EAWOP News November 2023

EAWOP Newsletter November 2023

Dear EAWOP member,
We hope that you are taking good care of yourself, both physically and mentally. Thank you for staying in touch with us – this time through the November 2023 newsletter.
Feel free to distribute our newsletter in your network, so that more academics and practitioners can benefit from these updates as well.

EAWOP InPractice e-journal

We are happy to announce the soft launch of our new website, hosted by UGent OpenJournals. Although there is still work to be done, you can find all of our old (and any upcoming issues) here.

In addition, we have just published a new issue on “Managing our time and resources” featuring contributions from several practitioners and academics such as Hildur Jóna Bergþórsdóttir, Samantha Sadie Neill Thompson and Lima Emal. The general theme of the issue centres around the fact that, these days, the workplace is in a constant state of flux and our professional lives seem to be filled with a steady stream of changes. At times we may feel energised by all these changes, whereas at others we may feel overwhelmed. What we seem to forget is that we need to manage our time and resources wisely so that we can be productive, happy, and healthy. In this sense, it is helpful to stop for a moment, take a step back and reflect on what we are doing and why. It is also helpful to share our experiences and learn from each other. What makes us passionate at work and why? Is this the career path we wanted? What advice would we give to someone starting off their career in the field of work and organizational psychology? What could we learn from another practitioner or scientist? If you are curious about practitioner and researcher perspectives on these questions, you can read the current issue here.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue and that you get inspired to publish with us. You could offer a full-length empirical paper, a case study, career path discussion, reflections on research or practice, report on a conference or event, or a presentation of practice-oriented tools used in work and organizational psychology. Please contact us (InPractice@eawop.org) with your ideas and a short plan of the paper. We will be delighted to collaborate with you to bring this material into publication.
Follow us on LinkedIn: InPractice: The EAWOP Practitioners E-Journal.

WorkLab in Valencia 2023

Our 2023 WorkLab was held in Valencia, Spain this month. The WorkLab´s aim is to provide a platform for the latest scientific research to be brought to an audience of practitioners, who can thereby develop and enhance their professional practice and skills.
The well-being of employees and the success of organizations are highly dependent on the quality of leadership (Skakon et al., 2010; Schyns & Schilling, 2013). As leaders hold significant influence within organizations, their use of power can significantly impact employee stress levels, motivation, life satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and turnover rates.
In this workshop, we delved into the duality of leadership, explored how leaders can empower their employees by identifying and nurturing their own and their employees' strengths by building trust and creating a psychologically safe work environment.
As usual we had a leading academic and highly respected practitioner to share their insights on our topic, Kimberley Breevaart (Associate Professor Leadership and Employee Well-Being at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and Jessica Halgren (Practitioner with a 25-plus years of experience working with C-level and senior executives from leading organizations in Europe, North America, and Asia and M.Sc. in Organizational and Social Psychology from the University of Leiden as well as numerous developmental coaching-related certifications).
Like previous years we began on a Thursday afternoon, followed by one and a half days with our speakers in dedicated interactive sessions to facilitate the development of knowledge, tools and methods that can be applied in participants’ practice. We discussed challenges and opportunities and developed strategies for promoting organizational wellbeing interventions. These concepts were explored in the usual WorkLab style; balancing theory and evidence based practice using a range of participative learning styles, and, a lot of fun!
Participants were encouraged to bring their own case studies to share and reflect upon during the two days.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank our speakers, Kimerly Breevaart and Jessica Halgren, and our organizers, Helen Baron, Diana Rus, and Marja Jeanson-Banning, for their hard work to put together this WorkLab, and also, all our participants that came together and made this a reality.

EAWOP 4 EXCELLENCE (E4E) - Call for proposals - promoted by EAWOP Constituent Members

