Quo Vadis Interviews in Practice – Demand

Abstract

Quo Vadis, as the name suggests, was originally conceptualized as a series of interviews that would capture new horizons for industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology, including its more socially responsive and especially humanitarian applications (Carr, 2007). Proposed to the APA’s Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) by the late Emeritus Professor Frank J. Landy, the series has been staunchly backed by successive editors of The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (TIP), Professors Wendy Becker and Lisa Steelman. We are very grateful for this support, and for the consistent backing by SIOP, including permission to reprint a selection of interviews in this book. The selection process was very difficult, and more excellent interviews with leading figures and ground-breaking practitioners can be found online at http://www.siop.org/tip/tip.aspx. The present selection is divided into two main parts: the current chapter focuses first and foremost on demand, whereas the next chapter is more concerned, relatively speaking, with supply (after a distinction in Carr et al., 2008). The interviews quite literally speak for themselves, and in that sense need no introduction. However, they are each presented within a similarly layered structure, with interrelated but nevertheless distinct ‘levels of analysis’ (MacLachlan, Carr, & McAuliffe, 2010). These range from relatively macro-level, ‘political’ perspectives on the one hand to ‘individual’-level analyses on the other; ranged in-between are organizational, occupational, community and institutional (inter-organizational) perspectives. To that extent, humanitarian work psychology — in its application — is inherently inter-disciplinary.