President's Column
Steve W. J. Kozlowski
The big news since my last update of SIOP’s activities (see my penultimate column in the January TIP) is that SIOP Executive Director (ED) Dave Nershi announced his plans to retire effective 1 May 2017. Dave has been SIOP’s ED since 2005 and he has been extraordinarily effective in supporting your elected leadership, managing the Society, and delivering a wide range of services to SIOP members. His service as ED has been instrumental to SIOP’s flourishing as a professional association. Finding a new ED to succeed Dave is critical to SIOP’s future evolution. Dave’s retirement announcement was not anticipated, so as you can imagine, it demanded my full attention because SIOP did not have an ED succession plan in place.
Dave notified SIOP’s senior elected leadership—President-Elect Jim Outtz, Past-President Jose Cortina, Financial Officer and Secretary Scott Tannenbaum, President-Elect Designate Fred Oswald, and me, in early January, approximately 4 weeks prior to the winter Executive Board (EB) meeting scheduled at the end of January. I felt it was very important that SIOP’s senior leaders should act with dispatch to craft an ED search process. First, although it may seem like May 2017 is far in the future, it is actually a very tight timeframe to recruit, assess, select, and train a new ED. Second, I wanted to ensure that the search process we designed would be briefed at the EB meeting so it could be discussed and would have support and consensus across the EB membership. Below I describe the structure and process of the SIOP ED search.
First, as SIOP’s senior elected leaders, we formed an ED Search Steering Committee (SC). The functional role of the SC is to guide and advise the overall search process and, in particular, to provide linkage to the SIOP EB because it is the voting members of the SIOP EB who will ultimately determine who the next ED is to be. The SC consists of SIOP's elected senior leadership: Steve Kozlowski, President; Jim Outtz, President-Elect; Jose Cortina, Past-President; Scott Tannenbaum, Financial Officer/Secretary; and Fred Oswald, President-Elect Designate. Jose’s formal governance role as past president will conclude in April leaving the SC composed of a balance of four science- and practice-oriented elected leaders.
Second, the most important initial priority for the SC was to design and compose the Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) that would have operational responsibility for recruiting, assessing, and prioritizing potential ED candidates. In other words, the SAC will do all the heavy lifting with respect to identifying a qualified pool of candidates for the ED position. Thus, in composing the SAC, we wanted to ensure that its members:
(a) possessed SIOP executive leadership experience (i.e., SIOP past presidents);
(b) had relevant professional expertise in assessment, selection, and leadership;
(c) represented a balance across science and practice orientations; and
(d) comprised a diverse set of I-O psychologists.
Bill Macey led the ED search process that selected Dave Nershi a decade ago. He graciously agreed to lend his experience and expertise to lead the SAC. In consultation with Bill, we composed the membership of the SAC to ensure that it possessed SIOP leadership experience, relevant professional expertise, balanced science–practice orientations, and diversity. The structure and process of the ED search, and the membership of the SAC were briefed at the winter EB meeting.
As noted, the SAC will design and have operational control over all phases of the ED search process. Its members are Bill Macey who serves as co-chair, with operational responsibility for SAC; Fred Oswald, who also serves as co-chair, with liaison to the SC; Tammy Allen; Milt Hakel; Ann Marie Ryan; Neal Schmitt; and Nancy Tippins. I trust that you will agree that SIOP is very fortunate to have this stellar group of seasoned I-O psychologists working on our behalf to find a new executive director for SIOP.
Functionally, the SAC will develop and execute the process for recruiting, assessing, and identifying a pool of qualified ED candidates. In consultation, the SAC and SC will prioritize the pool of qualified ED candidates. The SC will present the results of that process to the EB with appropriate input from SAC members. The ultimate decision for who to hire as SIOP’s next ED will be made by the voting members of SIOP’s EB. We hope to conclude the process by late 2016 so the ED designate will have an opportunity to shadow Dave and come up to speed on the role. Elsewhere in this issue of TIP, Bill Macey has provided an overview of SAC’s initial planning for the search. The SAC will provide regular updates to SIOP membership as the ED search process takes shape and unfolds.
In other governance news, your president elect, Jim Outtz, has been appointed to the APA CEO Search Committee, where he joins SIOP Fellow Rodney Lowman. This is an influential opportunity for Jim and Rodney to share SIOP’s expertise, to enhance the visibility of industrial and organizational psychology within APA, and, hopefully, help to select an effective CEO for APA.
The early registration numbers for the SIOP Conference in sunny southern California were released recently (mid-Feburary, as I compose this column) and they broke the 3,000 barrier. According to Dave Nershi, that’s only happened once before (Chicago, 2011). I hope that you are among the early registrants (or even a late registrant!) and that I will see you at the conference. The quality of the meeting space is exceptional, the program is fantastic, and an outstanding conference will be had. In that regard, I want to acknowledge the exceptional effort, energy, and creativity exhibited by everyone associate with the SIOP Conference—our premier event of the year! Many thanks are due to Evan Sinar, Conferences and Programs Officer; SIOP Conference Chair Eden King, and Chair-in-Training Daisy Chang; SIOP Program Chair Scott Tonidandel and Chair-in-Training Zack Horn; the Program Committee and the legion of reviewers for their herculean efforts to assemble the conference program; and to Dave Nershi and everyone in the AO! I would also like to acknowledge Presidential Theme Track Chair Zack Horn and his committee members Tara Behrend, Stu Carr, Gloria Gonzalez-Morales, Ryan Johnson, and Emily Stehura for the creative set of presentations and activities they have organized to showcase my theme of having an impact and making a difference.
With April comes renewal. In my last column I congratulated newly elected SIOP officers who will take their seats on the EB following the SIOP conference, and they will be joined by many new committee chairs and committee members. In other renewal news, Morrie Mullins, who has served as TIP editor for the last 3 years will be stepping down. Morrie has done a fantastic job with TIP, and I know that the role was a real developmental experience. Thanks, Morrie! Following a structured search, I am pleased to announce that Tara Behrend will be TIP editor commencing in July 2016. Congratulations, Tara!
Finally, also on a renewal theme, this is my last TIP column as your president. It has been a privilege to serve as the president of SIOP. I owe so many thanks to so many of you for all the help and support that you have provided to me and for making this leadership experience one of the most rewarding ones that I have occupied across my career. Following an outstanding Conference, I will be handing over my position to Jim Outtz, who I know will be the beneficiary of the same deep support. Many thanks to all of you for making SIOP a very special professional society—small, yet mighty!