Introduction and summary
This article was published by Paul E. Spector in 1999. It deals with the job presentation of I/O psychologist.
At the beginning, the author describes the different way which are possible to take in this job: an academic or a practitioner job. In a second part, we can get information about the necessary training to become an I/O Psychologist and the job market. In the end, the authors gives some advice to know how to begin graduate degree and he emphasizes few requirements to practice as an I/O Psychologist.
Analysis
This article is addressed to students because it communicates many details about the I/O Psychologist job and can be used to help students define their career plan.
In a first part, the author describes the Academic I/O psychologist orientation. He proposes a great job profile description, with many relevant details. For example, the authors describes the three areas of responsibility of Academic I/O psychologist: research, teaching and community service. About the academic jobs, we can keep in mind that the main tasks concern teaching and researching. Moreover, practice as an academic enables a lot of autonomy but requires to juggle with different project at the same time.
In a second part, the authors presents the practitioner I/O psychologist profile. As well as the description of Academic job profile, the practitioner is detailed and relevant. About the practitioner jobs, we can retain that the job is more various and paradoxically specialized. Indeed, a practitioner have a larger scope of practice and at the same time, the most of them work in a limited area. Another specification of the practitioner is the variety of the settings in which he can practice (consulting or in-house).
The authors provides a definition: “I/O is a scientific field that is devoted to discovery and application of scientific principles to human problems in the workplace.” We found this vision of I/O psychologist profile given by the author in accordance with ours, according to us it’s a good representation of the job.
Finally, we can see that there are much more specific tasks to describe practitioner jobs but the author point out that these activities are not done by only one I/O psychologist because practitioner job are more specialized than academic.
Also, another strong point in this article is the specific tasks list present for both job profiles (academic and practitioner I/O psychologist). Indeed, this complete list help to represent the various missions that the professional can do. Thanks to this, it’s easier to have a look at the I/O psychologist in a concrete and practical way.
At the end of the article, the author considers that an MBA is better to get “a nice corporate position with opportunity for advancement” and we disagree about it. Psychology can lead to position with responsibilities (like HRD for instance) and can enable to open your own counseling office, and so, be your own boss. It’s just another way to advance in the workplace.
Related information
The author gives a lot of advice about the way to become an I/O Psychologist and he distinguishes academic jobs and practitioner jobs but he would have been more specific if he had gave some name in example to be clear about what jobs can be practice by the I/O Psychologist. In France for instance, it’s quite hard to identify I/O psychologists because most of the time, they define themselves as consultant or counselor. Another difference between France and U.S.A. is the way to become and I/O psychologist: in U.S.A., you must have a PhD while in France, a Master’s degree is enough.
Furthermore, we think that it’s really important to inform students that practice as an I/O psychologist requires mobility. Indeed, this is especially the case to practitioner jobs in consulting because you have to move to different organizations.
Finally, in the article we can read that salaries are not the same between practitioners and academics (“salaries tend to be higher for practitioner jobs than academic, as professors pay a price for their greater autonomy”) and that is also true within practitioner jobs (e.g. in France, salaries are higher in consulting than in recruitment).
About 700 words.
Words we have learned
– a grant proposal = une demande de financement
– in-house = en interne
– a requirement = une exigence
– the scope of practice = Le champ de pratiques
– SIOP = Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Association professionnelle américaine qui promeut la “science, la pratique et l’enseignement” de la psychologie industrielle et organisationnelle.
– MBA = Master of Business Administration
By: MANSARD Déborah – E16B881U & LOPES–TAILLANDIER Sarah – E169833B
Bibliographie
Spector, P. D. (1999). What’s an I/O job like ? Retrieved from : http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~pspector/iojob.html