For the last several years, SIOP has put great effort into emphasizing the prosocial side of our field. This involves both science and practice that seeks to benefit others and/or society as a whole.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that encompasses many forms and delivers economic, social, and environmental benefits. Manifestations of CSR include corporate philanthropy, volunteerism programs, compliance to voluntary codes of conduct, environmental sustainability initiatives, and personnel practices focused on diversity, fairness, and well-being.

CSR has become both ubiquitous and entrenched within firm practices, and therefore represents a major operational consideration for organizations. Despite the omnipresence of CSR within organizations, and the increasing demand for its practice among stakeholders, a robust scientific literature focused on the influences involved in CSR decision making, implementation, participation, and evaluation has been lacking.

That is, whereas CSR research has largely focused on the relationship between firm social performance and economic performance, as well as the sociological predictors and outcomes of CSR, far less attention has been placed on the structural characteristics of CSR initiatives, as well as psychological phenomena influencing socially responsible and irresponsible behaviors within organizations.

Many topic areas within industrial-organizational psychology can be fruitfully applied to more fully understand CSR phenomena. SIOP members have begun investigating the application of I-O science to CSR, and these pages are a living document of that work. As more CSR progress is made, SIOP will continue to update these pages. Please check back often!

The 2016 CSR Summit

In 2016, SIOP held a groundbreaking event, the Corporate Social Responsibility Summit (CSR Summit). Titled, “The Micro-Processes of Social Responsibility in Organizations: A Bottom-Up Perspective,” this 2-day meeting was organized by Chair Deborah Rupp and Drew Mallory, both of Purdue University. It was made possible by a first-ever National Science Foundation research grant to SIOP.

The summit included thought leaders from all parts of the I-O world, both in terms of career and location. Held prior to the SIOP Annual Conference, the event took place April 12 from 1:00pm to 6:00pm and April 13, from 8:00am to 6:00pm at the Hilton Anaheim, Anaheim, CA.

More than 50 academics, practitioners, and students from a variety of backgrounds came together for this summit, which included networking opportunities, keynotes from top scholars, research updates and summaries, practice highlights, multidisciplinary commentary, group discussion, and time for break-out work focused on identifying gaps and planning for new collaborative projects. Learn more the summit by clicking the link above.

The CSR Registry

The Corporate Social Responsibility and Prosocial/Humanitarian I-O Registry (CSR Registry) is a continuation of work begun at the 2016 CSR Summit. Launched in July 2017, the registry is intended to create a centralized resource database of international industrial-organizational psychologists with knowledge, experience, and interest in CSR, humanitarian work psychology (HWP), and prosocial I-O. This registry allows SIOP members, members of the media, organizations, policy makers, and other relevant parties to easily identify and contact those individuals. A secondary purpose of the registry is to serve as tool for prosocial-oriented SIOP committees (e.g., the SIOP UN Committee, the Prosocial I-O subcommittee, etc.) to identify experts when preparing statements and issuing project calls. Membership in the CSR Registry is open to SIOP Members (including Associate and Retired Members). Access the registry through the link above.

GOHWP

The Global Organisation for Humanitarian Work Psychology (GOHWP) is an international coalition of I-O psychology academics and practitioners actively engaged in work devoted to corporate social responsibility, poverty reduction, and the humanitarian treatment of all people in their places of work. SIOP partners in many ways with the GOHWP in fulfilling their mission with deliberate and organized efforts to enhance human welfare.