What is I-O?

SIOP Members in the News

Clif Boutelle
SIOP Media Consultant

SIOP members continue to be sources for news stories in various media around the country and in Canada. There is no question that reporters are becoming more aware of the expertise in workplace issues that SIOP members possess and are turning to them more frequently as resources. Of equal importance, though, is that SIOP members recognize the value of media exposure in advancing I-O psychology and are making themselves available to respond to media queries.

Evidence of that (in addition to increased news coverage) is that more than 1,400 SIOP members are included in the latest version of Media Resources, found on the SIOP Web site. This service offers experts in more than 100 different workplace categories, and as more reporters become aware of Media Resources, the more SIOP members will appear in news accounts across the U.S. and Canada. And thats a very good thing.

Following is a sampling of some of the media coverage featuring SIOP members:

Research by Jerald Greenberg, professor of management and human resources at Ohio State University, was widely featured in October in media around the country including the Lansing State Journal, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Reuters and United Press International. Originally published in the September 2002 issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Greenbergs study suggested that nearly any worker may be willing to steal from an employer under some circumstances, but it is less likely to happen if the company makes clear that theft is unethical.

Rodney L. Lowman, dean of the School of Organizational Studies at Alliant International University in Los Angeles, contributed to a column in the October 14 Wall Street Journal about the apparent conflict of interest created when executive recruiters are also involved in doing executive assessments. Lowman noted that there is an inherent conflict when someone handing out assessments stands to gain from poor notices. Ideally, he says, separate firms should be used for assessing and recruiting.

Fred Frank of TalentKeepers in Maitland, FL discussed employee retention and the role of the front-line leader in reducing turnover in the November 1, 2002 issue of the Orlando Business Journal. People tend to leave their immediate boss [rather] than leave a company or a job, said Frank, whose company focuses on helping front-line leaders become better managers. The story cited a TalentKeeper client, Sprint PCS, which cut its 80% turnover rate by 33%, saving the organization $8.8 million. TalentKeepers uses Web-based assessment and e-learning to develop critical leadership retention competencies of front-line leaders.

The November issue of Human Resource Executive carried a story on Testing Traits, that featured the comments of Robert Devine of Robert Devine Associates in Palo Alto, CA and Shelly Funderburg, director of employee selection systems at Manpower International in Milwaukee, WI. Devine said that while testing is a reliable way to benchmark the potential success of candidates, it is also helpful in the career development of the test-taker. Tests are a snapshot of your leadership characteristics, he said. For tests that are done online, Funderburg said companies need to insure that others are not taking the tests for candidates. One way to prevent that is by announcing that the company may discuss test responses during the interview phase, she said. Also, scientifically valid tests can sort out fakers by asking the same question in different ways to determine if the pattern of responses indicates the falsification of answers.

Richard Boyatzis, a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University, was quoted in an October 22 story in Workforce magazine about new criteria in hiring people in top leadership positions. He warns companies not to be sucked in by glib-talking candidates. Companies are now giving more attention to credibility than smoothness in selecting their leaders. Candidates who are good listeners make the best managers, the article states.

Research by Tahira Probst, assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University at Vancouver, showing that workers faced with the threat of company downsizing may be tempted to sacrifice safety in order to boost productivity, has been the subject of several news stories. Her study was originally published early in the fall in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. Since then Reuters Health News Service has developed a story, which has been picked up by various newspapers and abcNews.com. 

A September 30 story in The Virginian Pilot features a research project being led by Debra Major, associate professor of psychology at Old Dominion University. Supported by a $497,000 National Science Foundation grant, the studys intent is to improve the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and minorities in computer-related occupations. The ultimate goal is to create a workplace environment where women and minorities feel comfortable and can contribute, Major says.

The September and October issues of Workplace Today, the Canadian Journal of Workplace Issues, carried stories featuring the work of SIOP members. Peter Heslin, who is completing his doctoral studies at the University of Toronto, reported on research showing that managers first impressions affect performance appraisals. He examined whether managers willingness to update initial impressions about their employees was related to their implicit beliefs about how much people can change. The October issue carried a story about developing worker trust, based upon research by Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, ON) professors Greg Irving and Ian Gellatly. Work performance is closely tied to the level of trust that employees have to both the manager and the company, they said.

