Bringing the physical and psychosocial together

This week, Professor Sharon Parker gave a key note presentation at the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society of Australia's (HFESA) 51st Annual Conference entitled "The Psychology of Work Design: What We Know and Some Future Directions". The conference was held at the beautiful Gold Coast in Queensland ("Surfers Paradise").

Sharon's presentation on work design fit perfectly within the conference theme, “Healthy, safe and productive by design”. Sharon focused especially on how to design work from a psychosocial perspective, which complements the human factors/ ergonomics perspective that tends to focus mostly on cognitive and physical aspects of work design. Interestingly, conversations with members of the audience show that many of the challenges of getting psychosocial risks of work to be taken seriously by organizations and managers apply just as strongly to physical/cognitive risks. Hopefully by bringing the physical and psychological together we can all have more impact in creating healthier, safer, and more productive work.

Several other speakers also presented on the topic of work design, including Dr Peta Miller, Safework Australia speaking on the Good Work Design principles. For more information about the conference, click here.

Work design - an untapped opportunity for organisational psychologists?

Professor Sharon Parker presented at a recent professional development event of the College of Organizational Psychologists in Western Australia (COPWA). Sharon outlined results of preliminary research (Parker, Andrei, & van den Broeck, under prep.) suggesting that organisational psychologists tend to design more motivating and mentally healthy jobs relative to other professionals and students (see link below).

Attendees at the event discussed some of the attributes of organisational psychologists that might mean they are especially qualified for designing good work. For example, organisational psychologists tend to have a strong a systems-thinking approach to organizational problems, as well as the ability to think from the perspective of an individual as well as the wider team or organization. Other positive attributes of org. psychs include: an understanding of causality and research design, a commitment to evidence, and high-level quantitative skills.

Attendees also discussed opportunities for greater engagement in work design, such as more involvement in: organizational restructuring (too often led by accounting consulting firms), the redesign and implementation of new technology, and facilitating return to work (e.g., of women who have been out of the workplace).

Click here for results of research on how people design work

High profile award to our colleague Dr Alex Luksyte

Dr Alexandra Luksyte from the Management & Organisations School, UWA Business School has been awarded a highly prestige "DECRA" award (Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards) from the Australian Research Council.

Alex's research will focus on the growing challenge of overqualification, which is when an individual has more skills and knowledge than the job requires. Sadly, overqualification is an increasingly problem in today's work places. And it is possible that women, racial minorities, and immigrants are particularly susceptible to being overqualified.

Alex has received $370,000 to better understand "how to minimise negative and maximise positive outcomes of overqualification among all employees, irrespective of their demographics" at work.

Only 200 researchers across the whole of Australia, and just six within UWA, were awarded DECRAs this year. So we are especially proud of Alex's achievement!

Click here for Alex's recent papers on diversity and on over-qualification. For more details about this research, please contact Alex on alex.luksyte@uwa.edu.au.