Joel Lefkowitz

• Ph.D., ABPP
• Baruch College

Opinions have been divided regarding the relevance of the APA Ethics Code to non-mental health specialties, and even whether the Code should attempt to encompass all psychology specializations. However, these opinions have crystallized without the benefit of any appreciable empirical data, until now. This study investigates the applicability of the...

This foundational text was one of the first books to integrate work from moral philosophy, developmental/moral psychology, applied psychology, political and social economy, and political science, as well as business scholarship. Twenty years on, this third edition utilizes ideas from the first two to provide readers with a practical model for ethic...

Adequately appreciating any area of applied ethics necessarily begins with indispensable foundations from moral philosophy and moral psychology, which are the bases for understanding normative ethical principles. (Otherwise, one could be reduced to the rote memorization of a near-infinite list of “dos and don’ts.”) Personal and social values also a...

This study systematically examined the applicability of the APA Ethics Code to 398 ethical incidents reported by 337 I-O psychologists. Overall, the Code was applicable and useful. However, sixteen deficiencies and ambiguities in the Code were identified, and recommendations are offered for improving the Code's relevance to I-O psychology. Implicat...

This article reports the results of an ethics survey of professional members of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP/APA-Div. 14) conducted in 2019, and compares its findings with those of a similar survey conducted in 2009. In 2019, but not 2009, international members and associates were included. A total of 680 survey re...

Professional ethics has not been a major focus in industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology—in comparison with our study of unethical behavior in organizations. Consequently, we know very little about ethical situations actually faced by I-O psychologists. This article presents and tests a structural perspective on understanding the nature of ethi...

The conundrum of industrial-organizational psychology - Volume 12 Issue 4 - Joel Lefkowitz

Many investigators of employee selection research focus on determinants of how the organizational human resource (HR) practice of employee selection can be done well. That is, the contents are aimed at providing the guidance needed to develop selection and promotion procedures that are accurate, valid, and useful for organizations. In this chapter...

One day, a well-dressed, mature gentleman—one might be tempted to describe him as elderly, except he appears extremely vital and alert—walks into a psychotherapist's office for a first visit. After just a few brief exchanges, the therapist gets the impression that the gentleman is a socially adept, financially successful, educated professional, and...

Ethics and Values in Industrial-Organizational Psychology was one of the first books to integrate work from moral philosophy, moral psychology, I-O psychology, and political and social economy, as well as business. It incorporates these perspectives into a “framework for taking moral action” and presents a practical model for ethical decision makin...

Bergman and Jean (2016) have contributed an important essay to the continuing self-reflection and maturation of the field of industrial–organizational (I-O) psychology—or as it is known in much of the world outside the United States, work psychology. 1 They clearly and adequately document that the field has relatively neglected to study the world o...

The first instances of humanitarian work psychology (HWP) have consisted of the application of the knowledge and methods of work psychology, as currently conceived, to avowedly humanitarian enterprises in which they have not previously been applied. It is suggested that that represents an unnecessarily self-limiting conceptualization of the field,...

A literature review reveals that supervisors’ positive affective regard (‘liking’) for subordinates is associated frequently with higher performance appraisal (PA) ratings, and with other findings such as greater halo, reduced accuracy, a better interpersonal relationship, and a disinclination to punish poor performance. However, the interpretabili...

Building on the work of Mael (1991), Gandy, Outerbridge, Sharf & Dye (1989) and Asher (1972), 10 attributes or dimensions of biodata items were defined operationally. The 160 items of a biodata form undergoing validation were then rated reliably on the 10 item attributes. Biodata responses and supervisory ratings were obtained for a sample of 528 c...

It's important to place the issues expressed by Ryan and Ford (2010) in historical perspective. Although they acknowledge some earlier expressions of concern, especially with respect to professional training (Naylor, 1971), I think it's fair to characterize the overall tenor of their essay as one of sounding the alarm: a new and unique impending id...

It's important to place the issues expressed by Ryan and Ford (2010) in historical perspective. Although they acknowledge some earlier expressions of concern, especially with respect to professional training (Naylor, 1971), I think it's fair to characterize the overall tenor of their essay as one of sounding the alarm: a new and unique impending id...

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This review focuses primarily on personality characteristics of policemen. The data substantiate, with some qualifications, the existence of a nonpathological “modal police personality.” Methodological weaknesses prevent, however, an assessment of the relative developmental contributions of predisposing self-selection effects, socioeconomic class d...

The values of organizational psychology are criticized as (a) having supplanted psychology's humanist tradition and societal responsibilities with corporate economic objectives; (b) being “scientistic” in perpetuating the notion of value-free science while ignoring that it is business values that largely drive our research and practice; (c) failing...

A heterogeneous survey sample of for-profit, non-profit and government employees revealed that organizational factors but not personal characteristics were significant antecedents of misconduct and job satisfaction. Formal organizational compliance practices and ethical climate were independent predictors of misconduct, and compliance practices als...

