Article archive / September 1, 2013
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 1. Source pages: 9.
The Louisiana State University Industrial-Organization Psychology program is, “Gone for good,” current psychology chair Dr. Bob Mathews told the Times last week.
“The official end of the program,” he said, “came at the end of last semester. We had a faculty meeting and discussed the resources we have. We are now down to 22, from a decade ago when we had 33 faculty members.” He said that the decision to narrow the overall program was a necessity.
“The faculty members discussed resources we and determined we simply don’t have the resources,” Mathews said.
The program is hiring new faculty in clinical and cognitive, however, and has finally filled an endowed chair, he explained. The program will retain four specialties: clinical, cognitive, school, and biological psychology. “We’re going to end up very strong, but not as broad,” Mathews said.
Dr. Tracey Rizutto, who along with Dr. Russell Matthews, led the specialty area at LSU psychology, told the Times, “The psych department has been a very difficult environment for the I/O program for the last 10 years or so.”
Last year Rizutto moved to the LSU department of Human Resource & Leadership Development in the new School of Human Resource Education & Workforce Development, College of Human Science & Education. She took the research lab and graduate curriculum with her and hopes to formally move the I/O concentration to Human Resources.
“The Human Resource and Leadership Development program is ecstatic to adopt the I/O training program,” Rizutto told the Times. “We already have a functioning graduate training HR-IO consultancy,” she said, and hopes to expand to offer the B.S., master’s and doctorate. “It was sad to see such a long tradition in psychology come to an end,” she noted, “but I truly believe I/O will be far better off with the support and leadership in HR.”
Dr. Courtland Chaney, a graduate of the LSU I/O psychology program, told the Times that he was not surprised by the termination of the program at LSU psychology.
The demise of I-O programs is related to the economy, job markets, and self-interest, he said. “I-O psychology graduates typically are qualified for faculty positions in many different academic departments, the most obvious of which are psychology, management, marketing, and human resource management ….” He explained that in psychology departments faculty salaries are usually significantly lower, often from $10,000 to $25,000 per year lower, than in a business school.
“It is difficult to imagine holders of I/O psychology doctorates being so loyal to psychology that they remain in a psychology department,” he said. He also explained that psychology licensing boards do not understand I/O psychologists, and many of these psychologists do not bother with the license.
However, the I/O psychology program is growing at Louisiana Tech. Although in its infancy, LaTech’s program has four full-time faculty, 15 graduate students, and is developing international recognition. The Times’ intern Shane Lowery reported recently on the program. He spoke with Dr. Tillman Sheets, who leads the group about the growth. “…we have projects that come through our AROS consultancy, which is Applied Research for Organizational Solutions,” he said. “We’ve gone international, with an engineering firm doing a cultural analysis for companies in South Africa.”
The LSU Industrial-Organizational Psychology Program was one of the oldest, continuously running I/O programs in the US, with a long, distinguished legacy. It marked its 60th anniversary in 2012, beginning in 1952 with Dr. Bernard Bass, an early expert in I/O who gained national acclaim for his work in transformational leadership. The combination of Dr. Larry Siegel and Dr. Irv Lane, both who served as Chair of the Psychology Department, marked for many a profound influence through the 60s, 70s, and 80s. With Greg Dobbins and Dirk Steiner taking the reins into the next decade, and to a program led by Dr. Tracey Rizzuto and Dr. Russell Matthews until recently.
“While one can be sad to learn of the passing of an era, as observers of human evolution, we should not be surprised to learn of the passing,” Dr. Chaney said.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.