3 pages essay

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist 75

The Future of I-O Psychology

Practice, Part 2:

What Can I-O Practitioners Do?

Rob Silzer

HR Assessment and Development Inc./Baruch College, CUNY

Rich Cober

Marriott International

In order to better understand the evolution and future direction of I-O psy-

chology practice, a brief survey on the future of I-O psychology practice was

sent to a small but diverse sample of 80 I-O practitioners (1Qtr, 2010). Com-

pleted surveys were received from 50 leading I-O practitioners, including 20

SIOP Fellows. This survey was a follow up to the SIOP Practitioner Needs Sur-

vey (Silzer, Cober, Erickson, & Robinson, 2008). Our survey team was interest-

ed in finding out how I-O psychologists saw the future of I-O psychology prac-

tice and in gathering suggestions on what I-O practitioners and SIOP can do to

further facilitate I-O practice. The survey contained three open-ended questions.

Based on your own experience and insight, and thinking ahead to the next

10–20 years of I-O psychology practice:

1. What are the three most likely future directions for I-O psychology

practice? (Results were reported in Silzer & Cober, 2010)

2. What are the three most important activities that I-O practitioners can

do in the future to contribute to organizational and individual effectiveness?

3. What are three steps that SIOP could take to facilitate I-O psychology

practice in the future?

This article reports additional results from the recent I-O Practitioner Sur-

vey and is an extension of the recent TIP article “The Future of I-O Psychol-

ogy Practice, Part 1” (Silzer & Cober, 2010).

Question 2: What I-O Practitioners Can Do

In this article we focus on the responses to the second question: What are

the three most important activities that I-O practitioners can do in the future

to contribute to organizational and individual effectiveness?

We received 148 comments in response to this question (on average 2.96

comments per respondent) and sorted them into 11 categories emerging from

the data (see Table 1). The top four categories for this question account for

51% of the responses (n = 76).

Below is a representative sample of the responses we received.

1. Promote the field through communication and education

• Promote our field, better communicate.

• Increase visibility so that corporate leaders understand how we can

contribute.

• Raise the visibility of I-O in the real world.

• Help organizations integrate talent management into the fundamental

business processes.

• Change the way we communicate our science as individuals and as

a field.

• Champion the importance and value of human capital management

as a key business strategy.

• Translate and package I-O knowledge and scientific findings in

accessible forms that match the interests, needs, and language of

workers and leaders. We seem to leave this to folks like Gladwell,

Goleman, and Pink.

76 January 2011 Volume 48 Number 3

Table 1

Response Categories for Question 2—What I-O Practitioners Can Do to

Contribute to Organizational and Individual Effectiveness

Response category Number of responses 1. Promote the field 21

Promote our field, better communicate Educate clients, business community and public

2. Expand practice 20 Expand practice Broaden to other roles

3. Broaden skills 18 Develop additional skills Build and maintain technical skills

4. Focus in specific issues 17 5. Stay current on research and practice 15

Stay current in the field Stay grounded in research

6. Improve education and development 12 Change graduate training Strengthen own education and development Learn from others

7. Learn about clients and business 11 8. Be professionally active 10

Be professionally active Share practitioner knowledge Publish/write

9. Improve tools and procedures 8 10. Measure and communicate business outcomes 8 11. Connect research and practice 8

• We should be the translators of our research. We should be the ones

making our research understandable, relevant, and practical to busi-

ness. Translating our research more effectively would benefit prac-

titioners and SIOP by:

• Ensuring that our research is translated accurately.

• Increasing the visibility of the profession.

• Opening the door to more practitioner work and more academic

research opportunities.

• Enabling more organizations to benefit from what we do.

• Educate clients, business community, and public.

• Educate organizational leaders about I-O solutions that contribute

to organizational effectiveness.

• Capitalize on opportunities, through our work, to educate the busi-

ness community AND the public at large about who we are as a pro-

fession, how we differ from others who do related things (e.g., cli-

nicians, HR, MBA, etc.), and the value we bring to organizations.

