Member Spotlight: Nathan A. Bowling

Name
Nathan A. Bowling

Position/Employer
Associate Professor and Associate Director of the I-O Psychology PhD Program, University of Central Florida

How long have you been a SIOP member?
I’ve been a SIOP member since 2001, and I’ve attended 23 of the last 24 SIOP Annual Conferences. Denver will be my 24th.

What roles have you had within SIOP?
I’ve served on several SIOP committees, including the History Committee, the Visibility Committee, the Hogan Award for Personality and Work Performance Committee, and the APS Program Committee. I’ve also been a SIOP conference reviewer every year since 2004.

Interest area(s)
My research interests primarily fall within three areas: (a) occupational health psychology, (b) counterproductive work behavior, and (c) research participant carelessness. I’ve been awarded several research grants from the U.S. Department of Defense, so I’m particularly interested in applications of I-O psychology within military contexts.

What sparked your interest in I-O psychology?
Like many SIOPers, I first became interested in I-O because of family experiences. In my case, I was fascinated by my parents’ work. During most of my childhood, my dad was a coal miner. His job was to drill holes into rock, place explosives into said holes, detonate the explosives, and then extract the coal that had been embedded within the rock. In his last job before retiring, he repaired dumpsters for a trash collection company (dumpsters, it turns out, live a hard life). My mom was a hairdresser at a funeral home, where she styled hair of the recently departed. And she was good at it too—not once did a client criticize her work!

What role do you see I-O psychology playing in the future of work?
The fundamentals won’t change: Our field will continue to use theory and data to promote employee performance, health, and well-being. What will change are the specifics of what we study and the methods that we use. Technological changes, for example, will introduce new tools, new opportunities, new challenges, and new work contexts.

What work trends are you seeing and hearing about and how can I-O psychology practitioners, educators, and students impact these trends?

During the next decade, I-O research will see an increase in the use of objective measures. I’m particularly interested in the use of wearables to assess physiological markers of employee health and well-being. These methods hold great promise as complements to self-reports.

What advice would you give to students or those early in their career?
Regardless of what kind of career you are pursuing—academic or applied—you should develop strong communication skills. Work to improve as a writer and presenter. Fortunately, there are many good books that can help you refine these skills. Read some of those books, and then practice what you’ve read.

What is one of your favorite SIOP Annual Conference memories/highlights?

It’s hard to pick just one. I’m a big baseball fan, so I’m always eager to see a game or do a ballpark tour with my I-O colleagues. While attending SIOP conferences, I’ve visited ballparks in Los Angeles, Arlington (Texas), Atlanta, San Diego, and Seattle. I’ll see y’all at Coors Field in April!

Please share one non-I-O-related bit of information about yourself.
I’ve had close brushes with several A-list celebrities. In 2006—before she was famous—I saw Taylor Swift perform live. She had one song on the radio and her first album hadn’t yet dropped. That evening, she was the opening act for the opening act. It was a good show, but I figured we’d never hear from her again. Several years later, I almost saw Tom Hanks when he visited Wright State University to dedicate a new campus building that was being named in his honor. The Hanks building was right outside my office window. I would have had a front-row seat for the dedication ceremony, but I instead had to attend a dissertation defense down the hall. And during a recent trip to Washington, DC, I stepped off the Metro right as President Joe Biden’s motorcade passed by.

Is there anything you would like to add?
I’m the incoming editor of the International Journal of Stress Management. I’m looking forward to seeing submissions from SIOPers!

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