A Legacy of I-O Leadership: Richard Landers Begins Presidency of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology (SIOP)

In April, 2026, Richard Landers, faculty in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University Minnesota, will begin his term as the 45th president of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology (SIOP). SIOP is the foremost professional association for I-O psychology, representing Division 14 of the American Psychological Association, an affiliate of the Association for Psychological Science, and a founding member of the global Alliance for Organizational Psychology. With nearly 10,000 members worldwide, SIOP is a powerful and influential voice in impacting workplaces in accordance with its mission; “to enhance human well-being and performance in organizational and work settings by promoting the science, practice, and teaching of I-O psychology.”

While Landers himself is new to the role, he follows in the footsteps of several UMN I-O Psychology faculty and alumni before him who also served as presidents of the organization–faculty members Marvin Dunnette (1966-68), John Campbell (1977-78), and Paul Sackett (1993-94). Minnesota I-O alums who completed terms as SIOP president include Michael Campion (1995-96), Leaetta Hough (2005-06), Jeff McHenry (2006-07), and Fred Oswald (2017-2018). All told, roughly 10% of SIOP leaders have either been faculty or students at the UMN, highlighting the unique and significant position of the Minnesota I-O program in guiding the field over the past 6 decades. According to Deniz Ones, faculty in and director of the I-O program, “Richard’s presidency continues this tradition and reaffirms our department’s impact on the field. It is worth emphasizing that his election comes at a time when the organization’s influence is greater than ever, with initiatives that span scientific research, professional practice, and public policy.” Standing on the shoulders of his predecessors, Landers is proud of Minnesota’s I-O legacy and eager to begin his term as the next president, leveraging that influence in pursuit of his goals for the organization and field.

Pathway to the Presidency

In addition to being a UMN I-O faculty member, Landers is also an alum of the program, completing his doctoral degree under the mentorship of his now colleague Paul Sackett. In reflecting on how he first became involved in SIOP, Landers recalled, “there is certainly the MN I-O legacy [with SIOP]...I remember that back when I was a grad student working with Paul ... There would be stories of SIOPs gone by. There was an expectation that students go to the conference, be a member, and engage with the field.” Landers did just that, volunteering early on in his graduate program. Over the years he grew his involvement with SIOP, serving on committees, task forces, and then as an elected member of the executive board. Landers described that via those formative experiences, he saw the importance of leadership and how much influence leaders can have. To him, one day serving as president “seemed important,” knowing the potential for impact. Now that he is officially assuming the role, he will sit atop the board of directors and the organization proper, helping to set the tone for how I-O is understood and practiced worldwide.

When asked what most prepared him for the role, Landers stated,

Later, Landers’ 3-year term on the Executive board allowed him to build on the leadership skills he had developed to date, pushing him to think more strategically about the overall organization and its purpose in preparation for one day becoming president.

This Moment in Time

According to Landers, “we are right in the middle of a collection of key pivots in society…and a lot of them involve work.” Society is grappling with AI and its rapid influence on our work, in addition to the incredible upheaval we are experiencing with regard to federal employment practices and how they are regulated. Landers sees I-O psychology as key to successfully navigating these transformations, and SIOP as a major player in doing so; SIOP has to “put our voice in front of people who matter so we can make a difference.” As president, Landers will be focused on one goal: “generating enthusiasm and group effort toward addressing these challenges.”

Landers described how the systems of organizations and society at large are set up to incentivize individuals, not groups. Individual crusaders may be more visible, but it is ultimately group action that has the greatest impact. How, then, do we get people more excited about group action in order to work together better to achieve a goal? Landers is seeking to focus and grow group action in SIOP, starting with supporting micro communities to help them advance their efforts. For instance, SIOP has a new component in their annual conference called research community forums. The goal of these forums is to empower members to have mini conferences before the main conference, allowing them to zero in on issues they find personally meaningful, engage with those who have similar interests, and share their related research. Also, Landers wants to develop more long-term special interest groups. He stated, “right now we are trying to [develop] a special interest group of federal workers since they know best [i.e., the challenges facing the federal sector]…[I want to] give them a community and support system within the SIOP context to provide opportunities, resources, mentoring, individual support, and infrastructure.” Landers described that SIOP also has a federal advocacy academy to gather and train people who want to make a difference in Washington. As president, Landers wants to “scale back on the top-down,” believing that such an approach is not enough for the organization because “we can’t do what needs to be done at the level of detail that makes a difference.” For all these reasons, supporting and advancing smaller communities within SIOP is Landers’ main goal as president.

Bridging Research and Practice

When asked how he defines effective leadership within a professional scientific organization like SIOP, Landers immediately responded, “for an I-O audience, that’s a loaded question.” While effective leadership is definitely a hotly debated topic in the field, Landers is laser-focused on priorities that bring about meaningful, visible change. He wants to create systems, marshall resources, and build capabilities for the organization that will live well beyond his term. He wants to codify things that work into organizational policy and standing practices. Landers stated, “I’m only effective if I can make that happen.”

Luckily, Landers is a systems thinker. A focus of his research is on the design and engineering of systems, such as games and gamification. In doing such research, Landers has explored how people respond to a particular complex set of systems–a game–and how they can be given options within that system that make them feel valid, meaningful and impactful. How one “plays” the game is part of the design dynamics, but how one “feels” when they play it is also important to achieve the desired outcome. Landers stated, “it’s a complex engineering challenge to do that better.” This is how Landers thinks about advancing his goals as SIOP president, particularly with regard to building communities in order to more effectively influence systems of power and advance change. He explained, “[SIOP] research forums…[I think about] what worked and how do we tweak them? With special interest groups, how do we make them something people want to be a part of?” Just like with his games and gamification research, Landers wants to create things that people want to participate in and make use of–experiences and opportunities that will attract and engage SIOP members who can then turn that enthusiasm into global impact.

The Next Generation of SIOP Members

Finally, half of SIOP members–nearly 5,000–are graduate students. Landers recognizes the special responsibility the organization has to these members, ensuring the next generation of I-O psychologists are subscribers, producers, promoters, and practitioners of science to achieve SIOP’s vision, which is to improve worker well-being and transform work in order to build effective organizations. Landers knows there is another key aspect of support that SIOP has a responsibility to provide to such early-career members: better convergence of philosophy, moral and ethical values. Landers explained,

Even though effective leadership is a hotly debated topic in I-O, likely many will agree with Landers’ perspective on the importance of morality and ethics to science, and to leadership. As the incoming president of SIOP, Landers is well-poised to advance what he has set forth for himself to accomplish–and likely the field of I-O psychology will be all the better for it.

To learn more, visit the SIOP website.