Professor Jo Silvester

imgDepartment of Psychology                                                   

City University London

Northampton Square

London,

EC1V 0HB                                            

 

Tel: +44 (0)207 040 8525

Mob: +44 (0)7970 518911.

Email: jo.silvester.1@city.ac.uk

 

Jo is Director of the Organisational Psychology Research Group at City University London. Prior to this she was Professor of Occupational Psychology at Goldsmiths College and has held lectureships at the University of Leeds and the University of Wales Swansea.

 

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Jo’s research focuses on the assessment and development of individuals in public, private and political organisations, particularly in relation to leadership, diversity and organisational change.

 

For the past seven years Jo has been studying politicians and predictors of political effectiveness. In 2002 she designed the first competency based selection process for prospective Parliamentary candidates for the Conservative Party. This led to a study of psychological predictors of political performance in the 2005 UK General Election (Silvester & Dykes, 2007). She has recently completed a similar project for the Liberal Democrat Party; creating a competency framework for Members of Parliament and re-shaping the approval process for prospective Parliamentary candidates. Other cross-party research has led to the development of a national skills framework for local councillors (sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the IDeA), and skill sets for local authority top-teams. Jo was recently invited to write a policy document on ‘Support for Councillors’ for the Councillors Commission, established by the Secretary of State for Local Government in 2007. She is currently using 360-review data for politicians collected from over 700 political colleagues, officers and constituents to build an empirical model of political leadership.

 

In addition to her political work, Jo has undertaken ESRC research into the cognitive and behavioural predictors of empathy judgements for physicians (Silvester et al. 2007), and an evaluation of the impact of CASE studentships on industry for the ESRC. Recent ESRC PhD studentships include investigations of ‘leadership and diversity in investment banking’ (co-sponsored by JPMorgan), ‘community leadership and trust in local government’ (co-sponsored by the ODPM) and ‘ethnicity and perceived leadership potential’ (co-sponsored by the Home Office).

 

Jo has been Associate Editor for the International Journal of Selection and Assessment (2003-6) and for the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (2001-5). In 2002 Jo co-founded the Work Psychology Partnership, an organisation committed to building links between academia and practice.

 

RECENT AND FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS

Arnold, J., Silvester, J. Patterson, F., Cooper, C., Roberston, I., & Burnes, B. (2009) Work Psychology (5th Edition). London: Pearson.

 

Silvester, J. (2009). Recruiting politicians: Introducing competency-based approval processes for prospective Parliamentary candidates. In Weinberg, A. (Ed.) Political Leadership. Cambridge: CUP.

 

Silvester, J. (2008). The good, the bad, and the ugly: Politics and politicians at work.Chapter 4 (pp.107-148) in G.P. Hodgkinson and J.K. Ford (Eds.) International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 23.Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

 

Silvester, J. (2008). The Meaning and Impact of Work: Critical Perspectives in Organizational Psychology. Volume 1. London: Routledge.

 

Silvester, J. (2008). Selecting and Developing Employees: Critical Perspectives in Organizational Psychology. Volume 2. London: Routledge.

 

Silvester, J. (2008). Enhancing Performance at Work: Critical Perspectives in Organizational Psychology. Volume 3. London: Routledge.

 

Silvester, J. (2008). The Future of Work and Organisational Psychology: Critical Perspectives in Organizational Psychology. Volume 4. London: Routledge.

 

Silvester, J. (2008). A CASE of Impact: Evaluating the impact of CASE studentships on business and industry. Report for the ESRC.

 

Silvester, J. & Dykes, C. (2008). Recruting Politicians. In Local Government Leadership: Creating Political Value. London: IDeA.

 

Silvester, J. (2008). New Unitary Councillor Roles. London: IDeA.

 

Silvester, J., Patterson, F.C., Koczwara, A. & Ferguson, E. (2007). ‘Trust me….’ Cognitive and behavioural predictors of perceived physician empathy. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 519-527.

 

Silvester, J. & Dykes, C. (2007). Selecting political candidates: A longitudinal study of assessment centre performance and electoral success in the 2005 UK General Election Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80, 11-25.

 

Silvester, J. (2007). Support for Councillors. Commissioned report for the Councillors Commission, Department of Communities and Local Government. London.

 

Silvester, J. (2007) Qualitative research in organizations. Handbook of Qualitative Research. W. Stainton-Rogers & C. Willig (Eds.). London: Sage.

 

Silvester, J. (2006). The Political Skills Tool Kit. Improvement & Development Agency: London.

 

Silvester, J. (2004). Attributional coding.  In C. Cassell & G. Symon (Eds.) Esssential Guide to Qualitative methods in organisational research. London: Sage.

 

Arnold, J.M., Silvester, J., Patterson, F., Robertson, I., Cooper, C. & Burnes, B. (2004).  Work Psychology (4th Edition). London: Prentice Hall.

 

Silvester, J., Patterson, F., & Ferguson, E. (2003).  Comparing two attributional models of performance in retail sales: A field study. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76 (1), 115-132.

 

Silvester, J. & Anderson, N.R. (2003). Technology and discourse: A comparison face-to-face and telephone employment interviews. Special Issue on Technology & Selection: International Journal of Selection & Assessment, 11,

 

Silvester, J., Anderson-Gough, F.M., Anderson, N.R. & Mohammed, A.R. (2002). Locus of control, attributions and impression management in the selection interview. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 75, 59-76. 

 

PhD STUDENTS

2000-5 Janice Leggett PhD ‘Staff attributions for violent clients’

 

2002-6 Anna Koczwara PhD ESRC CASE studentship with JPMorgan ‘Leadership & diversity in investment banking’

 

2003-6 Helen Wilkin University of London Bursary ‘Assessing empathy in care roles’.

 

2004-7 Sharon Loivette ESRC-ODPM [Office of the Deputy Prime Minister] competitive studentship ‘Community leadership and trust in local government’.

 

2007-  Madeleine Dipper ESRC CASE studentship with the Home Office ‘The impact of race on perceived leadership potential’

 

POLICY AND CONSULTANCY WORK

  • Liberal Democrat Party - design of competency framework and revised approval process for prospective Parliamentary Candidates (2008).
  • Review of the new Unitary Councillor roles for the IDeA (2008)
  •  Competency framework for scrutiny officers with Centre for Public Scrutiny, University of Warwick, and CLG (2008)
  •  Leadership workshop, Home Office. (2008)
  •  Psychological profiling and 360-review for politicians: Leadership Centre for Local Government (2005-)
  •  Report on support for councillors for the Councillors Commission, established by the Secretary for State for Local Government (2007).
  •  Review of unconscious bias and performance ratings for JPMorgan (2006)
  •  Evaluation of the IDeA peer offering (2007)
  •  Evaluation of the Political Skills Framework for the IDeA (2006)
  •  Development centres for senior politicians in local government (2006)
  •  360-review for Westminster City Council cabinet members (2006)
  •  UK Sport – competency based assessment for international sporting representatives (2006)
  •  Development of National Political Skills Framework for Local Government as part of the Attracting Members of Talent project for the ODPM and IDeA (July, 2004). Cited in ODPM publication, Vibrant Local Leadership (2005).
  •  Development centre for senior politicians - Leadership Centre for Local Government (2005).
  • Conservative Party – competency based approval process for prospective Parliamentary Candidates (2002). 

INVITED TALKS

  • Recruiting Political Leaders: Local Government Association Conference, Bournemouth (2008).
    Launch of New Approvals Process for Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, LibDem Annual Conference, Bournemouth (2008).
  • Political selection: Demos/ESRC seminar, London (2008)
  • Ethnicity and leadership potential. Birkbeck College seminar on Ethnicity and race at work (2008)
    A CASE of Impact: Undertaking PhDs with industry: Objective 1 Conference, Sheffield (2008).
  • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Politics at Work DOP Postgraduate Conference (2008)
  • Generation Y Association of Graduate Recruiters (2007)
  • Generation Y CIPD, Guernsey (2007)
  • Leadership Forum Royal Bank of Scotland (2006)
  • Motivation at Work CIPD Reward Conference (2006)
  • Political Skills IDeA Local Government Conference (2006)
  • Politics at Work BBC internal seminar (February 2006)
  • Developing cabinets, Labour Party Spring Conference (2005)
  • Developing cabinets, Conservative Party Spring Conference (2005)
  • Women in Politics, BPS DOP Symposium EAWOP – Istanbul (2005)
  • Making an impact, CIPD Professional Forum (2005)
  • Developing Politicians, Local Government Association Annual Conference (2005)
  • What makes a good councillor? LGA Annual Conference, Brighton (2004)
  • Political skills for councillors, LGA Conference (2004)
  • Managing Staff in Difficult Times ,CIPD Harrogate (2004)
  • Diversity in Politics, British Association of Women Police Officers Annual Conference (2003)

MEDIA

Jo’s work has been featured in The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, People Management, Personnel Today, the Daily Mirror, and The Independent where she was described as one of the ten leading occupational psychologists in the UK (March 2004). Jo has contributed to Radio programmes including: Woman’s Hour, Science Now, and The Science Programme.