Why do we work?

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There has been so much written about what we seek from work - the whole field of work and organizational psychology has a rich history of answering questions around work-related motivation. Whether from the employer’s side (how do I motivate my workforce? how do I engage my employees?) or from the individual’s side (how do I drag myself to work even though I hate it?! why should I pick this job and not that one?), what we seek from work has an important implication - it also provides opportunities to embed diversity, equity and inclusion into these key motivators!

Boiling down a lot of research, I propose a simple “Four P” approach to answer this question of what we seek from work:

  • Pay (work as livelihood - obviously the first thing that comes to mind!),

  • Passion (do we get to fulfil our potential and do what we 'like'/want to do?)

  • People (do we like who we work with? Is there trust, safety and fun at work?)

  • Purpose (work as a source of identity; do we feel our work is meaningful?)

And to nudge us into considering how we’re embedding DEI into these four areas, here is a simple list of questions in the infographic.

Embed DEI in the four Ps of Work.png

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe - Hire Him and Let Her Go? Using Science to Reduce Hiring Bias

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Of late, there has been increased focus on ‘auditing’ HR processes and practices for bias, with a view to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion at work. Those of us in the organizational sciences like industrial-organizational (work) psychology or behavioural economics know that there are several research-based ideas we can apply to these efforts.

Organizations have a real opportunity to structure talent acquisition/hiring practices and systems in ways that change the default, convenient behaviour of these decision makers (prone to bias) and shift them towards less biased decisions.

From nudging decision makers to be more accountable, to using automated tools that minimise the element of human error, from the language used in recruiting materials to signal inclusion, to the use of structure to promote fairness and accuracy - this article describes eight evidence-based ways to reduce the impact of bias (gender bias, as an illustration) in hiring decisions.

My co-author Dhanisha and I are proud of our peer-reviewed article published in the Special issue of NHRDN Journal: Implications of Behavioural Economics for HR Practice (Guest Editor: Zubin R. Mulla) on February 24, 2021. The version posted here is the submission finally accepted for publication. The final publication may be accessed from this link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2631454120987343.

APA Style Citation: Nandigama, D., & Shyamsunder, A. (2021). Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe: Hire Him and Let Her Go? Using Science to Reduce Hiring Bias. NHRD Network Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/2631454120987343

Observer Intervention in Sexual Harassment

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In late 2018, a group of us won the prestigious “EMERGE” (Evidence-based Measures of Empowerment for Research on Gender Equality) research grant offered by the University of California, San Diego’s Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH).

This team was: Aarti Shyamsunder, Charu Khanna, Ayesha Sharma and Sister Patricia D’Souza, and we are grateful to Sophia college for the support, and of course, GEH for the grant and constant support and encouragement!

As Primary Investigator (PI) on this research grant, I led the development of a tool that can serve as a diagnostic as well as a coaching aide, to help organizations in their efforts to prevent sexual harassment at work. Specifically, this is a scenario-based (single-item situational judgment format) tool, which enables observers to create mental scripts of how to behave during or after incidents of sexual harassment.

Our research found that observer intervention behaviors can be one (or more) of the following “ABCD” styles:

  • Appeal to Authority

  • Buffer/Break

  • Call out/Confront

  • Defuse/De-escalate

To learn more about the study and the tool, check out our report, watch our presentation at the SIOP Virtual Conference 2020, or read our peer-reviewed publications here (contains the tool itself) and here (commentary in a Special Issue on anti-harassment training at work).