Work And Organizational Psychology Research Articles

Are we ahead of the trend or just following? The role of work and organizational psychology in shaping emerging technologies at work

ABSTRACT This position paper elaborates on three core themes that emerged from a panel discussion that was held at the 21st Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology. The authors of this paper discussed the status quo and the future of Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) research and practice amidst the advent of emerging workplace technologies. The discussion centred on the question of what role WOP scholars and practitioners should take within this interdisciplinary field and how future research should evolve from previous studies on automation. The paper systematically examines: (1) emerging technologies as a new type of technological change, (2) WOP’s role in the design of emerging technologies and socio-technical systems, and (3) hindrances in WOP becoming more involved. Based on our reflections regarding each of these themes, we propose seven actionable recommendations to move forward and to encourage the involvement of WOP in the development and implementation of emerging technologies at work.

Interactive technologies through the lens of team effectiveness: an interdisciplinary systematic literature review

ABSTRACT Although interactive technologies increasingly shape teamwork, their relationship with team effectiveness (inputs, processes, emergent states, and outputs) remains unclear. To provide an overview of this relationship, we systematically reviewed empirical articles from Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). To bring the two disciplines closer, we analysed 37 papers that validated the effects of interactive technologies, focusing on the type and characteristics of these technologies, the psychological mechanisms that they intended to support, and the methodological information of the conducted studies. We found that interactive technologies had mainly positive effects on various team effectiveness components (e.g., action team processes and task-related outputs), especially when they allowed team members to be physically close to each other or to have the option to interact synchronously. Nevertheless, the picture remains incomplete (e.g., limited evidence about affect-related properties and outputs), with several methodological limitations (e.g., mainly experimental studies with student teams). We discuss ways to shape the existing technological potential for effective team functioning, especially for affective and implicit psychological mechanisms. We highlight the need for interdisciplinary research and present an exemplary approach as an inspiration for WOP and HCI to work together and move beyond the boundaries of each single discipline.

Critical reflection and critical reflexivity as core processes for critical WOP: Precarious employment as an example

AbstractThis work suggests that researchers in work and organizational psychology (WOP) and WOP as a discipline would benefit from a critical perspective on their own research and practice. We highlight the value of critical reflection and critical reflexivity on contexts of research and practice in order to increase the practical impact of WOP for everyone. First, we outline how WOP currently fails to address pressing global issues, such as precarious employment, by focusing on work‐related phenomena in affluent societies and neglecting issues relevant to the majority of the world's working population. Second, we present a heuristic framework of four fundamental contextual components that are important to consider when engaging in a continuous process of critical reflection and critical reflexivity: history; economy and politics; society and culture; and personal background. Third, we illustrate why these contexts are important for WOP with the example of precarious employment. Considering context more explicitly is important for future WOP research because context not only co‐determines the experiences of the working people under investigation but also the subjectivity of researchers themselves. We hope to encourage WOP researchers to engage in critical reflection and critical reflexivity to promote a more critical WOP.

Start even Smaller, and then more Random. Comment on "Start Small, not Random: Why does Justifying your Time-Lag Matter?" by Yannick Griep, Ivana Vranjes, Johannes M. Kraak, Leonie Dudda, & Yingjie Li.

The focal article by Griep and colleagues raises some highly important issues and it is timely to further advance organizational behavior (OB) and work and organizational psychology (WOP). It comes at the right time because the last two decades can be characterized by two opposing trends. On the one hand, there have been exciting developments in statistical methods to appropriately model time in statistical analyses, while on the other hand, the vast majority of studies have not considered time in analyses, or have not done so appropriately. For the sake of brevity, I use 'temporal design' and 'temporal analysis' as umbrella terms. As Griep et al. succinctly claim, many opportunities for better temporal designs and temporal analyses have been missed and there is a strong need to do better in the future. In this commentary, I add to some of the important issues raised and call for changes in future research.

