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Organizational Psychology and the Tipping Point of Professional Identity1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

Ann Marie Ryan  and
J. Kevin Ford
Ann Marie Ryan*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
J. Kevin Ford
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
*
E-mail: ryanan@msu.edu, Address: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, 333 Psychology, Bldg., East Lansing, MI 48824-1116
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Abstract

Using concepts from the literature on individual and collective identity, we argue that organizational psychologists are at a tipping point with regard to identity. Assertions regarding a lack of distinctiveness from other fields, ambiguity in individual identification with the field among new entrants, hyperadaptation to external forces, and a failure to manage within-identity dynamics associated with science and practice are presented. These assertions are supported with descriptions of the nature of growth in the field, challenges in academic psychology departments, and calls for changing research agendas. With the aim of engaging others in collective sensemaking, alternative future scenarios for organizational psychology are presented.

Type
Focal Article
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 241 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2010 

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Footnotes

**

Department of Psychology, Michigan State University.

We wish to thank Dan Ilgen, Bill Macey, Fred Morgeson, John Schraubroeck, Nancy Tippins, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and provocative comments on an earlier draft of this article.

1

In keeping with recent trends in the field, we use “organizational psychology” rather than industrial organizational psychology throughout, except when directly quoting a source or providing a historical referent.

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