About Me
Hi! I’m Nicole Kohari, though a lot of my friends and family call me Niki. The name of this blog relates to a nickname I’ve had since I was a kid. My late Aunt Kathy thought it would be cute to shorten Nicole Elizabeth to NikiBeth, so the name kind of stuck with me.
I have been married to my husband, Nate, for three years now. He’s a software developer and has written open source software including ninject. We launched Zen, a web-based project management tool in July 2009. We’ve always dreamed of starting a business together, and we finally did it! My role is Director of Operations, which is good considering I’m the one with the better memory and ability to organize tasks.
I am also a fifth year graduate student and PhD candidate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at The University of Akron. I just finished my last semester of classes, so that was definitely a good feeling. I’m starting to get focused on my dissertation and narrowing down my options. I’ve always been interested in why people do the things that they do. I think I just needed to find the right context to turn my curiosity about people into a career.
Most people haven’t heard of I/O. It is basically a branch of psychology that relates psychological principles to the context of the workplace (check out http://siop.org for more information). I won’t go in to the history of I/O too much but a lot of interest in the workplace goes back to Taylor’s idea of Scientific Management in the early 1900’s, so if you want a historical perspective that’s a good one to look at, though there are others.
Early I/O Psychologists also consulted for the military, selecting and classifying recruits using placement exams. Industry leaders figured if I/O was good enough for the military it should be good enough for their organization. More recently, with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which established the EEOC and forbade discrimination and court cases such as Griggs v. Duke Power (1971) which stated that tests must be job-relevant, I/O Psychologists found a role in American businesses because we understand issues with employee selection and test validation.
I/O psychology has two foci, which is inherent in the name. The “I” side is focused on issues such as selection and training, while the “O” side is typically focused on topics such as leadership, teams, and motivation. Though I have training in both, I see myself as more of an “O” person because that’s where my research interests lie. I am interested in leadership and leadership development, mental models and learning, organizational justice, self-concept, affect/emotions, and entrepreneurship. I have a book chapter on leadership and organizational justice published in Advances in the Psychology of Justice and Affect edited by David DeCremer, which was part of my thesis. I also have papers in Leadership Quarterly and Psychology:An International Review that are coming out later this year. I’m currently working on a revise and resubmit for The Journal of Educational Psychology also.
Entrepreneurship has become an interest of mine over the past few years. I have always tried to figure out in what context my skills are best applied. I think entrepreneurship is that context. I think that entrepreneurs think differently. Many of us have thought about working for ourselves, but not all of us have the motivation to make it happen. This is an idea that should be explored from the I/O perspective. I want to focus on whether entrepreneurship can be taught (because I believe that it can) and whether certain factors within a person constrain the way that information about entrepreneurship is organized.
I am currently working as a research assistant for one of the Deans on campus. I am working on a practical piece related to the topic of arrogance. In the past, I taught Introduction to Psychology and worked as head TA, which is more of a coordinator/administrative-type position. I just found out that I will be teaching cognitive processes, and undergraduate class in the fall. I am pretty excited to get back to teaching. I have also done a few consulting projects through the Center for Organizational Research on campus, where I have had the opportunity to create surveys and interview questions. This past year, I was the treasurer for Graduate Student Government and I am active in several departmental committees. I also participated in the Hop-On Student Venture Fund, which I’ve blogged about quite a bit.
My hometown is Akron, OH, so I haven’t ventured very far from home in order to go to graduate school. The University of Akron has done great things for my hometown, so it is good to stay in the area and feel like I am contributing to my community. Other than being a the rubber capital back in the day and being home to LeBron James, Akron isn’t known for much else. Akron U is actually ranked in the top 10 in the country for I/O Psych according to US News and World Report, so maybe one day we’ll be known for that too.
In my “free” time, I like to cook, golf, and read. I like trying new recipes and keeping things creative. I’m playing on a golf league with my mom this summer, so we will see how that goes. In terms of reading, I’ve spent the last few weeks reading about lean software development, marketing, and articles on entrepreneurship education.
