Bulanandi, Jamillah A.

AB PSYCH 4C
CURRENT TRENDS IN INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY
1. Mobile Assessments: As technology continues to expand and develop, mobile assessments will
be tapped for selection, performance management, and training and development decisions. It is
increasingly important for organizations to understand how technology, including social media
and social collaboration, is changing the science and practice of selection, recruitment,
performance management, engagement, and learning. I-O psychologists will continue working to
design assessments that are valid and reliable regardless of how and where they are delivered.
2. Continued Use of HR Analytics and Big Data: Big Data has been THE corporate phrase as of
late, and it is not going anywhere. I-O psychologists have long recognized the value of science
and data analysis for improving business and HR decisions. With the automation of collection and
storage of data, more advanced hardware and software, and larger databases, empirically-based
Big Data predictions will become increasingly fundamental to workplace decisions
3. Integration of Work and Nonwork Life: Reduced boundaries between work and home life as a
result of new technologies (e.g., wearables, social media, smart phones, Google glass) pose
challenges for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. I-O psychologists are continuing to study
the effect of new technologies on work-life balance and if and how these technologies can be
used to improve it
4. Increasing Implications of Technology for How Work is Performed-Technology is radically
transforming all aspects of work. In 2015, I-O psychologists expect this trend to continue, with
more automation of certain tasks and jobs and changes in how employees perform tasks and
interact with others. I-O psychologists will help organizations understand the implications of these
changes and what they mean for the future of certain roles, the employee experience,
collaboration, management styles, performance management, and HR processes.
5. Organizations Will Continue to Do More with Less-With declining budgets over the past few
years and stakeholders calling for better management and performance of organizations,
resource optimization has become core to many organizations business strategies. I-O
psychologists are working to help organizations identify innovations that allow them to reduce
costs, increase organizational efficiency, and generally do more with less.
6. Increased Need to Manage a Multi-Generational Workforce: Four generations make up the
current US workforce--more than any number in history. These include Generations X (19651985) and Y (1986-1990s), the Baby Boomers (1946-1964) and the Silent/Veterans (before
1946). The generations come to work with differing perspectives, assumptions, and skills. I-O
psychologists are continuing to research and implement methods that maximize the potential
advantages of these differences, such as increased employee learning and team collaboration.
7. Emphasis on Recruiting, Selecting for, and Retaining Potential: I-O psychologists expect that
organizations will need to increase emphasis on recruiting and selecting new employees this
year, while still retaining top talent, due in part to a strengthening economy. I-O psychologists will
continue to contribute to these processes through the development and validation of legally
defensible selection procedures and training/development programs as well as the identification
of key attributes of the roles, positions, and organizations that top talent find most desirable.
8. Changing Face of Diversity Initiatives: Simply having a diverse workforce may not be enough
to give your organization an edge in todays workplace. To make the most of a diverse workforce,
leaders need to know how to properly utilize such diversity. I-O psychologists are finding that
programs which value and leverage such concepts as inclusion and equality have more effective
managers, drive greater productivity, and attract a more diverse workforce
9. Growth of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programs: The measure of a good
company has traditionally been its revenue or stock price, but more companies today are also
being judged by what they give back to their local and global communities. CSR is becoming a
business requirement for organizations that want to be seen as responsible citizens. I-O

