SIOP Members in the News Jan 2008

The news media have found SIOP members to be rich sources of information for their stories about workplace-related topics. And no wonder! SIOP members have a diverse range of expertise as evidenced by the listings in Media Resources on the SIOP Web site (www.siop.org). There are more than 100 different workplace topics with more than 1,500 SIOP members who can serve as resources to the news media.

SIOP members who are willing to talk with reporters about their research interests are encouraged to list themselves in Media Resources. It can easily be done online. It is important, though, that in listing themselves, members include a brief description of their expertise. That is what reporters look at, and a well-worded description can often lead the reporter to call.

It is suggested that listed SIOP members periodically check and update their information, if needed.

Every mention in the media is helpful to our mission to gain greater visibility for the field of I-O psychology. It is often a slow process, but more and more reporters are learning about I-O and how SIOP members can contribute to their stories.

Following are some of the press mentions that have occurred in the past several months:

Michael Mumford of the University of Oklahoma and one of the presenters at SIOP’s Leading Edge Consortium on enabling innovation in organizations in Kansas City was quoted in an October 26 Kansas City Star story about the consortium. Despite the failure of most new ideas, his message and that of other consortium speakers was that there was a need for fast-paced change in a highly competitive work environment and that innovation was necessary for long-term survivability.

As retailers gear up for their busiest season, they also face a holiday challenge—hiring help to ring up all those sales. An October 23 USA Today story about seasonal holiday hires included comments from Robert Hogan of Hogan Assessment Systems. Important scores on a personality test for retail sales would include traits such as sociability, prudence, interpersonal sensitivity, and adjustment “so that they can handle stress and pressure.” One cranky person can cost a business a lot of money, he said.

A story about a new book authored by Alice Eagley of Northwestern University and Linda Carli, entitled Through the Labyrinth: the Truth About Women Become Leaders, appeared in several newspapers, including the Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune, Sacramento Bee, and Charlotte Observer, as well as NPR Radio during October. The authors say the “glass ceiling” myth that prevents women from obtaining top leadership positions is no longer appropriate because more and more women are becoming CEO’s and top officials. However, women still face barriers and challenges as they navigate complex and often discontinuous paths to leadership. “There isn’t an absolute barrier stopping progress at a high level but rather a progressive falling away of women at every level, not just at the top,” says Eagley.

Ben Dattner of Dattner Consulting in New York was quoted in the October 18 issue of Time magazine for a story on the importance of birth order. Some research shows first borns often do better than younger siblings. In the business world, first-born CEOs do best when they are making incremental improvements in their companies: shedding underperforming products, maximizing profits from existing lines and generally making sure the trains run on time, said Dattner. “Later borns are better at transformational change. They pursue riskier, more innovative, more creative approaches,” he added.

His comments on birth order also appeared in a September 4 USA Today story about how first-born children are more likely to succeed in business, often rising to top management positions. Dattner, who has studied birth order, said that first-born children are often more extroverted, confident, assertive, authoritarian, and so forth. They also have the advantage of parental time and resources.

An October 15 Wall Street Journal column focused on the importance of executives, as they move up in an organization, keeping in touch with workers below them. Often the higher executives climb, the less likely they are to know what is and what isn’t working at their companies. Many are surrounded by yes people who filter information; others dismiss or ignore bearers of bad news. Ken Siegel of the Impact Group in Los Angeles believes that most CEO’s avoid learning what their employees are thinking and doing. He advises those who want to know what is really going on assemble a senior team of people with diverse points of view.

The October 15 Human Resource Executive Online carried a story citing the growing interest in assessments that reveal the relationship between various aspects of job performance and personality. The story cited a study by five SIOP members that appeared in a recent Personnel Psychology, which reviewed a wide variety of research and concluded that personality explains so little about job outcomes that careful thought should be given before using personality tests for employment decisions. The researchers are Frederick P. Morgeson, John R. Hollenbeck, and Neal W. Schmitt of Michigan State University; Michael A. Campion of Purdue University; Robert L. Dipboye of the University of Central Florida; and Kevin Murphy of Pennsylvania State University.

Telecommuting from home was the subject of a September Wall Street Journal story and Jack Wiley of the Kenexa Research Institute in Minneapolis was a major contributor. A Kenexa survey showed that telecommuters, although still a very small portion of the workforce, have the highest level of satisfaction with their jobs and loyalty to their employers. “When companies allow employees to work remotely or from home, they are explicitly communicating to them that ‘I trust you to be dedicated to the accomplishment of the work, even, if I’m not able to observe you doing it,’” he said. “It boils down to respect” for the employee.

