The SIOP Exchange

Training or Selection: Battle for the Budget

By Adam Hilliard, SIOP Blogger

A few weeks ago I had a kickoff at a client site with a project team that included the regional HR staffing director and corporate training manager.  In a side conversation, we had an opportunity to talk shop about other projects and they brought up their recent budget planning and how it had always seemed they were jockeying for each other’s slice of the pie.

“How would you distribute our budget percent between our departments, Adam?  Are great employees born or made?”  This clearly was not a question I thought would bode well for me. When possible, in the world of consulting, you try to deliver win-wins, as every contact is a potential ally down the road.  After cracking a few jokes about knowing the limits of my scope and moving on, I gave it some thought on the flight home.

Guest Blogger: Thank You, Anna Clark!

The SIOP Exchange crew would like to thank the blog's recent guest blogger and LEading Edge Consortium speaker, Anna Clark, for her time Thursday, August 30. Clark answered questions and comments from several SIOP members on the topic of environmental sustainability in the workplace as part of the SIOP Electronic Communications Committee's "Guest Blogger" series.

If you would like to read the questions and answers, view Clark's post here. If you would like to learn more about environmental sustainability at work, including a full presentation by Anna Clark, register for the SIOP Leading Edge Consortium. You can get a full agenda, list of speakers and presentations, and other information on the LEC homepage.

The committee plans to invite more live blogging guests in the coming months to be available for questions and comments from readers on various topics important to the I-O community. Stay tuned for more guest posts!

Special Guest Post: Embedding Sustainability

What Goes in the Toolbox?

By Anna Clark, SIOP guest blogger

As a sustainability practitioner, I am glad to facilitate a discussion today about the value of I-O psychology in embedding sustainability into organizations, particularly mainstream companies.  Based on my six-year practice in sustainability consulting, and my combined 18 years of experience in management consulting and communications, I recognize a great need for organizational development expertise in this arena. 

Leadership is the key determinant of whether sustainability becomes rooted as a core value in any given organization.  For sustainability to flourish, it must be embedded into human resources. Even projects based on good intentions and credible tools will flounder without engaging influencers and managers at all levels in the process.  The upcoming SIOP Leading Edge Consortium on environmental sustainability is a rare opportunity to explore the human element in all the depth it deserves.  As we exchange ideas for how to use I-O psychology to create a culture of sustainability, it is helpful to also consider the ways that a burgeoning green ethos can be acted up and expressed to maximize bottom-line or “triple-bottom line” benefits. 

Special Guest Post: Anna Clark

Join the Virtual Dialogue August 30 with LEC Speaker Anna Clark 

The SIOP Electronic Communications Committee will be hosting a special online guest on the Exchange Thursday, August 30. One of SIOP's 2012 Leading Edge Consortium speakers, Anna Clark, will be online live from 8 a.m.- 3 p.m. CST to answer questions and respond to comments in response to her blog post regarding environmental sustainability in the workplace. Anyone interested in the topic of environmental sustainability at work is invited to read the post, which will be published Thursday morning, and leave comments or questions for Clark.

Thinking like Steve Jobs: Thinking Differently

By Manisha Bajaj, SIOP Blogger

What makes Apple, one of the market leaders in terms of innovation today?

In this blog, I examine five guiding principles that seem to increase our capacity for innovation, as exemplified by innovators such as Steve Jobs.

I also debate how these principles can be applied as we conduct research on innovation using I-O Psychology approaches, for developing theory and practice. I invite you to think through these factors with me and provide your comments.