MSc Business Psychology

Business psychology is a discipline often referred to as occupational psychology and organisational psychology.

The MSc Business Psychology will give you an in-depth understanding of the psychological mechanisms that drive positive behaviours and performances in the workplace.

Whether you're coming from an industry position or directly from an undergraduate degree, this long-established programme of study will equip you with an effective blend of knowledge drawn from the specialist fields of psychology, management and leadership.

The content on this one-year masters degree programme has been tailored to meet the needs of those working towards a number of job roles, such as business psychology practitioner, human resources manager, organisational development manager, coaching consultant, management consultant or leadership consultant.

You will develop commercial awareness and an understanding of global organisations which will allow you to recognise the impact of the economy, politics, globalisation and the changing labour market on the psychology of a workplace and performance of individuals and teams.

During the MSc Business Psychology you will explore different aspects of the psychological mechanisms behind workplace behaviour and gain the managerial skills that will allow you to enhance and improve performance of teams and individuals. You will build expertise in:

You will study the areas of psychology that directly apply to business settings, and explore some of the key psychological research methods that can be practised in the workplace.

By viewing the workplace through a psychological perspective, and by developing your analytical, critical thinking, and reflection skills, you will learn to recognise and improve seemingly intangible aspects of the workplace which, when appropriately managed, can directly improve business performance in terms of:

Specifically-designed group tasks and presentations will allow you to develop your interpersonal and communication skills, giving you the platform to implement your expertise and directly improve the performance of diverse groups of individuals and teams at any level within an organisation.

Throughout this programme you will learn from a unique blend of research-led academic teaching and industry-focused practical exercises. For example, on the Psychology of Coaching course you will develop knowledge in the theoretical frameworks of this area of psychology whilst gaining practical insights into the tools and techniques of lecturers who are experienced coaching practitioners and consultants.

In addition to pure business psychology, Heriot-Watt University offers two specialist business psychology pathways at our Edinburgh campus:

Business psychology graduates often build extremely rewarding careers in human resource management within a range of industries. This is why Heriot-Watt has created this specialist programme which blends our world-class teaching and expertise in both disciplines to create a specialist, dual-focus programme.

This new specialist pathway has been introduced to help undergraduates from the Arts and Humanities, Business Management and Psychology programme to position themselves as highly-employable candidates for multinational, global organisations. This MSc combines business psychology's specialist focus on leadership, diversity, organisational culture, and change with intercultural communication’s focus on written and verbal communication skills in cross-cultural, professional business contexts. The development of these specialisms will put graduates in the perfect position to make a positive impact on the performance, communication and culture of global organisations.