روانشناسی کار بشردوستانه : کمک های روانشناسی سازمانی به کاهش فقر

Achieving the MDG goal of reducing world poverty by 50% by 2015 requires the cooperative effort of many disciplines. To date the discipline of organizational psychology has not played as significant a role as it might in this endeavor. With the recent establishment of the Global Task Force for Humanitarian Work Psychology, this discipline signaled its commitment to the global effort. Organizational psychology offers to bring its expertise to poverty reduction: its ability to assess needs and capacity, develop partnerships with stakeholders, bring about and manage change, and systematically review, evaluate, monitor and revise high level mandates, policy development, program implementation and consultation on personnel issues. Its successes as practitioners-scientists in private enterprise will enhance its credibility for success in the public sphere. The article reviews the research and practice of some of the organizational psychologists presently engaged in poverty reduction and how humanitarian work psychology might enhance the efforts of anti-poverty organizations.

Poverty reduction has traditionally been the purview of economics, and the field of organizational psychology has not figured prominently in addressing this crucial global issue. This article introduces Humanitarian Work Psychology as a specialized focus within organizational psychology that can contribute to poverty eradication efforts, and in so doing, marks a new departure for psychology. It is the authors’ belief that not only can organizational psychologists be instrumental in dealing with the challenge of poverty reduction, we have a social obligation to do so. In this article, we first set the scene by defining a role for organizational psychology in humanitarian development work and poverty reduction, and presenting a brief introduction to organizational psychology and its concerns. We then focus on the specific role Humanitarian Work Psychology can play in international development projects and poverty reduction. We will describe the various ways in which our discipline can, and should, be applied to the development arena, provide some illustrations of the recent Humanitarian Work Psychology efforts of organizational psychologists, and indicate the importance of encouraging a new generation of Humanitarian Work Psychologists to attend to this vital issue. The establishment of a Global Task Force for Humanitarian Work Psychology is a key step in organizing our work moving forward.

Our objective going forward is to increase the application of humanitarian work psychology to poverty reduction – to turn the focus toward “what might – or could – be” and how to get there. There are some obstacles as we move forward. One challenge that organizational psychologists face as they attempt to inform others concerned about poverty reduction of the knowledge, skills and perspectives they can bring to the field is a perception that their branch of psychology is perceived as a Western concern, at worst an arm of large corporations that are not concerned with the welfare and well-being of the people of less developed nations. Another challenge is reflected in a recent review of the past 45 years of organizational psychological research, which suggests that “the field of (organizational) psychology is not likely to become more visible or more relevant to society at large... unless researchers, practitioners, universities, and professional organizations implement significant changes” (Cascio & Aguinis, 2008, p. 1074, parenthesis added). One of these changes is a shift from an academic focus to applied settings: “If the published research is seen as relevant and useful, then there is a higher likelihood that practitioners will read it and that the research findings will affect their practices” (ibid). Even with such an emphasis on applications of humanitarian work psychology to poverty reduction, the possible benefits of organizational psychological input can only be realized if the UN and other poverty-reduction organizations become aware of its potential. The distinctive contribution of organizational psychology is its capacity for integrating into a coherent whole, and on a scientific basis, the disparate elements involved in the psychological understanding of organizations (selection, development, strategy, evaluation), as well as the ability to weigh, triangulate, and test out evidence, both quantitative and qualitative. Awareness of the potential of organizational psychology can only be established if organizational psychologists reach out to those involved in poverty-reduction efforts and engage in a well-orchestrated and coordinated effort to raise their consciousness about, and stimulate their appetite for, the many and varied contributions that organizational psychology can make to achieving the objective of eradicating the scourge of extreme poverty. One recent attempt to create greater and more focused involvement in poverty reduction among organizational psychologists is the establishment of a Global Task Force in this area, described initially by Reichman et al. (2008). This has recently evolved into a Global Task Force for Humanitarian Work Psychology, with expanded representation and specific goals and projects. This Task Force is a non-partisan, international initiative formed to link organizational psychology and its institutions with development agencies, the UN, the OECD, civil society and low-income country governments which “aims to bring together and focus a range of psychological initiatives, energies and value commitments” (Global Task Force on Organisational Psychology for Poverty Reduction, 2008, p. 4) and to make those available to a range of development agencies. The group seeks to step up the scale, impact and funding of activities such as those described in this paper, and to do so in an integrated fashion. Its hope is to align humanitarian work psychology initiatives for poverty reduction and to harmonize them with efforts towards realizing the Millennium Development Goals ( Carr and Bandawe, 2008 and Paris Declaration on Aid Ef, 2005). As a professional group, we stand ready for a new era of inter-disciplinary collaboration and practical application of our expertise (MacLachlan, Carr, & McWha, 2008). Among the specific applications of humanitarian work psychology to poverty-reduction efforts, members of the Task Force are initiating and participating in projects such as the following: 1. Continuing the research of “ADDUP” (Are Development Discrepancies Undermining Performance) regarding the implications of pay diversity in international projects. 2. Studying leadership in humanitarian organizations and the specific leadership characteristics required for successful operations both at headquarters and in the field. 3. With a major international NGO, assisting in the implementation of an internal “merger” of multiple country-level projects and project teams, resulting in harmonized delivery of services with attendant economies of scale and greatly improved efficiency and effectiveness. 4. Developing and implementing an online training system to prepare volunteers for fieldwork, and to provide virtual mentoring and support on an ongoing basis for those in the field. 5. Investigating the impact of perceived fairness in complex cross-national organizational settings – organizational justice as a determinant of human behavior. 6. Outreach activities designed to broaden awareness of the potential contributions of organizational psychology, both at the practitioner level and among students – to encourage the development of future generations of humanitarian work psychologists.