Prosocial I-O: Quo Vadis
Stuart Carr
Massey University
It was with deep sadness that we all learned about the loss of Emeritus Professor Frank J. Landy, and we send heartfelt condolences to his wife Kylie. Professor Landy (Frank) was instrumental in getting this column off the ground. Indeed, he was inspirational in its very inception. I first met Frank when he came to New Zealand/Aotearoa in 2006, kindly offering to meet and speak with our undergraduate and graduate students. He did and inspired us all with his perspective on I-O psychology, what we have done, what we could do, and where we might be heading for the future. Quo vadis.
We continued that theme at the 2008 SIOP conference in San Francisco, where Frank gave a brilliantly moving and mobilizing discussion at the symposium on poverty reduction organized and chaired by Emeritus Professor Walter Reichman. Frank’s textbook (2010; with Professor Jeffrey Conte) continues to “connect” with our students and to provide them (and us) with much more than a plain survey of the field. I will miss his down-to-earth, forward-looking approach and his sensitivity to diversity and equity. It was a great privilege to be his colleague and his friend.
The New Diplomacies
Professor Raymond Saner teaches interinstitutional negotiations, trade and development in the Master of Public Affairs program of Sciences Po, Paris, which has been since 2004 a collaborative master’s degree with the London School of Economics and Columbia University. Professor Saner has also taught Word Trade Organization dispute resolution at the economics faculty of the University of Basle in Switzerland since 1986. Raymond is an editorial board reviewer for the Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences, the Journal of Managerial Psychology, and Public Organization Review. From 2002–2004 he served as a member of the executive board of the Organization Development and Change Division in the Academy of Management (AoM). He also chaired the Advisory Council to Board of Governors AoM (2001–2002). Professor Saner holds a PhD in psychology from UGS University Ohio, a master’s in education from Lesley University, Cambridge, USA, and a license in economics and trade from Basle University. He has studied Sociology at the University of Freiburg i.Br in Germany.
Professor Saner, please tell us a little more about your work.
My work is highly interdisciplinary with a home base in social and organizational development/change. In addition to my academic work, I am currently director of Diplomacy Dialogue (www.diplomacydialogue.org) and the cofounder of a Geneva-based nongovernmental research and development organization called the Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND, www.csend.org). Diplomacy Dialogue focuses on the interfaces between business, politics, society, and environmental issues. CSEND focuses on development work in developing and transition countries. Working as an I-O psychologist at the intersection of these domains defines the New Diplomacies.
Examples of my work are two books, which have been recently published, namely Negotiations Between State Actors and Non-State Actors (2009) and Trade Policy Governance Through Inter-Ministerial Coordination (in press). Both publications are outcomes of interdisciplinary research conducted for the Swiss Sciences Foundation and CSEND.
Other ongoing activities are institution development and change projects for international organizations and governments. For instance, we have developed a guidebook for the International Labor Organization on how to foster inclusion in employment and promote decent work in the context of poverty- reduction strategy papers (Yiu & Saner, 2005). These papers are actually in-country plans for socioeconomic development, national versions of goal setting. In theory they are also participative, designed by and within least-developed countries or highly indebted low-income countries to get out of poverty. They include trade, labor market, and development strategies generally.
Another example is projects in the field of public administration reform in transition countries. For instance, CSEND helped the Slovene government modernize its central government administration. The project included using I-O psychology to help diagnose administrative inefficiencies and ineffectiveness, and subsequently designing and implementing an on-the-job full-time educational program, equivalent to a master’s of public affairs (for human capacity building). As an outcome of this institution development project, two new institutions were created, namely, an Administrative Academy and a Management and Organization Effectiveness Unit, for the Slovenian Ministry of Interior.
Having worked as a delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross, I continue to provide input to the committee and other humanitarian organizations, both international multilateral organizations and nongovernment organizations. Applying the Geneva Conventions in war-torn societies requires knowledge not only in the field of conflict resolution and clinical psychology (treatment of torture victims). Designing recovery programs after armed conflict necessitates the participation of business, local, and international organizations. A particular challenge in this work is finding ways to involve business organizations in the reconstruction work in a way that legitimate profit targets can be combined with socially relevant activities. These in turn can help war-torn societies to restart their economies and mend conflicts between previously warring parties.
Does the psychology of work and organization play a role in these activities?
