Humanitarian work psychology is an emerging field, with an emerging definition. My own understanding at present is that it focuses on “people management” in aid and development work (humanitarian work | psychology), for instance helping aid workers, both expatriate and host national, to prevent culture shock and benefit from cross-cultural diversity; and on enabling “decent work,” namely work that meets people’s expectations about dignity, safety and opportunity at work, regardless of profession, sector or trade (humanitarian | work psychology). The main objectives in humanitarian work psychology practice is to improve human relations and organizational efficiency in aid work (doing good well); and improving people’s quality of life in the workplace and in the community. In short, humanitarian work psychology is about “making a difference.” Some concrete examples of making a difference would be helping to reduce poverty; aiding recovery from natural or manmade disasters; enabling enterprise development and job creation; and replacing “austerity” (which used to be called “Structural Adjustment in the 1980s) with prosperity.
(http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/departments/school-of psychology/research/poverty/princubate/princubate-projects.cfm).

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What is the role and potential contributions WOP Psychologists can have in HWP? 

The WOP program, through the kind and strong support of Coordinator Professor Jose María Peiró, has been very supportive of Humanitarian work psychology.  The WOP student experience of course is inherently international; cross-disciplinary; focused on collaboration, cultural competency and making a difference through professionalism and professional ethics.  These are all qualities and competencies that are perfectly suited to the challenges - and opportunities for change and improvement - that humanitarian work psychology presents.  An even newer development in the field, and again where WOP psychologists are well-positioned and qualified to help make a difference, is “New Diplomacies” (Saner & Yiu, 2012). These diplomacies are human skills at managing relations and projects between organizations; at inter-organizational psychology. Exemplar domains of practice would include for instance multi-organizational joint ventures, and multi-sector aid projects.   As Professors Saner and Yiu point out in their review of new diplomacy activities, humanitarian work psychologists have been involved in negotiating the inclusion of decent work in national government plans for poverty reduction, and working alongside the International Labor Organization to help foster its own Decent Work Agenda. (for some more practical examples, http://www.siop.org/WhitePapers/White%20Paper%20Series%2020122013HumanitarianWorkPsychology.pdf).
 

On an everyday practical and professional level, , an obvious potential challenge is finding a job, with a livable wage. Newly graduating practitioners will be eager to enter the workforce and the for-profit sector is likely to offer a competitive income and benefits package.  However it is possible to find HR Jobs that work with social responsibility programs; or even manage a private practice alongside consulting to and for NGOs services, for instance in recruitment and selection and retention. Yet you might be able to find some HR work that includes corporate social responsibility programs, including for example local workforce development and healthcare (Osicki, 2010). Some practitioners also manage to blend their private practice with providing consultancy services, on a part-time basis, to NGOs, for example in recruitment and selection.  Others may find “pro bono,” volunteer work more rewarding and practicable (Atkins & Thompson, 2012).There are diverse challenges a WOP psychologist might face in developing skills for humanitarian work practice, but they are not really any different from working in the for-profit sector.  For example there are professional networks in humanitarian work psychology, designed in part to help find work, and continue with professional development, e.g., GOHWP (Global Organization for Humanitarian Work Psychology)
(http://gohwp.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2314&p=2393).

Capital can take many forms, from financial to human and social. The added value that humanitarian work psychology brings to companies is an overt and explicit focus on decent work for employees, which includes not just aid workers but all employees in all industries, from the garment sector to mining-and-minerals; fair-trade farming to safety and sustainability at sea. Humanitarian work psychology can make direct contributions to poverty reduction by helping to raise employee wages in low income settings
(http://www.peopleinaid.org/interactive/Posts/1844). Let us not forget as well that companies need to grow, and humanitarian work psychology has a major role to continue playing in the development of enterprise and opportunity for talented and motivated entrepreneurs, and their employees (Klinger, Khwaje, & del Carpio, 2013). 

