Graduate Student Highlight: Brad English

Second Year I-O Master's Student Brad English

I am currently a second year student in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology Master’s Program, and I will graduate in May 2013.  In addition to the knowledge and skills that I have acquired from coursework associated with the curriculum, I have also gained a considerable amount of expertise in human resource law, strategic job design, employee engagement, and competency modeling.  I am also currently conducting secondary research to examine the relationships between employee diversity programs and career success. 

            I have enjoyed both the “I” side and “O” side of the program.  Within the organizational domain, I have enjoyed several topics in Organizational Behavior which include on-boarding, organizational development, and leadership.  Within the industrial side, I have thoroughly enjoyed Performance Management Systems, from workforce planning to how to develop a performance system.   The most valuable lesson I have learned from the program is the importance of examining and demonstrating how an organizational intervention or application adds value to an organization to ensure that the optimal solution is selected that maximizes value.

I completed a nine month internship with a high-volume manufacturing and production organization that supplies many of the beverage companies with various products.  One of my main roles was talent acquisition that included full-cycle recruiting for salary-exempt and non-exempt positions; I was also certified to use Lominger’s Interview Architect for behavioral-based competency interviewing.  In addition, I exported production and human resources data from SAP onto spreadsheets for statistical analysis to show where and how human resources practices impact production performance.  My most memorable project was when I created processes for workforce analyses and planning, and also job redesign, for use across all facilities in the Southern United States. 

My internship was essential in providing insight into how and what to communicate to managers and leaders in order to help them make more informed decisions.  I also learned how I could utilize advanced statistics to show how various human resources practices impact production performance.  Also, I gained valuable experience with SAP, interviewing techniques, and the implementation of new practices that facilitate organizational change and development.  Lastly, I learned how industrial-organizational psychology interacts with human resources, and how the synergy of both disciplines can result in the most significant organizational outcomes.  

Using Employee Attitude Surveys to Guide Program Development

    By Katy Ramsey

 

     Assessing employee attitudes is a valuable way for organizations to gain insight into how
employees are feeling about the organization and their work. This can be helpful information
when employers suspect underlying tensions, but understanding attitudes can also be useful
in positive situations. Recently, a group of I/O psychology students partnered with a local
organization to evaluate employee attitudes as part of a new employee development program.
The program for newly promoted managers was designed to clarify the role of a manger and
enhance employee understanding, with the goal of accelerating the transition into management.
Company leaders have recognized the overwhelming nature of this transition and are proactively
taking steps to help employees. Early success of the program will be determined by many
factors, but the initial questions were “Does the training accelerate the transition into a new
role?” and “Have the managers gained clarity?” The students sought to answer these questions
by evaluating general job satisfaction and the degree to which employees were clear of their

     Although additional information is needed after the training course to fully measure its
impact, the surveys produced interesting results that will be useful to the organization as they
strive to enhance employee development and job satisfaction. First, the findings highlighted
specific areas of uncertainty for employees. By comparing this information to the coursework
the new manager program can be fine-tuned to more effectively meet the needs of employees.
Additionally, company leaders were made aware of unknown concerns that could potentially be
harmful to the organization.

     Employee attitudes are powerful predictors of critical organizational outcomes.
Exploring the factors that influence how employees feel, think, and act towards an organization
is the first step in developing appropriate interventions. This organization has taken the first
step by developing a program that demonstrates support for new managers, and hopefully the
information gained from the attitude assessments will shed new light on some of the challenges
managers face and guide the development of future interventions.