Each panellist will have 10 minutes to present their views on big data and the role of it in Occupational Psychology. This will then be followed by questions from ...
What is so Big about Big Data? Convenor: Ian Bushnell, University of Glasgow & DOP Chair Elect Panel: Max Blumberg, Goldsmiths University, Eugene Burke, CEB-‐SHL, Michal Kosinski,University of Cambridge -‐ Psychometrics Centre and Richard Kwiatkowski, Cranfield University. Each panellist will have 10 minutes to present their views on big data and the role of it in Occupational Psychology. This will then be followed by questions from the convener or the floor on what has been presented. The session will close on general questions on the potential future applications of big data and its applications in other fields. Eugene Burke, CEB-‐SHL Big data has entered the vernacular of business as evidenced by a recent Radio 4 Bottom Line programme on that very subject. In the analytics community, the conversation has moved on to Big Insight and the focus has shifted to how issues are surfaced, how the right data is pulled together and how the insights from analytics are communicated. In a recent CEB survey, 85% of business leaders said that more analytics was not leading to better decision making specifically on talent issues. When we turn to occupational psychology and the opportunity that Big Data and Talent Analytics offers for us, there is a communication gap between our science and the understanding of organisational leaders that needs to be bridged. An example of how that gap can be bridged will be shared through a case story of how analytics helped a CEO resolve people issues in his business. Max Blumberg , Goldsmiths University As a form of descriptive research, big data can provide useful and often rapid insights into “organisational status quo”. It cannot, however, readily deliver organisational change available to occupational psychologists via experimental and explanatory research. This session will argue that a combination of big data insight and theory-‐based experimental research are both necessary prerequisites for effective organisational change.
