SIOP and the SIOP Foundation have announced the criteria for their new Anti-Racism Grant. Created to deepen our understanding of racism at work, the grant is a step toward meeting needs for social justice in the workplace.

The Foundation is also collecting contributions for the fund and will continue to do so indefinitely. Contributions can be made on the Foundation webpage; select “FDN Anti-Racism Grant.”

“Racism in the workplace has become a flashpoint,” said Foundation President Milt Hakel. “Research won’t end racism. But racism won’t end without research. I-Os need to seize the opportunity to direct our talents toward promoting equal employment opportunity as a path for addressing systemic racism.”

This call is for projects aimed at enlarging our understanding of racism in the workplace, its causes, and its reduction. Any research or project that contributes to the elimination or reduction of discrimination in the workplace will be considered. The goal of this grant program is to identify evidence-based solutions to the problems of racism in the workplace.

The full Call for Project Proposals on the SIOP website includes informative background information, additional examples of topics and project forms, criteria for evaluation of project proposals, submission process, and other needed information.

SIOP will begin accepting project proposals Wednesday, July 15. Proposals are due by 5 p.m. EDT Monday, July 27 at www.siop.org/Foundation/Awards/Research-Grants.

“As the global COVID-19 pandemic shows starkly, and the global demonstrations against racism attest resoundingly, we are all in this together,” Hakel said. “Now we need to draw deeply and broadly from all disciplines to strengthen I-O praxis because we are more than just scientists or practitioners or scientist-practitioners.”

Examples of topics include, but are not limited to, studies of the following:

• Behaviors and actions of employees and managers that perpetuate or minimize racism or promote fairness and inclusion.
• Human resource management systems that reward and punish employees differently as a function of race.
• Individuals more (or less) inclined to discriminate and the impact this information can have on selection and training.

The form of projects is open. Examples of the types of projects that will be considered include, but are not limited to:

• Basic Research
• Technical Assistance Projects (in which SIOP experts collaborate with organizations to solve problems such as selection, training, employee engagement, and supervision)
• Program and Project Evaluations (e. g, implicit bias training, inclusion initiatives)
• Workshops and Webinars

Multidisciplinary projects are encouraged as well as those that blend practice and research. Both qualitative and quantitative projects are encouraged. The grant will focus on race issues in the United States because this is where the pledge of liberty and justice for all is deeply enshrined in the history of the country and the beliefs of its citizens and currently threatened. We will focus on applied psychology in the workplace because that is our domain.

SIOP is pleased to announce that Jeff McHenry, Rainier Leadership Solutions, has been elected to serve as an APA Council Representative for Division 14. McHenry has been serving as one of SIOP’s APA Council Representatives since January 2018. The new term begins January 1, 2021, and runs for 3 years.

When McHenry served as SIOP President in 2006-2007, one of his presidential priorities was to work with APA on advocacy, visibility, and research funding. He has continued that work over the last 3 years, advocating for greater support for applied psychology within APA. One of the highlights of his recent efforts is the creation of APA’s new Exploratory Committee for Applied Psychology (ECAP), which the APA Board approved based on recommendations from a working group that he co-chaired. ECAP provides a formal voice for applied psychology within APA governance. McHenry is now serving as the chair of ECAP.

“Thanks to the work of many SIOP members, APA has started doing a lot to promote applied psychology,” McHenry said. “They’ve drawn on I-O research heavily in their communications about the impact of COVID-19, remote work, racism, and policing. They also are tapping into SIOP experts who are helping them develop stronger leadership and a better workplace. We still want them to do more advocacy work on our behalf. We’re well-positioned with two strong SIOP members, Steve Kozlowski and Tara Behrend, serving on APA’s Advocacy Coordinating Committee.”

The Council of Representatives is the legislative body of APA and has full power and authority over the affairs and funds of the association within the limitations set by the certificate of incorporation and the bylaws, including the power to review, upon its own initiative, the actions of any board, committee, division, or affiliated organization. Council is composed of representatives of divisions; representatives of state, provincial, and territorial psychological associations (SPTAs); and the members of the Board of Directors.

McHenry is the founder and principal of Rainier Leadership Solutions and an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. He frequently speaks and delivers workshops at professional conferences. His areas of expertise include leadership talent management, succession planning, executive coaching and assessment, leadership team building, and leadership and high-potential development. He has consulted with numerous clients, including Microsoft, Deloitte, 3M, the Gates Foundation, Weyerhaeuser, and World Vision. Previously, McHenry spent 18 years at Microsoft Corporation, where he held a variety of HR and talent development roles, including general manager, leadership development, and recruiting, where he was responsible for executive recruiting and talent management, leadership and high potential development, and organizational development for the entire corporation. McHenry has a PhD in psychology from the University of Minnesota.

Applications for the P. Richard Jeanneret Grant for Research about Assessing and Developing

Senior Leaders are being accepted through midnight ET July 31, 2020.

This one-time, $11,000 research grant is now available for research about senior leaders for the 2021 award year only.

The Jeanneret Symposium on the topic of assessing and developing senior leaders was held in Dallas in 2016, and a comprehensive report by Reynolds, McCauley, Tsacoumis, and the Jeanneret Symposium participants was published in Industrial and Organizational Psychology in 2018. The symposium and open access publication were made possible by a generous gift from Dick Jeanneret to the SIOP Foundation’s Fund for the Future. Unexpectedly, funds from that gift are now available to SIOP members for this one-time grant.

The overarching goal for this grant is to build on the accepted wisdom and research needs identified by Reynolds et al. (2018). Thus, the research should yield new insights in one of the following areas: the evolving criteria for successful leadership, measuring leadership potential, the role of context in senior-level assessment, the role of line managers in using assessment data and in developing senior leaders, the effectiveness of current assessment and development practices at the senior level, or the use of new concepts or technologies for assessing senior leaders and predicting their work performance. Priority will be given to proposals that are a cooperative effort between practitioners and academics.

For more information, including guidelines for proposal budgets, criteria for selecting award winners, and format of the proposal, visit the P. Richard Jeanneret Grant for Research about Assessing and Developing Senior Leaders webpage.

The outbreak of COVID-19 forced many companies to adopt remote work practices, including many who traditionally did not support flexible work arrangements. Several of these companies have now embraced remote working, claiming people’s productivity during this time means they will allow more flexibility in the future. But are managers prepared for such a shift? Do organizations have in place what is needed for workers to be productive at home over the much longer haul?

What a hectic day. I woke up to the news of an earthquake in my home state where most of my family live. Seven days earlier the World Health Organization had declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic. Two days earlier my university was shut down and all my classes were switched to an online format. The day ended with the National Weather Service issuing a tornado watch for the Texas county where I live.

The day was March 18 2020. I had trouble sleeping that night, but as the sky eventually started to change to light gray and the birds started to sing, I realized that life will continue on and I thought of Ben Harper’s lyrics: We must all have / The will to live / You got to have / The will to live.

I knew that I needed to think of ways I could help. Then on March 20th, the CEO of Emerald Publishing, Vicky Williams said in an email concerning the COVID-19 crisis, “The answers to this crisis will come from the incredible power, dedication and resilience of the research and public health community…” Vicky’s words made it clear to me that an important way I could help is through the pages of Emerald Publishing’s very first publication that started the company over a half century before: Management Decision.

My thoughts were cemented in the beginning of May, when the head of publishing at Emerald, Sally Wilson said in an email, “…we believe passionately in publishing research that makes a difference in the real world.” As such, Management Decision is creating a special issue entitled, “Management in Crisis: Viruses, Earthquakes, and Tornadoes, Oh My!”.