Originally published: . Volume 9, No. 5. Source pages: 1, 10.
The Industrial-Organizational graduate program at Louisiana Tech has been ranked first in the nation in applied development opportunities by a study conducted by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).
The top ranking reflects how the faculty help the graduate students engage in research with organizations, consulting opportunities with organizational leaders and stakeholders, and communicate with the public.
The program’s core faculty members are program coordinator Dr. Tilman Sheets, AROS director Dr. Mitzi Desselles, Dr. Frank Igou, and Dr. Steven Toaddy. The program also ranked No. 20 in research development opportunities, and No. 29 in teaching development opportunities, across the nation.
“It is very gratifying to know that our students think we are providing applied development opportunities, we work very hard to do so,” program coordinator, Dr. Sheets, said.
Dr. Steven Toaddy noted, “What shines through to me is that many of our graduate students viewed the time that they spent in the program as providing them with these opportunities and that they took the time to make this known via the ranking survey. I think that our program has done––well before my arriving––and continues to do a great job of helping students focus on developing their skills in preparation for applied careers, but I suspect that what sets us apart in this ranking is our students' enthusiasm and willingness to celebrate those opportunities when SIOP came asking.”
Dr. Steven Toaddy noted, “I would say that our program's recent ranking conveys several direct benefits – helping signal to current, prospective, and prior students the program's focus on applied experience; helping our program to further tweak itself to accentuate its strengths and to acknowledge its shortcomings; and to lend us some credibility when we offer guidance to other programs that seek to prepare practitioners for careers in our field.” Dr. Toaddy is an assistant professor specializing in organizational-side and psychometric topics.
In a statement to SIOP news, Department Chair of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Tech, Dr. Donna Thomas, said,“What an honor for a program that only accepted its first cohort in 2009,” said Donna Thomas, Department Chair of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Tech. “I’m extremely proud of, but not surprised by, the No. 1 ranking — it’s a direct reflection of the program’s outstanding students and their commitment,” in a statemen.
“Since its inception, the I-O Psychology Ph.D. program has emphasized the application of behavioral science through its consulting group, Applied Research for Organizational Solutions (AROS),” Thomas said to SIOP. “Our students often tell us it’s what attracted them to our program — the opportunity to put their knowledge and skills into practice, under the supervision of our exceptional faculty. I’m so pleased to see the students and faculty recognized for their hard work. The ranking will help us grow the program’s reputation by continuing to attract top-notch students.”
In a previous interview with the Times’ reporter Shane Lowery, Dr. Sheets emphasized that I-O Psychologists are some of the leading researchers in applied psychology across the country. Whether they are housed in academic programs or in private consulting firms, these applied scientists continue to make strides in organizational research.
The I-O psychology program at Louisiana Tech has already become a fast growing, internationally recognized, applied research program, said Dr. Sheets when asked if he has seen an increase in the overall number of applicants. “… I would say we are certainly getting an increase in applicants. I think more importantly, we seem to be getting an increase in quality people.”
“We always stay pretty deep into some interesting things…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,” Dr. Sheets said. “We’re very much an applied program, but we have a lot of cool academic research going on as well.”
Dr. Tilman Sheets, one of the program coordinators at LaTech.
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