Specialty Competencies in Organizational and Business Consulting Psychology.

Originally termed "Industrial-Organizational Psychology (I/O)," practitioners of this specialty emanate from varying backgrounds in business-psychology related fields. Although it was one of the "original four" specialties of the American Board of Professional Psychology established in 1947, the domain of contemporary I/O professional practice can best be thought of as a "hybrid" across multiple traditions. For this volume in the series, Jay Thomas describes this particular hybrid model. The original board reflecting the specialty of I/O psychology (i.e., the American Board of Industrial and Organizational Psychology) within the greater organization of the American Board of Professional Psychology (which at the time of this writing encompasses 13 differing specialty boards in professional psychology), reconstituted itself in 2005 to be the "American Board of Organizational and Business Consulting (OBC) Psychology." This name change was made in order to best capture the notion that specialists in this area can be educated and trained (and practice) in related, but somewhat differing traditions. Readers interested in this specialty area within psychology will find this text invaluable as the most current description of the competencies thought important to help define the OBC.