Online intercultural exchange: A case study in work and organisational psychology

ABSTRACT Acquiring intercultural competences is critical in order to avoid prejudice and increase tolerance in the global workforce. This case study describes and evaluates a learning experience designed to develop intercultural competences. Cross-cultural leadership theories were incorporated into the syllabus of a Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) course. Students applied these theories while gaining international exposure through Online Intercultural Exchanges (OIE). Students from the University of Valencia (Spain) and the University Centre of Brasília (Brazil) participated in the exchange. The sample was composed of 22 undergraduate psychology students who worked in international pairs to address cross-cultural leadership. Results showed that students gained knowledge about cross-cultural leadership, developed intercultural competences, and evaluated the learning experience as satisfactory. These findings encourage the use of OIE to incorporate cross-cultural aspects in WOP.

Striving for more: Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) and living wages

Striving for more: Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) and living wages

100 Years of Scientific Evolution of Work and Organizational Psychology: A Bibliometric Network Analysis From 1919 to 2019.

In this study, we explore a 100 years of Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP). To do this, we carry out a bibliometric performance and network analysis (BPNA) to understand the evolution structure and the most important themes in the field of study. To perform the BNPA, 8,966 documents published since 1919 were exported from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The SciMAT software was used to process data and to create the evolution structure, the strategic diagram, and the thematic network structure of the strategic themes of the field of WOP. We identified 29 strategic clusters and discuss the most important themes (motor themes) and their relationship with other clusters. This research presents the complete evolution of the field of study, identifying emerging themes and others with a high degree of development. We hope that this work will support researchers and future research in the field of WOP.

The digital transformation of work is here – how scientists and practitioners can work together to manage needed workplace changes

Organizations across Europe are reinventing their structures and processes in the quest to become more “agile”. To facilitate these changes methods like “Design thinking”, “Bar Camps” or “Working out loud” are becoming mainstream, no longer only used in hip start-ups and communication agencies. Traditional working environments, typically associated with rules, routines, and regulations are now transformed into open (co-working) spaces. Something big is going on and we wanted to find out about it by holding an interactive discussion. In this panel discussion we invited scientists and practitioners to engage in a conversation about future directions of Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) with the aim of keeping education, research and practice relevant to contemporary working practices. We want to look into the current state of co-operation and cocreation within WOP and examine what needs to change and how this will be achieved. Together, we would like to figure out how research can support practitioners in their work with organizations and how to manage the digital transformation. As part of the scientist – practitioner collaborative stream (that has become known as Co-op Friday) this panel discussion compliments the conference theme of Working for the Greater Good by looking into future directions of organizational development and how to use evidence-based practices to help individuals to adapt to change. The aim of the session was to have an active debate between panelists and the audience generating ideas and activities to improve co-operation. We used an innovative process method called “Bar Camp” to encourage presentation and review. This resulted in interactive discussions with panel members and participants working in small groups (see Figure 1) discussing particular issues (see further detail in the following report). Each discussion session was followed by a brief summary that was shared across the groups.

Comfortably Numb? Researchers’ Satisfaction with the Publication System and a Proposal for Radical Change

In this preregistered study we evaluate current attitudes towards, and experiences with, publishing research and propose an alternative system of publishing. Our main hypothesis is that researchers tend to become institutionalized, such that they are generally discontent with the current publication system, but that this dissatisfaction fades over time as they become tenured. A survey was distributed to the first authors of papers published in four recent issues of top-15 Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) journals. Even among this positively biased sample, we found that the time it takes to publish a manuscript is negatively associated with whether authors perceive this time to be justifiable and worthwhile relative to the amount their manuscript has changed. Review quality and tenure buffer the negative relationship with perceived justifiability, but not for perceived worth. The findings suggest that untenured (WOP) researchers are dissatisfied with the publishing times of academic journals, which adds to the pile of criticisms of the journal-based publication system. Since publishing times are inherent to the journal-based publication system, we suggest that incremental improvements may not sufficiently address the problems associated with publishing times. We therefore propose the adoption of a modular publication system to improve (WOP) publishing experiences.

Work and Organizational Psychology Researchers' Satisfaction with the Publication System

We evaluate current attitudes towards and experiences with publishing research in Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP), and propose an alternative system. Our main hypothesis is that WOP resear...

Work and Organizational Psychology Looks at the Fourth Industrial Revolution: How to Support Workers and Organizations?

