SIOP Members in the News
Clif Boutelle
SIOP members have a wealth of expertise to offer reporters and by working with the media, they are providing opportunities to greatly increase the visibility of industrial and organizational psychology.
Media Resources, found on the SIOP Web site (www.siop.org), has proven to be a valuable tool for reporters looking for experts to comment on their stories about the workplace. Members who are willing to talk with the media are encouraged to list themselves and their area(s) of specialization in Media Resources. It can easily be done online.
Following are some of the news stories that have been printed, using SIOP members as resources, since the last issue of
TIP.
A new book, entitled The Allure of Toxic Leaders, by Jean Lipman-Blumen of Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA, has attracted a great deal of media attention.
The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Herald, The Seattle Times, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, Fast Company magazine and several online publications have all carried stories since the book was published this summer. Toxic leaders manipulate deep psychological needs in their subordinates, Lipman-Blumen said. They leave their followers worse off than when they found them, feed their followers illusions, play to their basic fears and needs, stifle criticism, mislead and create scapegoats. Followers, she said, have their own reasons for tolerating or wanting toxic leaders. They want reassurance, security, and certainty, and push leaders to promise those things whether they can deliver or not. Because people need to feel secure or special, she says, they may overlook early signs of unethical or otherwise damaging behavior.
And in a November 1 USA Today story about top managers leaving tech companies, Lipman-Blumen noted that some change can be good, especially when an organization is going through tough times. It provides the opportunity to go in a new direction, she said. Unfortunately, she added, too often the executives who do go on to other jobs are the ones you dont want to leave.
An October 31 story in the Chicago Tribune about personality testing cited David Scarborough of Unicru in Beaverton, OR and
Robert Hogan of Hogan Assessment Systems, Inc. in Tulsa, OK. Psychological testing is being used by 40% of large U.S. firms, evaluating everyone from hourly employees to top executives. More than 15 million have taken Unicrus customer service test. The kinds of people who do well obviously have to have good self control, said Scarborough. They have to be patient. They have to enjoy helping people. All those characteristics are quite measurable.
Hogan said testing if done right can be hugely helpful and promotes organizational effectiveness and social justice. Nevertheless, he noted that the testing industry is filled with abuses. There are no barriers to entry. Anybody can put together a set of items and say Ive got a test here and start selling it. Theyre selling snake oil. He said that tests need to validated and data published in peer-reviewed journals and tests be reviewed.
Dennis Doverspike, a professor of psychology at the University of Akron, was called by the
Akron Beacon Journal to comment for an October 24 story about current advertising trends that show the office as a fun place to work. Advertisers are appealing to one of the young adult populations outstanding traitsbeing workaholics. So many of them work such long hours that the workplace is where they have social relationships. They like a congenial and collegial workplace atmosphere, he said. He also believes that because the current generation of young workers was raised on reality television, the lives of everyday people appeal to them. And because the workplace is such a focal point, its only natural that work is an effective real-life setting on which to base advertising.
Selecting the right kind of leader can be critical to an organizations success and companies that take a critical and disciplined look at who they hire have the best chance for success, says a Portland (OR) Business Journal article. And one of the best ways to insure success is to utilize the science of assessment and testing in making the selection.
Two chief scientists from UnicruDavid Scarborough and George Paajanencontributed to the October 20 story. Formal assessment, said Scarborough, can be correctly described as a risk management procedure for reducing the frequency of poor human capital decisions. Combining objective data about a persons skills in leadership, problem solving, communication, motivation, and other characteristics can identify the stronger performers and make hiring recommendations that pay back many times over the investment in an assessment, Paajanen added. The article was written by
Rainer Seitz, an I-O psychologist with SHAPE Consulting in Vancouver, WA.
Kissing up, being nice and agreeing more than disagreeing do seem to be effective tactics for people to use when looking for a job, said
Timothy Judge of the University of Florida. Thats part of a recent study by Judge that was reported in several newspapers and radio and television stations around the country, including the October 18
South Florida Sun Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale) and NBC, ABC, and MSNBC television affiliates in Florida. This approach succeeds, he found, because it leads recruiters and interviewers to believe the applicant will fit into the organization.
The October 10 issue of the Daytona Beach News Journal ran a story on the divisiveness of political talk in the office.
Paul Spector of the University of South Florida noted that in a year when the population appears to be evenly divided between the two major candidates that, to preserve office harmony, the old saying of not talking about religion and politics may be a good rule to follow, especially when emotions are running high.