David Arnold, vice-president of development and professional compliance with Reid London House in Chicago, had a letter to the editor published in an October issue of Workforce magazine responding to a previous article that discussed the legal and technical issues surrounding pre-employment testing. Arnolds letter corrected misinformation regarding disparate impact analysis, invasion of privacy, test validation, and employment litigation.

A story about the potential perils of 360-degree feedback programs in the August issue of Managing Workplace Conflict was based upon the research findings of Lynn Harland, associate professor of management at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Harland noted that 360-degree feedback can lead to employee conflict, but there are ways to eliminate or diminish those kinds of results. She offered several suggestions to reduce conflict resulting from negative feedback, including using caution when deciding whether a feedback program will benefit a particular group of employees. She said 360-degree reviews work best with a mature group of people who trust each other. 

The same issue of Managing Workplace Conflict carried a sidebar with comments by John Sosik, associate professor of management and organization at Pennsylvania State Universitys Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies. He said that overestimatorsthose who overstate their positive behaviors can make for a particularly troublesome 360-degree review process.

Gary Brumback, a retired I-O psychologist living in Palm Coast, FL, wrote an op-ed piece that appeared in the August 21 Daytona Beach News-Journal. Entitled Uplifting Business Performance, Brumback advocates that it isnt enough for businesses to avoid unlawful conduct, they must meet the higher standard of business ethics. He maintains that it is not incompatible for companies to achieve strong business results and do so in an ethical, competent, and motivated manner. He is the author of the recently published book Tall Performance from Short Organizations Through We/Me Power.

Two SIOP members were sources for an August 8 issue of Aufbau, a German-Jewish newspaper published in New York City. The writer consulted Yanina Shapiro of Internet Psychology Research Institute in Portland and Debra Major of Old Dominion University for a story on different ways people can recuperate and/or relax during nonwork time. Shapiro and Major agreed that the more interesting the work and the more an individual gets excited about a project, the less rest a person needs.

When Mercer Human Resource Consulting in Chicago published its 2002 People at Work Survey in August, Dan McCauley appeared on several business news programs, including CNBCs Business Center and CNNfns Business Unusual, to talk about its findings. The study polled nearly 2,600 U.S. workers about their perceptions of their jobs, organizations, work environments, compensation, benefits, and company management.

Karen Yasgoor, chair of the I-O psychology department at Capella University in La Jolla, CA, was interviewed for a July 31 story on CBS Online Marketwatch about the differences between men and women who are searching for jobs. Men are more selective about who they let into their job searches, a factor that holds them back, she said. It usually takes men longer to open up and kick themselves in the rear to look for a job. Theres this ego that theyre afraid to tell people Im not working now. 

The Miami Herald called upon Hodges Golson, president of Management Psychology Group in Atlanta, to contribute to an article (July 5) on the opulent lives, particularly the building of multimillion dollar homes, of ousted executives at such companies as Enron and WorldCom. They live in a rarified atmosphere of power where everyone around them is bowing to them and saying how clever they are. Theres a disconnect from reality that sometimes results in a feeling of invincibility, Golson said.

Paul Babiak, principal of HRBackOffice in New York, a consulting firm specializing in executive assessment and development, was interviewed for a November 11 story in the London Times about psychopaths in organizations. Also contributing to the story, entitled Snakes in Suits and How to Spot Them, was Paul Hare, a Canadian colleague. They contend that many of the years worst accounting scandals and other misdeeds of top business executives could have been avoided if they had been screened for psychopathic tendencies. 

For a September 8 New York Times Sunday Magazine article on the development, construction and life of the twin towers of the New York World Trade Center, research done in the mid-1960s by a team led by Paul Hoffman of San Carlos, CA was featured. When the twin towers were being designed, the project engineers turned to Hoffman, who at that time headed the Oregon Research Institute, to determine how much motion in the upper floors of the towers could be tolerated by the buildings occupants. In a unique experiment that involved a moving office, Hoffmans studies found that people were much more sensitive to the swaying of a building than engineers had initially thought. As a result of Hoffmans work, the twin towers were redesigned to reduce the horizontal motion of the buildings.

If you have been quoted or served as a news source for a newspaper or magazine story or have been interviewed on radio or television about a workplace issue, please let us know. Or, if you know of a SIOP colleague who has contributed to a news story, we would like to know that as well.

When possible, please send copies of the articles to SIOP at P.O. Box 87, Bowling Green, OH 43402, or tell us about them by e-mailing siop@siop.org or fax to (419) 352-2645.