Contribute to the New TIP Series: I-O at Work, Featuring the Vast Opportunities and Uses for I-O Across Workplace Settings

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (TIP) is proud to announce a new series of articles, in collaboration with the SIOP Committees, to feature I-O roles performed by the members of the SIOP community. Each article in the series, I-O at Work, will highlight a role within or across industries/work environments to feature how I-O is used, along with the vast opportunities and experiences within our community. The series will offer a perspective on the SIOP community that complements other initiatives, such as the SIOP Membership Spotlight, which focuses on an individual’s unique story instead of the work role or function.

The Military and Veterans Inclusion Committee (MVI) partnered with TIP to write the first article of the series. Margaret Breakiron, MVI’s chair, along with Dr. Michael Schwerin and Rear Admiral Ben Baran, two of MVI’s committee members, took the idea for the series and ran with it. We are all proud to spotlight “Industrial & Organizational Psychology in the U.S. Navy and the Talent Management Center of Excellence” as the first look into what roles members of the SIOP community perform and how they leverage the tools and practices of I-O for career success. The article is available in this issue of TIP at https://www.siop.org/tip-article/industrial-and-organizational-psychology-in-the-u-s-navy-and-the-talent-management-center-of-excellence/.

Introduction to the I-O at Work Series Initiative

The I-O at Work series is intended to help fulfill SIOP’s priority of Committee Collaboration & Unity by fostering collaboration between SIOP members and committees to bring together multiple perspectives and highlight the work performed by our I-O community. These quarterly articles will serve to underscore the breadth of I-O in work roles, job fields, industries, and customer bases—for SIOP students, members, and affiliates to learn from, leverage for ideas, and expand upon for stronger, more integrated outputs. Contributor stories may be used to illustrate role insights and context without focusing on a single individual.

Keeping the focus of the I-O at Work series on the work role or functions fulfills community requests for more information on the career opportunities and uses of I-O, while remaining distinct from SIOP Membership Spotlight, which serves to capture an individual SIOP member’s unique story. However, contributors could include in-text hyperlinks to Membership Spotlight or SIOP committee pages for readers to pursue if they are interested in additional information on an individual or committee.

Each article will be unique to the work role or function of interest, including but not limited to

1. What is the general overview or background of the role being featured?
   1. What are the related industries? (e.g., HR, training)
   2. What environment(s) is this role being performed in? (e.g., commercial, military, academic)
   3. What space(s) is the work performed in? (e.g., customer on-site, remotely)
   4. What are the tasks and expectations for the role?
   5. What authority level does the role have?
   6. What are the similar roles in other industries/environments?
2. What are the details on how I-O is leveraged in this role or for specific tasks of the role?
3. What are the unique aspects of working in your role/field of I-O within your specific industry?
   1. What are the key differences to a commonly related role, field, or industry?
   2. What’s a skill/ability that is paramount for success within the role, field, or industry that may surprise others?
   3. What are the common misunderstandings or misperceptions?
4. What are the general actions to get into the field/prepare for the role?
   1. Where can interested readers go for more information?
   2. Who would be eligible for a role like this?
   3. Examples or stories collected from SIOP members: How did you get started in the field/industry? What path did you take to get into this role, field, or industry?
5. Where/who does this role/specific tasks apply?
   1. Currently?
   2. Where else could it be applied?

Benefits for the SIOP Community and I-O Stakeholders

Regardless of where you are in your career or how you engage with SIOP and the I-O community, the I-O at Work series allows stakeholders to better understand applications and opportunities in I-O while also building a familiarity with the lexicon for equivalent elements across industries and environments.

Contributor and Consumer Benefits

Contributor Benefits:

• Collaborate with SIOP committees aligned with your role or interests to build meaningful professional connections.
• Experience personal fulfillment through collaboration, inspiring future generations, and kindling advancements in the field of I-O.
• Expand your network, enhance career prospects, and discover new perspectives and leadership pathways.
• Gain recognition, credibility, and visibility among peers and leaders in the profession.
• Help explore real-world challenges that can foster research, innovation, and positive change.

Consumer Benefits:

• Learn from collective knowledge to avoid “reinventing the wheel” and accelerate implementation.
• Become familiar with lexicon and practices from other roles, fields, and/or industries.
• Gain clarity, consider novel applications, integrate or build upon ideas, and explore cross-collaboration or leveraging creative solutions.
• Access shared expertise for faster, smarter, and more confident decision making.

Benefits by Career Stage

Established Practitioners and Academics Benefits:

• Turn individual expertise into collective intelligence, breaking down silos and improving decisions.
• Build interest and pipelines for others to contribute, collaborate on, continue, or expand upon the work or initiatives.

