The issue of enforcement: No teeth + no bite = no point?

Abstract

authors of the focal article tackle an admirable challenge in trying to determine how appli-cable the APA Code of Ethics is to I – O psychologists and determine potential deficiencies in the Code that should be addressed in upcoming revisions. On the plus side, the authors determined that, overall, the content of the Code generalized to I – O psychology barring some notable excep-tions. The problem, however, is not with the ethical guidelines themselves, or the areas of relevance versus deficiency. Rather, the biggest deficiency of the APA Code of Ethics as it relates to I – O psychology may be the espoused goals of the Code. The goals, while laudable, are likely to remain unattainable for the field of I – O psychology. In particular, the heart of the problem can be seen with the second goal of the Code: “ to present a set of standards that describe enforceable expectations for professional behavior ” (APA, 1953). That one word – enforceable – breaks the Code for I – O psychology.