"The Use of Control Self-Assessment by Independent Auditors".

Abstract
The purpose of a career reflective paper is to analyze my current career and present reflections on my career aspirations. As such, this paper provides a history of industrial psychology as well as an analysis of industrial psychology as compared other areas of psychology. Additionally, the paper highlights research methods that are applied in the field of industrial psychology as well as the methods used to gather data and test for hypotheses. The paper will also highlight empirical studies that have been used to promote human welfare in the field of industrial psychology. The paper also highlights future career plans.
The History of Industrial Psychology
Industrial psychology is a branch in psychology, which is also referred to as occupational psychology or work psychology. The field entails scientific studies that focus on human behavior within workplaces and provides solutions using psychological principles and theories to individuals and organizations on how to protect their workplaces. The field of industrial psychology has developed over the recent years due to the realization that psychologists can contribute to an organizations success through improving various aspects. These aspects include job satisfaction, performance, occupational safety and health, motivation as well as the psychological well-being and health of the employees. The concept of industrial psychology was realized in 1919 by the president of APA (American Psychological Association) (Newman, Robinson-Kurpius, & Fuqua, 2002). The purpose of developing this field was to research on individual differences at the workplace. During its early stages, psychologists and researchers in this field were interested in personal assessment in the workplace in order to understand the prediction of work performance.
The initial research in the field focused on the public sector as much of the research on work performance and personal assessment was conducted during the World War 1. After the war, the private took up the approaches introduced by industrial psychologists in order to grow their personnel. The private sector advanced the research in the field on issues such as mental ability testing. The growth of industrial or workplace psychology was attributed to the need by employers to understand how prone employees were to resist management. Furthermore, employers in both the public and private sector were interested to find out how employees would react to certain managerial attempts to increase workplace productivity (Jex, & Britt, 2008). The studies in workplace psychology also led to the growth in the human relations movement which further advanced the fields of industrial psychology such as motivation, job satisfaction and worker emotions. Indeed, due to the similarities between industrial psychology and human resource relations have enabled professionals and researchers in both fields. The collaboration in these areas of research have facilitated development in the field and enabled an advancement in theories that facilitate the practice of the field.
Psychological Theories in the Area
Most of the theories in this field focus on leadership at the workplace. These theories focus on how leaders come manifest their ability to lead their colleagues in the workplace. Leadership is an important field of research in industrial psychology as it highlights the purpose of leadership in organizations as well as the process of leadership development in the workplace. Indeed, the aspect of organizational leadership has been an important topic of research in industrial psychology since it contributes to issues such as working towards organizational goals and motivation in the workplace. Leadership in the organization or workplace is one of the most important research topics, which has contributed to the development of psychological theories since managers are interested in finding out how to identify leaders in their organizations (Jex, & Britt, 2008). The development of psychological theories in the area of organizational leadership has enabled researchers and industrial psychologists to provide guidance to managers on how to work towards developing the best approaches in understanding leadership in the organization.
One of the leadership theories that has developed in the field of industrial psychology is the Fielder’s contingency theory. The Fielder’s contingency theory was established after a period of organizational research. The theory suggests that leadership styles are effective in certain situations. In this case, it also suggests that a leader or leadership skills emerge when people are subjected to specific situations. However, when employees are working under normal conditions, it is difficult for them to manifest their leadership skills. In this case, the theory guides individuals who want to be leaders in organizations that they should try to understand leadership styles rather than attempt to change the existing styles (Newman, Robinson-Kurpius, & Fuqua, 2002). As such, the theory suggests that the organization and situations within the workplace present either favorable or unfavorable situations for the development of leaders. Therefore, leaders need to develop their interpersonal skills in order to fully develop their leadership attributes. The theory, which has been supported by different empirical researches, enables individuals to understand how leaders begin showing their skills in the organization. As such, employees are able to understand favorable and less favorable situations of expressing their leadership attributes.
