Member Spotlight: Moses Rivera

Name
Moses Rivera

Position/Employer
I'm a PhD candidate in I-O Psychology at the University of Central Florida.

How long have you been a SIOP member?
I've been a SIOP member for 6 years, starting with the year before I started grad school.

What roles have you had within SIOP?
As a student member, I've engaged with the SIOP Ambassador Program, and I was the inaugural recipient of SIOP's Graen Grant for Student Research on Leadership and Teams. More recently, I've been a reviewer for SIOP Annual Conference submissions, and I'm currently serving on SIOP's Government Relations Advocacy Team (GREAT) committee. I feel very connected to and proud of the work the GREAT committee has done over the years.

Interest area(s)
I love to study groups and teams, especially their performance. I'm keen on starting to study teams who work in the public sector (e.g., policy makers and enforcers). After I complete my dissertation in the next year or so, I'd love to continue my line of research as a professor.

What sparked your interest in I-O psychology?
Most of my undergraduate career was actually on the Computer Engineering track. Eventually I realized I was less interested in making better software for workers and more interested in making better workplaces for workers. One day in college I found out about I-O psychology while browsing on Wikipedia. My immediate thoughts were, "Of course this exists!" and "Where has this been all my life!?"

What role do you see I-O psychology playing in the future of work?
They say prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future. Still, it's fun to guess (or hypothesize). I-O psychologists have uncovered many insights about how and why humans do work. In terms of what's in store for the field in the near future, I'm informed by the observations of my mentors who have been actively engaged in the field for decades. Specifically, it seems our field will eventually transition into putting greater emphasis on understanding how to implement the wealth of knowledge we have amassed—to have a more immediate impact on the lives of workers today. Thus, implementation science may become a more prominent area of research and praxis.

Which of the Top 10 Work Trends for 2023 do you most strongly relate to, and how can I-O psychology practitioners, educators, and students impact this trend?
Of SIOP's Top 10 Work Trends for 2023, I'm resonating most with Trend #8: Psychological safety in the workplace, and Trend #10: Integrating work, life, and family. In fact, I think the two are related: Understanding how each person's wholistic identity is composed of work, family, and other domain-specific identities can help us build work environments that are psychologically safe and highly productive. To move in the right direction, we can leverage individual action and collective action to promote awareness, integrate understanding, and implement changes at local, national, and global scales. Fortunately, no one is expected to do this alone; I-O psychology practitioners, educators, researchers, and students all play a role in moving the needle on these goals.

What advice would you give to students or early practitioners?
I'll paraphrase something a celebrated SIOP Fellow, Ben Schneider, once told me: Don't be afraid to take I-O psychology into unexplored terrain. Each generation holds a map for the field's next steps. Follow your dreams; life is too short not to.

What is one of your favorite SIOP Annual Conference memories/highlights?
I've had the immense pleasure and honor of meeting and thanking several of my I-O psychology heroes in person at the Annual Conferences. I won't name names, but one time I saw one my heroes looked lost and—although we had never met before—I gave them directions to the Opening Plenary Session and said I was a big fan of theirs. For the remainder of the conference that week, anytime we crossed paths they would give me a thumbs up and stop to say hello. That was a very nice way to meet one of my heroes.

Please share one non-I-O-related bit of information about yourself.
As a child, I was certain I would grow up to be an artist. Although I didn't end up becoming a professional artist, every now and then I'll draw, paint, or play a musical instrument, and it still feels very natural—even visceral. Perhaps we should all make more time for art in our lives.

Is there anything you would like to add?
As I see it, our field is simultaneously young and established, small and expansive. I think this contributes to the familial feeling among I-O psychologists, despite the palpably limitless horizon of possibilities for the future of our field. I'm thankful for our field and for everyone who is as obsessed as I am about improving the experience and outcomes of work.

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