OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY IN A CROSS-CULTURE PERSPECTIVE(7)
YANG: Suppose that you have a new graduate student who is passionate for the field of I/O Psychology but not sure about which topic to go as his/her long-term research plan and as a pathway to master the fundamentals in I/O Psychology, what advice would you provide for him/her?
SPECTOR: One thing to keep in mind is that the field values novelty, perhaps more than rigor. Coming up with a new idea, or integrating different ideas in a new way gets your work noticed. This is one reason that there are so many new constructs and old constructs with new names. So my first tip is to be creative and try to think of something to do that is a little bit new. An editor once told me that the secret to having a successful textbook is to be evolutionary but not revolutionary. She meant that one′s work should be a little different, but not too different. The same is true for research and getting papers published. Editors, reviewers, and researchers tend to be conservative, so do not go too far from the conventional.
, http://www.100md.com
Pay close attention to what is currently being done in terms of the topics, methods, and how people in the very top journals present their work. This can provide hints, but do not just follow blindly. Keep in mind that something is not correct just because it is in a top journal. If doing things a certain way does not make sense, think of a better way.
A good approach can be to adopt something from another area of psychology or another field. We see recent applications of cognitive concepts and theories to our field. Social psychology has for years provided interesting ideas for our research. Ideas can be found in business, education, engineering, and medicine, depending upon the researcher′s topic.
, 百拇医药
LI: I know that your time is precious. Thank you very much for accepting our interview. This question is the last one. Impression management is related to various topics in organizational research and practice. Specifically, the research has been fruitful in investigating the relationship between impression management and a variety of topics like job interview, employee theft, waste of materials, career development strategies, performance assessment, exit interviews, negotiation, conflict management, etc. Your research interests seem to have some overlap with this area. Where do you think the area of impression management will go in the future?
, http://www.100md.com
SPECTOR: I have seen some recent work on impression management with organizational citizenship behavior. Suzy Fox and I are writing a paper where we link it to CWB as well. I agree that research on the strategies people use to manage their impressions is important. Thinking of Liuqin′s last question, this is an area a student might think about.
References
1 Narayanan L, Menon S, Spector P E. A cross-cultural comparison of job stressors and reactions among employees holding comparable jobs in two countries. International Journal of Stress Management, 1999, 6: 197~212
, 百拇医药
2 Liu C, Spector P E, Shi L. Cross-national job stress: A quantitative and qualitative study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2007, 28: 209~239
3 Spector P E, Sanchez J I, Siu O L, et al. Secondary control, socioinstrumental control, and work locus of control in China and the U.S. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 2004, 53: 38~60, http://www.100md.com
SPECTOR: One thing to keep in mind is that the field values novelty, perhaps more than rigor. Coming up with a new idea, or integrating different ideas in a new way gets your work noticed. This is one reason that there are so many new constructs and old constructs with new names. So my first tip is to be creative and try to think of something to do that is a little bit new. An editor once told me that the secret to having a successful textbook is to be evolutionary but not revolutionary. She meant that one′s work should be a little different, but not too different. The same is true for research and getting papers published. Editors, reviewers, and researchers tend to be conservative, so do not go too far from the conventional.
, http://www.100md.com
Pay close attention to what is currently being done in terms of the topics, methods, and how people in the very top journals present their work. This can provide hints, but do not just follow blindly. Keep in mind that something is not correct just because it is in a top journal. If doing things a certain way does not make sense, think of a better way.
A good approach can be to adopt something from another area of psychology or another field. We see recent applications of cognitive concepts and theories to our field. Social psychology has for years provided interesting ideas for our research. Ideas can be found in business, education, engineering, and medicine, depending upon the researcher′s topic.
, 百拇医药
LI: I know that your time is precious. Thank you very much for accepting our interview. This question is the last one. Impression management is related to various topics in organizational research and practice. Specifically, the research has been fruitful in investigating the relationship between impression management and a variety of topics like job interview, employee theft, waste of materials, career development strategies, performance assessment, exit interviews, negotiation, conflict management, etc. Your research interests seem to have some overlap with this area. Where do you think the area of impression management will go in the future?
, http://www.100md.com
SPECTOR: I have seen some recent work on impression management with organizational citizenship behavior. Suzy Fox and I are writing a paper where we link it to CWB as well. I agree that research on the strategies people use to manage their impressions is important. Thinking of Liuqin′s last question, this is an area a student might think about.
References
1 Narayanan L, Menon S, Spector P E. A cross-cultural comparison of job stressors and reactions among employees holding comparable jobs in two countries. International Journal of Stress Management, 1999, 6: 197~212
, 百拇医药
2 Liu C, Spector P E, Shi L. Cross-national job stress: A quantitative and qualitative study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2007, 28: 209~239
3 Spector P E, Sanchez J I, Siu O L, et al. Secondary control, socioinstrumental control, and work locus of control in China and the U.S. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 2004, 53: 38~60, http://www.100md.com