This could increase the reach of our field and its impact on individ-

uals, teams, and organizations.

• Share best practices, experience, and practical solutions in open

forums and through multiple media to ensure that needed informa-

tion and tools get into the hands of decision makers.

• Mainstream I-O practices, tools, and resources throughout the organ-

ization and follow the “teach a man to fish” philosophy whereby

clients are taught to their level of interest and capability to carry out

activities that will ensure rigor and ethics in talent management.

• Improve management training regarding human resources, includ-

ing a stronger focus on engagement and creating a workplace that

fosters engagement that focuses on organizational outcomes.

• Develop better communications to senior management on the

impact and value of the science we can bring to bear on problems

while moving them away from the perception that everyone is an

expert when it comes to HR.

• Be explicit about how supporting and engaging individuals/

employees can contribute to organizational effectiveness.

• Encourage scientific thinking among our clients.

• Keep businesses and organizations attentive to behavioral science

knowledge.

• Help HR professionals understand and utilize statistics/analyses to

drive decisions.

• Educate clients/colleagues about the utility of our assessment expertise.

HR generalists, managers, and executives do not see us equally able to

contribute to prehire, promotional, and succession decisions.

• Educate the future leaders in business schools (i.e., MBA and exec-

utive ed students) on how to apply I-O knowledge and evidence-

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist 77

based solutions to manage and develop talent. Executives have

always said that managing people is one of the hardest things they

do, but we haven’t done a good job of teaching them how to do that.

They still have little clue that we have a lot of knowledge and pow-

erful tools that can equip them to do it better.

• Seek opportunities to demonstrate value in nontraditional organiza-

tions and settings of high societal visibility/impact.

• Influence laws, regulations, and enforcement agencies so that our best

knowledge is incorporated into public discourse about topics within our

expertise. Opportunities for influence extend well beyond traditional

selection and equal opportunity discussions (e.g., managing older

workers, operating effective and healthy organizations, and enhancing

privacy perceptions are a few areas where we can contribute).

2. Expand practice

• Expand practice.

• Broaden views of “best fit” (i.e., consider other individual differ-

ences beside cognitive abilities/personality attributes; link personal

characteristics to organizational dynamics, etc.) and integrate both

the I and O indices/metrics.

• Link your work to organizational sustainability. Sustainability for

the environment and for leadership continuity gives our profession

real impact in the world.

• Become more global in our thinking...from both research and prac-

tice perspectives. We need more data on global leadership effec-

tiveness/measurement.

• Help organizations identify where to selectively invest in talent

development.

• Connect the dots...find ways to integrate efforts.

• Look at interplay of macro- and microlevel aspects of workforce.

• Branch out into all aspects of HR, including less traditional areas

(i.e. compensation, labor relations, etc.).

• Learn more about how companies can manage and lead across geo-

graphic/cultural lines and help organizations do this. Virtual organ-

izations that rely on technological communication rather than face-

to-face meetings will become common, and we need to develop rel-

evant leadership models for this.

• Give more attention to life cycles of individuals and organizations,

what works at different points in an individual’s career or life cycle,

and how an organization’s life cycle influences its operation and

effective interventions.

• Leverage our role in organizations to support organizational growth

in the next 10 years as developing nations continue their evolution

into American-like economies.

• Be a good business partner, so I-O practitioners are business con-

78 January 2011 Volume 48 Number 3

sultants as well as HR consultants.

• Become better business leaders and explain how the scientific

approach is superior to the schlock out there.

• Go outside of your comfort zone and work on real applied organi-

zational problems not just what other I-Os are doing.

• Address the challenges of changing demographics around the world.

• Branch out beyond HR and talent management functions; spend

time in functions where we need to leverage our training and insight

on novel issues, e.g., the evolving nature of health care practice/

organizations or environmental health and safety awareness.

