What is I-O?

In this column, I want to let you know about several new initiatives we are undertaking this year, some of which resulted from the strategic planning session conducted by the Executive Committee last January. There are four initiatives I want to highlight in this column:

• Education and Professional Development Initiative,
• Visibility of I-O Psychology to Educators and Students,
• Public Policy Initiative, and
• Pro Bono Assistance to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Education and Professional Development Initiative

The Education and Professional Development Initiative resulted from the strategic planning session we conducted last year. The goal of this initiative is for SIOP to become the "preferred provider" for continuing education and professional development. Target audiences include psychologists, doctoral students, managers, and HR professionals. Methods of training may include workshops, study tours, and other continuing education activities.

We have established two new committees to carry out this initiative. The first is a new Professional Development Workshop Committee, chaired by Jack Kennedy. The second is an Academically Oriented Workshop Committee, chaired by David Hofmann.

The primary purpose of the Professional Development Workshop Committee is to provide additional continuing education and professional development opportunities for SIOP members. We expect that the workshops developed as part of this initiative will be held multiple times throughout the year, at various locations around the country. We anticipate that these workshops will differ somewhat in form and content from those that are currently offered in conjunction with the Annual Conference. Jack Kennedy is in the process of forming his committee and developing a plan for implementing an initial series of Professional Development Workshops.

Our plan for the Academically Oriented Workshops is to conduct them at the Annual SIOP Conference. These workshops will be geared more toward academic topics and offered at a lower cost than the current Conference Workshops. David Hofmann is also in the process of forming his committee and developing a plan for implementation of these workshops in the near future.

Visibility of I-O Psychology to Educators and Students

This initiative resulted from the strategic planning session, and its goal is to provide educational materials to educators and students about what I-O psychology is and what I-O psychologists do. One activity relevant to this goal—development of an Instructor’s Guide for introducing I-O psychology—was recently completed by the Education and Training Committee, chaired by Debbie Major. The subcommittee of E&T responsible for producing this guide includes Peter Bachiochi (Chair), David Day, Kurt Kraiger, Geula Lowenberg, Joan Rentsch, and Jeffrey Stanton.

The Instructor’s Guide contains lectures, overheads, exercises, and suggested readings, films, and videotapes for several content areas relevant to
I-O psychology, such as workplace diversity, sexual harassment, evaluating work performance, motivation and performance, and others. This guide will be packaged and made available to undergraduate professors and others in an effort to promote educating the public about I-O psychology. The committee is in the process of developing a marketing plan to help ensure that the materials reach the widest possible audience.

Public Policy Initiative

The Public Policy Initiative also resulted from the SIOP strategic planning session and its underlying goal is for SIOP to become a highly visible source for input in forming public policy.

Katherine Klein is chairing a new Public Policy Committee that has been established and charged with leading this initiative. Her committee includes Lori Berman, Paul Bliese, Dana Born, Gary Carter, Jos Cortina, Sandy Fisher, Milt Hakel, Bill Howell, and Steve Sellman. This committee has begun (1) identifying possible specific goals and strategies that SIOP may wish to pursue in the public policy arena, and (2) exploring internal and external stumbling blocks and challenges SIOP may face in the effort to increase our involvement in public policy development. The committee has generated a list of possible goals, including:

• Increasing SIOP members’ awareness and understanding of current policy issues and initiatives relevant to SIOP members’ expertise.
• Convincing SIOP members that they can and should play a much more influential role in shaping public policy relevant to SIOP members’ expertise.
• Getting SIOP more involved in public policy formulation by preparing policy statements, giving testimony, and advising elected officials on issues on which SIOP has a position.
• Increasing government funding for I-O related research.

The issues faced by this committee are many and complex, ranging from trying to understand how a professional organization such as SIOP can effectively and economically influence public policy to examining the extent to which SIOP should be involved in such a role, as well as the implications of doing so. Look for further information and communication from the Public Policy Committee as we explore these issues.

Pro Bono Assistance to Ireland

Undertaking an initiative led by Kevin Murphy, the SIOP Executive Committee has offered pro bono assistance to the governments of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to deal with several critical issues that are likely to result from the Multi-Party Agreement signed on April 10, 1998. The agreement calls for the establishment of a new Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and a parallel Human Rights Commission in the Republic of Ireland. One important task of each commission will be to make recommendations regarding employment equality legislation.

In letters drafted by Kevin and sent under my signature to officials in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, we offered various ways that we might be of assistance to them. For example, we pointed out that I-O psychologists are very frequently involved in efforts to provide equal employment opportunities to members of various racial, ethnic, and religious groups. We explained that determining whether employment decisions are made in a discriminatory manner often involves complex analyses, and we believe that our experience dealing with this set of issues in the U.S. may prove valuable as the governments of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland develop standards and procedures for evaluating claims of employment discrimination. Along with the letters, we sent copies of the SIOP Principles for Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures (3rd Edition) and offered our help in developing their standards and procedures.

A second way we suggested that we might help is by sharing our experience in litigating equal employment claims. We recognized that while there are important differences between the American legal system and the legal systems of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the demands of working through complex equal employment litigation has led I-O psychologists to devote a good deal of attention to framing and answering important questions about employment practices (e.g., is there a reasonable job-related reason for a particular employment requirement) that are likely to be relevant to them. Accordingly, we offered our help and experience in this area.

We suggested a third way that the experience and expertise of SIOP members might prove useful. That is, many I-O psychologists work in contexts that involve conflict resolution, evaluating fairness and equity in pay, benefits, and treatment by the organization, developing programs to break down barriers between competing groups in organizations, and so forth. We suggested that there may be a number of ways that our experience could prove helpful and that we would be glad to share whatever information, documents, experience, and so forth, they might find useful.

We have received replies from both officials to whom we sent this correspondence, thanking us for our interest and forwarding the materials we sent to the offices handling employment issues within their governments. We provided Kevin as a local contact in Ireland, as he is on sabbatical there this year. We will keep you posted of further correspondence and any efforts we undertake to provide assistance.

Let Us Know What You Think...

The four initiatives I’ve described here aren’t the only new projects we’re working on, but I’ve run out of space for now so the others will have to wait until my next column. In the meantime, if you have any comments or feedback on the initiatives outlined in this column, we’d like to hear your thoughts.

TIP

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