Content area
Full Text
Commentaries
In their focal article, Aguinis et al. (2017) categorized the 6,654 unique citations, summed across the six introductory industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology texts, in various ways. They then suggested how such data could be used to (a) infer the "state" of the scientist-practitioner divide; (b) document the extent of the movement of I-O psychologists to management schools; (c) evaluate the future prospects of I-O psychology as a field; and (d) provide guidance in how to define, measure, and reward "scholarly impact" (quotation marks added). This crosses the line from interesting to very counterproductive.
Some Context
Their suggestions for how to use these data must be evaluated within a very multifaceted context. Here, I wish to address only two such facets. The first is that as a domain for theory, research, and practice, the world of work is fundamental and important. Its importance cannot be overstated. It is a major part of most people's lives. Without "work," human civilization simply disappears. Consequently, even though we may or may not have identity problems, and we can argue about whether we are better housed in psychology or management or both, our field is important for the survival of just about everybody. The need for evidenced-based practice looms large. Our field must grow in importance, by orders of magnitude. However, if we are not careful, and perhaps contrary to many sciences, I-O psychology can easily be replaced by "common sense" and the idiosyncratic personal beliefs of people in positions of responsibility. We should all keep that in mind and not be too distracted by identity issues. Neither should we adopt self-defeating practices.
The second critical contextual feature consists of the set of possible goals toward which theory, research, and practice (TRP) can be directed. Campbell and Wilmot (2018) argue that, in our business, there are five goals. A summary of the five is as follows.
Goal One. Improve organizational effectiveness, realizing that there are many ways to index effectiveness, and that the effectiveness indicators would vary depending on the kind of organization being considered (e.g., profit making, NGO, governmental, educational, etc.). That is, financial return to shareholders is not the only measure of effectiveness, although the general goal of "increasing the return to stakeholders" applies to...