• Help companies avoid increasingly hostile government regulators.

• Broaden to other roles.

• I-Os will increasingly occupy leadership and policy roles inside HR

departments.

• More I-Os (PhD and MS level) will be in HR roles, not pure I-O roles.

3. Broaden skills

• Develop additional skills.

• Expand involvement in executive coaching, selection, and develop-

ment activities.

• Develop and maintain our supporting nontechnical skill set (e.g.,

group facilitation, project management, client management skills).

• Give greater attention to speaking to organizations in their own ver-

nacular. Develop and implement practical models for the “real

world” and deal with actual organizational complexities. Realize

the limits of reductionist models. Learn to articulate the limits/

boundaries of our research (when it applies, when it doesn’t, and

under what circumstances).

• Drive focus on accountabilities of individuals around their per-

formance and growth.

• Improve our communication and influencing skills. If we can’t com-

municate in ways that get people’s attention, the profession suffers

and we fail to achieve the benefits of what the profession can offer.

• Make an effort to understand diverse audiences, their perspective,

and their needs/issues. Communicating information in ways that are

meaningful to THEM is a critical skill that many practitioners either

don’t know how to do OR don’t want to take the time to do.

• It is frustrating that others outside of our field often get a lot of vis-

ibility and have more impact in organizations than we do. Why?

Because they communicate our research better than we do (e.g.,

Malcolm Gladwell [Blink], Dan Pink [Drive], even SHRM trans-

lates info from our journals into more understandable, user friendly

info for its members).

• Learn better influencing strategies to convince organizations of the

benefits of applying our science.

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist 79

• Become far more effective in having marketable skills—i.e., read-

ing financial reports, delivering effective communications, interact-

ing with senior-level managers and boards.

• Understand how individuals learn and change with an emphasis on

recent research in neuropsychology.

• Gain a broader understanding of leadership mindsets/frameworks,

how they are formed, and how they are changed and developed;

collectively become more skilled at iterating changes of organiza-

tions and individuals.

• Continue to build expertise in leadership development via job expe-

riences domain. HR people lack knowledge and expertise to lever-

age our collective understanding and insights.

• Develop a global mind set and hone their CQ (cultural intelligence).

Expose ourselves more to different cultures, different organization-

al conditions in different countries, and learn from our global col-

leagues.

• Have enough backbone to develop a point of view about what you

do—just be sure the research and experience back it up.

• Build and maintain technical skills.

• Maintain technical expertise to take advantage of and contribute to

advances in our applied science (e.g., measurement of performance,

selection testing).

• Pursue continuing education that deepens our knowledge and judg-

ment about appropriate and effective applications of I-O research

findings/tools/instruments/methodologies.

• Maintain and adapt methodological skills for less than ideal prob-

lems; case studies of nontraditional I-O applications. Adapt to an

increasingly virtual, global world that maintains processes through

the Internet and includes many different organizations.

4. Focus on specific issues

• Promote the integration of organizational and individual development

strategies.

• Assist organizations in selecting, training/developing, promoting, and

engaging individuals that are “best fit” at all levels (entry to senior

manager).

• Coach senior management to more effectively lead.

• Support coaching and individual effectiveness.

• Use workforce and strategic planning to help organizations adapt to

changes.

• The U.S. is lagging in innovation and creativity, our former competitive

advantage. Mount an effort to understand and develop recommenda-

tions on how to bring innovation back into the workplace.

• Promote the use of workforce analytics and related technologies.

• Focus on alternative selection procedures to improve and validate ques-

80 January 2011 Volume 48 Number 3

tionable ones (e.g., resumé screening, unproctored testing) and to

reduce reliance on single measure cognitive ability tests and the result-

ing adverse impact.

• Aggressively research assessment use across the globe. Understand

item types and which are more or less prone to cultural impact.

• Pursue change management.

• Utilize organizational design/redesign.

• Become experts on creating versatile/easily redeployed talent.

