MSc Industrial/Organizational and Business Psychology

The programme provides an understanding of all the fundamental psychological issues concerning the behaviour of individuals at work, including their job performance, motivation, and occupational health. The MSc includes six core modules, including the Psychology of Behaviour at Work and Talent Management, as well as a wide range of optional modules from various other UCL departments and programmes.

This MSc will equip all students with a wide range of skills, methods and theories
concerning key applications of psychology to organisations and businesses today. Areas of application will include: finance (psychology of money and banking); marketing and advertising (social psychology of attitudes and consumer preferences); personnel selection, training and development, and workplace motivation (organisational psychology).

The MSc will emphasise applied, consulting and practical skills to enhance students’ employability by helping them develop key psychological business skills and knowledge.

In line with the tradition of UCL’s Psychology and Language Sciences Division, students will receive the most advanced methodological training and conduct state of-the-art research in areas relevant to business/organisational psychology – especially during their final year dissertation. UCL’s Division of Psychology and Language Sciences is one of the top Psychology departments in the world UCL usually rates as in the top 5 universities in Great Britain and in the top 20 in the world In addition, students will benefit from the commercial experience of senior faculty members, and links with other UCL departments (where they will be able to take optional/elective modules). The course will be international in its perspective and courses taught by Professors with extensive international business experience. The transfer of knowledge provided by this programme will apply worldwide, particularly the US, Europe and Asia.    

The prestige of UCL, its Psychology and Language Sciences Division, and unique academic expertise in the offered areas - including Professor Furnham, a world renowned authority in Industrial/Organisational and Business Psychology (with both academic and corporate experience), and Professor Chamorro-Premuzic (the course director and international authority in talent management, consumer and media psychology) make this a unique programme.

This is the first MSc of its kind in the UK (as it will cover both Industrial- Organisational and Business Psychology). The programme will offer good networking opportunities with global organisations and the possibility to work closely with businesses during the MSc research dissertation. UCL staff have a track record consulting to leading organisations in both public and private sector: clients and partners have included Goldman Sachs, HSBC, the BBC, Unilever, and the British Army.

This MSc is ideal for those who want to specialise in Work Psychology, as well as those with an interest in commercial and organisational applications of psychological theories and methods. It will also equip those interested in management consultancy as well as starting their own psychological consultancy. Psychology graduates, as well as graduates from related disciplines (especially Social Sciences: e.g., management, economics, sociology, and business) will normally be eligible to apply. Each case is judged on its merits.

Business Psychology is a growing area of applied psychology and includes well established organisational processes, such as staffing and human resources, training and development, employee engagement surveys, and performance management. In broad terms, this sub-branch of Psychology deals with human capital issues and is instrumental in helping businesses become more effective and profitable, as well as improving employees‘ well-being and performance. Although Occupational/Work Psychology has a well-defined tradition in the UK, most Masters programmes are restricted by BPS accreditation requirements and offer only a limited range of content-based modules (typically, they include human factors and ergonomics, organisational health and behaviour, personnel selection and training and development). This MSc will still cover all these areas, but it will also provide students with a range of optional modules including other business applications of psychology.

The course will be made up of 8 taught modules and a research project. There will be 6 core modules, which will provide students with a firm basis in both the theory and practice of Industrial/Organisational Psychology and Business Psychology. The additional modules will be selected by students from a list of options (including not only modules from Psychology but also other departments). The options and research project will, therefore, allow students to pursue their own specific interests, and complete a significant piece of research work.

For full time students, most teaching will be covered in terms 1 and 2 (approximately three days a week). The third term will focus primarily on the research/MSc dissertation. Assessment will comprise final exam papers (in the summer), coursework (essays and presentations), and the final research/MSc dissertation.

All students will undertake an independent research project with the supervision of
a staff member.

 Plus two optional modules from this list:

The timetable will be confirmed but students will attend lectures and tutorials for 2-3 days a week during the first and second terms, and focus on their research dissertation during the third term.

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is an international authority in psychological profiling, consumer analytics, and talent management. He is a Professor of Business Psychology at University College London (UCL), Vice President of Research and Innovation at Hogan Assessments, and has previously taught at New York University and the London School of Economics.

Dr Tomas has published 7 books and over 100 scientific papers, making him one of the most prolific social scientists of his generation. His work has received awards by the American Psychological Association and the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, to which he is now director.

Dr Tomas is also the director of UCL's Industrial-Organisational and Business Psychology programme, and an Associate to Harvard's Entrepreneurial Finance Lab.

Over the past 15 years, he has consulted to a range of clients in the financial services (JP Morgan, HSBC, Prudential), advertising (Havas, Fallon, BBH), media (Yahoo!, MTV, Endemol), consumer goods (Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser), fashion (LVMH, Net-a-Porter) and government (British Army, Royal Mail, National Health Service) sectors.

