Mental health articles

Organizational Psychologists and Counselors For organizational psychologists and counselors, the primary attitude toward people involves maximizing human potential to meet organizational goals, by helping organizations deal effectively with their employees. This requires rapport building, problem solving, analyzing systems, and influencing others to implement interventions. Hence, they emphasize both process and people (Gallessich, 1982; Harrison, 2004; Rothwell, Sullivan, & McLean, 1995). The inherent role conflicts among these differing attitudes and emphases suggest several implications for consultation: • As clinicians, we tend to treat individuals within the system as clients or patients. • As consultants, we tend to accept individual pathology and focus on the system and its structure, which involves the organization’s norms, rules, policies, culture, and climate. • Businesses exist to provide a return on investment to shareholders. Nonprofit and government agencies exist to accomplish a nonmonetary mission, such as helping people. These purposes can sometimes conflict. What is being recognized more and more today, however, is that most of the time, what is good for the individual is also good for the organization. The relationship between process and people and profit is complementary. When employees are treated fairly and work in an environment wherein they feel respected and valued, they will treat customers fairly, and the customers will continue to do business with that company.

Tags: counselors, psychologists