I Can Read Your Mind …. and Other I-O Psych Misconceptions

I have had this post in draft for a while but a recent article claiming it is disingenuous and irresponsible to use psychology at work made the completion of it urgent. Because I am convinced of exactly the opposite. I am convinced it is irresponsible to disregard a large and growing body of knowledge that can help your organization be better at business, operations, sales, marketing, and especially management. Not only that but employees are beneficiaries of the application of such research as well.

I can’t really blame the logic behind the post though. You see it in nearly every profession; the jerks that can’t do their job well give the rest a bad name. With respect to the intersection of business and psychology, I can tell the difference between the latter and the former within a few seconds. But I shouldn’t expect everyone else to do the same. Just like I don’t know the difference between an authentic car mechanic and a crook (true story).

Some things Industrial/Organizational Psychologists (Practitioners) do:

Job Analysis/Evaluation
Scientifically analyze duties, tasks, and jobs performed to accurately write an accurate job description, develop appropriate recruiting communications, design a valid selection system, assign relevant training, determine fair compensation, assess performance using appropriate metrics, and restructure the organization for efficiency. Leader in this field? Morris Viteles way back in 1922. Today, we have O*NET and competency models.

Performance Measurement/Management
Developing performance evaluation systems that incorporate supervisory, peer, subordinate, self, and/or customer ratings on task performance, contextual performance, and/or counterproductive performance using graphic rating scales, checklists, weighted checklists, forced choice format, behaviorally-anchored rating scales, mixed rating scales, or behavior observation scales to rank, pair, or otherwise compare the performance of employees to make decisions about selection, development, rewards, transfer, promotion, or layoff of employees all while avoiding halo, leniency, severity, and modesty biases but yet adhering to a common frame-of-reference among raters. Today we have 360-degree feedback and fair employment practices.

Leadership
Before this word appeared on everyone’s resume, it was heavily debated whether leadership was an inborn trait or a learned skill. Before taking a contingency approach there was discussion of the benefits of a task-orientation vs. a relationship-orientation. Leaders in this field? Blanchard, Yukl, Fiedler, and Graen. Today, we talk about leadership ethics, gender differences in leaders, leader emergence, and the role of charisma.

Quant and Qual Research Methods and Data Analysis Techniques to Enhance Decisions
Correlation, multivariate analysis of variance, hierarchical regression, structural equation modeling, classical test theory, item response theory, generalizability theory, content analysis, predictive validity, inter-rater agreement, the Likert scale, and our favorite, meta-analysis. Leaders here? Hunter and Schmidt. Today, we have assessments that carry more weight than online quizzes.

That’s all common sense, though – right?

Some things Industrial/Organizational Psychologists (Practitioners) don’t do:

As an example, let’s take a look at what the Journal of Applied Psychology, the most rigorous journal in the field, is contributing to the workplace this past month (in VERY broad language):

• What is the emotional effect of rude customers on customer service representatives and how can the adverse effects be lessened?
• What is the relationship between IQ /Mental Ability and change/adaptability?
• What are the differences between employees perceptions versus management perceptions of strategic HRM practices?
• How do your ratings of your own performance differ from your supervisor’s ratings of your performance? A compilation of 128 independently-conducted studies with a sample size of 37,752
• How does positive word-of-mouth information during the recruiting process impact the applicants’ employment decisions?
• What are the components of a selection system that maximizes performance while at the same time minimizes adverse impact?

Who cares… just irrelevant pseudo-science, right?

If you question the validity or reliability of the research, you are more than welcome to read the full text version and pick out the methodological flaws and suggest a better process [insert evil laughter here, those who went to grad school know what I mean].

Sarcasm aside, the main issues are the good stuff gets lost in translation between the journal and your boss (or between the professor and the guy with the MBA). Not only that, there is a temporal lag between published data and applied buzzword. Hence, why I still see the Maslow hierarchy on PowerPoint slides.

Related posts:

• Is Psychology a Science? Yes!
  “Part of the reason that people still think of psychologists as old guys with beards, pipes and couches is because we have not done a good job of popularizing our discipline.”
• Another Rebuttal Post
  “I must ask, if psychological constructs like leadership potential, dominance, empathy, independence, tolerance, and self-control aren’t important, then on what are you basing your hiring decisions?”