Dr Tomas' media career comprises over 70 TV appearances, including the BBC, CNN, and Sky, and regular features in Harvard Business Review. Dr Tomas is a keynote speaker for the Institute of Economic Affairs and the co-founder of metaprofiling.com, a digital start-up that enables organisations to identify individuals with entrepreneurial talent. He lives in London and New York.

Adrian Furnham

Adrian Furnham was educated at the London School of Economics where he obtained a distinction in an MSc Econ., and at Oxford University where he completed a doctorate (D.Phil) in 1981. He has subsequently earned a D.Sc (1991) and D.Litt (1995) degree. Previously a lecturer in Psychology at Pembroke College, Oxford, he has been Professor of Psychology at University College London since 1992. He has lectured widely abroad and held scholarships and visiting professorships at, amongst others, the University of New South Wales, the University of the West Indies, the University of Hong Kong and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.  He has also been a Visiting Professor of Management at Henley Management College. He has recently been made Adjunct Professor of Management at the Norwegian School of Management (2009)

He has written over 1000 scientific papers and 70 books including The Protestant Work Ethic (1990) Culture Shock (1994), The New Economic Mind (1995), Personality at Work (1994), The Myths of Management (1996), The Psychology of Behaviour at Work (1997), The Psychology of Money (1998), The Psychology of Culture Shock (2001) The Incompetent Manager (2003), The Dark Side of Behaviour at Work (2004), The People Business (2005) Personality and Intellectual Competence (2005) Management Mumbo-Jumbo (2006) Head and Heart Management (2007) The Psychology of Physical Attraction (2007) The Body Beautiful (2007) Personality and Intelligence at Work (2008) Management Intelligence (2008) Dim Sum Management (2008) 50 Psychology Ideas you really need to know (2009) The Elephant in the Boardroom: The Psychology of Leadership Derailment (2010) People Management in Turbulent Times (2009) The Psychology of Personnel Selection (2010) Body Language in Business  (2010) Bad Apples (2011) Leadership: everything you want to know (2011) People Management in a Downturn (2011) The Talented Manager (2012) The Engaging Manager (2012).  Many have been translated into foreign languages including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Professor Furnham is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and is among the most productive psychologists in the world. He is on the editorial board of a number of international journals, as well as the past elected President of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences. He is also a founder director of Applied Behavioural Research Associates (ABRA), a psychological consultancy. He has been a consultant to over 30 major international companies, with particular interests in top team development, management change
performance management systems, psychometric testing and leadership derailment. He speaks regularly at academic and business conferences and is noted for his motivational speaking.

He is also a newspaper columnist previously at the Financial Times, now at the Sunday Times. He wrote regularly for the Daily Telegraph and is a regular contributor to national and international radio and television stations including the BBC, CNN, and ITV.  More details in the latest ‘Who’s Who’.

Dimitrios Tsivrikos

Dr Dimitrios Tsivrikos is a chartered consumer psychologist; and has extensive experience in helping global firms developing their market share, corporate reputation and branding proposition. His research, teaching and consultancy work specialises in Business, Consumer/Branding and Occupational Psychology. Throughout his academic and consultancy career he has held a number of international research positions, and has published widely on psychology and business oriented subjects. He is a leading commentator on consumer behaviour and a frequent guest on the BBC and SKY News, as well as acts as a scientific consultant in various periodicals such as Property Week, Esquire and The Guardian.

Gurnek Banks

Gurnek Banks is the co-founder and Chief Executive of YSC, currently based in the London office. He has worked with senior leaders across a wide range of industries for almost 25 years and remains a trusted advisor to some of the most senior leaders in British and international business.

Since establishing the company in 1990, Gurnek has been instrumental in growing YSC internationally to its current network of 15 offices. In the last 10 years he has also been responsible for leading YSC’s broadening strategy, providing clients with a wide range of offerings that support their diverse leadership and talent challenges.

Ana Dutra

Ana Dutra is the CEO of Mandala Global Advisors. As former-CEO of Korn/Ferry Consulting, Ana created a $300 MM global business through organic growth and acquisitions. She is on the Boards of Greeley&Hansen, Humantelligence, International Women Forum, Children’s Memorial Hospital, GSU and AUSL, a school turnaround business. She is in the Kellogg Advisory Board, Economic Club of Chicago, Committee of 200 and Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

A Brazilian with 28 years in P&L management, turnarounds, and M&A in 25 countries, Ana helps Boards and CEOs to identify and execute growth strategies through innovation, acquisitions and new technologies. As a CEO, Ana led turnarounds, global acquisitions and post-merger-integrations. Ana started her career with IBM managing global products and lines-of-businesses. After attending Kellogg MBA, she led P&Ls with CSC, Oliver Wyman, Accenture and Korn/Ferry.

Ana holds Kellogg MBA, a Masters in Economics from PUC and a Juris Doctor from UERJ in Rio de Janeiro. She frequently speaks in the Global Competitiveness Forum, World Economic Forum and other conferences. In 2013 she received the Executives of Color Leadership Award from Chicago United.

