<P> Job satisfaction is often thought to reflect the extent to which a worker likes his or her job, or individual aspects or facets of jobs . It is one of the most heavily researched topics in I / O psychology . Job satisfaction has theoretical and practical utility for the field . It has been linked to important job outcomes including attitudinal variables (e.g., job involvement, organizational commitment), absenteeism, turnover intentions, actual turnover, job performance, and tension . A meta - analyses found job satisfaction to be related to life satisfaction, happiness, positive affect, and the absence of negative affect . </P> <P> Productive behavior is defined as employee behavior that contributes positively to the goals and objectives of an organization . When an employee begins a new job, there is a transition period during which he or she may not contribute significantly . To assist with this transition an employee typically requires job - related training . In financial terms, productive behavior represents the point at which an organization begins to achieve some return on the investment it has made in a new employee . I / O psychologists are ordinarily more focused on productive behavior than job or task performance, including in - role and extra-role performance . In - role performance tells managers how well an employee performs the required aspects of the job; extra-role performance includes behaviors not necessarily required by job but nonetheless contribute to organizational effectiveness . By taking both in - role and extra-role performance into account, an I / O psychologist is able to assess employees' effectiveness (how well they do what they were hired to do), efficiency (outputs to relative inputs), and productivity (how much they help the organization reach its goals). Three forms of productive behavior that I / O psychologists often evaluate include job performance, organizational citizenship behavior (see below), and innovation . </P> <P> Job performance represents behaviors employees engage in while at work which contribute to organizational goals . These behaviors are formally evaluated by an organization as part of an employee's responsibilities . In order to understand and ultimately predict job performance, it is important to be precise when defining the term . Job performance is about behaviors that are within the control of the employee and not about results (effectiveness), the costs involved in achieving results (productivity), the results that can be achieved in a period of time (efficiency), or the value an organization places on a given level of performance, effectiveness, productivity or efficiency (utility). </P> <P> To model job performance, researchers have attempted to define a set of dimensions that are common to all jobs . Using a common set of dimensions provides a consistent basis for assessing performance and enables the comparison of performance across jobs . Performance is commonly broken into two major categories: in - role (technical aspects of a job) and extra-role (non-technical abilities such as communication skills and being a good team member). While this distinction in behavior has been challenged it is commonly made by both employees and management . A model of performance by Campbell breaks performance into in - role and extra-role categories . Campbell labeled job - specific task proficiency and non-job - specific task proficiency as in - role dimensions, while written and oral communication, demonstrating effort, maintaining personal discipline, facilitating peer and team performance, supervision and leadership and management and administration are labeled as extra-role dimensions . Murphy's model of job performance also broke job performance into in - role and extra-role categories . However, task - orientated behaviors composed the in - role category and the extra-role category included interpersonally - oriented behaviors, down - time behaviors and destructive and hazardous behaviors . However, it has been challenged as to whether the measurement of job performance is usually done through pencil / paper tests, job skills tests, on - site hands - on tests, off - site hands - on tests, high - fidelity simulations, symbolic simulations, task ratings and global ratings . These various tools are often used to evaluate performance on specific tasks and overall job performance . Van Dyne and LePine developed a measurement model in which overall job performance was evaluated using Campbell's in - role and extra-role categories . Here, in - role performance was reflected through how well "employees met their performance expectations and performed well at the tasks that made up the employees' job ." Dimensions regarding how well the employee assists others with their work for the benefit of the group, if the employee voices new ideas for projects or changes to procedure and whether the employee attends functions that help the group composed the extra-role category . </P>

I/o psychologists study which of the following topics