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The impact of research synthesis methods on industrial–organizational psychology: The road from pessimism to optimism about cumulative knowledge
Author(s) -
DeGeest David S.,
Schmidt Frank L.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
research synthesis methods
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.376
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1759-2887
pISSN - 1759-2879
DOI - 10.1002/jrsm.22
Subject(s) - pessimism , optimism , meta analysis , field (mathematics) , industrial and organizational psychology , organizational analysis , psychology , applied psychology , organizational behavior , management science , computer science , knowledge management , social psychology , epistemology , engineering , medicine , philosophy , mathematics , pure mathematics
This paper presents an account of the impact that research synthesis methods, in the form of psychometric meta‐analysis, has had on industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology. This paper outlines the central contributions of psychometric meta‐analysis in providing a method for developing cumulative knowledge. First, this paper describes the concerns and the state of the field before the development of meta‐analytic methods. Second, the paper explains how meta‐analysis addressed these concerns. Third, the paper details the development of psychometric meta‐analysis through VG research and describes how the use of psychometric meta‐analysis spread to other topic areas in the field. Finally, the paper presents illustrative example literatures, such as training and leadership, where meta‐analysis had crucial impacts. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.