Emerging trends and future directions in Occupational Psychology

There is little doubt that the work environment is changing and that work life has undergone a dramatic transformation during the 20th century. With this in mind, it is probable that the future of work will also look remarkably different; but making ‘predictions’ regarding future directions in Occupational Psychology will most likely be inaccurate. Think, for example, that in the 1970s it was suggested that human intelligence would soon be replaced by computer technologies and that all offices would be paperless (Sellen and Harper, 2003); yet neither prediction came true. What we can say with certainty is that work in the future will look radically different to what we know today, or could even imagine. So even if it is difficult to predict what will actually happen, in anticipating the future, Occupational Psychologists may be able to plan for the changing expectations of employees, organisations and the implications that this may have for the future