Another significant theory in this area is the Lord & Mahel`s leadership theory. The theory suggests that leadership is an outcome of perceptual processes, which involve leaders and subordinates in the organization. As such, the interaction between leaders and their subordinates in a workplace dictate the outcomes of the leadership and motivational process in the organization. Additionally, this theory implies that leaders affect the organizational performance by guiding employees and how they react to different events in the organization. Some of the ways in which leaders affect the performance of a member is through traits, behavior, charisma, qualities, abilities, as well as traits. The interactions between the leader as well as the subordinates in the workplace will affect organizational performance since the leaders are tasked with the role of ensuring that they motivate the junior employees (Newman, Robinson-Kurpius, & Fuqua, 2002). These theories have been important due to their realistic nature in ensuring that industrial psychology contributes to the process of guiding managers on important aspects of organizational leadership. The realistic nature of these theories have also grounded a place for organizational or industrial psychology in the daily running of workplaces. In this case, these theories have contributed significantly to the popularity of this field in psychology.
Empirical Studies in the Field
Two empirical studies, which have contributed to the development of knowledge and practice in this field, include the “Personality in teams: Its relationship to social cohesion, task cohesion, and team performance” as well as “The relation of job control with job strains: A comparison of multiple data sources”. The importance of these studies can be seen in the role that they have played in changing workplace dynamics in organizations. For example, the research on personality in teams brought rise to the knowledge that employee personalities are manifested differently when they work in teams as compared to when they work individually. In teams, employees are inspired to work towards ensuring that they bring out the best team results thus their positive personalities are highlighted (Liu, Spector, & Jex, 2005). In this case, employees who work in team environments come out either as team players or loners. The research enables managers to realize that employees can be motivated to work hard and deliver better results while working in groups due to the group pressure, which is higher than peer pressure when employees are working as individuals. Furthermore, the empirical research has created knowledge in terms of enabling managers to understand that they can expect different results from employees who work in groups as compared to when employees work individually.
On the other hand, the research on job control with job strains provides information from different sources in order to create a triangulated source of knowledge for practitioners in industrial psychology as well as managers. The research creates knowledge on the area of supervision and job control and informs managers on the levels of control that employees should be allowed as well as when to apply restriction. Indeed, it informs managers that control should be applied in sensitive situations, which affect the organizations future outcomes (Van Vianen, & De Dreu, 2001). However, having a liberal situation where employees have a good level of control over their decisions regarding the workplace enhances productivity. Furthermore, it also informs managers on the aspects of supervision. Indeed, managers are well informed on how these issues contribute to the feelings of job strains. The empirical research in this field enables managers to understand the importance of industrial psychology since it provides in-depth information on areas that affect productivity within the workplace.
A Specific Occupation
Currently, I work as an internal auditor. I am tasked with the responsibility providing consultancy, objective assurance, and independent reports to organizations regarding their accounting and risk management processes. I find that internal audit and industrial psychology are closely related fields since they involve in-depth research into an organizations processes and understanding how employees run different organizational processes (Sawyer, 2003). I believe that the similarities in these two fields run deeper since practitioners in both fields focus on enhancing the accountability and integrity of employees in the organization. They also focus on improving organizational productivity by providing reports, which present information on an organizations position in relation with its goals and targets (Gilbert, & Terry, 2005). As such, managers are able to understand the steps they need to take in order to move their organization forward in the process of achieving organizational goals.
Although I have been in a successful internal auditing career, I would like to change to industrial psychology. The change is prompted by my need to understand aspects such as employee motivation and the development of workplace values. The different researches that have been identified in this career reflection have enabled me to realize that industrial psychology is a vital profession, which contributes to the development of human resources in organizations. Additionally, the field is directly concerned with organizational leadership and performance building in workplaces thus it provides interesting research topics. Since industrial psychology is closely related to internal auditing, it is important to try out this new field and understand what it entails. I believe that it will be an interesting experience to change from internal auditing to industrial psychology.

References
Gilbert W., & Terry J., (2005). “The Use of Control Self-Assessment by Independent Auditors”. The CPA Journal. 10 (1).
Jex, S.M., & Britt, T.W. (2008). Organizational psychology: A scientist-practitioner approach (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Liu, C, Spector, P,, & Jex, S. (2005). The relation of job control with job strains: A comparison of multiple data sources Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78, 325–336
Newman, J. L., Robinson-Kurpius, S. E., & Fuqua, D. R. (2002). Issues in the ethical practice of consulting psychology. In R. L. Lowman (Ed.), Handbook of organizational consulting psychology (pp. 733–758). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sawyer, Lawrence (2003). Sawyer’s Internal Auditing 5th Edition. Institute of Internal Auditors.
Van Vianen, A. & De Dreu, C. (2001). Personality in teams: Its relationship to social cohesion, task cohesion, and team performance. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 10(2), 97–120.