Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology - American Institutes for Research to Present

Washington, D.C. – Researchers for the American Institutes for Research (AIR) will participate in the 24th annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), which is being held April 2-4, 2009 in New Orleans, La.

AIR researchers’ presentations will focus on job analysis, applying science in the workplace, perceptions of online social networking systems, applying industrial and organizational psychology principles to the healthcare industry, perspectives on high risk jobs, and employee retention strategies. 

SIOP is part of the American Psychological Association and its stated mission is “to enhance human well-being and performance in organizational and work settings by promoting the science, practice, and teaching of industrial-organizational psychology.”

Below is a list of the AIR presentations and poster sessions.

Thursday, April 2

Closing the Gap Between Research Discovery and Service Delivery

This session will present case studies from different industries describing successful research to practice interventions. Presenters will describe the translation of research findings into end-user oriented dissemination and interventions. In addition, experts in translation and dissemination from both the applied and academic worlds will serve as discussants. 

Alonso, Alexander; Baker, David P.; Kurtessis, James N.

Perceived Organizational Support: An Updated Meta-analytic Review

This review capitalizes on the fivefold increase in perceived organizational support studies since the Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) meta-analysis by examining its antecedents and outcomes, including 36 new variables. This paper systematically assesses the current state of the literature, replicating previous results, identifying new findings, and suggesting future research.

Kurtessis, James N.

The SHRM HR Education Survey and Implications for I-O Psychology

Human resources education has implications for I-O psychologists’ abilities to introduce best practices as business strategy. This panel will discuss the work the Society for Human Resources Management has done toward this end, the results of their education survey, and implications for I-O psychologists. 

Mueller, Lorin M.; Willis, Timothy J.

Assessing Teamwork Attitudes in Healthcare: TeamSTEPPS™ Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire Development

This paper documents the development of the TeamSTEPPS™ Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire (T-TAQ), a survey designed to measure changes in attitudes toward teamwork in healthcare. T-TAQ fulfills an important need in healthcare as providers seek to understand the role of teamwork in the delivery of safe care.

Amodeo, Andrea; Baker, David P.; Krokos, Kelley J.

Innovations and Advancements in Setting Cut Scores

This symposium brings together a diverse set of presenters to discuss research and innovations in setting cut scores for personnel tests. The papers cover both empirical and judgmental approaches, and include work to modify established methods as well as the introduction of methods from outside of I-O psychology.

DeHaan, Robert; Mueller, Lorin M.

Uncovering the “So What” to Make Research Accessible to Practitioners

Structuring and communicating research with a focus on practical application impacts a researcher’s ability to leverage research to address real-world workplace problems and issues. An academic and 3 applied researchers will share their insights, experiences, and lessons learned about maximizing the value of research in practice. 

Hendrickson Caster, Cheryl L.; Matheson, Nancy

Development and Validation of a Measure of Organizational Threat Recognition

We developed the concept of workplace threat recognition and created measures to assess this new construct. Convergent results from a survey study and laboratory study supported the a priori factor structure and nomonological network of this construct and suggested that it represents a unique aspect of performance. 

Kurtessis, James N.

Minimum Standards for Job Analysis: How Little Is Enough?

Job analyses are common in many I-O psychology projects (e.g., validation projects). However, this step in the process is often downplayed and sometimes even ignored. This expert panel discussion will focus on the issue of the minimum level of effort necessary to conduct a legitimate and legally defensible job analysis.

Alonso, Alexander; Norris, Dwayne G.

The Revolving Door Effect: Innovations in Employee Retention Strategies

Many jobs in our economy suffer from chronically high turnover and low retention. Increasing pay and benefits is not always possible. This expert panel discussion will highlight critical issues various industries encounter when trying to retain their workforce and will discuss design considerations for different retention strategies within these industries.

Steighner, Laura A.

Friday, April 3

Industry Spotlight: Applying I-O to Healthcare

This “industry spotlight” examines the critical role I-O psychology is playing in the healthcare industry. A diverse panel of I-O psychologists will discuss their current work in healthcare, challenges faced, and future needs. Applications of core I-O topics will be examined including training, personnel selection, organizational citizenship, and job satisfaction.

Amodeo, Andrea; Baker, David P.

Perceptions of the Usefulness of Online Social Networking Systems

This paper describes the results of a study of the online social networking use of 500 undergraduate students. Perceptions of the usefulness of the systems were related to user perceptions of social norms, indicating that perceptions of online social networking systems are influenced by non-technology characteristics.

Taylor, Tanya S.; Willis, Timothy J.

The Value of Science and Evidence to Practitioners and Organizations

Understanding science and applying science are two different things. The Professional Practice Committee (PPC) of SIOP has created a presentation to be given to local professional groups that highlights the value of applying science in the workplace. The committee has also created a process to produce evidence for practitioners and a mechanism to push these out. This session will preview and discuss these and other projects of the PPC.

Alonso, Alexander

Saturday, April 4

Perspectives on High Risk Jobs/Extreme Contexts 

Extending research on leadership in extreme contexts, this symposium examines how performance can be achieved despite the significant demands in these contexts. By exploring the role of leadership in extreme contexts, this set of papers explores the role of leadership and broadens understanding related to performance in extreme environments.

Krokos, Kelley J.

Affectively Forecasting Jobs: Is Work as Bad as We Think?

This study applies research on affective forecasting to the organizational domain by assessing the accuracy with which people forecast their emotions at work. Job incumbents underestimated positive affect to a greater extent than did new hires. Additionally, forecasted affect was related to subsequent job satisfaction, even controlling for actual affect.

Kurtessis, James N.

Perceived Organizational Support: New Perspectives

The study of perceived organizational support (POS) continues to gain steam with over 350 published studies, which reflects the value of considering the employee-employer relationship from the employee’s perspective. We present 5 papers that extend this work to preemployment anticipated POS, trust, goal congruence, supervisor-subordinate differences, and new meta-analytic findings

Kurtessis, James N.