Research by John Kammeyer-Mueller of the University of Florida, Theresa Glomb
of the University of Minnesota, and Maria Rotundo of the University of Toronto has been the focus of stories that have appeared in newspapers, including the October 5 edition of the
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and the electronic media. They found that emotionally draining jobs dont necessarily lead to higher pay. However, the more intellectually demanding the job, the greater the financial rewards.
For an October 4 story on finding ethical executives that appeared in the October 4
Tucson Citizen, the writer turned to Robert Hogan of Hogan Assessment Systems in Tulsa, OK, a firm that specializes in the science of personality testing. He said that not only can personality testing help determine the leadership potential of job candidates, they can also indicate dark side characteristics.
In the October 4 issue of Fortune magazine, Ben Dattner of Dattner Consulting in New York City offers several tips for a first-time manager. Most companies really dont do a very good job of supporting and developing new managers, he said. One suggestion: Assume you dont understand all thats required of you in the new role. Its complex, and if you go in thinking you get all of it right away, youll make a lot more mistakes than if you approach it as a learning process. He also cautions against trying to be perfect. Sometimes it is better to back off a bit.
And in an article about personality testing in the September 20 U.S. News & World Report, Dattner said, These tests are a snapshot, but life is a moving picture. He cautions that tests can allow organizations to unfairly label an individual or allow a person to rationalize faults that should be corrected. Personality tests can offer one additional data point but should not determine the outcome of decisions.
In a column on bad bosses, especially those who are secretive and talk too much, that appeared in the September 21 issue of
Wall Street Journal, Dory Hollander of WiseWorkplaces in Arlington, VA was a contributor. Both kinds of bosses hurt their employees and companies performance. They marginalize and invalidate employees, or manipulate them for their own advancement and cause them (employees) to make bad decisions, she said.
Jerry Palmer of Eastern Kentucky University was quoted in an August. 30 Christian Science Monitor story about finding fulfillment in an office environment. Palmer emphasized the importance of carrying out office tasks in which a person can experience positive effects.
A story in the August issue of Training magazine about internal survey programs featured the Mayflower Group, a consortium of 42 companies that share, compare and learn from each others survey data. Contributing to the story were
Nick Mills, personnel research manager at Ford Motor Co. and chair of Mayflower;
Bill Macey, CEO of Personnel Research Associates in Rolling Meadows, IL: and
Karen Paul, manager of talent management for 3M in St. Paul, MN. Mayflower is committed to the strategic value of employee surveys and the positive effects they can have in companies, said Mills. Comprised mostly of survey professionals, Mayflower has been able to strike a balance between the open sharing of HR practices and protecting proprietary, valuable and competitive information. The way it works, explained Macey, is that we take all the data developed by company surveys, aggregate it, and generate a series of reports, which are made available to our members. Paul added, Quite often you see trends and reports put out by certain vendors and with the Mayflower data you can verify if the trend truly exists or is an artifact of the vendors current client list. With about a million and a half data points that were looking at in any given year, at least among member companies, we know what the truth is.
A study about shift work by Mark Nagy of Xavier University was the subject of a story in the August 13
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He found that married workers, contrary to conventional wisdom, seem to fare much better psychologically and emotionally when working nights than single workers. Unmarried workers likely feel a little left out of the mainstream and are lonely, he said. Its harder to date and socialize with friends at night if you are working late hoursunless most of your best friends work the same times you do.
For Amy Joyces Life at Work column about taking vacations and yet staying connected to the office in the August 15
Washington Post, Baird Brightman, president of Worklife Strategies in Sudbury, MA, noted There used to be something called the workday, with a beginning and end. Now workers stay in touch with the office via cell phone and e-mail while away. The worlds expectation is that you are always there, always working, he said.
A special report about the role of corporate boards in a companys culture was featured in the summer issue of
Corporate Board Member magazine. Corporate culture can make or break a company, and sometimes it does both. The boards job is to make sure it works for the good. Yet, according to
Edward Lawler of the University of Southern Californias Marshall School of Business, most boards are poorly equipped to deal with culture. An understanding of corporate culture is one of the great missing links in the kinds of competencies that boards ought to have to monitor whats going inside the corporation.
Please let us know if you or a SIOP colleague have been quoted in the media. We would like to include it in SIOP Members in the News.
Send copies of the articles to SIOP at PO Box 287, Bowling Green, OH 43402, or e-mail them to
siop@siop.org, or fax to (419) 352-2645.
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