Date and time 

The WAOP Conference will be held on November 29, 2024. It is a 1-day conference, followed by a dinner afterwards. 

Program 

We can’t wait to share our conference program with you. We expect to publish our program in September 2024.  

Location 

The WAOP Conference 2024 will be held in La Vie Meeting Center Utrecht, which is a 15–minutes  walk from Utrecht Central Station. Please see the map for the precise location (Sint Jacobstraat 61, 3511 BP, Utrecht). 

Participants 

We invite submissions from academics and practitioners interested in sharing their latest insights in work and organisational psychology and related fields, such as personnel psychology, human resource management studies, business administration, and other interdisciplinary approaches to understanding employee functioning in the context of organisations. 

Keynote speaker 

This year’s keynote speech will be delivered by Prof.dr. Jessica de Bloom. Jessica received her PhD in 2012 for a study on the effects of vacations on the health and well-being of working people. After her PhD, she worked for several years as a postdoc and research fellow at the University of Tampere, Finland, where she examined the effects of breaks during the working day. Since 2017, she has been working in human resource management, occupational health and well-being at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Groningen.

Jessica’s area of expertise concerns the interface between life domains, the increasingly vanishing boundaries between work and non-work life, worker’s proactive strategies to (re-)design their work to satisfy their psychological needs, and the impact of changing working conditions on health, well-being and performance. She takes an active interest in communicating scientific knowledge to a wider audience of scientists, professionals, students, and society. In fact, among her first publications was a popular science book with evidence-based tips to optimize a holiday.

Research and practitioner sessions 

After the presentation of our keynote speaker, there will be several rounds of high-quality research sessions, in which researchers will present their research. These sessions cover both applied and more fundamental research. To facilitate the exchange of knowledge and insights between researchers and practitioners, the conference also includes a practitioner session, in close collaboration with the Netherlands Institute of Psychologists (NIP). This practical session focuses on the practical implications of research and aims to encourage discussion at the intersection of theory and practice. When you submit your abstract you can indicate whether you would like to participate in a practitioner session. 

Best paper and dissertation award 

As part of the closing ceremony, we will announce the winners for the best paper award and the best dissertation award.