With rapid advances in technology in several fields of human life, we are entering the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR), which is changing the way businesses create value, people do their work and individuals interact and communicate with each other. In this framework, many questions have arisen about how these transformations affect workers, organizations and societies, and Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) has been called upon to address some of these open issues. In particular, this article focuses on two aspects of the FIR. The first considers the expansion of automation in the workplace and raises questions such as: how is the relationship between workers and technology changing? How is it affecting people’s well-being? How can we expect it to affect employment and equality in the future? The second is related to how job transformation will influence requirements for knowledge and skills; the main question is: which competence profile, considering hard and soft skills, is required and expected in the work of the future? The aim of the present paper is to improve the understanding of some of the major issues that workers and organizations are, or will be, asked to face, by providing information that will be useful to facilitate debate, research and interventions. In the conclusion section, research, and practical implications at organizational, political and institutional levels are discussed.

Commentary on neoliberal ideology in work and organizational psychology

ABSTRACTI welcome the paper on Neoliberal ideology in WOP as a valuable critique of Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) encouraging practitioners and researchers to think carefully about what they are trying to achieve and how they make sense of the world of work.

Our neoliberal fantasies? A preliminary test of research trends in leading journals in work and organizational psychology

ABSTRACTPrior to engaging in a substantive discussion on the supposed influence of neoliberalism on research in work and organizational psychology (WOP), it is important to verify the empirical basis of the trends advanced by Bal and Dóci (Neoliberal ideology in work and organizational psychology, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology [Online First Publication, 2018]). To this end, we content analysed 745 abstracts of empirical studies published in leading WOP journals during the years 2006–2007 and 2016–2017. Results of our content analysis do not support the hypothesized trends towards more instrumentality and individualism in WOP research, suggesting that Bal and Dóci’s (2018) portrayal of the WOP literature does not provide a solid basis for discussion. On the basis of our findings, we conclude with recommendations to broaden the scope of WOP research to also include macro-level, societal issues.

Neoliberal ideology in work and organizational psychology

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the role of neoliberal ideology in workplace practices and in work and organizational psychology (WOP) research. It analyses how neoliberal ideology manifests in these two domains by using a prominent framework from the field of political theory to understand ideology through three different logics: political, social and fantasmatic logics. We explore the main neoliberal assumptions underlying existing practices in the workplace as well as in WOP research, how individuals are gripped by such practices, and how the status quo is maintained. The paper analyses how individuals in the contemporary workplace are henceforth influenced by neoliberalism, and how this is reflected in the practices and dominant paradigms within WOP. In particular, we focus on three ways neoliberalism affects workplaces and individual experiences of the workplace: through instrumentality, individualism and competition. The paper finishes with practical recommendations for researchers and practitioners alike on how to devote more attention to the, often implicit, role of neoliberal ideology in their work and research. The discussion elaborates on how alternative paradigms in the workplace can be developed which address the downsides of neoliberalism.

Reviewing psychological facets of workplace innovation

In this article, we present a review of recent studies on workplace innovation (WPI) from a work and organizational psychology (WOP) perspective, with the aim of showing the potential advantages of taking a WOP perspective on WPI. We first outline a few different conceptualisations of WPI and of its main outcomes, that is, quality of working life and organizational performance. Next, we examine the intersections between research in WOP and WPI, specifically focusing on how an understanding of organizational and work-related dynamics can influence the effectiveness of WPI practices. Third, in an attempt to facilitate the integration of research on WOP and WPI and to disentangle the mechanisms underlying the effective implementation of WPI policies, we present evidence on three critical concepts in WOP and their relationship to WPI: job autonomy, job flexibility and participation in organizational life. Finally, we discuss some practical implications for Work and Organizational Psychologists interested in WPI implementation.

