10 Insights into mobilising the IOP for todays world

Professor Gary P. Latham needs no introduction and in the words of Professor Frederick Morgeson “Gary has literally done it all in our field.”

• He is well known for his scientific work on goal setting, which he co-authored with Edwin A. Locke.
• He has also made significant contributions to practice by, for example, serving as a past president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).

Prof Gary received numerous scientist and practitioner awards from institutions like the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, SIOP, and Canadian Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology to name a few.  He is currently serving as the Secretary of State Professor and Professor of Organizational Behaviour and HR Management at the University of Toronto in Canada.

The Society of Industrial and Organisational Psychology of South Africa (SIOPSA) is a proud partner of SIOP and nearing end of 2019,  SIOPSA had the privilege to engage Professor Gary Latham in a discussion on topics that ranged from evidence-based practice to mobilising industrial and organisational psychology in the 2020s.

We hope you enjoy the discussion with Professor Gary Latham as much as we did.

INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR GARY LATHAM: BACKGROUND

“I want to become an Industrial Psychologist.”

Please see a reference to the article mentioned by Professor Gary Latham below.

Brayfield, A. H., & Crockett, W. H. (1955). Employee attitudes and employee performance. Psychological Bulletin, 52(5), 396–424. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045899

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Background

 Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Background

“If you are a pulpwood producer and his crew a specific goal, they beat the heck out of crews that are simply doing their best.”

Please see a reference to an article written by Professor Gary Latham on goal setting in the pulpwood industry below.

Latham, G. P., & Kinne, S. B. (1974). Improving job performance through training in goal setting. Journal of Applied Psychology, 59(2), 187–191. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036530

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 1

“Practitioners have a moral responsibility not to be winging it with clients.  Rather be up to date on the literature.”

Please see a reference to a book written by Professor Gary Latham on evidence-based practice below.

Latham, G. P. (2009). Becoming the evidence-based manager: Making the science of management work for you. Boston, MA: Davies-Black.

Cascio, W. F., & Reynolds, R. H. (2011). Becoming the Evidence-Based Manager: Making the Science of Management Work for You by Gary Latham. Personnel Psychology, 64(1), 266–269. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01208_2.x

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 2

“Practitioners have a moral responsibility not te be winging it with clients.  Rather be up to date with literature.”

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 3

“Zealot is a bad word in everyday life and I think it is a horrid word in science.”

Please see an open source article written by Professor Gary Latham from the perspective of a practitioner-scientist below.

Latham, G. P. (2019). Perspectives of a practitioner-scientist on organizational psychology/organizational behavior. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015323

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 4

“Theory has arguably benefited science.  To what extend has theory benefited practice?”

Please see an open source article written by Professor Gary Latham from the perspective of a practitioner-scientist below.

Latham, G. P. (2019). Perspectives of a practitioner-scientist on organizational psychology/organizational behavior. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015323

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 5

“When it is an outside practitioner…as a speaker…I am hanging onto every word…for ideas.”

Please see an open source article written by Professor Gary Latham from the perspective of a practitioner-scientist below.

Latham, G. P. (2019). Perspectives of a practitioner-scientist on organizational psychology/organizational behavior. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015323

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 6

“I/O Psychologist not licensing.”

Please see an article written by Professor Gary Latham on the licensing of industrial and organisational psychology below.

Latham, G. P. (2017). Mandating the licensing of I-O psychologists lacks merit. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 10(2), 182–186. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2017.6

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 7

“What are we doing in training methodologies to enable people to find sustainable work?”

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 8

“We’ve always tried to close the doors, not successful, and society and industry been better off. All of these different people tackling a problem, from different perspectives. It’s a win.”

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 9

“It’s hard for me to screw up, hard for me to be stupid, if I got all these brilliant people mentoring me.”

Please see an article written by Professor Gary Latham on the implementation of reward systems with mountain beaver trappers below.

Saari, L. M., & Latham, G. P. (1982). Employee reaction to continuous and variable ratio reinforcement schedules involving a monetary incentive. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67(4), 506–508. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.67.4.506

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 10

“The time has long come that we do cross-disciplinary research.  Time to bring down the walls.”

Interview with Professor Gary Latham: Insight 11

“The biggest issue for us is to continue to work on areas of visibility.”

Based on Professor Gary Latham’s recommendation, SIOPSA has now become a member of the Alliance for Organizational Psychology.