In the course of analyzing data from a criterion-related test validation study, an unexpected pattern of initial job placement was noticed. There was a statistically significant tendency in this large commercial bank to assign new employees to supervisors of the same ethnic group; and among those who were subsequently reassigned within 5 months, th...

The dramatic changes of the past 25 years in the nature and conditions of work, including the globalization of organizations and the introduction of a strategic as opposed to employee-centered conception of HR have impacted the ways in which moral problems are manifested. But the paradigmatic forms taken by those problems, the character traits and...

Ethics and Values in Industrial-Organizational Psychology is one of the first books to integrate work from the fields of moral philosophy, moral psychology, IO Psychology and political and social economy, as well as business. It sets out to provide a "framework for moral action" and presents practical models for ethical decision making. It can serv...

Anonymous mailed surveys containing a description of a competent and successful content validation or criterion-related validation study were returned by 106 experts in employment test validation: Fellows of SIOP, ABPP Diplomates in I/O Psychology, and experienced practitioners nominated by the first two groups. More than 70% replied that they woul...

Four possible sources ofcriterion contamination were investigated in the supervisory performance ratings used for a predictive criterion-related validation study. Supervisors' liking for subordinates had a very large association with their performance ratings independent of the effects of employee ability. Also as hypothesized, expectations of empl...

Contrary to previous findings documenting the importance of higher-order need satisfaction, a recent study by G. J. Gorn and R. N. Kanungo (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1980, 26, 265–277) has indicated that satisfaction of lower-order needs may lead to job involvement if such needs are salient. Data from a heterogeneous sample of...

A sample of 112 administrators provided self-report data used to test two hypotheses derived from Korman's consistency model of work behavior. As predicted, those with high self-esteem experienced significantly greater need gratification than did those with low self-esteem, and self-esteem also significantly positively moderated the relationship be...

TAT motive scores of need for achievement (n–nAch) and need for power for 63 male college students (31 Black and 32 White) did not vary significantly as a function of either their race, the race of the TAT administrator, or race of TAT stimulus figures. Neither was any support found for the presumed importance of using stimulus figures and/or admin...

The multitrait-multimethod matrix (MTMM) technique was used in an attempt to help clarify the ambiguities regarding concepts of work alienation, job satisfaction, and the relationships between them. Within each attitude domain considered separately, generally acceptable evidence of convergent and (to a lesser degree) discriminant validity was found...

One hundred twenty-six high school students responded to questionnaire measures of chronic self-esteem (CSE), task-specific self-esteem (TSSE), and locus of control of reinforcements (L of C) and were given a list of anagrams to solve that varied in level of task difficulty (TD). L of C and (to a lesser extent) TSSE were each related to task perfor...

Research data and professional opinion on police and police organizations are reviewed from the perspective of industrial–organizational psychology. The following conclusions are drawn: (a) Security and social needs and the need for a structured leadership environment are significant aspects of occupational choice. (b) Police report somewhat lower...

This paper presents a description of police research problems in such fashion that it could be generalized to other types of organizations. A two-dimensional taxonomy of problems in conducting psychological research in police departments is discussed. The first dimension concerns generality-uniqueness of the problem, relative to formal organization...

Anonymous questionnaire data were obtained from 312 policemen (ca. 80% sample) in a midwest city. The primary emphasis was on obtaining descriptive data from standardized and/or frequently used measures which had not heretofore been administered to policemen. In general, these police appeared to be not dissimilar from other “typical” industrial sam...

14 Biographical Inventory Blank items significantly predicted the propensity to fake personality inventories in a socially desirable manner, as measured by the K Scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personal Inventory. Item analyses were performed on the responses of 76 job applicants, and the derived scoring weights were cross-validated on the respo...

A significant determinant of the high rate of personnel turnover among a population of female sewing machine operators was inadequate initial training. 208 new trainees received either 1, 2, or 3 days' vestibule training. The longer the training, the lower the turnover rate, but the lower the productivity as well. Both effects were statistically si...

As we write this chapter, the field of industrial– organizational psychology in the United States has survived its third attempt at a name change. To provide a little perspective, the moniker industrial psychology became popular after World War I, and described a field that was characterized by ability testing and vocational assessment (Koppes, 200...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Western Reserve University, 1965. Microfilm. s Includes bibliographical references.

THE BILLS INDEX OF ADJUSTMENT AND VALUES (IAV) WAS USED TO OBTAIN MEASURES OF SELF-ESTEEM FOR A SAMPLE OF 155 FACTORY WORKERS. THE WORKERS' SELF-ESTEEM WAS SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER THAN COLLEGE STUDENTS' USED AS A STANDARDIZATION GROUP FOR THE IAV. SELF-ESTEEM PROVED UNRELATED TO A VARIETY OF JOB-RELATED VARIABLES. MARRIED WORKERS DEMONSTRATED GREATER...

89 executives attending a 1960 executive seminar of the American Management Association completed a 13 item questionnaire. "Almost twice as many executives stated that they would hire an industrial psychologist as compared with those who would decide against such a decision . . . . There are many executives still unconvinced that industrial psychol...