Journal of Organizational Behavior
Special Issue Call for Papers
Humanitarian Organizational Behavior
The editors of the Journal of Organizational Behavior will publish a special issue of the
journal on the subject of Humanitarian Organizational Behavior.
Guest Editors: Stuart C. Carr, Poverty Research Group, Massey University, New Zealand; Lori
Foster Thompson, North Carolina State University, United States; Ines Meyer, University of
Cape Town, Republic of South Africa.
Background and Rationale for the Special Issue
In 2015 the United Nations will announce the post-Millennium, Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). In the original Millennium Development Goals, the world of
work in general, and organizational behavior in particular, was sadly lacking. In the new
round of global goals however, the world of work has the chance to feature, and be
featured, more prominently. The World Bank’s World Development Report for 2013, for
instance, was focused entirely on jobs. Meanwhile the International Labour Organization’s
World of Work Report for 2013 highlighted its Decent Work Agenda, and the key role for
organizational dynamics in repairing society’s economic and social fabric.
Organizations are the key providers of jobs, of enterprise development, of human
services, of international aid, of business and non-profit sector partnerships, and of
development agencies like the ILO and World Bank themselves. Their role in attaining the
“SDGs” – through the promotion of good evidence-based practices founded on
Organizational Behavior - is incalculable. This special issue is designed to respond to the
rising demand for, and stimulate insights into how the behaviour of organizations and the
people in them can provide crucial mechanisms. These mechanisms are crucial because they
can link macro-level “grand plans” for human development on the one hand to everyday life
on the other – for example through the concept of providing Decent Work.
Here are some possible examples of Humanitarian Organizational Behavior:
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How can Non-Government Organizations collaborate with each other to avoid
fragmentation of services during natural or manmade disasters?
What is the best way to recruit aid workers globally, whilst respecting local capacity
building? How does the UN Global Compact change organizational behavior, and
what efficiency gains can it bring?
How is organizational equality being captured and measured, and how does it link to
HR metrics like retention and performance?
What are the organizational costs and benefits of introducing living wages over
minimum ones, and ceilings with performance goals for CEO compensation?
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What are some of the ways that the careers of mid-level cadres, in health and
education services, can be managed in low- and middle-income economies?
What are some of the key behavioral mechanisms, and OB principles, for building
competencies at work, and reducing poverty outside of it?
How can processes like occupational stress and eustress foster, or counteract,
poverty traps?
How does Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) benefit local communities and how
can environmental sustainability feed back into organizational sustainability?
How can we measure a country’s organizational capacity, e.g., its national stock of
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics (KSAOs), and link these to
national economic development in the same way that values have been studied?
How can banks be persuaded to lend to would-be entrepreneurs, e.g., in the wake of
natural disasters and other forms of catastrophe?
What organizational behavioural competencies are required to foster inclusive
business at the base of the pyramid?
What kind of organizational behavior enables the scaling-up of micro enterprises to
enable job creation and shared prosperity?
How can organizational behaviour principles be applied to generate fair trade and
safe working conditions across global supply chains?
With this special issue we seek to capture and disseminate innovative, high-quality
research, theory and practice with respect to organizational behavior and human
development. Contributions can be focused on humanitarian organizations or on decent
work in general, i.e., in any sector including for-profit and corporate settings. Behavior can
be micro-level, group level, or at the organizational level. We welcome theoretical and
empirical papers from a variety of organizational disciplines, including humanitarian work
psychology, human resource management, industrial relations, behavioral economics,
development economics, and organizational studies.
Contributors should note:
 This call is open and competitive, and the submitted papers will be blind reviewed in
the normal way.
 Submitted papers must be based on original material not under consideration by any
other journal or outlet.
 The editors will select a number of papers to be included in the special issue, but
other papers submitted in this process may be published in other issues of the
journal.
 Contributors of accepted papers will be asked to make a 5-minute YouTube video to
help launch the special issue and promote its contents at SDG forums.
 Contributors will be asked to peer-review one or more papers in the special issue.
The deadline for submissions is 1st December 2015. The special issue is intended for
publication in early 2017. Papers to be considered for this special issue should be submitted
online via http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/job (selecting ‘Special Issue Paper’ as the
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Manuscript Type). Please direct questions about the submission process, or any
administrative matter, to Managing Editor, Iris Poessé, jobedoffice@wiley.com. The editors
of the special issue are very happy to discuss initial ideas for papers, and can be contacted
directly:
Stuart Carr, S.C.Carr@Massey.ac.nz
Lori Foster Thompson: llfoster@ncsu.edu
Ines Meyer, Ines.Meyer@uct.ac.za
References
Aguinis, H. (2011). Organizational responsibility: Doing good and doing well. In S. Zedeck
(Ed.), APA handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (vol. 3): Maintaining
expanding and contracting the organization (pp. 855-79). Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association (APA).
Annan, K. (2013). We the peoples. New York: United Nations.
Ashkanasy, N. M. (2008). The new JOB mission. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 1-2.
Carr, S. C. (2013). Anti-poverty psychology. New York: Springer.
Carr, S. C. & MacLachlan, M. (2014). Humanitarian work psychology. The Psychologist, 27(3),
160-163.
De Mel, S., McKenzie, D., & Woodruff, C. M. (2008). Returns to capital in micro-enterprises:
Evidence from a field experiment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, CXXIII, 132972.
Gloss, A., Foster Thompson, L., & Klinger, B. (2014, May). Using occupational information
and trade data to understand economic development. SIOP Conference, Hawai’i.
Haushofer, J., & Fehr, E. (2014). On the psychology of poverty. Science, 344, 862-67.
Idemudia, U. (2009). Oil extraction and poverty reduction in the Niger Delta: A critical
examination of partnership initiatives. Journal of Business Ethics, 90, 91-116.
International Labour Organization (ILO). (2013). The World of Work Report 2013: Repairing
the economic and social fabric. Geneva: ILO.
Klinger, B., Khwaha, A. I., & Del Carpio, C. (2013). Enterprising psychometrics and poverty
reduction. New York Springer.
World Bank. (2013). World Development Report, 2013: Jobs. Washington, DC: World Bank.
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