EJWOP Special issue: Enhancing the social impact of research in work and organizational psychology - beyond academia

The purpose of this special issue of European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology is to give much-needed airtime to how, when and why research in work and organizational psychology does and does not make a difference in the “real world.” We review existing coverage of this topic, in the contexts of long-expressed concerns about how our discipline does not make enough difference, the governance of academic institutions and the Covid pandemic. We then present the ten papers selected for this special issue, summarizing some of their main arguments. Collectively, the papers offer conceptual analyses of impact, case examples of impact in the form of a single piece of research or a long programme of it, and insights derived from critical management and feminist literature. We offer six general observations from the papers, discuss some points not covered in them, and suggest how work and organizational psychology can, and perhaps must, be conducted differently if it is to survive as a viable discipline and profession.