oa Een pleidooi voor valorisatie van de Arbeids- en Organisatiepsychologie

A plea for the utilization of organizational psychology

This article is a plea for the utilization of organizational psychology. Knowledge utilization is the process of creating value from knowledge, by making knowledge suitable and/or available for economic and/or societal use, and translating knowledge into competitive products, services, processes and new businesses. We describe two forms of knowledge utilization – knowledge dissemination and knowledge use – and illustrate how organizational psychologists working at universities are already engaged in spreading their academic knowledge and collaborating with practitioners, as to put organizational psychological knowledge into practice. However, utilization could be improved, by making deals that benefit both practice and academia (so-called integrative or ‘win-win’ deals). Knowledge utilization is not only a means to tap new funding sources in economically tough times, but also an ideal way to contribute to society and (people in) organizations.