Foundation Spotlight: Are There Too Many Awards?

Milton D. Hakel, PhD

What is the best number of awards for SIOP to present? 

It seems like a simple question.  How many are there?  Would you believe 21?

Ok, here’s the list: The Dunnette Prize leads off, because it is the biggest ($50,000) and has just been presented for the second time, this year to Thomas Bouchard, and in 2015 to Frank Schmidt.

There are seven Distinguished and Career Awards: Distinguished Professional Contributions Award, Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, Distinguished Service Contributions Award, Distinguished Early Career Contributions—Practice Award, Distinguished Early Career Contributions—Science Award, Distinguished Teaching Contributions Award, and the newest, the SIOP Humanitarian Award.  

Then there is a growing collection of eight Achievement and Best Paper Awards: William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award, M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace, Raymond A. Katzell Award in I-O Psychology, Joyce and Robert Hogan Award for Personality and Work Performance, Wiley Award for Excellence in Survey Research, Jeanneret Award for Excellence in the Study of Individual or Group Assessment, S. Rains Wallace Dissertation Award, and the Schmidt-Hunter Meta-Analysis Award. 

I suppose that the five kinds of Conference Awards should also be counted: Best Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) Research Award, SIOP Best International Paper Award, Robert J. Wherry Award for Best Paper at IOOB Conference, John C. Flanagan Award for Best Student Contribution at SIOP, and the SIOP Student Travel Award.

Ah, but SIOP also awards the Leslie W. Joyce and Paul W. Thayer Graduate Fellowship, as well as five+ named scholarships (Lee Hakel Graduate Student Scholarship, Mary L. Tenopyr Graduate Student Scholarship, and SIOP Graduate Student Scholarships, George C. Thornton, III Graduate Scholarship, Irwin L. Goldstein and Benjamin Schneider Graduate Scholarships by the Macey Fund)…

…Plus seven research grants, namely Douglas W. Bray and Ann Howard Research Grant, Sidney A. Fine Grant for Research on Job Analysis, SIOP Small Grant Program, SIOP International Research and Collaboration (IRC) Small Grant, Adverse Impact Reduction Research Initiative and Action (AIRRIA) Grant, James L. Outtz Grant for Student Research on Diversity, and Hebl Grant for Reducing Gender Inequities in the Workplace.  New for 2019 will be the Graen Grants for Student Research on Design Thinking and New Professionals. 

And the Human Resource Management Impact Awards program, a joint venture of SHRM and SIOP and their foundations needs to be counted.

So, 36 and counting is the best current answer to the “how many are there?” question.

Too many?  Not enough?  Stimulated by proposals for additional awards, the questions arose during the SIOP Executive Board meeting in January.  They are now being considered by the Awards Strategy Task Force.  Fred Oswald and I have appointed Leaetta Hough (chair), Paul Green (vice chair), Lillian Eby, Tara Behrend, Betsy Shoenfelt, Tiffany Poeppelman, and John Scott to advise both the SIOP Executive Board and the SIOP Foundation Trustees concerning the awards program.  They are considering questions such as why have awards at all? What are the purposes for giving them? What is meant by “award”? Are grants and scholarships included?  Is there an optimal number and distribution of awards?  How big or small should awards be?  What factors make awards desirable?  Many subsidiary questions are also being considered.

The Awards Strategy Task Force is now deliberating, and welcomes any comments and questions you may provide—write to AwdsStratTF@siop.org.  Please note that the SIOP Foundation is a separate corporation, made necessary by IRS rules for public charities to distinguish it from other nonprofits, such as trade associations (e.g., SIOP).  The Task Force will report its recommendations in September.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Milt Hakel, President, mhakel@bgsu.edu

Rich Klimoski, Vice-President, rklimosk@gmu.edu

Nancy Tippins, Secretary, Nancy.Tippins@tippinsgroup.com

Leaetta Hough, Treasurer, leaetta@msn.com

Adrienne Colella, Communications Officer, acolella@tulane.edu

Mirian Graddick-Weir, Trustee, mirian_graddick-weir@merck.com

Bill Macey, Trustee, wmacey9@gmail.com

John C Scott, Trustee, JScott@APTMetrics.com