I write this issue’s column from the new campus of the University of Nice, where the Psychology department has resided since early October, 1997. It is a pleasure to be in a new building with fresh paint and student desks that are only beginning to have graffiti etched in them. We are now located near the center of Nice, with a view of the Mont Boron, where Elton John owns a home. The campus currently houses only the Psychology Department and the first year of medical school. It is supposed to grow to include the dental school and, in future years, the social sciences. For the time being, my mailing and e-mail addresses are unchanged; however, I have new fax and office phone numbers. Please note them below.

In the previous issue of TIP, I provided information about some upcoming conferences relevant to I/O psychology that are organized by French professional associations. I now have some information about yet another one. The fourth International Colloquium of Applied Social Psychology is being organized by the ADRIPS (Association pour la Diffusion de la Recherche Internationale en Psychologie Sociale). It will take place June 18–19, 1999 in Rennes, France. Rennes is located in Brittany, and therefore offers the opportunity to indulge in crpes and take advantage of some of the fantastic landscapes of this region. The ADRIPS is very interested in having participants from outside France; however, the language of the conference is French. If you can get by at all in French and would like to participate in the conference, please contact me. Claude Louche (Universit de Montpellier) and I are responsible for a symposium on the broad topic of Organizational Psychology. For possible participation in this symposium, we need to know of your interest by February 15, 1998. Another symposium relevant to I/O is on evaluation. Franois le Poultier (Universit de Haute-Bretagne, Rennes) is in charge of that symposium. It is also possible to propose a symposium (deadline for submissions, June 15, 1998) or a paper presentation (submission deadline October 15, 1998). Symposia submissions require a two-page general summary, plus a short summary of each presentation. Paper presentation submissions require only a one-page summary of the work. These submissions will have to be sent to Grard Guingouain (Universit de Haute-Bretagne, Rennes), but if you desire more information or assistance, please feel free to contact me by some mode of communication listed below.

If you have suggestions for future columns, please contact me at: Dirk Steiner, Facult des Lettres, Arts, et Sciences Humaines, Universit de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, 98, boulevard Edouard Herriot, 06204 Nice Cedex 3, FRANCE. The new phone numbers are: (33) 492.00.11.91 (office) and (33) 492.00.12.97 (fax). E-mail: steiner@hermes.unice.fr.

In the meantime, Jess F. Salgado gives us a glimpse of his work and of our field in Spain in the following pages.

In this column, I will attempt to describe the state I/O psychology in Spain as well as my own research. Of course, the space of this column is too limited to present an exhaustive description of I/O psychology in any country, so I will highlight some of the most notable points (in my opinion) of I/O psychology in Spain.

The history of I/O psychology in Spain began in the early decades of this century, and during those years it was referred to as psychotechnic, a name which had a profound impact on I/O psychology as well as on Spanish society. In fact, for many years, selection tests were known in Spain as psychotechnic tests. During those years, I/O psychology had a strong connection to Scientific Management, and some researchers developed tests to assess aptitudes for work. However, no institution provided individuals with academic degrees in psychology, and students had to study in other countries (e.g., France, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland). Today, many Spanish universities have academic programs in psychology, and the number of students is over 50,000. In Spain, all sciences and arts taught at universities are divided into knowledge areas, and I/O psychology is included in the social psychology area. Therefore, similar to France, there are currently more social psychologists in the universities than I/O psychologists. However, in applied (professional) settings, paradoxically the number of I/O psychologists is a lot larger than the number of social psychologists. Another characteristic is that the name used for I/O psychology in Spain is work and organizational (W/O) psychology, as in most European countries. The term "industrial" has an outdated connotation, similar to psychotechnic.

According to a recent study conducted on the social image of psychology (Diaz & Quintanilla, 1992), 16.3% of psychologists affiliated with the Colegio Oficial de Psiclogos, the most important professional association in Spain, are work and organizational psychologists, of which 59.6% are men and 39.3% are women. The main duties of W/O psychologists are personnel selection and training, and development. In the university the duties of a professor are: to teach undergraduate (first cycle), graduate (second cycle), and doctoral (third cycle) courses; to conduct research; to supervise doctoral theses; and some people carry out administrative responsibilities. In I/O psychology, the best-known Spanish universities are Universidad Central de Barcelona, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, and Universidad de Valencia. Some of the main areas of research are in personnel selection, conflict and negotiation, unemployment, work socialization, and teamwork.

My current position at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela is Profesor Titular and I teach graduate courses on organizational psychology, personnel selection, and economic psychology. Also, I teach doctoral courses on meta-analysis methods and advanced personnel selection. Currently, I am advisor ("director" in Spain) for three doctoral students who expect to defend their doctoral theses this year. My research program is on the validity of personnel selection instruments, and I conduct single studies as well as meta-analytic studies. Recent examples of my research were published in Journal of Applied Psychology (Salgado, 1997), Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (Salgado, 1995; 1996), and International Journal of Selection and Assessment (Salgado & Rumbo, 1997). I would like to make special note of my article in JAP because it was a very important source of learning for me, as well as a very nice example of international cooperation. This paper presents several meta-analyses on personality and work that were conducted using studies from the European Community (EC) countries. In order to carry out the meta-analysis, I asked many European researchers for data and information on their countries. A great number of them provided me with data, and most importantly, with their support and best wishes. I am very grateful to all of them. An interesting finding of this article was that in the EC, as in the US, the validity of Conscientiousness, one of the Big Five personality factors, generalized across jobs and criteria. For Emotional Stability, on the other hand, validity generalized across jobs and criteria in the EC while in the US the results were inconclusive. In my research I have also found that psychomotor tests are valid predictors of job performance in Spain and their validity generalizes. The first analyses (unpublished) on cognitive ability tests show results similar to those of US meta-analytic studies. Two other studies that I am conducting are on the construct validity of the selection interview (with Silvia Moscoso) and the criterion-related validity of personal references (with Mario Lado).

As a final comment, I would like to express my opinion that international cooperation is one of the most relevant resources for progress in I/O (or W/O) psychology. In this sense, I would like to mention three U.S. researchers who have been very important to my professional career: Frank L. Schmidt (University of Iowa), Deniz S. Ones (University of Minnesota), and Juan I. Sanchez (Florida International University). They have been a source of constant support, ideas, and encouragement for me, as well as a gateway to American I/O Psychology.

Diaz, R., & Quintanilla, I. (1992). La identidad profesional del psiclogo en el estado espaol. Papeles del Psiclogo, 52, 21–74.

Salgado, J. F. (1995). Situational specificity and within-setting validity variability. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 68, 123–132.

Salgado, J. F. (1996). Personality and job competencies: A comment on the Robertson and Kinder (1993) study. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 69, 373–375.

Salgado, J. F. (1997). The five factor model of personality and job performance in the European Community. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 30–43.

Salgado, J. F., & Rumbo, A. (1997). Personality and job performance in financial services managers. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 5, 91–100.