, and motivation of highly skilled professionals.
Mental health problems are very common. Every employer has a duty of care to their staff to support them through difficult times. However, dealing with people as individuals can mean you lose sight of the organizational context and culture which may the primary cause of stress.
This depends on other topics listed here such as ensuring you have great staff, getting the culture right, running high-performance teams, ensuring well-being, being innovative etc. There are also measures such as employee engagement and the factors that contribute to it.
An understanding of personality is key to the ability to develop good social relationships with people. We explore the 'industry-standard' 5-factor model, its benefits and limitations, and various personality questionnaires.
How can we design products and software to be easy to use? Approaches to measurement drawn from cognitive psychology can help take the design process from an art to a science.
Given the world of work can be demanding and stressful, how can we ensure people feel they have the strength to cope. We focus on ensuring the environmental factors and environment are managed effectively although we do cover the psychology of personal resilience.
An understanding of how we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch can enhance the design of a range of products from the food industry to television.
Sport is big business. Sports psychologists are acknowledged to play a part in improving individual and team performance.
Although by far the majority of trading today is carried out automatically, there are people who trade a range of asset classes. People can become affected by positive or negative emotions or adopt sub-optimal decision-making strategies. Psychologists help to analyze these factors and recommend alternative strategies.
What is the best way to organise work, to enable sustained performance and well-being? This relates to usability and ergonomics, but also workplace lay-out and hybrid working.