If It Looks Like A Worker, And Quacks Like A Worker, Is It A Worker?: Initiating the Development of a Precise and Robust Definition of a Worker

Hernandez et al. (2025) extensively evaluates the definitionof the term worker—and by extension, work— and arguesto include nonhuman animals as workers. We believe thisinclusive approach has merit; however, it raises importantconceptual questions regarding whether the field of I-O psychologycurrently possesses a coherent conceptual definitionof a worker to support Hernandez et al. (2025)’s theoreticalfoundation. To fully realize the potential of this inclusiveperspective, substantial conceptual work remains. Their argumentsprompted the authors of this commentary to reflecton how the term worker should be defined and explore usingthe Podsakoff et al. (2016) conceptual construction process toachieve a robust, precise, and theoretically coherent conceptualization.