Program Description
Representing one of the fastest-growing applications of professional psychology, business psychologists work with organizations to leverage the impact that human factors have on overall organizational effectiveness. Graduates of the Consulting Track, within the L.A. Campus' Business Psy.D. program, learn to apply the principles of business psychology in consulting environments, helping to improve individual, group, and organizational functioning in both for-profit and nonprofit settings.
Students benefit from exceptional theoretical classroom training coupled with a broad range of real-world learning opportunities. L.A. students benefit from an exceptionally rich, hands-on learning through the department's ConCISE Center for Performance Management and Consulting, which allows them to make significant contributions to the community through partnerships with local organizations.
The program faculty of the Business Psychology Department is comprised of business and psychology professionals. By design, our faculty crosses disciplines and is diverse in education and experience, representing the areas essential to our conceptualization of business psychology. Faculty members have degrees in I/O psychology, business, clinical psychology, and organizational development. Blending their multidisciplinary perspectives and approaches provides for more integrated learning across fields.
Department
Business Psychology
Concentrations
Licensure
Total Credits
Required completion of 97 units (which includes 43 units from a regionally accredited master’s degree program and 54 units completed in residency)
Fieldwork Requirements
Sample Courses
Business and Financial Literacy
Designed to give students the basic terminology, logic, and framework to understand business thinking and decisions. The goal is to teach students to look at the 'vital signs' of a business. The first part of the class looks at what information a business collects and how it uses that information. Students learn to use a financial lens to look at an income statement and balance sheet to determine the health of an organization. Students learn the importance of interest rates as a key to understand corporate planning and valuation. The second part of the course helps students understand how companies make operational decisions. Using the lens of micro-economics, students learn how supply and demand, costs, and prices effect output decisions. Considers the ways this impacts marketing through the marketing mix, segmentation, and branding decisions. Examines behavioral economics to show how the erratic nature of decisions.
Strategic and Organizational Planning
Gives students the fundamentals to understand business strategy and organizational effectiveness. The first part of the course will address the concepts and practice of policy formation. Expands on marketing, financial, and economic ideas. Environment analysis and value chain leads to assessing business level strategy, corporate level strategy, and competitive actions. The second part of the class emphasizes the organization factors in determining and implementing business policy. Discusses organizational planning as aligning the business with the environment through strategy, design, operations, supply chain, and culture. Students learn the critical significance of the managing their interdependence.
Change Management
Helps students advise organizations on to how restructure, reposition, or revitalize itself. Integrates strategy and organizational due diligence with consultation and change strategies. Within the frame of community development, students learn to consider the process of change and the techniques of change to various types of organizations. Focuses on project change management and emphasizes psychological change management. Prepares student to understand the corporate conditions and change options available to consult on and facilitate transitions ranging from innovation and new technology, merger and acquisition integration, business succession planning, corporate reorganizations, to board governance.
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