Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology has largely ignored organized labor, both in terms of our research interests and as a potential domain of professional practice. Historically, some I-O psychologists have even engaged in antilabor activities. This article aims to make that history more salient to current members of the profession, help us better understand how and why that schism came about, note the adverse effects on our understanding of organizations and contributing to employee well-being and organizational effectiveness, and highlight associated ethical issues. We offer suggestions on how to address the situation, drawing on examples from the field of industrial relations. We also consider the impact of the current antilabor, antidemocratic US government administration. We conclude by offering some suggested prompts for commentaries to the article.

Industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology recognizes dozens of different constructs, including several individual differences, environmental variables, job attitudes, and work-related behaviors. It is, of course, necessary to retain a variety of constructs in order to adequately capture the complexities, subtleties, and diversity of work-related phenomena. But do the many constructs recognized by I-O psychologists all serve a useful purpose? Or has our field been too eager to welcome redundant, unnecessary constructs into the fold? And if I-O psychology has embraced too many unnecessary constructs, then what—if anything—should we do about it? In the current focal article, we first discuss when and why construct proliferation occurs. We then advance a nuanced perspective—one that asserts that construct proliferation is occasionally “good,” usually “bad,” largely inevitable, and often incentivized. We conclude by calling for a temporary moratorium on the introduction of new constructs into the field of I-O psychology, and we offer suggestions for how the field can address construct proliferation. We hope that the current article leads to a fruitful discussion of how to most effectively solve the construct proliferation dilemma.