Neoliberal ideology in Work and organizational psychology

1. Neoliberal ideology in Work and organizational psychology Matthijs Bal, University of Lincoln Edina Dóci, VU University Amsterdam 30 January 2019, Bristol

2. Happy to be in Bristol

3. Background of this talk Is WO-Psychology neoliberal?

4. Context matters…

5. WOP’s response Pro-environmental behaviour Relevant but not relevant; legitimizing status-quo Career self-management Relevant and dangerous

6. How do we bridge understanding?

7. What is the problem of WO-Psychology? • A-critical: no established tradition of critical approaches • A-political: no power struggles recognized in unitary philosophy • Anti-pluralism: strongly positivistic, boxes-and-arrows thinking • Mono-disciplinary: explicitly anti collaboration with non-positivistic disciplines • Ideological, without acknowledging so. • Managerial and privileged (focus on performance, flourishing, pos. Ψ) • Anti-intellectual, shallow research and thinking

8. Ideology in WO-Psychology Studying relevant ideologies • Neoliberalism as hegemonic ideology in contemporary society (capitalism with ‘Asian’ values; cf. Dutch ‘Brexit law’) • Discursive framework (Glynos & Howarth, 2012) needed (i.e., no discussion of ideology in WOP) • What are the underlying motives of WOP-scholars AND what is our projection of the psychology of the workplace? Hence, twofold discussion needed.

9. Conceptualization of ideology • Glynos, 2008; Žižek, 1989, 2001: • More fundamentally, ideology constitutes not only the explicit, intentional attempts within the social order to create an image of society and the workplace as it should be, but also the lesser known, invisible understandings of the social order itself. • Neoliberal ideology: penetrating common-sense understandings. • Unlimited economic freedom, selective deregulation, privatisation, utility maximisation, homo economicus, free markets, commodification, contracts

10. Glynos and Howarth Discursive Framework Logics as analytical tool • Political logic: political dimension of social relations, and describes an ideology’s core rules, norms and understandings. HOW • Social logic is the actual manifestation of politicized relations in concrete practices, referring to how the political dimensions are enacted and performed. WHAT • Fantasmaticlogic explains why ideologically informed social practices and political understandings appeal to people. WHY

11. Some effects of neoliberalism… • Tesco’s everywhere! • Power to multinationals • Climate change • Income inequality • Self-reliance • Vulnerable people suffering • Economic crises, austerity, populism, xenophobia, Brexit, polarization, ‘masculine retreat’ and so on.

13. The Workplace & the individual in the workplace Political Logic • Instrumentality: performance-drive, rational, utility maximisers • Individualism: individual self-interest vs. self-reliance/self-management • Entrepreneurship, mini-capitalist, investor in oneself, invent oneself • Competition: global market for the best jobs (the expat diaspora) • Employable, free market

14. The Workplace & the individual in the workplace Social Logic • Business case: efficiency & effectiveness • Individualization: process whereby social structures changed. • Decline of labour agreements: precarious employment • Contracts: transactionalization of employment • Quantitative assessment: comparison needed for competition • Control and monitoring: for discipline and bureaucracy

15. The Workplace & the individual in the workplace Fantasmatic Logic • Freedom as alternative to ‘power for patronage’: free agent who does not need protection from state, organization, but pays the price of responsibility • Meritocracy & social Darwinism: fairness ultimately prevails in the workplace, and winners are deserving, losers as well (cf. homeless) • Growth & progress: performance leads to growth, growth is good • No need for coercive power, as internalization of fantasies.

16. What is ignored and what do we do as WOPs? • Fantasies are not discussed or acknowledged in our field • Work not just instrumental, competitive, individualized. • Broader, social meaning of work (e.g., craftswomanship) • The terror of control, business case, individualization, bureaucracy • Destruction and restoration of planet through work • Resistance to system

17. Work and Organizational Psychology Political Logic • Instrumentality: individuals instrumental to organizational performance, no intrinsic meaning of work • Individualism: study of individuals, but with emphasis on self-reliance (job crafting, engagement, proactivity) • Competition: inherent to research: employees as self-interested; comparison of employees amongst each other.

18. Work and Organizational Psychology Social Logic • Instrumentality of employees goals in scientific models, and topics of research • Performance outcome of all of our research • Growing interest in individualized topics • i-deals, employability, proactivity • Practical recommendations to improve organizational performance • “Investment in employees pays off” • Use of theory, models and concepts to explain contribution of individual employees to organizational performance

19. Work and Organizational Psychology Fantasmatic Logic • Harmonious employment relationship • Unitarist world view, shared interests EE-ER, fairness & reciprocity • Structural exploitation? • Social engineering • “Technical interventions” to change social reality (i.e., make it more efficient, effective) -> e.g., “transformational leadership” • Managerialism: controlling the organization, or field. • Inconsistent with proclaimed ‘objectivity’ of the field.

