The SIOP Exchange

Sustainability: Fad, Topic, or Paradigm?

By Cathy and David DuBois, SIOP Bloggers

Welcome to the SIOP Sustainability Blog! We are delighted to host this forum for SIOP members who are interested in I-O-related sustainability issues, focused on both research and practice. We plan to use a variety of formats through the coming year to engage members in a productive exchange; we have a boatload of things to push at you, but we also want to pull from you in equal measure. So let’s get the conversation going!

Nominations Needed!

Nominations for APA Council of Representatives Close January 30

Nominations for two APA Council of Representatives positions end Monday, January 30. If you are an APA member, please take a moment to submit names.

These APA Council members represent SIOP's interests in APA and vote on APA initiatives and budget issues. Council reps also serve as members of the SIOP Executive Board. Those who are voting members of both SIOP and APA may submit nominations. The individuals who receive the most nominations will then be on the APA ballot. The vote to elect the new representatives will be conducted by APA. Nominations may be submitted through SIOP’s online portal, which opened January 4 and close January 30. The link was provided to eligible nominators via e-mail.

These positions involve required travel to APA Council meetings twice a year, once in February and once at convention. The SIOP Executive Board meets in Fall, Winter, and at the SIOP conference in April. The costs of travel are covered by APA/SIOP. The term runs for 3 years beginning January 2013.

 

Starting the Conversation – I-O Psychology and Humanitarian Work

By Jeff Godbout, Alex Gloss,  Joy Calleja, and Judith Marasigan de Guzman,  SIOP Bloggers

Being undervalued, underrepresented, and often, unrecognized, are states of affairs that many I-O psychologists are quite familiar with. While I-O psychologists often face many hurdles to being recognized, appreciated, and understood in for-profit settings, it might not be too far off the mark to say that they nearly always face these hurdles in the humanitarian aid and development world. Our anecdotal experiences in aid and development work have certainly validated the limited recognition and perceived applicability of I-O psychology to humanitarian aid and development.

TIP-TOPics Call for Graduate Student Columnists

TIP-TOPics is a graduate student editorial column published in the Industrial Organizational Psychologist on a quarterly basis. The column provides information and advice relevant to SIOP’s student membership and has historically been very popular.

Disaster in Haiti: The Role of I-O Psychologists and SIOP

By: Ted Hayes, Personnel research Psychologist, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (nothing in this essay is meant to reflect the views of the U.S. government or OPM).

The situation in Haiti is undeniably catastrophic. Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, was leveled by a huge earthquake January 12, 2010.  Its population was estimated at about 3 million before the quake; there is no way of knowing the final toll, but current mortality estimates are well over 45,000. Haiti’s government has ceased to function. Its infrastructure is devastated, thus confounding relief agencies that have tried to set up distribution centers. 

Traditional I-O skill sets are seemingly useless: no one needs tests validated, there is no management structure, there is no one to survey, and there are no classes to teach.