The Society of Psychologists in Management (SPIM) is a professional association of psychologists who also serve in managerial or leadership positions.
The Society of Psychologists in Management was founded in 1985 in Tampa, Florida by a small group of psychologists who also served in managerial roles. These included Anthony Broskowski, Richard Kilburg,[1][2] Dwight Harshbarger, Margaret Hastings, and Harry Levinson. The intent was to provide a professional home and identity for psychologists who were no longer working as practicing or academic psychologists, both to help them retain their identity and to recognize psychology-management as a distinctive profession.
The presidents of SPIM have been:
SPIM holds an annual mid-winter conference for psychologist-managers and also provides programming at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. The Society annually awards the Distinguished Psychologist in Management (DPIM) Award and the Richard Kilburg Service Award. It also publishes an academic journal, The Psychologist-Manager Journal. The journal has provided professional guidance relevance for psychologist-managers (e.g., crisis management, Ball, 2005; principles for growing a company, Clifton, 1999; transformational leadership, Eisenhower) and special issues such as on The Psychologist-President (Lowman, 1999). The organization also formed a not-for-profit foundation to further its charitable purposes.
The association is dedicated to maintaining their membership criteria. SPIM's members are psychologists usually holding a managerial or consultant positions, are teaching or conducting research in management or leadership. SPIM also offers Affiliate memberships to those who hold a master's degree in psychology and are employed as a manager or consultant to management.[3]