Rethinking Employee Listening Programs with Craig Starbuck, PhD

What does it take to establish a common standard of professional competence in a field as diverse as industrial-organizational psychology? In this episode of the ScienceForWork podcast, host Matt Lampe, PsyD, talks with Mark Nagy, PhD, and Matt Turner, two of the people behind the development of the new Psychological Specialty in Industrial-Organizational Psychology (PSI-O) certification. I-O psychology spans a wide range of specialties, and practitioners bring different educational backgrounds, training, and professional experiences to their work. The introduction of PSI-O raises important questions about how foundational competence can be assessed, what professional credentials communicate, and how the field might strengthen its recognition among employers and other stakeholders. Together, they explore: Why PSI-O was developed and the challenges it aims to address.

What if the problem with an employee's performance isn't simply the employee? We spend a lot of time thinking about how to set better goals, making them specific, measurable, aligned, and clear. But goals don't exist in isolation. They're pursued by people working within teams, organizations, and systems that can either enable performance or make it much harder. In this episode of the ScienceForWork podcast, host Matt Lampe, PsyD, talks with Michelle Riconscente, PhD, educational psychologist and CEO and co-founder of Valutare, about what the science of goal pursuit can teach us about creating the conditions for people to succeed. Michelle draws on research from across psychology and organizational science to move the conversation beyond simply writing better goals and toward a broader view of performance enablement. In this conversation, Michelle and Matt explore: Why understanding the context behind a goal can matter as much as the goal itself

Have you ever sat through a presentation that felt completely correct, and somehow also completely forgettable? In this episode of the ScienceForWork podcast, host Matt Lampe, PsyD, talks with AJ Thurston, PhD, Chief of Market Research for military recruiting within the DoD Office of People Analytics and a professor of I/O psychology at George Mason University, about what it actually takes to communicate data so people understand it. AJ makes the case that being understood is almost entirely the communicator's responsibility, not the audience's, and that simple, honest communication is a skill worth deliberately building, no matter who you're talking to. In this conversation, AJ and Matt explore: Why the responsibility to be understood belongs to the communicator, not the audience How to structure a message so it sticks Why bar charts, not fancy dashboards, are often the most effective visual you can use How to talk about correlations and effect sizes in language a non-technical audience actually finds compelling Where AI fits as a genuine assistant in writing, coding, and data visualization, and why the underlying skill still matters More from AJ: Website: ajthurston.com Advanced resources (expectancy charts, predictive probabilities, dominance analysis): ajthurston.com/sfw LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ajthurston Twitter/X: @ajthurston

Most organizations invest heavily in culture. Very few understand what their culture is. Kyle Mack, PhD, is an industrial and organizational psychologist who spent years inside large-scale employee listening programs, reading what employees actually experience versus what their companies say is their culture. In this conversation, Kyle talks about how culture is not what you say. It's what your systems reward. In this episode: Why the gap between espoused and enacted culture is the default state, not the exception How hiring, promotion, and performance management are your real culture, not your values deck Why founder imprinting persists long after the founder is gone A practical framework for HR leaders to start closing the gap Connect with Kyle: cultureagent.ai Follow ScienceForWork: ScienceForWork.com

In this episode of the Science for Work podcast, Matt Lampe is joined by Patricia Grabarek and Katina Sawyer to talk about the critical role of leadership in shaping workplace wellness. Patricia and Katina, co-founders of Workr Beeing and authors of Leading for Wellness, explore the journey of writing the book and their commitment to translating research into practical tools for leaders. The conversation covers authenticity and vulnerability as the foundation of trust-based leadership, flexibility and work-life balance, how leaders can create microcultures of wellness even inside difficult organizations, and the role of person-centered planning in supporting employee mental health. They also discuss where they hope organizational practice and future research go next, including the case for investing in leaders rather than programs and taking a longer view on organizational performance. Resources: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/workrbeeing/ https://workrbeeing.com/ ScienceForWork is an independent, non-profit foundation of evidence-based practitioners who want to #MakeWorkBetter. ScienceForWork.com