• Learn more about different types of organizations and what makes

them work (e.g., from the very complex IBM matrix to small micro-

credit Indian firms). Broaden our understanding of organizational

effectiveness to the new emerging forms of organizations.

• Conduct employee, team, and organizational adaptability research.

• Focus on skill development, behaviors, and motivation that are under

employee’s control and can be developed, instead of traits, (e.g., we are

now talking about trait-learning orientation—how ironic is that?).

• Pursue leadership development research.

5. Stay current on research and practice

• Stay current in the field

• Learn more about practice-related research! We need to have easy

access to volumes of literature, sorted by topic and summarized in eas-

ily digested form. Getting access to research journals and scientific

information is difficult for most practitioners; they have to overcome

significant hurdles to catch up on the latest research knowledge. Once

access is provided, then practitioners should take full advantage of it!

• Communicate with researchers on what is needed to better under-

stand real-world settings. Stimulate research that will have practical

usefulness to practitioners. If more research is created, more of

what I-Os do will be guided by science.

• Help grow our research base. For example, hook up with academ-

ics who are actively doing research in areas relevant to our practice

work. Help them understand the tough questions we are addressing

and where we lack research to guide us. To the extent possible, col-

laborate on research.

• Better leverage our strong advantage as scientists (e.g., we know

how to measure and shape behavior) while still speaking the lan-

guage of our ultimate “customers.” There is a great divide between

academicians and practitioners—how do we appreciate each other

better and help each other become even more productive and effec-

tive? Supporting the “science you can use” idea, Kurt’s wiki idea,

and so forth seem to be steps in the right direction.

• Stay current, connected, and active with the field and research being

produced. Many practitioners (not all) land on their favorite model/

approach/tool and stop connecting to the new ideas, concepts, and

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist 81

work being produced (they also stop coming to SIOP as we know).

Ultimately they get stale and less relevant to their organization as

they mature as professionals, which ironically is when their poten-

tial contribution increases.

• Tap into the available data; take advantage of opportunities given

by it to explore, investigate, and test hypotheses about people and

behavior in organizations and use it to contribute to both individual

and organizational outcomes.

• Stay involved with other professionals to push oneself to stay up on

matters, science, and knowledge.

• Support practice with evidence.

• Stay grounded in research

• Show how science underlies organizational performance and lead-

ership effectiveness.

• Promote fact-based/data-driven decision making on all people fronts

(e.g., selection, assessment, leading, measuring change; surveys,

employee engagement, development focus, and expected returns, etc.).

• Use applied R&D (e.g., job analysis, test development, validation)

to support organizational needs. Be cognizant of organizational

realities without sacrificing technical quality.

• Realize the limits of reductionist models. Learn to articulate the

limits of our research (when it applies, when it doesn’t, and under

what circumstances).

• Monitor the focus on “evidence-based” practice so that it continues

to involve professional judgment and does not become merely for-

mulaic and reductionistic.

• As it was in the beginning it shall continue to be in the future: The

scientist–practitioner (or evidence-based) approach is the key

towards ensuring organizational and individual effectiveness across

our practice areas.

• Keep practice work grounded in I-O research as much as possible.

(e.g., if you are working in leadership development, stay current on

research on executive assessment, leadership theory, learning from

experience, etc.).

• Stay true to research principles, the profession, and APA ethical

principles.

6. Improve education and development

• Change graduate training

• Take a hard look at what is missing in graduate training and fill in

the gaps. For example, if I-O psychologists are going to continue to

pursue coaching, we need to be learning more from our clinical

brethren. If we expect to consult with those in the upper echelons of

corporations, we need to require more business coursework related

to topics such as strategy. How do we better prepare our students for

82 January 2011 Volume 48 Number 3

the nonacademic/content side of their work: networking, managing

projects, political savvy, and so on?

• Are the online I-O professional schools training students to the

same standards as traditional brick and mortar schools? Or maybe

traditional schools have a lot to learn from these new up and com-

ing programs.

