History of Fellowship in SIOP
The history of SIOP Fellowship is closely tied to the history of Fellowship in APA. Fellow, as a category of membership for APA, did not exist until 1946 when a “new” APA was formed with the merger of the American Association of Applied Psychology (AAAP) and the American Psychological Association. All APA Members and AAAP Fellows were made Charter Fellows of the new APA.
By 1951, the growth of APA resulted in the establishment of an APA Membership Committee, and in 1951–52 Division 14, along with the other 18 divisions at the time, adopted Uniform Fellowship Requirements. A psychologist first became a member in APA, and then joined a division, which handled Fellowship. In 1958, APA established three categories of membership: Associate for those with master’s and other degrees, Member for those holding doctoral degrees, and Fellow for those most distinguished members; APA established standards for Fellow status.
Although SIOP has many members who are not affiliated with APA, the Society follows the Fellowship procedures of APA; newly elected SIOP Fellows may request that SIOP recommend them for APA Fellow status if they are APA Members—only APA Members may be APA Fellows. Likewise, only APS Members may be Fellows of APS, and newly elected SIOP Fellows may request that their nominator submit materials for consideration as Fellows in APS.
SIOP (originally as Division 14) has had a Fellowship Committee since at least the mid-1960s. The committee is made up of SIOP Fellows and is charged with annually administering the Fellowship process. Any SIOP Member or Fellow may nominate another Member for Fellow status; nominations are evaluated by the Fellowship Committee with recommendations sent to the SIOP Executive Board. New SIOP Fellows are announced at the Annual Conference of the Society in the spring of each year. At the founding of SIOP in 1982, 252 of the 2,219 SIOP Members were SIOP (and APA) Fellows.
SIOP Fellowship Today
SIOP recognizes that outstanding contributions to the profession may come from all areas of I-O psychology and represent the range of practice, research, teaching, administration, and service in the variety of settings in which industrial-organizational psychologists work.
The breadth of these achievements in psychology applies equally to contributions in I-O psychology well beyond research and publications.
Examples of citations of contributions and impact of some recent SIOP Fellows include:
- … is one of the leading scholars in the area of work teams and the impact of culture in work contexts. Her work has produced 52 refereed journal articles, 22 book chapters, and two influential books, and has been cited more than 15,000 times, placing her in the top 1% globally in economics and business.
- A consummate practitioner–scientist, she is the “go to” expert on global survey issues. Her cross-cultural work has shed new light on the importance of employee attitudes on business outcomes, including customer satisfaction. She holds the most influential position in attitude survey work in a global organization today.
- … the foremost expert on the antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment. His ground breaking research, which has been cited over 2,500 times, reflects a rare interplay between cogent theoretical development and rigorous empirical research. In addition, his measures of organizational commitment are used by scholars worldwide.
- … has significantly advanced the practice of I-O psychology through his presidency of the Metropolitan New York Association of Applied Psychology, editorship of SIOP’s “The 21st Century Executive: Innovative Practices of Building Leadership at the Top,” co-chairing the first SIOP Leading Edge Consortium on Executive Leadership, workshops conducted for SIOP, and his selection and development programs for blue-chip companies in the U.S.
View the Membership Directory and search by member type to find a list of currently active Fellows and Retired Fellows.
Note: Login is required to access the membership directory and 'currently active' means dues have been paid.
Conclusion
Society Fellow status is not simply based on adding up how many criteria are represented in a nominee’s curriculum vitae. Similarly, recognition as a SIOP Fellow is not simply a matter of competency nor is it recognition of a steady and active career in I-O. Rather, Fellow status specifically recognizes unusual and outstanding contributions that have an important impact on I-O psychology.
The most difficult decision that the Fellowship Committee must make is whether the contributions and the evidence of impact are sufficiently outstanding to warrant Fellow status. Each nominee is considered individually; there is no quota or percentage of Fellows; The Fellowship Committee takes very seriously its obligation to make sure that outstanding SIOP members are recognized, balanced by the realization that Fellowship is a significant honor, highly valued by all members of SIOP.
