Members in the News
Clif Boutelle
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:
Joan Brannick of Brannick HR Connections in Tampa was cited in a February 20
Orlando Sentinel article about how organizations, especially in the hospitality industry, are increasingly offering family-friendly benefits, including child care, flex work hours, and even college tuition, in order to remain competitive. Brannick noted that companies that succeed in integrating
people's lives into their work are much more likely to retain employees, even if competitors offer more money. By offering non-financial benefits that are unique, you can differentiate your business from others. And these benefits also create a culture that says to employees, we care about you, she said.
Two stories in the February 12 Daily Oklahoman cited Jenifer Greene of Maryville College in Maryville, TN and
Ted Hayes of The Gallup Organization. Greene contributed to an article that noted most workers continue to work during their treatments after they have been diagnosed with cancer. Work is a therapy in itself and research shows that the more a worker shares with co-workers, the better. We're cognitive beings who thrive on information and being able to understand, she said.
Recent court rulings protecting workers under the regarded as disabled status of the American With Disabilities Act seem to be headed for further court dates and may even be heard by the Supreme Court. The issue has to do with providing reasonable accommodations to disabled workers and defining the obligations of employers. Hayes predicted the nation's courts will rule on the side of workers in the regarded as issue. The best defense for a company is to be defensive, he said. To accommodate people with vision impairments, for example, employers should use large print for training materials and other printed matter needed by workers.
Research on meetings by Steve Rogelberg of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Alexandra Luong of the University of Minnesota has been published on Web sites and in the print media, including the
Philadelphia Inquirer and London Guardian. Rogelberg was also interviewed January 31 on CBC 1, which is heard throughout Canada and more than 100 NPR stations in the U.S. The study found a general relationship between meeting load and the employees level of fatigue. Meetings, they said, are one more type of hassle and interruption that can occur for individuals. Also taking part in the study were
Peter Warr, Des Leach, and Jennifer Burnfield.
Ben Dattner of Dattner Consulting in New York City and Henry P. Sims, Jr. of the University of Maryland added their thoughts to a January 25
Baltimore Sun story on negative leaders. If leaders set the tone of being negative and pessimistic, they set an example that trickles down the organization, said Dattner. However, leaders who empower their workers are able to create conditions where employees have a high degree of initiative, creativity and innovation and they perform better, Sims said. Respect and positive feedback help ward off the attitude disease that costs companies billions in performance and poor outcomes.
The January 17 Wall Street Journal noted the increasing practice of employers putting top-level candidates through a series of mock assignments, stressful simulations, and role-playing exercises.
Scott Erker of Development Dimensions International in Bridgeville, PA said with a job tryout, youre actually seeing a person perform part of the job. Everybody is looking for a crystal ball to predict what a person will actually be like on the job, he said. Those who survive the job simulation exercises feel validated by the rigorous selection process.
Ron James of the Center for Ethical Business in Minneapolis participated in a five-part series in mid-January on St. Louis radio station KMOX. The series dealt with executive ethics and James contributed to three of the five segments. James was one of the speakers at SIOPs Leadership at the Top Consortium in St. Louis.
Mitchell Marks of JoiningForces.org in San Francisco was called upon for a January 8
New York Times story about how employees can deal with the transition when their company has been acquired by a competitor. It pays to be patient through the transition and act only on facts, he said. Acquisitions truly are communication vacuums. Employees need to stop and collect data before they think about making a decision that could change their careers forever, he said.
A study released in January and conducted by the University of Buffalos Institute on Addictions found that about 15% of the U.S. workforce or 19.2 million workers were affected by alcohol use, which resulted in impaired performances in the workplace. The studys principal investigator was Michael Frone, a senior research scientist with the Institute. The findings, which were widely reported in newspapers and wire services, noted that 7% or nearly 9 million workers drank during the workday, mostly on lunch or other breaks. Frone estimated that more than 2% or 2 million workers worked under the influence of alcohol and about 12 million workers worked with a hangover.
A study by Tim Judge and Jeffrey LePine, management professors at the University of Florida, was widely reported in the
Sun Herald newspapers and other Florida media. The study on narcissism in the workplace found that people with high opinions of themselves are unlikely to have coworkers with the same view. Conceited, vain and self-absorbed employees tend to have an inflated opinion about their job skills but actually are sub-par performers in the view of their supervisors and colleagues, Judge said.
The January issue of New England Psychologist featured a story on I-O psychology in which John Haas of Management Strategies Group in West Newton, MA,
Margaret Palmer of HealthCare Management Consulting Group and Stuart Sidle, coordinator of I-O graduate programs at the University of New Haven, were major contributors. Defining I-O as relating to people, culture, and climate, with industrial focusing on the individual within the workplace and organizational referring to the larger company structure, Haas said, in his work, he tries to help a company shape its culture by creating conditions where employees are assigned, empowered, and encouraged to help organizations achieve its mission.
