Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-rkzlw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-31T12:26:35.693Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Partnering Against Poverty: Fighting POSH Bias Through Increased Interdisciplinary Research and Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2017

Shujaat Ahmed ,
Ashley J. Hoffman ,
Morrie Mullins  and
Laura Sywulak
Shujaat Ahmed*
Affiliation:
Lewis College of Human Sciences, Department of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology
Ashley J. Hoffman
Affiliation:
National Passenger Railroad Corporation (Amtrak)
Morrie Mullins
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Xavier University
Laura Sywulak
Affiliation:
Global Organisation for Humanitarian Work Psychology, City University of New York
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Shujaat Ahmed, Lewis College of Human Sciences, Department of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, 3105 S Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60616. E-mail: sahmed22@hawk.iit.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology is indeed moving forward in its involvement in humanitarian concerns (Berry et al., 2011), but as Gloss, Carr, Reichman, Abdul-Nasiru, and Oestereich (2017) point out, I-O psychologists tend to focus less on those of low income and the informal economy and more on working professionals in the formal economy (POSH). We propose (a) additional reasons for why the POSH bias may undermine science, (b) more solutions to benefit the impoverished, and (c) a broader conceptualization of humanitarian work psychology (HWP).

Information

Type
Commentaries
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 379 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Berry, M., Reichman, W., Klobas, J., MacLachlan, M., Hui, H. C., & Carr, S. (2011). Humanitarian work psychology: The contributions of organizational psychology to poverty reduction. Journal of Economic Psychology, 32, 240–247.Google Scholar
Bertrand, M., Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2004). A behavioral-economics view of poverty. The American Economic Review, 94 (2), 419–423.Google Scholar
Chilukuri, N., West, M., Henderson, J. N., Lawson, S., Ehsanipoor, R., Costigan, K., . . . Bennett, W. (2015). Information and communication technology use among low-income pregnant and postpartum women by race and ethnicity: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17 (7), e163.Google Scholar
Frerer, K., & Vu, C.M. (2007). An anthropological view of poverty. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 16, 73–86.Google Scholar
Gloss, A., Carr, S. C., Reichman, W., Abdul-Nasiru, I., & Oestereich, W. T. (2017). From handmaidens to POSH humanitarians: The case for making human capabilities the business of I-O psychology. Industrial Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 10 (3), 329–369.Google Scholar
Govindarajan, V. (2012, April 30). Developing countries are revolutionizing mobile banking. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2012/04/innovations-in-mobile-banking Google Scholar
Houssain, M., Lewis, D., Bose, M. L., & Chowdhury, A. (2003). Rice, research, technological progress, and impacts on the poor: The Bangladesh case (summary report), EPTD discussion. Paper presented at the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. https://www.ifpri.org/publication/rice-research-technological-progress-and-impacts-poor Google Scholar
Saxena, M., Sall, E., Scott, J. C., Rupp, D. E., Saari, L., Thompson, L. F., . . . Mallory, D. (2015). News from the SIOP-United Nations team: Exploring work experiences of informal workers and promoting decent work for all. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 53 (1), 172–175.Google Scholar
Sitzmann, T., Kraiger, K, Stewart, D., & Wisher, R. (2006). The comparative effectiveness of web-based and classroom instruction: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 59, 623–664.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R., Merry, S., Stasiak, K., McDowell, H., Doherty, I., Shepherd, M., . . . Rodgers, A. (2012). MEMO—A mobile phone depression prevention intervention for adolescents: Development process and postprogram findings on acceptability from a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 14 (1), 169–179.Google Scholar