On the Horizon

The SIOP Foundation has always looked to the future. The trustees, in addition to stewarding awards and grants, continuously look for new ways to further the goals of IO psychology, a prime generator of evidence-based practices for many facets of human resource management. One avenue is to explore the opportunities to improve the alignment between research conducted by SIOP members and important real-world organizational problems. This has led to the creation of the latest Foundation initiative: Project Horizon.

The purpose of the Horizon Project is to identify research domains and key topics where the field of IO psychology is uniquely positioned to be a thought leader in areas relevant to strengthening individual, unit, and organizational outcomes. The goal is to devise strategies to seed and grow R&D while

strengthening research linkages to practice in ways that are more timely, relevant, and actionable.

Several chief HR officers were asked these questions:

• What’s on your horizon over the next 3-5 years?
• What professional challenges/opportunities do you see coming soon that will impact people’s well-being and productivity, and team/organizational effectiveness?
• Which ones keep you awake at night?

Three topics emerged.

• Leadership: Development and selection of future leaders who can succeed in highly volatile, rapidly changing and uncertain environments
• Diversity and inclusion: Accelerating the pace of change
• New ways of working: Including the impact of technology on work and the workforce as seen in AI, robotics, telework and global connectivity, and so forth.

For more information on the Horizon Project, visit https://0-www-siop-org.library.alliant.edu/Foundation/project-horizon.For questions or to contribute to the project, please contact Foundation Trustee Mirian Graddick-Weir at SIOPFoundation@siop.org.