Ethics for the I/O Psychologist in Business and Organizational Settings

Ethics for the Psychologist in the Business Setting
Name
Institution
Ethics for the Psychologist in the Business Setting
Case 6: Personnel Screening for Emotional Stability
The identified ethical dilemma in this case is the application of the psychological screening procedure that was used as a part of the process of selecting correctional officers. The ethical dilemma in this case was brought about by the fact that while the screening was necessary in orders to weed out the unqualified candidates from the correctional officers positions, it touched on the area of informed consent. In this particular case, the I/O psychologist had to examine both past and present behaviors of the applicants in order to determine whether they were suitable to hold the various positions that they had applied for (Lowman, 2005).
Ideally, correctional officer position is a high risk job that exposes individuals to high levels of stress. There have been cases where correctional officers under high stress have harmed innocent people hence putting the profession into disrepute. This brings about the need to ensure that individuals that have been selected for such positions have a high stress tolerance in order to be able to handle the job. This is what made the state civil service agency to contract the services of the I/O psychologist to carry out the screening process for the job applicants. While it is important for the organization to conduct such screening in order to ensure that they get only the right applicants, the manner in which the process was done raises serious ethical concerns. This whole process violated the 2003 APA Code of Ethics, which stipulates that an individual’s consent should be obtained before they can be subjected to any type of screening test (American Psychological Association, 2014).
Even though the 2003 APA code now clearly allows organizational researchers to obtain archival research as long as the data for those involved is guaranteed, the current case still presents various ethical concerns. In the current scenario, it is highly probable that the individuals to whom the screening exercise would experience potentially harmful emotional aftermath after the assessment. From the case, there is no any indication that the I/O psychologist had in place any measures to deal with these potential harmful emotional aftermaths and as such the individual would end up suffering even after the exercise. The ideal assessment should have involved effectively preparing the individual for the entire exercise and have measures in place to deal with any harmful emotions that might arise from the process. In the absence of such measures, the entire exercise can be said to have been unethical since it would most likely lead to an emotional anguish for some individuals even though it would help in getting the right individuals for the required positions (Darley, Messick, & Tyler, 2001).
The ethical dilemma in this case was not obvious from the outset. In order to arrive at the correct position, I had to examine and reexamine the various outcomes of the screening process. The outcome was not what I expected since I was able to see two sides of assessments something that I had not considered in the past. For a long time, I had viewed assessment as something that can help an individual to arrive at the right outcome for any exercise but the ethical dilemma in the current exercise made me to change my perspective on the issue. The case is important to me as a psychologist as it helps me to make meaningful decisions regarding the conduction of assessment tests in practice.
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