Yes, very much so. For instance my current second-year master’s of public affairs capstone project focuses on the effectiveness of transportation infrastructure for coffee exporting from Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The project includes assessing the effectiveness of institutional and organizational policies and practices, for example, aid-for-trade projects in least-developed, developing, and transition countries. Projects like that ultimately aim at improving existing institutional and organizational practices, including the application of principles in organization development to larger economic, political, and social context than is often the case.
A similar, expansive attitude holds for working toward poverty-reduction strategy papers, in which poverty reduction entails knowing “how to” organize multistakeholder cooperation. New diplomacies like this one include, for instance, national governments, foreign aid agencies, and international organizations. Each of them has its own policy preferences. That of course means creating sufficient common ground between approaches like the World Bank’s and the International Monetary Fund’s, including sometimes contentious “financial conditions” for international loans and aid relief. It also includes other international organizations, such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations’ Development Program (UNDP). These in turn tend to focus more on job creation and employment policies, which are terrains somewhat closer to “I-O” psychologists.
How prominent is work and organizational psychology in your field?
Not much. My field has been a captive domain occupied by representatives of other academic disciplines, for instance, development studies (macro-and microeconomics); peace studies, political science, and military studies (reconstruction and nation building); business consulting (reforms of international organizations); and international relations. Typically my colleagues in “I-O” psychology work in more specialized fields, often at a relatively micro-level. That includes, for instance, working on gender issues, team development, human resource development, and prevention of discrimination at work (e.g., linked to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, illiteracy, and other forms of social and organizational exclusion). These domains are all relevant to the new diplomacies.
How could I-O psychology be more prominent?
A twin-pronged strategy is required.
One prong pertains to the curriculum of I-O psychology. Most teaching in I-O psychology is based on influential textbooks written in North America. With one or two notable exceptions (e.g., Landy & Conte, 2010), textbooks in I-O psychology have tended to emphasize work psychology in private-sector organizations mostly in for-profit businesses. These same textbooks also, naturally enough, feature case studies that are country specific.
A second, related prong concerns research. We lack teaching materials for work in multilateral organizations, particularly those operating in “developing” (lower income) countries. This means a shortfall in readily available autochthonous case studies and theories. Because mainstream journals require citations of better known theories, which are more accessible to reviewers and readers, publishing in the new diplomacies can be difficult.
From your perspective, and with your experience, how could the I-O psychology profession help, do you think?
I-O psychologists interested in international work in the development field can broaden their own knowledge base. This can be achieved, for example, by adding additional degrees or by taking continuing education courses in other fields, for example, political science, sociology, international relations, and international law (if intent in working in international humanitarian field). Alternatively, people may seek internships and job postings in “development” settings and learn by direct experience (as has been shown in earlier interviews in this column).
I-O scholars can make much-needed contributions by conducting research in private and public sectors inside developing economies. Especially useful may be a blend of qualitative and quantitative research, for example, survey and critical incidents analysis. Important steps in this direction have already been made recently in the study by Project ADDUP on disparities in remuneration between expatriate and local staff (http://poverty.massey.ac.nz/#addup).
In closing, I would recommend that I-O psychologists venture into this emerging field of large-system change, which is multistakeholder, multi-institutional, and highly international. New diplomacies are located at the interface between government ministries and departments, business organizations, multilateral agencies, and nongovernment organizations. Complexity theory offers valuable insights to help practitioners working in such large-system projects to deliver much-needed professional help. Applied for instance to nation building and rebuilding in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Ethiopia, and of course in the wake of the recent terrible disaster in Haiti (http://sipa.columbia.edu/news_events/announcements/HaitiWitnessestoaDisaster.html), important development work should not be left to military commanders trained to conduct war but who are arguably inept in reconstructing societies and working with the psychology of human beings. Haiti would benefit from a reconstruction and development/change process that goes beyond the patchwork of well-intentioned humanitarian assistance.
There is an open call for papers on business diplomacy at the annual conference meeting of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management, Brussels, to be held in June of this year (http://www.eiasm.org/frontoffice/event_announcement.asp?event_id=739). I would welcome participation from all parts of the world, and from the disciplines sharing this new domain, the New Diplomacies.
References
Landy, F. J., & Conte, J. M. (2010). Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. New York: Wiley.
Saner, R. (in press). Trade policy governance through inter-ministerial coordination. A source book for trade officials and development experts. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Republic of Letters.
Saner, R., & Michalun, M. V. (Eds.). (2009). Negotiations between state actors and non-state actors: Case analyses from different parts of the world. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Republic of Letters.
Yiu, L., & Saner, R. (2005). Decent work and poverty reduction strategies (PRS): An ILO advocacy guidebook. Geneva: ILO.