Examining the strings of our violins whilst Rome is burning: A rebuttal

Abstract

Problemification: In response to the admirable objective of Efendic and Van Zyl’s (2019) article to offer recommendations to address the crisis of replication in industrial organisational psychology (IOP), I offer the counter-argument that this immediate crisis, although important, is of lesser importance in the greater scheme of the challenges faced by IOP, going into the future. It is merely symptomatic of a deeper and greater illness in IOP. Implications: I contend that the ‘lesser’ crisis of replication pales into insignificance against the backdrop of three accelerating and snowballing, interacting meta-crises within IOP: (1) growing irrelevance (= a burning Rome), (2) an outdated, constraining research paradigm (= an antiquated violin) and (3) ill, even toxic, research community dynamics and functioning (= our stressed-out violinists). Purpose: The aim of my rebuttal is to elucidate the three meta-crises and point out their life-threatening implications for IOP going into the future. Future-fit responses to address these meta-crises are offered. Recommendations: Given these meta-crises, going forward in building the academic reputation of the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP), a number of recommendations are made regarding making SAJIP future-proof (= fit-for-purpose, fire-fighting violins and violinists).

Keywords

• industrial organisational psychology
• meta-crises
• relevancy
• research paradigm
• research community dynamics and functioning