The design of technical, economic, and organizational systems requires an understanding of human characteristics and abilities, whether

• to master complex technologies, such as self-driving vehicles, robots, or artificial intelligence systems,
• to lead an organization to economic success, for example through sound leadership and excellent management,
• successfully implementing transformation processes, such as industrial transformation related to the energy transition or the UN Sustainable Development Goals,
• or to make systems resilient and reliable, such as in aviation, rail transport, the process industry, the circular economy, and waste management.

Work and organizational psychology imparts this knowledge. It is the human-centered scientific discipline that ensures the human-centered design of technical, organizational, and social systems.

This field is represented across multiple departments at the University of Kassel . In addition to its affiliation with Department 15 (Mechanical Engineering), it holds secondary affiliations with Department 16 (Electrical Engineering), Department 07 (Economics), Department 01 (Human Sciences), and the Kassel Institute for Sustainability (KIS). As a result, the discipline is represented in the respective degree programs and offers its research and teaching across departments:

• In the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, to incorporate this knowledge into engineering degree programs, since engineers design and build the technical systems that people will later operate.
• In the Department of Economics, to incorporate these insights into degree programs focused on the design of economic processes, as well as into the field of vocational training and continuing education, since economists plan organizational processes or must adapt them to current economic conditions while taking into account the psychological aspects of change management.
• In the Department of Human Sciences, as an integral part of the psychology program with regard to industrial and organizational psychology.
• At the Kassel Institute for Sustainability (KIS), to effectively design transformation processes related to sustainability, since sustainability goals must ultimately be implemented by people.

The field of work and organizational psychology is organized within a wide variety of professional associations to address issues related to the human-centered design of work and systems. These include:

• the Society for Ergonomics (GfA),
• the Society for the Psychology of Occupational Safety and Health (PASIG),
• the German Psychological Society (DGP) in the sections on Engineering Psychology, Environmental Psychology, and Organizational Psychology,
• the Association of German Engineers (VDI) for human reliability, safety, and resilience of systems,
• the German Working Group for Final Repository Research (DAEF) for the transdisciplinary organization of sustainability processes in waste management.