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The Road to I/O Psychology at the RCMP

The Road to I/O Psychology at the RCMP. November 2011. James Lea, Director Assessment and Research HR Sector, RCMP. Overview. Background Current job Working in the applied world. University road…. B.A., Psychology, McGill

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The Road to I/O Psychology at the RCMP

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  1. The Road to I/O Psychology at the RCMP November 2011 James Lea, Director Assessment and Research HR Sector, RCMP

  2. Overview • Background • Current job • Working in the applied world

  3. University road… • B.A., Psychology, McGill • M.A., General Experimental Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University • Ph.D., Basic and Applied Psychology, Queen’s • Post-Doctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley • Assistant Professor, Queen’s (one-year term)

  4. Crossroads: University or applied… Job hunting… • Another post-doc? • Another one-year term? • Personnel Psychology Centre?

  5. Industrial and Organizational Psychology • Personnel Selection • What measured • How measure • Legal context • Performance Management • Learning and Development • Organizational change • Teamwork • Org attitudes and behaviours • Occupational Health • Work motivation • Leadership

  6. Personnel Psychology Centre • Part of Public Service Commission of Canada • Test Development, Assessment Centres, Executive Counselling, etc. • My tasks • Revising a management simulation exercise for economists • Development of a job analysis training workshop • Working at assessment centres for management trainees, middle managers, entry level economists

  7. Heard about another opportunity…

  8. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

  9. A safe and secure Canada

  10. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

  11. Human Resources Sector • Classifying • Selecting • Training • Staffing • Compensating • Occupational Health and Safety • Employee and Management Relations • Etc…

  12. Assessment and Research, HR Sector • Internal Consultants • Industrial/Organizational Psychology • Currently 5 professional staff • Collaborate with Policy Centres on a range of projects • Job analyses and competency profiling • Assessment tool development and administration • for Recruiting, promotion, performance management, etc. • Organizational Behaviour Research projects

  13. Some A&R specific projects • Develop police officer and civilian tests and interviews • Processing thousands of answer sheets annually • Train interviewers • Lead job analysis and competency profiling workshops • Implement Computerized Adaptive Testing • Improvements to many selection systems • Int’l Promotion process web survey • Demographic research and requests • Research approval board

  14. Some A&R specific projects And some tasks that take a huge chunk of time: • Putting out fires • Making policy recommendations • “Debating” with other units re how systems should change….

  15. Some work done on own

  16. Much work is collaborative

  17. A&R Practical Challenges • Persuading management that HR (e.g., personnel selection) is more than “common sense” • Getting best practice knowledge on the discussion table • Cooperation with people with different backgrounds and agendas

  18. Management reviews an HR program

  19. Benefits in RCMP HR include… • Working for a national icon that’s in the news regularly! • Deal with a wide range of interesting jobs • Easy to see positive impact of work done by organization (safe homes, safe communities)

  20. Committees, networks… • Unlike much research, a broad mandate / range of activities • People doing very similar work around Ottawa, Canada and the world

  21. Professional associations • Ottawa I/O Psychology Group • Canadian Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology • Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology • Conferences, on-line discussions, etc.

  22. Applied work: Challenges • Less control over research topics • Logic doesn’t always carry the day…agendas… • Usually generalists rather than specialists • Often explaining (and lobbying for) the basics

  23. Applied work: Benefits • Rule of law; much more structured • 9 to 5 (ish) • Social • Easy to see contribution

  24. Lessons Learned • Not everyone has faith in expertise and research • Goals and agendas can be very different • Power of informal communication networks • Importance of “soft skills”

  25. How to prepare for an applied job…. • Broad technical knowledge (at fingertips) • Soft skills (communication, planning, …) • Teamwork

  26. QUESTIONS james.lea@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

  27. Practical Challenges in HR

  28. Schmidt & Hunter, 1998 – Meta-analysis • Work sample tests, r = .54 • Intelligence tests, r = .51 • Structured interviews, r = .51 • Job knowledge test, r = .48 • Trg & Exp beh. consistency ratings, r = .45 • Job try-out procedure, r = .44

  29. Schmidt & Hunter, 1998 – Meta-analysis • Integrity tests, r = .41 • Unstructured interviews, r = .38 • Assessment centres, r = .37 • Biographical data measures, r = .35 • Situational judgment tests*, r = .34 • Conscientiousness tests, r = .31 • Reference checks, r = .26

  30. Schmidt & Hunter, 1998 – Meta-analysis • Job experience (years), r = .18 • Trg. & exp. point method, r = .11 • Years of education, r = .10 • Interests, r = .10 • Graphology, r = .02 • Age, r = -.01

  31. Schmidt & Hunter, 1998 – Meta-analysis • General mental ability AND • Integrity tests, R = .65 • Work sample tests, R = .63 • Structured interviews, R = .63 • Conscientiousness tests, R = .60 • Job Knowledge tests, R = .58

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