20. Out of the deadlock? Alternatives in WOP? • Impossible to “step out” of ideology – we are always inside. • Žižek: “we are responsible for our dreams” • Are we willing to propose ‘radical change’ in WOP?

21. Proposition Content and Structure • Ask necessary questions • Pluralism in WOP • Broader focus on what happens beyond WOP • Critical WOP (EAWOP 2019) • Read our Ethics codes • Activism in our universities: change the system to make WOP great again

22. Ask necessary questions • What about exploitation at work? • What about the ideological underpinnings of our concepts (engagement, proactivity, productivity, job crafting, leadership etcetc)? • What about structural inequalities? • What about resistance against ideology? • How long will we legitimize multinationals and their evil practice? • What about our contributions to climate change, inequality etc?

23. Pluralism in WOP • Workplace dignity paradigm (Bal, 2017): dignity as alternative perspective on organising and workplace psychology • Ontological and epistemological pluralism: moving beyond positivism • Interpretive, constructivist, radical, etc. • Away from the terror of the ‘moderated-mediation model’ • Discourse analysis, introspection, ethnography • Action research

24. Broader focus on what happens beyond WOP • What can we learn from: • Political Science • Sociology • Anthropology • Philosophy • Cf. ‘employability’: unproblematic concept in WOP, but critical literature widely accessible beyond WOP.

25. Critical WOP EAWOP 2019: Parallel Session + Panel Debate (in mainstream) • Cf. Feminist Research (e.g., Bierema, 2002): • 1. challenges traditional scientific inquiry • 2. focuses on the experiences and lives of individuals • 3. considers asymmetrical power arrangements • 4. recognizes diversity as an essential category of analysis • 5. attends to language and the power to “name • 6. promotes social activism and societal change

26. Ethics Codes APA: • “Psychologists respect the dignity and worth of all people, and the rights of individuals to privacy, confidentiality, and self-determination. Psychologists are aware that special safeguards may be necessary to protect the rights and welfare of persons or communities whose vulnerabilities impair autonomous decision making.” • So why do we persist with prioritizing performance while we know it is detrimental to health, well-being and dignity?

27. Activism in our universities Future of WOP Movement • As Bal & Dóci (2018) showed: the content of our work is inherently related to how we work, and how we structure our system. • The Manifesto for the Future of Work and Organizational Psychology • To be published soon. • The ‘crisis’ of psychology + the well-being crisis in academia • Against neoliberal academia • www.futureofwop.com

28. Future of WOP • Principles: • Community building • Collaboration • Cooperation • Change from bottom-up • Values: Equality, positive contribution, openness, responsibility

29. 10 principles • 1) We have responsibilities towards individuals: As work and organizational psychologists, we must keep the well-being of individuals at heart when doing our research and place it central in our research questions, above and beyond business interests. • 2) We have responsibilities towards ourselves: We must be aware of the enormous work pressure in universities and protect our own well-being in the midst of the mental health crisis in academia. • 3) We have responsibilities towards reducing inequality: We must strive to reduce inequalities in academia and to protect all academics who are in insecure, precarious positions. • 4) We have responsibilities towards our community: We need to break the silence in our communities, share our experiences and show active solidarity. • 5) We have responsibilities as supervisors and managers: We must place the well-being of individuals at the heart of management and organize work in ways that protect the health of (academic) employees.

30. 10 principles (2) • 6) We have responsibilities towards how work is organized in universities: We must democratize the ways we set our goals to allow people to be intrinsically motivated in their work. • 7) We have responsibilities towards how the publication system is organized: We need to redesign the competitive, ‘publish-or-perish’, publication system and business model that operates on the basis of using unpaid academic labor, and create better ways to communicate about our research to the scientific and non-scientific community. • 8) We have responsibilities towards how our financing is organized: We have to stop relying largely on competitive grants to obtain the financial means to do our work, and have to debate how financial means can support rather than distract us from doing our core work. • 9) We have responsibilities towards society: We need to be critical about how our work impacts society at large, and keep societal interests in mind in doing our research. • 10) We have responsibilities towards our students: We have to engage in open dialogue with our students to find sustainable ways to benefit students, their learning processes, well-being and health, and their development to become responsible citizens and Work and Organizational Psychology-practitioners.

31. Thank you very much! • http://matthijsbal.com/articles/Bal_Doci_2018_EJWOP.pdf • http://matthijsbal.com/articles/Doci_Bal_2018_EJWOP.pdf • mbal@Lincoln.ac.uk • www.matthijsbal.com • www.futureofwop.com • https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-Future-of-Work-and-Organizational-Psychology