What is I-O?

Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology is the scientific study of the workplace. Rigor and methods of psychology are applied to issues of critical relevance to business, including talent management, coaching, assessment, selection, training, organizational development, performance, and work-life balance.

2012-2013 History Committee Goals and Actions

History Chair: Kevin T. Mahoney
Assistant Professor, I/O Psychology
Louisiana Tech University

Date: June 4, 2012

1. Goal—Continue to obtain autobiographies from past SIOP Presidents, and to have the SIOP autobiographies more prominently featured or easier to access on siop.org

• Action: I will continue the work of previous SIOP History Chair, Paul Levy, in contacting past SIOP Presidents to write autobiographies, to be posted on SIOP.org.   I would like to make it easier for people to locate these autobiographies.  I plan to talk with Dave Nershi about this.

2. Goal—Establish the SIOP Living History Series, an annual interview of a prominent I/O Psychologist at each SIOP Conference.

• Idea: The SIOP Living History Series (an idea suggested both by Paul Levy and David B. Baker, Head of the Center for the History of Psychology) would be an interview series conducted every year at the SIOP conference (starting at Houston).  The SIOP History Chair would interview a prominent IO Psychologist for 45 minutes and then there would be 15 minutes or so at the end so that the audience to ask questions. A recording of this interview (audio and visual) could be made, and SIOP could keep the recording as an artifact of the living history of I/O Psychology.

  I would request SIOP pay whatever the expense the recording would be.

• Action: I have begun to reach out to candidates to see if they may be open to an interview at the Houston conference.   I plan to focus on individuals who already plan on attending the conference. I will wait to hear back from SIOP before going further.

3. Goal—To write a history-themed article for the TIP History Corner.

• Action: I will visit the Center for the History of Psychology, which houses the Archives of the History of American Psychology, in search of historical material in I/O Psychology.  The goal will be to unearth ideas for writing a history article for TIP.  I have also spoken with TIP Editor, Lisa Steelman, to learn details about writing for TIP’s History Corner.