Corporate social responsibility is not going away from consumers’ minds. As the global and local environment continues to degrade, and the premium mounts on building consumer trust and confidence, businesses are going to have to pay serious attention to doing well by doing more good in the community; and by acting in a socially and environmentally responsible manner (Aguinis, 2011). Companies need humanitarian work psychology to help them understand the human factors, like trust and confidence, involved in building genuine rapport with society (Carr, 2013).A key example of where companies need psychological services just as much as aid organizations do is in paying decent wages. Many companies still operate the remuneration system of “dual salaries,” where local experts are paid much less than their expatriate colleagues, who often come from a higher-income economy. This often happens for instance in the mining sector. Yet the research evidence is now mounting that dual salaries are a form of “economic apartheid,” which cause perceptions of injustice, hamper teamwork, exacerbate culture shock, increase turnover, inhibit teamwork, reduce workforce capacity, and de-motivate employee performance at work (Economic and Social Research Council, 2010).  Companies do not need such negatives if they are to themselves prosper.

Corporate social responsibility programs have been evaluated empirically, and the evidence suggests that they do increase retention, morale, company reputation and profits (Orlitzky, Schmidt, & Rynes, 2003). 
(http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/departments/school-of-psychology/research/poverty/princubate/princubate-projects.cfm).Communities nowadays are often extremely diverse, for example through immigration, and this presents both challenges and opportunities for HR practice. On the one hand, we know that more diverse groups are often more creative and innovative, yet we also know that people sometimes resist difference in recruitment, selection and work appraisal (access and treatment biases, respectively).  Humanitarian work psychology can be applied to help reduce access and treatment bias, for example through structured selection, raising awareness about implicit biases against skilled immigrants, and designing fair workplace performance systems (Carr, 2013). These all bring returns on investments, not only in terms of economic but also social capital .

Humanitarian work psychology as we have seen is a relatively new field and probably most companies have not heard too much about it. However Humanitarian organizations are becoming aware, for example the red Cross/Crescent recently designated “humanitarian work psychology” as their “book of the month” ( http://intercrossblog.icrc.org/blog/book-month-humanitarian-work-psychology).  This connection was made following a roundtable meeting between humanitarian work psychologists and the Red Cross/Crscent, in Geneva (http://www.csend.org/conferences/csend-dialogue-forum/item/312-humanitarian-work-psychology).  The point of the story is that reaching out can make a difference, whether it is to non-profit or for-profit organizations. Most importantly perhaps, the  future will be determined by talented, motivated and above all ethical professionals like WOP graduates. Evidence-based practice will not be enough. We need to have evidence-based advocacy, for worker and community rights, and opportunities. For example what is next being determined is how and when corporate Social responsibility programs actually benefit the community – which is a new frontier for research and practice in humanitarian work psychology Advocacy like that will require partnerships, for example between researchers and practitioners, not just in humanitarian work psychology but also across disciplines and professions. One thing that the current crisis has perhaps taught us all is that humanitarian issues know no borders, and that the time for a humanitarian work psychology is more than ever before, today; now; and here, wherever in the world ‘here’ may be http://www.siop.org/WhitePapers/White%20Paper%20Series%2020122013HumanitarianWorkPsychology.pdf

 

References

 

Aguinis, H. (2011). Organizational responsibility:  Doing good and doing well. In S. Zedeck (Ed.). Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (pp. 855-79). Washignton, DC: American Psychological Association.
Atkins, S. G., & Thompson, L. F. (2012).  Online volunteers and smartaid. In S. C. Carr, M. MacLachlan, & A. Furnham (Eds.), Humanitarian work psychology. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Carr, S. C. (2013). Anti-poverty psychology. New York: Springer. Economic and Social Research Council. (2010).  Discrepancies in aid and development workers’ salaries.  . Accessed May 11th, 2013.
Klinger, B., Khwaje, A., & Del Carpio, C. (2013).  Enterprising psychometrics. New York: Springer. Innovations in Poverty Reduction Monographs.
Orlitzky, M., Schmidt, F. L., & Rynes, S. L. (2003).  Corporate social and financial performance: A meta-analysis.  Organization Studies, 24(3), 403-441.
Osicki, M. (2010). New diplomacies in corporate social responsibility, The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 48(1), 111–114.
Saner, R., & Yiu, L. (2012). The new diplomacies and humanitarian work psychology. In S. C. Carr, M. Maclachlan, & A. Furnham (Eds.) Humanitarian work psychology. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan.