I/O Students Provided Real World Experience

Industrial/organizational students will have opportunities to take research skills, methodologies and theoretical concepts learned in the classroom into real workplace labs under the auspices of the newly formed University of Memphis Center for Organizational Research and Effectiveness (UMCORE). The Center was established to address management problems in Mid-South businesses and organizations, according to Dr. Ron Landis, director.

Landis, who is associate professor and director of the industrial/organizational research area in the Department of Psychology, envisions not only helping organizations with administrative problems but also giving graduate students opportunities to gather data for theses and dissertations, publish journal articles and make presentations at conferences. "When we help an organization with a specific issue, we are also conducting the research required to solve the problem. We turn the experience into something of a scholarly nature."

Faculty members in organizational behavior in the Department of Management are also members of UMCORE. The partnership is an interdisciplinary effort to serve the needs of the business community while at the same time guiding the academic pursuits of students.

The I/O concentration is dedicated to the intensive training of high-quality students by involving them throughout their graduate education in research activities, rigorous course work and placements in real world settings to prepare them for careers in both academic and applied positions.

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