March 2021 Newsletter
Updates
We Need Your Feedback on Our Identity as a Profession!!!
IWOP DECLARATION OF IDENTITY
Barbara Kożusznik (1) & Sharon Glazer (2)
(1) University of Silesia, Poland; President of IAAP, Division 1
(2) University of Baltimore, USA, co-Chair of SIOP’s International Affairs Committee
INTRODUCTION
Industrial and Organizational (IO) Psychology, also known as Work and Organizational (WO) Psychology, henceforth referred to as IWOP*, as a worldwide profession, does not have foundational values about its public voice. As Lowman (2006; Lowman & Cooper, 2018) and Lefkowitz (2005; 2017) in various publications note, IWOP is now considered a profession and professions affect societies. IWOP has a responsibility as a profession to support difficult decisions at the societal, organizational, and group level so as to always ensure that workers and worker-eligible people are reaping benefits rather than are harmed by their work engagements.
The IWOP profession is concerned with both individual work-related wellbeing and effective performance. This duality can create ambiguity about IWOPs’ contributions. IWOPs have a clear understanding of our abilities to navigate between well-being and performance effectiveness. We must make this understanding visible and audible to the public we serve, including all stakeholders involved in the world of work, whether employees, employers, governing boards, unemployed, precarious workers, labor unions, and more.
With the aid of over 50 participants at various international congresses and conferences since 2013, plus several surveys that IAAP has administered since 2009, it has become clear that IWOPs wish to have a more globally inclusive identity and to become more visible with relevant stakeholders. Therefore, drawing from communications and discussions that ensued among IWOP affiliates attending IAAP events within Division 1, Organizational Psychology, as well as in cooperation with the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), European Association for Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP), Canadian Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (C-SIOP), and the Alliance for Organizational Psychology (AOP), President of IAAP, Division 1 (Organizational Psychology) and co-chair of SIOP’s International Affairs Committee, have created a draft Declaration of Identity.
*IWOP is used to be inclusive of the various permutations of our professional title around the globe.