Ana is an avid triathlete and yoga practitioner. She lives in Northfield with her husband and their three daughters.

Chia-Jung Tsay

Dr. Chia-Jung Tsay is a lecturer in the department of Management Science and Innovation at UCL. Her research examines the psychological processes that influence decision making and interpersonal perception in performance contexts. She investigates the role of expertise and non-conscious biases in professional selection and advancement. Having previously served as a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation, Dr. Tsay received a Ph.D. in Organizational Behaviour jointly from Harvard Business School and the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.

Prof. Robert Hogan

The first psychologist to demonstrate a link between personality and organizational effectiveness, today Robert is the leading authority on personality assessment and leadership. He travels the globe to discuss his work, regularly attracting standing-room-only crowds.

Hogan Assessment Systems, the firm he co-founded with his wife Joyce Hogan in 1987, is now represented in 56 countries, and its assessments are used worldwide to help businesses increase productivity and reduce turnover.

With half of Fortune 100 companies using Hogan assessments and more than 50,000 reports processed every month, personality psychology has finally gone mainstream.

Timothy Judge

Timothy Judge received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990. Before entering the doctoral program at Illinois, he was a Manager with Kohl's Department stores in Wisconsin and Illinois. Previously, Judge was a faculty member at Cornell University, the University of Iowa, and, most recently, the University of Florida. In his career, he has published 130 articles in refereed journals, including 82 articles in top-tier journals. Judge is a fellow of the Academy of Management, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society. He serves on the editorial review boards of eight journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Personnel Psychology. He has served as Division Chair for the Human Resources Division of the Academy of Management, and currently serves on the Academy of Management’s Board of Governors. His research interests are in the areas of personality, leadership, moods and emotions, and career and life success.

Clive Rich

Clive Rich is an international professional negotiator. During a 30 year career he has played a crucial role in negotiating and brokering more than £10bn worth of global deals for and with a broad spectrum of multi-nationals, major organisations and super-brands, including Sony, Yahoo, Apple, Napster, BMG, San Disk, My Space, Simon Cowell’s Syco and the BBC. He has also provided negotiation coaching services to clients as diverse as Credit Suisse, the London College of Fashion and Cambridge Business School.

He is the author of a successful book about modern Negotiation “The Yes Book, the Art of Better Negotiation”, published by Random House.

Clive has also designed and successfully launched a negotiation App called “Close My Deal”, enabling people to understand the basis of successful negotiation and apply the skills to everyday scenarios.

Also a Mediator, Arbitrator and a highly experienced entertainment and digital media lawyer and biz-dev Exec, Clive has previously successfully run digital businesses for the likes of Sony and Bertelsmann. In addition, based on his commercial and legal background, he runs an online legal service called “LawBit”, which provides simple contracts for small companies, enabling them to find, edit and share plain English documents, and obtain legal advice at a price they can afford.

William Tincup

William is the CEO of HR consultancy Tincup & Co.
William is one of the country’s leading thinkers on social media application for human resources, an expert on adoption of HR technology and damn fine marketer. William has been blogging about HR related issues since 2007. He’s a contributor to Fistful of Talent, HRTechEurope and HRExaminer and also co-hosts a daily HR podcast called DriveThruHR. Tweet him @williamtincup.
William serves on the Board of Advisors for Insynctive, Causecast, Work4Labs, PeopleReport, Jurify, TrackMaven, SocialEars, AppLearn, StrengthsInsight, The Workforce Institute, PeopleMatter, SmartRecruiters, Ajax Social Media and is a 2013 Council Member for The Candidate Experience Awards. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Chequed and is a startup mentor for Acceleprise.
William is a graduate of the University of Alabama of Birmingham with a BA in Art History. He also earned a MA from the University of Arizona and a MBA from Case Western Reserve University.

Start of programme

• September intake only

Application deadline for entry in 2016/17

• 29th February 2016

PLEASE NOTE: All decisions on applications will be made AFTER the deadline has passed.

Students are typically expected to enrol in this programme to maximise their employment prospects, enhance their employability, and develop as professional psychologists within large government or commercial organisations (as HR executives, recruitment consultants, executive coaches, leadership and management consultants, etc).

In the past couple of year some students have gone on to work/intern at the following companies:

Visual DNA

Participle

Google

PHD Media

Havas

Metropolitan Police

Essentia Analytics

Royal Bank of Scotland

YSC

Unilever

Metaprofiling

Hogan Assessments

Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Furnham, T. (2010). The psychology of personnel selection.
New York: Cambridge University Press.

Furnham, A. (2005). The psychology of behaviour at work: the individual in the
organisation (2nd edition). Hove: Psychology Press.

Furnham, A. (2009) Personality and Intelligence at work. London: Routledge

Charles M. Judd, Gary H. McClelland, and Carey S. Ryan,  "Data Analysis: A Model Comparison Approach" (2 edition), Routledge, 2008. (seehttp://www.dataanalysisbook.com/)

If you have any questions regarding admission to this programme please email Matthew Cole