• Ensure every I-O psychology graduate program has strong practi-

tioner representation on the faculty (perhaps as adjunct faculty

members). They are critical to bringing balance and real-world

understanding to I-O graduate education.

• Strengthen own education and development.

• Support high-quality, relevant, practical continuing education and

development. Support practitioners as we try to learn, hone skills,

and compliment our learning in every day work with available

research. SIOP might offer study groups that “meet” 4–6 times

annually to discuss assigned readings, hear from experts, and so on.

with tracks on leadership development, succession planning, coach-

ing, team development, and so forth. SIOP could offer executive-

track training in specialty areas (equivalent to executive MBA or

certification programs). This is most pressing in coaching because

there are other bodies out there doing this for non I-Os but it could

be done in many areas. A SIOP mentoring program would be nice

too—perhaps to participate you have to mentor and be mentored?

• Raise awareness of the psychological principals of behavior,

thought, and affect and their importance at work. Strategically, this

is our most unique and defensible domain. Anyone who has worked

with individuals in the workplace knows that our field is stat heavy

and psych light.

• Don’t stop “going to school.”

• Learn all you can about other applicable areas of psychology and

participate in multidisciplinary teams to bring the best to organiza-

tional clients.

• Expand our professional curriculum to include business, quality

improvement, and organizational consulting skills, even in graduate

school; this is an important complement to current professional

development. Cross training might also include consumer psychol-

ogy and customer experience dynamics.

• SIOP should offer webinars on topics. Get outstanding presenters

who know the research and who can translate it so it is useful and rel-

evant to practitioners. SIOP could get really good speakers for much

lower rates than if this were done for pure marketing; but SIOP would

need to come out of the gate strong in order to make it work.

• Learn from others.

• Recognize, admit, and address what we don’t know and take action

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist 83

on that info. Seek out more opportunities to learn from, AND col-

laborate with, colleagues in other parts of our profession AND out-

side our field. Recognize that we can’t/don’t know it all. If we real-

ly care about the quality of the end product, we need to learn from

and work with others. The global nature of work and the complex-

ity of business challenges we face make this important.

• Embrace those in other disciplines.

• Stay current enough in all relevant domains of I-O.

7. Learn about clients and business

• Understand business (how organizations make money, how to read a

balance sheet, etc.).

• Better understand business challenges from the viewpoint of exec-

utives and entrepreneurs.

• Understand the business context we operate in. Learn enough about

marketing, finance, R&D, operations, and so on, to be credible in

business discussions. Learn how to draw connections between the

HR/ I-O work we are doing and business outcomes.

• Learn how companies make money! If we don’t, then we cannot

contribute in ways that key decision makers support. Consultant

practitioners will always practice at the mercy of executive spon-

sors and discretionary funding. Similarly, understand how non-

profits deliver on their mission! Otherwise I-O psychologists will

continue to be operating along the fringe of organizations.

• Get business experience; take business/financial courses.

• Enhance our understanding of the business (operations, language,

financials) so we are not seen purely as technicians but also as busi-

ness partners. Many executive coaches that are popping up are suc-

cessful because they are former executives who speak the language

and understand the business dynamics. Many I-O folks are too deep

in their technical expertise and never see above the tree (let alone

forest) in front of them.

• Learn business models and understand the pragmatics of culture

and organizational politics.

• Find ways to get many on-the-job learning experiences to under-

stand the business of clients.

• Actively read and participate in the business literature.

• Understand and address what executives need to make their organ-

izations successful.

8. Be professionally active

• Be professionally active.

• Be professionally active and visible. A broad base of stakeholders, con-

stituents, and partners need to be aware of the value we bring to work-

place issues. Continue to refine our public “brand” as professionals.

• Participate in SIOP. I continue to be surprised at the number of I-O

84 January 2011 Volume 48 Number 3

folks I meet who haven’t maintained their membership or attended

a conference in ages. Staying current in the field is job one for con-

tributing.