The mission of EAWOP is to promote and support the development and application of Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) in Europe and to facilitate links between scientists and practitioners working in this field across Europe. In line with this mission, the EAWOP Executive Committee (EC) has decided to continue the practitioner-oriented initiatives and launch a new call for proposals: EAWOP 4 EXCELLENCE (E4E). With this call, the EAWOP EC wants to support initiatives promoted by its constituent members that focus on the practice of WOP in Europe, with the aim of supporting national initiatives devoted to the development of WOP.
Practitioner-oriented constituent members are particularly encouraged to respond to this call, but all constituent associations may apply; it is the practical relevance of the proposed initiative that determines eligibility.  Each constituent may submit only one application. Joint initiatives by two EAWOP constituents (from the same country or different countries) are also welcome. The proposed initiative should be practitioner oriented. Initiatives with an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approach (e.g. clinical, mental health, etc.) are also eligible, as long as WOP is central to the initiative.
A wide range of initiatives may be supported, such as (but not limited to):
Supporting the participation of practitioners to work together to develop new practice initiatives, educational initiatives, or new guidelines for practice (think, for example, about a workshop whose main aim is to develop the contents of a MOOC that other Constituents could benefit from). Supporting the invitation of an expert from another European country as a trainer for seminars, workshops or other training, development, and educational activities. The EAWOP EC is particularly looking for practitioner topics emerging from the field of practice, that facilitate the enhancement and dissemination of WOP knowledge, and those that enable the development of new professional competencies and strengthen existing ones. 
EAWOP will support up to a maximum of 3000 Euros for each proposal, for a maximum of 2 proposals. The budget is to be used exclusively for organizational costs. Moreover, it is explicitly meant for not-for-profit initiatives. Please note that the organizers of the funded initiative will receive up to €2000 before the initiative and the remainder after it (on the presentation of original invoices) following the requirements presented below. To receive funding, original invoices are required after the initiative has taken place corresponding to the amount to be financed by EAWOP. These invoices should have EAWOP in the entity name. Additionally, for requesting the advance of the funding the final program of the initiative and a short description/justification of expenses is required.
Constituents interested in responding to this call are invited to submit a proposal to the EAWOP EC by email to: Hildur Jóna Bergþórsdóttir (hildur.eawop@gmail.com) and cc: EAWOP Secretary (eawop.secretary@gmail.com) and Michela Cortini (michela.cortini@unich.it) who will help EC to select proposals.
The deadline for submissions is December 31st, 2023. Decisions will be communicated by February 12th, 2024. The proposal should contain the following:

• Title and description of the initiative, including an explanation of its practitioner-oriented nature.
• Timing and location of the initiative (when it will take place during 2024).
• Contact person for the constituent(s).
• Contact person for the initiative together with details of any organizing committee and sponsoring organizations.
• Detailed budget.

The following criteria will be used for selecting the successful proposals: a) overall relevance to the call; b) the extent to which the topic has emerged from the field of practice and the practical dimension of the proposed initiative; c) having an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approach; d) having a sponsor. Additionally, the constituent proposing the initiative must be up to date with the annual EAWOP membership fee payment, that is, it should have paid the 2023 EAWOP membership fee.

Small group meeting (SGM), September 2023 - Precarious Employment and Work – Understanding the underlying psychological and social processes”.

The EAWOP Small Group Meeting at University of Glasgow in September was a great success attended by 36 delegates from across the world.
The event brought together academics and policy-makers with the aim to raise attention within the field of work and organisational psychology and beyond, and to extend the understanding of precarious employment and work, positioned within the historic, economic, political and social context.
Overall, this event has identified an emergent network development of researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. It has offered the elaboration of awareness and understanding between these stakeholders to advance crucial new knowledge and policy on precarious employment and work. Concrete scientific outcomes include the presentations included offering fresh insight and clarity on the content, and the subsequent discussions which provided new angles for study and practical and policy implications, and avenues for productive future research.
Major highlights were the thought-provoking keynotes:

• Prof. David L. Blustein (Boston College) on the “Psychology of Precarity: Theorizing the Psychosocial Costs of Precarious Work and Life”.
• Prof. Eva Selenko (University of Loughborough) on “introducing the identity process model of precarious work”.
• Prof. Blake A. Allan (University of Houston) on “The spirit of our time: A meta-modern challenge for precarious work scholars”.
• Joanna Wilde, Workplace Health Expert Committee: “Bad work, intervention and the regulatory context for health at work: Challenges for psychosocial research about precarious experiences”.

A panel discussion explored the needs of the different participant groups and future collaborations on the topic. The panel was asked what input would be useful for them to have had from researchers. The key aspect here was the missing evidence. All panel members indicated they have only limited data that is objective and neutral and that can be used as evidence for conversations with policy-makers and organisations. It is crucial to demonstrate the key benefits for all, the employer, the employee, and the economy. In addition, it is important to find ways to present the findings in an understandable, clear, and user-friendly way.
The event helped fostered new understandings of each other’s needs and focus, mapping with more granularity the stakeholder environment, and bringing in different perspectives, expertise, and clarity to the topic. The provision of a special issue at EJWOP on this topic provides a pipeline to disseminate studies in the field. The policy discussions also identified key areas where further policy resources.
Participants agreed that conferences such as the SGM are crucial in keeping the relationships to think together, understand each other’s needs, map the stakeholder environment, bring in different perspectives and expertise, bring clarity, and formulate goals to give urgency to the topic of precarious employment and work in a global sense.
We would like to think our organisers - Lisa Seubert (University of Innsbruck), Ishbel McWha-Hermann (University of Edinburgh), Christian Seubert (University of Innsbruck), and Rosalind Searle (University of Glasgow).
Read more: https://www.eawopimpact.org/decent-work under “SGM success” - See the academic keynotes on our YouTube channel.