Yes, We're Fishing—In Rough Waters for Hard-to-Find Fish

In their focal article, Ruggs et al. (2013) outline the missed opportunities for researchers within industrial–organizational (I–O) psychology in examining marginalized employees. The authors identify seven groups as having been overlooked by I–O psychologists and thus deserving greater attention in the future. They conclude their focal article by noting that, “Instead of being on the front line serving as scientists and allies for those who are marginalized and treated poorly, we have let these individuals take a backseat while we have gone fishing.” We disagree with this assertion. It is not that we have gone fishing and ignored marginalized employees. Rather, we have gone fishing, in rough waters, to locate hard-to-find fish. We are not purposefully ignoring marginalized employees. On the contrary, we are conducting research while battling numerical representation issues and ethical and administration issues. The focus of our commentary is to highlight these challenges and offer suggestions for addressing them in an effort to assist researchers in actually doing what the authors of the focal article are calling for them to do—to successfully engage in more focused research on these under-represented members of the workforce.