Theme of the 16th EAWOP Congress 2013
"Imagine the future world: How do we want to work tomorrow?"
We live in a time of radical and rapid changes that tremendously affect the way we work and the way we live. Globalization of economic processes, digitalization and the increasing overlap between business and social networks, flexible work with remote partners, demographic changes, financial turbulences and growing climatic problems are just a few examples of the dramatic developments we experience today. Apart from challenges and strains for individual workers and work organizations, these dynamics also provide opportunities for changes for the good, for improvements and creative advancement. However, in order to realize these opportunities we not only need sound knowledge of these dynamics and underlying processes, but also fantasy, creativity, and courage to implement new solutions.
The organizers of the 16th EAWOP conference want to provide an inspiring arena for sharing, discussing, and creating new ideas and future trends for work organizations to enhance both organizational effectiveness as well as growth and health of the working people. In doing so, we – as work and organizational psychologists – not only react to external influences, such as technological advancement, political decisions, or economic rationales. Discussing how we want to work tomorrow stresses our active role in the creation and crafting of future work conditions. Human needs and cognitions are an important starting point for technical engineering both at the level of single tasks as well as at the level of workflow design in organization. Transparency and fairness concerns are central aspects for strategic activities of managers, union officials and governmental decision makers alike. Affect, work-related values, and concerns for others are not examples for deniable exceptions or irrationality but important elements in a comprehensive modeling of economic processes.
Therefore, we like to invite scientists and practitioners of work and organizational psychology – as well as from related fields – to join the 16th congress of the EAWOP and to imagine, share, and discuss innovative and sustainable solutions to the manifold challenges we experience today, striving for a future world in which all of us enjoy working and living together.
