The SIOP Exchange

Evaluation Week: I-O Psychology and Evaluation

By Stephen Axelrad

My name is Stephen Axelrad. I am a Human Capital consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton.  For almost a decade, in both my doctoral training and professional life, I have had one foot in the evaluation world and one foot in the industrial-organizational psychology (I-O) world.  Both disciplines use behavioral and social science research to solve real-world problems, improve organizational effectiveness, and enhance quality of life.  I am struck how little collaboration or even awareness the I-O and evaluation disciplines have with each other.  Both disciplines have so much to offer each other.

Evaluation Week: Post-Strategy Evaluation in Organizations

By Billie G. Blair

My name is Billie Blair and I serve as President/CEO of the international management consulting firm, Change Strategists, Inc. Organizational change has become the new normal for organizations in today's fast-paced global environment. To clarify the uncertainties of change, successful organizations utilize strategy and evaluation processes to a great advantage.

Hot Tip:  Evaluation processes constitute the second stage of a full planning cycle, once strategy system building is conducted.  Post-strategy evaluation should determine strategy system design and functioning consistency. 

Ricci v. DeStefano: An Opinion

Personal Reflections from Hearing the Oral Arguments in the Ricci v. DeStefano Supreme Court Case

By Dan A. Biddle, Ph.D.
CEO, Biddle Consulting Group, Inc.

On April 22, 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court (“USSC”) heard the oral arguments offered by each side in the Ricci v. Destefano testing case. In this case, 18 candidates (17 Whites and 1 Hispanic), who successfully passed two exams for promotion to Lieutenant and Captain positions, are suing the City of New Haven, Connecticut for refusing to certify the exams and make the promotions because the tests had adverse impact (whites scored higher than African-Americans) and were not justifiably valid. The plaintiffs argued that their rights under Title VII and the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause were violated. 

One of the major questions being evaluated in this case is: Should the City be allowed to pull the exam results because they believed the tests themselves were flawed, and also knew of other lower-adverse impact alternatives?