Advancing or Transitioning Practitioners and Academics Benefits:

• Reflect on one’s own journey or the experiences shared by others for growth opportunities, identify course corrections, and stay future-ready.
• Find a strengthened sense of purpose, confidence, and professional fulfillment.
• Leverage and contribute to a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

Novice or Early-Career Practitioners and Academics Benefits:

• Learn from others’ experiences to accelerate growth and confidence.
• Build a foundation of best practices and an understanding of common pitfalls to prepare for or avoid.
• Recognize the parallels to your strengths and experiences—as a source of hope or reassurance, reducing imposter syndrome.

 Research and Researcher Benefits:

• Discover new questions and opportunities by learning from a variety of applied experiences within different environments or conditions.
• Enhance collaboration and improve outcomes through shared insights.
• Bridge the divide with practical application recommendations based on findings.

 Current and Prospective Student Benefits:

• Gain a conceptualized understanding and exposure to real-world skills, considerations, and practices within the context of the field, industry, or workplace.
• Explore topics of interest and identify potential courses of action, mentors, employers, or workspaces.
• See yourself and your aspirations in others’ journeys—inspiring realization, confidence, connection, and growth.

Benefits per Stakeholder Group

Organizational and Community Benefits:

• Drive innovation—organizations that share knowledge are three times more likely to lead in innovation.
• Strengthened professional trust and reputation.
• Improve communication, collaboration, and cross-functional understanding.
• Preserve institutional knowledge, reduce turnover impact, and ensure continuity.
• Foster innovation, agility, and continuous improvement.
• Boosted engagement—through transparency, learning, and shared purpose that drives long-term success.
• Standardize best practices for quality, consistency, and compliance.
• Deliver better customer and client experiences through informed, confident members.

Committee Benefits:

• Champion your community and elevate awareness of key roles and initiatives.
• Capture and explicitly share “implied” knowledge to sustain organizational memory and agility across leadership terms.
• Promote open communication, trust, and alignment across SIOP.
• Accelerate onboarding and training with accessible, shared resources.

Employer, Worker, and Public Benefits:

• Exposure to key performance indicators (KPIs), advantages, use cases, and potential outcomes of I-O methods and procedures—for bolstering buy-in, adoptability, and investment within their organization or departments.
• Resources and lines of communication for constructive dialogue to find agile solutions to traditional approaches that work within the business structure and industry, without compromising data integrity or I-O standards.
• Encourage reflection and recognition of personal and professional achievements, driving motivation and accountability.
• Foster a lasting knowledge culture—one that can fuel innovation, engagement, and excellence.
• Improve transparency, accountability, and considerations for professional, employer, and public interests across workers and skill areas for institutional changes and policy.

TIP Submission Requirements

The purpose of TIP is to provide news, research, reports, and noncommercial information related to the fundamental practice, science, and teaching issues in industrial and organizational psychology. TIP focuses on three main areas: featured content, report-driven, and editorial content. The I-O at Work series submissions will be considered under the requirements for featured content.

Featured Content Standards

Featured content submissions for publication in TIP include committee or SIOP member manuscripts, articles, or news items. For this, the submission will need to be Word compatible, can be up to 3,000 words in length, and may include pictures that are sized for final print using a common format (e.g., JPG) while following APA and SIOP Antiharassment Policy guidelines.

Quarterly Submission Deadlines and Publication Schedule

It takes approximately 6 weeks after the TIP team receives the submissions to conduct content reviews, return feedback to the authors, and have the requested information or revisions returned in time for publication.

• Spring Issue: due February 1, published last week in March
• Summer Issue: due May 1, published last week in June
• Autumn Issue: due August 1, published last week in September
• Winter Issue: due November 1, published first week in January

For more information on the submission requirements for TIP articles, review the TIP Policies page on SIOP’s website.

How to Get Involved

The MVI Committee has already started to plan their next I-O at Work series article to look at HR, credentialing (training/certification), and/or survey research industries for contractor roles within the DoD and military spaces. If you are interested in being involved or have other ideas for the I-O at Work series, please contact the SIOP committee related to your topic of interest.

 Get involved or learn more here.

• Find a SIOP committee to collaborate with on an I-O at Work series submission.
• Contact the MVI Committee directly here to submit a request for engagement or further collaboration.
• Edit your My Account-Profile on SIOP.SIOP.org to include Additional Information on your interests and to identify your Affiliations, Interests, and Demographic Status* to receive distributions from SIOP within the area of interest.
  *The SIOP team will create MIL/VET and MVI distributions from members who have selected Veteran, Actively Serving, or Neither Actively Serving nor a Veteran from the Veteran Status drop-down options (fifth input in the last tile). Neither Actively Serving nor a Veteran may include Spouse, Dependents, DoD, and beyond.
• Check out and/or submit for a SIOP Membership Spotlight.

Note: Inclusion in the interest-specific communications may be impacted by your opt-in or communication preferences settings. Please contact siop@siop.org for more information on the selections needed to ensure successful delivery of the messages.