Critical positions: Situating critical perspectives in work and organizational psychology

Abstract

This paper argues that critical perspectives have constituted a marginal yet continued presence in work and organizational (W-O) psychology and calls for a reflexive taking stock of these perspectives to ground a critical research agenda. We argue that critical W-O psychology has been positioned between a psychology literature with limited development of critical perspectives, and an emergent critical management literature that has allowed their selective development. This in-between position has allowed critical W-O psychology to persist, albeit in a fragmented form, while limiting its potential for theoretical and applied impact. We use this diagnosis to reflect on how critical perspectives can best develop from within W-O psychology. We end with a call for developing a critical movement unique to the current historical moment, drawing upon without repeating the experiences of its home disciplines, in a future oriented and reflexive psychology research agenda.

Still servants of work? Exploring the role of the critic in work and organizational psychology

“…In this sense, I am in full agreement with Islam and Sanderson (2021), who note that "Impacting current realities demands more from the critical project than current scholarship has provided" (p. 25). One such way to impact current realities, however, may be to cease to engage with them, especially by those who can afford to sustain enacting resistance and exit strategies.…”

Effects of person–occupation political orientation misfit on occupational identification: An experimental study

“…In light of recent position papers and commentaries proposing a (increasing) neoliberal bias in I-O psychology research (Bal & Dóci, 2018;Mumby, 2019), our finding suggests an intriguing paradox: most I-O psychologists hold a liberal (or left-wing) personal political orientation, but research in the field issupposedly -"captured by neoliberalism" (Guest & Grote, 2018). More specifically, there seems to be a gap between how many I-O psychologists view themselves politically (i.e., their personal political orientation) and how some of their research approaches could be classified from a critical I-O psychology perspective (see Islam & Sanderson, 2022). For instance, an I-O psychologist might see herself as politically left-wing, but she may conduct research on individual difference predictors of job crafting (i.e., actively fitting the job to one's abilities and needs; Rudolph et al, 2017).…”

The ‘narrow self’? Developing a critical‐historical work psychology

“…Parker, 2007). With particular respect to WOP, we shall argue that the field has tended towards individualised notions of the self that simultaneously draw attention away from the sociopolitical context in which people are located (Islam & Sanderson, 2022). To illustrate this contention, we will explore studies of ‘dirty work’ that have tended to utilise a ‘narrow’, ‘closed off’, sense of self, or to use Norbert Elias's term, they employ a homo clausus characterisation of subjectivity (see below).…”