Palmer, who is in the healthcare field because of its rich complexity, said the successful practice of I-O involves intimate knowledge of human behavior, social psychology, group processes, organizational cultures, and how they work. We are not changing the person but the culture, she said. Sidle added that I-O offers a wide variety of career possibilities. You can tailor the niche to your personality and interests. Some people like computers and some like to be in the front of the room, he said. I-O can accommodate them all.
A January 6 story on CareerBuilder.com about the good and the bad of workaholism and compulsive working included comments from Ben Dattner of Dattner Consulting in New York City. He warned that the compulsion to be in the office all the time can make an employee seem inefficient. Workers putting in constant face time may seem like theyre more focused on effort rather than results and overworked managers could look like they cant delegate efficiently, he noted.
A December 28 story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about the selection of top executives quoted Robert Muschewske of Personnel Decisions International. Noting that the standard tenure of a CEO has fallen to 4 or 5 years from 10-plus years, Muschewske said the hiring process should start with an assessment of the companys needs at that time. We try to squeeze the hunch and emotion out of the process and pump in as much information as possible, he said. The best predictor of success is how the CEO candidate handles situations similar to what he or she will face in the new job. In addition to carefully reviewing past performance, boards often set up a series of simulations using a hypothetical company and information to determine how well the candidates perform. Muschewske was one of the speakers at SIOPs Leadership at the Top Consortium in St. Louis.
Jennifer George, a professor of management and psychology at Rice University, offered suggestions on how workers can avoid making the start of a new work week less daunting in a December 18
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article. For those who fret about the arrival of Monday morning, she suggests that people try to schedule some of their more enjoyable tasks early in the week so they have something to look forward to on Sunday night.
David Harrison of Pennsylvania State University contributed to a December 18 article in the
Baltimore Sun and other news media outlets about ways in which workers can deal with stress. He said one way managers can help their employees is to provide better job training. Workers who are better trained for their jobs are likely to be more confident and experience less job stress, he said.
The December issue of HR Magazine printed a letter from David Arnold of Wonderlic, Inc. correcting misinformation in a previous HR article, which indicated that employers can only justify a selection tool, which exhibits disparate impact, under Title VII by showing there is no less discriminatory selection measure available. Arnold pointed out that once an employer is able to demonstrate that a measure is job related and consistent with business necessity, the burden is on the plaintiff (not the employer) to show than an equally effective and economically feasible alternative tool exhibits less disparate impact.
A November 29 Wall Street Journal column about detecting bad bosses-to-be when considering a new job quoted
Dory Hollander of WiseWorkplaces in Arlington, VA. She said if job seekers were a little more attentive, they could save themselves a lot of grief. She suggested preparing a list of traits you want in your next supervisor and a second list of what bothers you most about your current one. Keep both in mind when quizzing present and past staffers about your future boss. Ask direct questions about the bosss leadership style and philosophy. Trust your gut feelings, being careful to separate bad-boss anxiety from routine job jitters.
Mark Frame, director of the I-O program at the University of Texas at Arlington, contributed to a story about the lack of women in corporate officer positions in the October-November 2005 issue of
Pink Magazine. Often its a pipeline issue, he noted. The higher up you get, the more your boss thinks you are promotable and women just tend to be lower on the corporate ladder.
David Nadler of Mercer Delta Consulting in New York contributed to a November 14
Wall Street Journal story on CEO succession. Noting that replacing CEOs has been difficult for a number of business firms, he said a major reason is that boards dont take the succession-planning process seriously enough. In fact, the process is often alarmingly casual. He noted that CEO succession tends to go awry when boards dont start long enough in advance. They dont think about building the pipeline, he added.
The November 14 Bloomberg News quoted Alec Levenson of the University of Southern California in a story about efforts to save a Boeing aircraft factory in Long Beach, which was losing its defense contract to build C-17 transport jets. Levenson noted that although the loss of the Boeing plant would be very difficult for the people who go through it. From a macro perspective for the local economy, it wouldnt be a huge blow. One reason is that the tourist and trade industries are booming in Long Beach.
The September 2005 issue of American Way magazine carried a story on team-building exercises that included comments from
Eduardo Salas of the University of Central Florida. Theyre fun and theyre motivating...but research doesnt show any conclusive improvement in actual job performance, he said. Often, the good feelings dont last and after a few weeks back on the job, people are doing the same things they did before the event because theres little or no support for people to practice what they learned. Organizations get the behaviors that they measure and reinforce. So if you want teamwork, collaboration and better interpersonal skills, you have to measure and reinforce them, he added.
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.
E-mail a copy of the article to siop@siop.org
or send it to SIOP at PO Box 87, Bowling Green, OH 43402 or fax it to (419) 352-2645.
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