The 2004 plane crash that almost took the life of her son turned into an investigative study for Wendy Becker of the University at Albany and was reported in September 10 issue of the Albany Times Union. She concluded that failures by the U.S. Forest Service and local officials helped lead to a rushed and flawed judgment that no one had survived and thus ended the search. As it turned out Becker’s son and another survivor were found 2 days later, although three others died in the crash. Becker undertook the study, not to point fingers of blame but to learn lessons about leadership and communication. She made a presentation about her study, which also will appear in Organizational Dynamics, at last spring’s SIOP conference in New York.

A research project by Tahira Probst of Washington State University at Vancouver, published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, also appeared in other media including Personnel Today and The Columbian in Vancouver. The study looked at the trend of downsizing and the resulting effect the insecurity had on employees’ job performance. “Our research suggests that although productivity does increase, employees’ creative problem-solving skills are also hampered. This might mean that the very creativity and flexibility that is hoped for as a goal of downsizing might not materialize,” Probst said. Joining her in the research effort was Susan Stewart of the University of Puget Sound, Melissa Gruys of Wright State University, and Brad Tierney of Washington State at Vancouver.

Many venture capitalists often make decisions on whether to invest in a start-up company by gut, without delving into the personalities of people who want investors’ money. An August 12 Philadelphia Inquirer story discusses how more and more venture capital firms are seeking to learn more about the management teams of start-up companies. Leadership is the key to start-ups and psychological testing of prospective CEOs could raise the success rates for venture capitalists. Such testing is a good move said Ted Hayes of the Gallup Organization. “The business environment is more and more complex and the margin of error is lower than it used to be,” he said. However, said James Finn of the Finn Group in Decatur, IL, getting firms to use psychology can be a tough sell. I-O psychology can help raise the odds of success that an investment will pay off, but not all venture capitalists are savvy enough about psychology to see that psychology will help. “If they’ve never been exposed to people (I-O psychologists) who do this kind of work, it’s harder for them to see the application,” he said.

Bill Byham, CEO of Development Dimensions International, in the July 10 BusinessWeek and August 10 Forbes, was the focus of stories based on his book, 70: The New 50, which deals with the impending retirement of millions of baby boomers. “In terms of health, longevity and view of life, baby boomers in their 60s and 70s will be more like their parents and grandparents were at 50, and they can work longer if they want to,” he said. And more of them do want to work. That’s why companies are enticing older employees to stay past their retirement. He said that predictions of the retirements of so many baby boomers will cause skilled labor shortages doesn’t necessarily have to happen if companies can manage retirements instead of letting retirements manage them. They can be proactive and redesign jobs and change work hours to make it attractive for people to stay longer, he added. The idea is to impart the job knowledge they’ve gained throughout their careers and keeping them engaged and challenged.

Also, he was interviewed for an August 5 Atlanta Constitution Journal story on how the growing workplace trend of behavioral interviewing, which is based on past performance being the best indicator of future performance in similar circumstances.

Robert Hogan of Hogan Assessment Systems in Tulsa, OK and Doug Reynolds of Development Dimensions International in Bridgeville, PA offered their expertise on psychological assessments for a May article in Portfolio Magazine. Hogan said that psychological testing, used properly, can reveal personality flaws in potential executives. Reynolds noted “there’s been a tipping point where companies are understanding that they should use actual data to make decisions about people. If you rely only your gut, you are making a classic mistake.”

In an April issue of Forbes, Edward Lawler III of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business coauthored a commentary on low costs versus high wages. When companies try to gain competitive advantages by lowering labor costs they often generate a variety of negative employee behaviors that add to the overall cost of doing business. For example, low-wage companies have significantly higher turnover costs than well-paying companies. In almost all industries, he noted, research shows that the most profitable companies are those with the lowest overall operating costs and not those that pay the least. The difference is in the management of employees. A growing number of businesses understand that competitive advantages are realized through the effective mobilization of an engaged and committed workforce. These “high-involvement” companies offer workers challenging and enriching jobs and a say in the management of their own tasks.

Despite the evidence to the contrary, most American managers continue to believe they face a painful choice between offering high employee wages on the one hand or low customer prices on the other. In fact, their real alternative is between staying with conventional management or adopting high-involvement management practices.

Please let us know if you, or a SIOP colleague, have contributed to a news story. We would like to include that mention in SIOP Members in the News.

Send copies of the article to SIOP at siop@siop.org, fax to 419-352-2645, or mail to SIOP at 440 E. Poe Rd., Suite 101, Bowling Green, OH 43402.