• Insure that we have a clear idea of who we are, how we differ from

others, and the value we bring.

• Get licensed as a psychologist and support others who want to

define and defend the field.

• Coalesce around a single job title (e.g., I-O psychologist).

• Share practitioner knowledge.

• One challenge is that practitioners typically realize value via pro-

prietary services, trademarks or patents, whereas academics realize

value via publications. Publications are safe as they multiply (as

oppose to dilute) “share value.” Practitioners need to find ways to

profitably share their knowledge and experience in a world where

we are predominantly rewarded (or even required) for not sharing.

Clinicians have figured it out.

• Support and contribute to I-O practitioner literature.

• Publish/write.

• Do more writing about the issues we face and the solutions we use

to address them.

• Publish more, especially in practitioner outlets, even if “2nd tier”

and nonrefereed.

• Publish/present experiences and case studies. Leverage opportunities

to do so (e.g., the I-O Perspectives journal, Consulting Psychology

Journal, and the SIOP conference practitioner forums). Practitioners

have a lot to offer in making strong theory work in the field.

9. Improve tools and procedures

• Integrate with technology.

• Learn how to integrate organizational psychology practice with

technology (e.g., build own understanding of technology, influence

specifications of HR software systems, or partner with software

companies).

• Emphasize technology more to administer more efficient and cost-

effective programs.

• Develop new processes.

• Challenge old paradigms. Get real and recognize that by using the

same methods and designs, we will see limits on the sacred criteri-

on-related validity coefficient and actually see it go down as work

becomes an even more complex construct.

• Put a “D” on the back of our strong “R” friends in academia to

make us relevant to people besides other I-Os. (How interesting/

diverse, really, is the attendance at SIOP conferences?) Research is

nice but incomplete without development of new, ALLURING, and

DIRECTLY RELEVANT tools and systems. Provide real input and

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist 85

feedback on the efficacy and relevance of I-O research to guide and

launch new processes/tools.

• Develop legally defensible selection procedures in a shorter period

of time. Maybe we can work together to streamline the process.

• Provide fully integrated solutions.

• For I-O internal consultants (e.g., in a Center of Excellence) it is crit-

ical to partner with other HR functions and COEs (i.e., talent man-

agement, selection/assessment, organizational learning, staffing,

diversity, performance management, etc.) to create and communicate

an integrated strategy, vision, and tactical game plan for attracting,

developing, and retaining talent. Line leaders see these efforts as a

collective talent-focused imperative not as distinct functions or

processes (the way it may be perceived within HR). We need to get

really good at marketing and communicating a fully integrated solu-

tion so line leaders feel they have the tools and support they need.

• Help CEOs see the big picture of how different HR activities fit

together.

• Save good products and services.

• Not sure this is feasible but someone might find a workable solu-

tion: Create a “safe deposit box” for I-O products that companies

discard. The contents would still be there when the company

regains its senses. Another alternative (perhaps challenging to get

past the attorneys) would be to create a donation center where the

products/services could be deposited after the company identity

was stripped off. I hate to see good stuff tossed and then recreated.

10. Measure and communicate business outcomes

• Use metrics to demonstrate ROI and connect to strategy. More overtly

pursue and balance the trio of values of supporting the organization,

supporting science, and supporting the individual.

• Improve the way we conduct and communicate the business case and

ROI for the work we do. There is increasing demand for us to demon-

strate a solid business case for all our work. The challenge is that the

methodology, metrics, and data for doing classic utility analysis are not

useful for communicating to line leaders. We need to find a better, eas-

ier way to make our case and communicate it to executives.

• Help CEOs focus on measureable bottom-line results.

• Tie our research to business outcomes. Profit is no more a dirty word

than is salary. We do need to get over this.

• Continue to look at impact on business outcomes, including human val-

ues and citizenship.

• Understand how groups/organizations get things done (or not) and what

are the practices that drive effectiveness.

