Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T20:44:05.739Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Let's Reduce the Human Footprint Before Building Human Capabilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2017

Paresh Mishra
Paresh Mishra*
Affiliation:
Organizational Leadership, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Paresh Mishra, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne, Organizational Leadership, Neff Hall 288C, 2101 Coliseum Blvd., Fort Wayne, IN 46805. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The case for making human capabilities the business of I-O psychology is at first glance persuasive. It is indisputable that I-O psychology and its associated fields still suffer from a strong bias favoring POSH (Professionals, Official work in formal economy, Safe from discrimination, and High-income countries) and WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies. Gloss, Carr, Reichman, Abdul-Nasiru, and Oestereich (2017) also provide ample evidence of human development indices being low among countries that are underrepresented or unrepresented in industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology studies. Moreover, it cannot be denied that many of the evidence-based recommendations that we now make with confidence will not hold water in these poverty-stricken areas of the world. However, when one juxtaposes the case for building human capabilities with the extant approaches of restoring equity in society, one is confronted with the grim possibility that the idea of human capabilities may not only fail to make significant positive differences in the lives of poor people in the world, but may also worsen the quality of life of everyone on this earth. In this short essay, I discuss two major problems with the human capabilities approach and propose a modification to the approach that can potentially help solve the problem of poverty.

Type
Commentaries
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 414 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bolle, F., Breitmoser, Y., Heimel, J., & Vogel, C. (2012). Multiple motives of pro-social behavior: Evidence from the solidarity game. Theory and Decision, 72 (3), 303–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chant, T. D. (2012). If the world's population lived like. . . . Per Square Mile. Retrieved from https://persquaremile.com/2012/08/08/if-the-worlds-population-lived-like/ Google Scholar
Chivian, E., & Bernstein, A. (Eds.). (2008). Sustaining life: How human health depends on biodiversity. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamandis, P. H., & Kotler, S. (2012). Abundance: The future is better than you think. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2010). World deforestation decreases, but remains alarming in many countries. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/40893/icode/ Google Scholar
Gloss, A., Carr, S. C., Reichman, W., Abdul-Nasiru, I., & Oestereich, W. T. (2017). From handmaidens to POSH humanitarians: The case for making human capabilities the business of I-O psychology. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 10 (3), 329–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Food Policy Research Institute. (n.d.). Water futures. Retrieved from https://www.ifpri.org/project/water-futures Google Scholar
Merritt, A. C., Effron, D. A., & Monin, B. (2010). Moral self-licensing: When being good frees us to be bad. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4 (5), 344–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minter, A. (2013). Junkyard planet: Travels in the billion-dollar trash trade. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
Reverby, S. M. (2011). “Normal exposure” and inoculation syphilis: A PHS “Tuskegee” doctor in Guatemala, 1946–1948. Journal of Policy History, 23 (1), 6–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwitzgebel, E. (2009). Do ethicists steal more books? Philosophical Psychology, 22 (6), 711–725. doi: 10.1080/09515080903409952 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. (2001). Development as freedom. Oxford, UK: Oxford Paperbacks.Google Scholar
Tappin, B. M., & McKay, R. T. (In press). The illusion of moral superiority. Social Psychological and Personality Science. doi: 10.1177/1948550616673878 Google Scholar
Tenbrunsel, A. E., & Messick, D. M. (2004). Ethical fading: The role of self-deception in unethical behavior. Social Justice Research, 17 (2), 223–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2013). World population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/un-report-world-population-projected-to-reach-9-6-billion-by-2050.html Google Scholar