What is I-O?

SIOP Members in the News

Clif Boutelle
SIOP Media Consultant

The media is realizing, more and more, that SIOP members and their expertise are valuable resources for their stories about the workplace. The April SIOP Conference introduced I-O to a number of Canadian reporters, and that exposure continues to result in SIOP members being called upon to provide commentary for stories. In addition, SIOP members throughout the United States are contributing to media stories. Here are some of them:

Maria Rotundo, assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, was a major contributor to a four-part series on Canadian competitiveness that appeared in the National Post. Noting that Canada faces a shortage of people in selected fields (teachers, nurses, physicians, construction trades, etc.), she wrote in a June 3 article, Canada must maintain its high quality of life to retain and attract highly skilled workers. Talent management is the key to Canadian competitiveness, she said.

Also, the summer issue of MITs Sloan Management Review carried a review of a study about performance reviews conducted by Rotundo and Paul Sackett, professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota. The study found that managers in the same company frequently use different criteria to review their employees work, which leads to reviews that are both inconsistent and inaccurate.

Joann Lublins Managing Your Career column in the June 4 Wall Street Journal quoted Mitchell Marks, a mergers consultant from San Francisco. The story was about a CEO who lost his job in a merger and became a division head. Instead of quitting with a bruised ego, he stayed and flourished with the new company. Thats a rarity in such situations, said Marks, who has been involved in many mergers.

Two SIOP members were quoted in a June 10 Time magazine article describing how more and more job applicants are falsifying their resumes. Robin Inwald, head of New York City-based Hilson Research, said it was normal for applicants to want to make a good impression on a potential employer but warned that companies need to be wary of people who come across as unusually qualified. Seymour Adler of AON Consulting in New York City said that applicants are motivated to pad their resumes because they may have such high expectations of themselves that they wont admit any flaw. The overall motivation is to be taken seriously and respected.

The July/August issue of APAs Monitor on Psychology features an article by Deborah Smith that cites the work of three SIOP members. Entitled Making Work Your Familys Ally, the article states that work and family can benefit each other. Leslie Hammer, associate professor of psychology at Portland State University, who has done research on the sandwiched generationdual-earner couples who care for both their children and parents, said that employees who decrease their social involvement outside work to meet family demands experience more workfamily conflict than couples who prioritize their family and work responsibilities. Ellen Kossek, professor of labor and industrial relations at Michigan State University, noted that to find a happy balance between work and family, workers must set up a strategy for managing the two roles. You cant go 150 percent, have a baby and be a super mom, publish articles, and work 80 hours a week, she said. Michael Frone, senior research scientist at the Research Institute for Addictions at SUNYBuffalo, offered four strategies workers can take to manage work and family: seek social support at work or in other environments, reduce or reorganize the time devoted to work or family demands, reduce the psychological importance of one or more roles, and find ways to reduce or better cope with stress.

An article about leadership skills that appeared in the June 16 issue of Parade magazine was based upon research conducted by Richard Boyatzis, professor of management at Case Western Reserve University and two colleagues: Daniel Goleman, a consultant from Williamstown, MA (who wrote the Parade article) and Annie McKee of the University of Pennsylvanias School of Education. They contend that emotional intelligencean adeptness at managing ourselves and our interactions with othersnot academic or technical skills is what characterizes effective leadership. They co-authored the recent book Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence.

When the College Board, which administers the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SATs), announced in June that it will be making changes in the test, Wayne Camara, vice-president of research at the College Board, was widely quoted in media reports. A major change in the test is a greater emphasis upon writing and in articles in the June 25 Christian Science Monitor and July 1 USA Today, Camara said adding the writing section was in response to concerns that high school students lack writing skills. He said that one key result of putting writing into the SAT is that high schools will stress writing much more.

Research presented at the April SIOP Conference showing that racially intolerant job seekers are less likely to follow up on job advertisements that emphasize diversity in an organization was featured in a June 24 Toronto Globe and Mail story. The researchersDouglas Brown, professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo; Lisa Keeping, assistant professor in the School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University; Paul Levy, associate professor of psychology at the University of Akron, and Richard Cober, an Akron graduate studentnoted that Caucasians with attitudinal baggage about people from other backgrounds do not view culturally diverse organizations as prestigious places to work.

The June issue of Ladies Home Journal quoted Dennis Doverspike, professor of psychology at the University of Akron, for a story on the dangers of teen driving. Car accidents are the leading cause of teen fatalities, and Doverspike noted that most teens are not ready to drive and take too many risks. It takes several years for driving to become an automatic response and teens dont have those years of experience, he said. Most teens never have to practice driving in inclement weather or high-speed traffic before getting a license, and when placed in one of those situations, they often dont know how to respond.

Providing training opportunities for aging workers to take on new assignments is something that companies need to be aware of, according to Todd Maurer, associate professor of psychology at Georgia Tech. In the June issue of Business to Business, Maurer pointed out that reserving development opportunities for younger workers is just as illegal as firing older employees and replacing them with younger ones. He said the key to avoiding discrimination charges is to develop a plan to help workers to meet their goals and then treat them as individuals.

Suzanne Simpson, president of Human Resources Group in Ottawa, ON, was a major contributor to an article about job titles in the July issue of www.workplace.ca, a journal of workplace issues. Some managers dont pay too much attention to job titles, but they are remiss if they fail to do so, she said. She warned that job titles should not overstate what a person does. It often leads to people not understanding that persons role and in the long run can probably do more harm than good to the organization and the worker, Simpson pointed out.

Carol Jenkins, director of consulting services at Bigby Havis & Associates in Dallas, was a major contributor in the July 29 issue of the Bureau of National Affairs Workforce Strategies for an article about strategic hiring and how behavior profiles can be used to identify employees with aptitude for work. Jenkins discussed how companies can learn, through testing and assessment, whether employees are temperamentally suited to specific jobs.

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. Similarly if you know of a SIOP colleague who has contributed to a news story, we would like to know that as well. SIOP Members in the News recognizes those, who through their willingness to serve as news sources, are helping to increase the visibility of I-O psychology.

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