Bulanandi, Jamillah A.
AB PSYCH 4C
psychologists are finding that these actions affect how people feel about companies, their
purchasing behaviors, and the attitudes of the employees who work there.
10. Changes in Laws May Affect Employment-Related Decisions: Changes in current laws and
regulations and the passage of new onessuch as the Affordable Care Act, updated Office of
Federal Contract Compliance Programs requirements and state laws on marijuana usehave the
potential to affect numerous HR and organizational practices. I-O psychologists will continue to
ensure the programs they implement align with these and related legal standards
The Science of Hiring
The early years of formal I/O psychology only go back to the 1890s. The roots of the science of finding
the best people to fill a job may be traced back to the Industrial Revolution and was central to questions
around how to manage several thousand workers at once, round the clock, in many factories.
The problems of the Industrial Revolution provided fertile ground for the grandparents of I/O psychology,
who included Walter Dill Scott and Hugo Munsterberg.
However, the well-known (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint) Frederick W. Taylor was the true
impetus for the field, in the early 20th Century. Dubbed the Enemy of the People, Taylor used painfully
detailed observation and film to dissect the job tasks of the physical laborer. He showed that work could
be systematically described and made much more efficient by redesigning each step of a task.
This makes Taylor the father of job analysis, which is the bread and butter of I/O psychology, and a
common and highly valued aspect of the work of I/Ores.
The major focus of our fledgling field then shifted to the question of which people should be hired to
perform all the new jobs created by the Industrial Revolution and its related societal changes.
The U.S. militarys quest to improve the assignment of recruits to specific roles led to the Army Alpha and
Beta tests of World War I. These programs are the roots of all personnel testing and although these early
versions of cognitive ability, psychomotor, and personality tests were never really validated or used in the
war, their development rapidly advanced the science of hiring.
Despite the importance of earlier work, it was really World War II that ended up being I/O psychologys
watershed moment.
In WWI, the military was slow to realize that a much more effective method of determining who should
pilot dangerous and critical combat missions was desperately needed. Interview-based evaluations of
courage and early incarnations of IQ tests were not resulting in effective piloting of early, crash-prone
fighter planes. The Aviation Psychology Program was born out of this problem.
The most important contribution of this program was the decision to place John C. Flanagan in charge of
implementing testing and other assessment tools to figure out who should fly planes for the military effort.

Bulanandi, Jamillah A.
AB PSYCH 4C

Integration of Technology into the Workplace. Another of my research areas. Employees are
now able to reach out via social media to others in their organizations when they need help via
email, via instant messaging, via teleconference but are more tempted than ever by the siren
song of easy, quick social interaction. How can social media be leveraged within organizations to
bring the potential benefits without the drawbacks? We dont know yet and thats what I aim to
learn. Technology is increasingly being used to monitor employees in ways not even conceivable
10 years ago including tracking specific employee movements throughout the workday. What
impact does all this dehumanization have upon productivity and retention?
Work-Life Balance. Of the list of top trends, this is probably the most well-explored on the list
within I/O. Work-family conflict (and family-work conflict) are both linked with a variety of negative
outcomes for workers. But as technology becomes omnipresent in peoples lives, the line
between work and home continues to blur. For many (like myself!), there essentially is no line.
With Twitter, our private lives and public lives are often the same. What effect does this have on
well-being and job performance? Will people burn out faster than ever before?
Social Media for Employment-related Decisions. Social media is one of my personal areas of
interest, in terms of both organizational learning and employee selection (evidenced by my labs
work on social media in selection at SIOP this year). On both fronts, we know very little so far. It
seems like we can get some degree of job-relevant information from social media, but it remains
unclear what the best way to go about this is, or what the legality of that information ultimately is.
Should we trust hiring managers to ignore information about protected class membership (sex,
race, national origin, skin color, religion, disability, and others) when scanning social media for
information about job applicants? Even if we trust hiring managers to ignore this information,
would the courts believe us? I suspect not.
Telework. As technology improves, it is becoming more obvious that completing the technical
requirements of many jobs does not require workers to be physically present in the office. So why
not let them work from home, saving money on office space and other resources? The research
literature on virtual teams has grown quite a bit in the last few years, but our understanding of
completely remote workers is still quite limited. Much to be done here!
Alternatives to Full Time Work. Temporary, part time, and contractor work is becoming an
increasingly common model for modern businesses. As employees shift to part-time work, do
their motivations for performing good work change? I/O certainly has models of job performance
and its predictors, but most of the empirical work on these constructs was developed and tested
on permanent positions. To what extent do these findings hold with temporary workers? Of all
areas of I/O, I expect discussion of culture and climate to turn to this problem first.