Steps towards bridging the scientist-practitioner gap in the field of Work and Organizational Psychology in Romania

In the last two years, the Romanian Association of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (APIO) has proposed to develop a series of actions to create bridges between the Work and Organizational psychology (WOP) community and the HR specialists from the Romanian market. In order to better understand the specifics of the practitioners in this field and to subsequently reduce the gap between them and Academia, in 2016, APIO conducted a survey in the Romanian HR community. The data were collected through an online questionnaire and 215 HR specialists and organizational practitioners participated in the survey (83% women). The HR specialists expressed their interest for implementing or optimizing a variety of diagnosis intervention services concerning all levels of analysis within a workplace: individual, group, and organization. The majority of the HR professionals who participated in our survey acknowledged the need and reported an increased interest in being better informed and keeping up-to-date with scientific data regarding various topics at the intersection of HR and WOP. Only 20% of the respondents expressed very little interest in such activities. In line with these conclusions, APIO proposed a set of possible measures in order to bridge the gap beween WOP researchers and HR practitioners that would benefit from the support of APIO members within the following years.

Características da Psicologia do Trabalho e das Organizações na Formação do Psicólogo no Brasil

Work and Organizational Psychology’s Characteristics in the Brazilian Undergraduate Education in Psychology This paper aims to analyse the presence of Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) in the Brazilian psychological training after the changes brought about by new National Curricular Guidelines. A convenience sample of 43 pedagogical projects from public and private higher education institutions throughout Brazil was submitted to a documental analysis. As results, WOP was found to be mentioned in 41 courses, specifically in the context of graduates’ student profiles and their training as psychologists. All the courses require students to enroll in at least one class in WOP, which is equivalent to 10% of the total training workload. The analysis showed that WOP is related to discussions concerning quality of life and worker health in such contexts as organizations, public policies and unions. In addition to recovering a wide thematic diversity, the findings suggest that WOP has an important place in the training of psychologists in Brazil.

Myths among personnel (HR) professionals

In this paper we share our experience and examine some myths that exist among personnel (HR) professionals. In order to get an overview how deep is the gap be¬tween academic knowledge and everyday truths regarding personnel management we carried out the study in two phases. In the first phase we interviewed outstand¬ing Estonian personnel managers as an expert group, and the second phase inter¬viewed personnel professionals and non-HR professionals from different occupa¬tions (engineers, bookkeepers, lawyers, civil servants, and teachers). We explored issues of knowledge in the field by look¬ing at the levels of agreement regarding the quality of research evidence in Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP). The study revealed that the work done in many personnel management fields is based on similar myths that exist among non-personnel professionals.

Paradigmas, eixos temáticos e tensões na PTO no Brasil

O panorama de abordagens da psicologia do trabalho e das organizações (PTO) no Brasil mostra grande diversidade teórica e metodológica que reflete a presença de distintos paradigmas científicos na delimitação e organização desse campo. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar esses paradigmas e relacioná-los com três eixos temáticos da PTO no Brasil: o do comportamento, o da subjetividade e o clínico. Investiga-se os fundamentos epistemológicos e metodológicos, alguns trabalhos e autores de cada um desses eixos, discutindo sua contribuição para o campo da PTO no Brasil. O artigo desenvolve uma discussão sobre as tensões existentes entre esses eixos, derivadas da pressão de corresponderem, ao mesmo tempo, a critérios de rigor acadêmico e relevância organizacional. O artigo, por fim, mostra a diversificação do campo da PTO no Brasil e os desafios disso decorrentes.

Psicologia organizacional e do trabalho no Brasil: desenvolvimento científico contemporâneo

Trata-se de levantamento de artigos publicados em Psicologia Organizacional e do Trabalho (POT), de 2001 a 2005, nas revistas brasileiras: Estudos de Psicologia, Psicologia e Sociedade, Psicologia em Estudo, Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, Psicologia USP, e Psicologia: Organizações e Trabalho. A análise considerou número de artigos, temas, metodologia, referências, formação profissional e área de atuação dos autores. De 1105 textos publicados, 178 (16%) foram em POT. Os artigos foram classificados em nove categorias temáticas. Do total de artigos analisados, 30% eram teóricos e 70% empíricos. A maioria dos autores é de psicólogos e está vinculada às universidades. Dentre os principais resultados, destacam-se a diversidade temática e metodológica da produção científica em POT, bem como a preocupação em contemplar as mudanças sociais, econômicas, políticas e tecnológicas. A produção de conhecimento está voltada tanto para subsidiar intervenções como para impulsionar o desenvolvimento teórico da área.