• Align our work with the business strategy.

• Measure not only the validity but also the impact/value of what we do

86 January 2011 Volume 48 Number 3

(and the tools/solutions we develop) on the profitability, productivity,

health and well-being, and long-term success of organizations.

11. Connect research and practice

• Build stronger connections between practitioners and scientists.

• Reduce the animosity between academics and practitioners. Practition-

ers are not stupid, and academics do have good ideas. We need to start

working together and understand the limitations that each of us face.

• Better bridge the scientist–practitioner gap so that the academic side

is producing research that practitioners can actually leverage with

their clients. Organizations like Gallup, CLC, or Hewitt have a

tremendous business impact when they release research (even if it

is of questionable quality), while the really good content in Person-

nel Psychology is so technical that you could never give a copy to

a manager and have them understand it. We need more translation

vehicles (e.g., the Professional Practice Series is pretty good in this

regard) and research that is directed at more relevant topics.

• Keep the scientist–practitioner model working—an integrated and

focused approach.

• Enhance the link between research and practice (strengthen our evi-

dence-based practices).

• Encourage more collaboration between research and practice.

• Influence researchers to do meaningful practice-oriented research.

• Influence organizational researchers (not only I-Os) to conduct

meaningful (i.e., practice-based evidence) research that will be use-

ful for evidence-based practice.

• Determine ways to conduct research more efficiently.

Summary

These practitioner suggestions reinforce a number of ideas that have been

discussed in I-O circles over the years and bring clarity and focus to those ideas.

In our view the primary actions that I-O practitioners should take are to:

• Proactively promote I-O psychology to clients and the public

• Leverage our knowledge in other areas of business and HR

• Improve our skills in communicating and addressing organizational needs

• Focus on critical issues related to organizational and individual effec-

tiveness

• Make an ongoing effort to stay current on I-O practice and research

• Take accountability for pursuing professional education and develop-

ment

• Spend more time knowing the business and learning about client issues

• Stay professionally active by continuously learning, sharing, writing,

and presenting

• Build new tools and integrated approaches to organizational issues

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist 87

• Connect our work to business outcomes

• Bridge the gap between science and practice; connect practitioners and

academics

These action steps require a proactive and forward-looking approach to

our profession. In the past I-O psychologists have been accused of being

handmaidens to management and just taking orders from others. This has

unfortunately led to limited influence in organizations and the perception that

other fields are doing a better job than we are of leveraging our own knowl-

edge and tools in organizations.

These comments underscore the difference between wishful thinking and

passive reality. Most I-O psychologists would like to have greater impact and

influence in organizations. However as a profession we tend to take a more

passive, reactive approach. For example, how many I-O psychologists work-

ing in organizations identify themselves as I-O psychologists? Instead of pro-

moting our field and our knowledge, we often hide it. Perhaps a place to start

is to focus our efforts on building our professional visibility and reputation.

Our profession is in a unique position of seeing an integrated talent man-

agement picture in organizations and leveraging our knowledge of individu-

als, organizations, and systems to build effective individuals and organiza-

tions. However we must get better at communicating it. Our personal per-

spective is to be proactive and actively shape the future of I-O psychology.

This article is the second of several articles that explores the future direc-

tion of I-O psychology and focuses on what I-O psychologists can do to proac-

tively shape the future of our field. The next article will discuss what SIOP, as

a professional organization, can do to support the future of our profession.

References

Silzer, R. F. & Cober, R. T. (2010). The future of I-O psychology practice, part I: Future

directions for I-O practice identified by leading practitioners. The Industrial-Organizational Psy-

chologist, 48(2), 67–79.

Silzer, R. F., Cober, R. T., Erickson, A., & Robinson, G. (2008). Practitioner Needs Survey:

Final survey report. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Bowling Green, OH.

(See full report at http://www.siop.org/Practitioner%20Needs%20Survey.pdf.)

88 January 2011 Volume 48 Number 3