After a long period of not being able to meet in person, the annual WAOP conference finally took place on site in Tilburg on the 18th of November 2022.

With the goal of bringing together researchers and practitioners, this year’s WAOP conference was made possible by the interdisciplinary collaboration between the departments of Human Resource Studies, Social Psychology, and Organizational Studies of Tilburg University. 

Around 150 people joined the conference. Attendees came from 20 different universities, from the Netherlands to Australia. Among them were 64 PhD students.

The conference took place at the beautiful LocHal, built in 1932 as a locomotives workshop. In 2017 it has been transformed into a new and modern hub connecting knowledge and art. As our chair prof. dr. Marianne van Woerkom stated: Art and research can be similar. It can surprise you or anger you, but most importantly: inspire you!

Keynote speaker prof. dr. Marylène Gagné from Curtin University gave a very exciting presentation about how we can create good work through self-determination theory, in which she specifically focused on Remote Work and Algorithmic Management.

Throughout the day many interesting and inspiring presentations were given. The themes of the sessions were Leadership, Work-life Balance, Career Development, Health, Assessment, AI, Demands & Resources, Interpersonal Relations, Strengths, Mistreatment & Compliance, Telework, Inclusion, Positive Psychology, and Personality & Individual Differences.

Going out with a bang, appreciation for the organizing committee and volunteers, WAOP’s future activities, and two awards marked the end of the conference. 

The upcoming On Tour With Professors-workshops are ‘Decision making in performance assessment’ and ‘Personnel assessment: taking a trip through some of the best moments of more than 100 years of research’. They will take place in March and June 2023.

Out of many submissions, nominees for the Best Dissertation Award were Jesse Vullinghs, Jonas Dora and Ard Barends. The award was won by Jonas Dora with his thesis ‘A motivational perspective on smartphone behavior’.

The Best Paper Award was won by Ranran Li, PhD candidate from the department of Experimental and Applied Psychology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Lastly, the host for the WAOP conference 2023 was announced – which will be the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen!

The conference was followed by a delightful dinner at T-Huis.

Many thanks to the organizing team, volunteers, dissertation committee and speakers that made the WAOP conference 2022 a successful and inspiring day!