Porter Hall
by Gary Kustis, Ph.D.
Probably your first introduction to an “industrial psychologist” was in the 1947 version of A Miracle on 34th Street when poor Santa Claus is subjected to a psychological assessment by Macy’s duplicitous Dr. Granville Sawyer. Dr. Sawyer tries hard to get him committed after Kris Kringle whaps him upside the head with his cane. It doesn’t bode well for your profession when even Santa wants to open a can of whoop-ass on you. That may be why at this very moment thousands of “industrial-organizational psychologists” (which is what they’ve been calling themselves since 1987) are voting electronically on whether to drop the term “industrial” from the name of their professional organization, The Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
In fact, the issue at hand is not the annual holiday vilification portrayed by the character actor Porter Hall (who, incidentally, played all kind of cretins in the movies, including the guy who shot Wild Bill Hickock in the back) but the fact that the term “industrial” seems a bit archaic to today’s businesses. Moreover, it doesn’t really capture what psychologists in this line of work these days. Sure, these are still the same “scientist-practitioners” who are out there building tests to help screen job applicants, but they’re also busy doing team building, analyzing survey data, and helping to put together solid developmental plans for your employees. Finally, as you can imagine, trying to brand your profession when it has fourteen syllables also isn’t very easy.
So, I’m off to go vote “Yes” to change the by-laws of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology (aka, SIOP—pronounced “SY-op”) to the slightly more syllable friendly, The Society for Organizational Psychology (TSOP—“TEE-sop”?). We’ll see which way it turns out after the first of the year. In the meantime, if you go to Macy’s and happen to see St. Nick, chances are he took a test developed by your friendly, neighborhood “organizational psychologist” before he was allowed to hoist that first kid up on his lap. Old Mr. Macy may have fired Dr. Sawyer at the end of the movie, but I’ll bet he hired a replacement organizational psychologist right after New Year’s.
It hit me just the other day when the candidate I was interviewing for a shift mechanic position for a client of mine showed up for the interview in a suit and tie—not the usual dress code for the occasional shift mechanic candidate I might see. Further discussion led me to discover that he was a young mechanical engineer who was more than eager to start out at the bottom of the plant’s pecking order. As we sat down together, he told me of his job hunt and why he was so excited by this opportunity. He had graduated in September of 2008 and was interviewing with a number of big companies looking for young engineers. However, all those companies who were about to make offers all stopped calling as soon as the reality of the recession hit in October. Suddenly, my young engineer found himself in a tough spot: little experience beyond one short summer internship and college loans that needed to be repaid. For the last year, he’s been desperately trying to find a job in his field while working as a landscaper. So, now, here he is: applying for a shift mechanic job—and glad for the opportunity. From the company’s perspective, they get a young mechanical engineer in a shift mechanic job where his knowledge and skills will prove more than helpful while they groom him for better things. From his perspective, this job represents stability and an opportunity to move up later when the opportunity arrives.
