Intervention Design Challenge

The Positive Organizational Intervention Challenge (POIC) gives students, practitioners, and researchers an opportunity to innovate positive psychology interventions for the workplace.

The Work and Organizations Division holds the competition in the year leading up to the bi-annual World Congress, where finalists present their interventions. 

Competition Process

Call for submissions
Round 1: Initial vetting of submissions by Division Leadership
Round 2: Online discussion and voting – open to members
Finalists announced
Finalists present at WCPP

Proposal Guidelines

Submissions for the Challenge are invited from all IPPA Work & Organizations Division members. Individuals or small teams of up to three (3) people are invited to submit a POIC proposal. Submit your proposal as a reply to the Discussion entry at the top of the Work & Organization Division’s Engage landing page.

Please read the following guidelines carefully. Submission not meeting these guidelines will not be considered.

Format
Cover page + no more than three (3) pages
1-inch margins
Double-spaced
12 point, Times New Roman font
APA format

Authorship
Up to three authors
All authors must be members of IPPA’s WOD

Eligible Interventions
The POIC is intended to spur conversation and innovation through the integration of recent research findings and innovative field application into the intervention design process, so submissions are restricted to:

• Untested interventions currently under design
• Interventions that have or will have (by the WCPP) undergone uncompensated testing, either internal trials (“alpha” tests) or trials with “friendly” externals (“beta” tests)

Ineligible Interventions
The POIC is not a venue for getting feedback on interventions that have or will have (by the WCPP) undergone commercial field applications or compensated trials.

Proposal Elements
Identify and describe a common organizational issue that positive psychology could have a role in addressing
Identify established research findings that indicate a course of action for alleviating the issue
Describe an organizational intervention that applies the research findings to an organizational setting

Evaluation of Proposals
Submissions will be evaluated by Work & Organizations Division members and advisors based on the following criteria.

Case for Intervention
Call for Positive Approach: how does a positive approach add value that traditional approaches do not?
Breadth of Issue: how wide-ranging is the presenting problem?
Importance, Impact and Outcomes: What outcomes are at stake for the organization?

Integration of Positive Psychology
Theory: What theory or theories offer the initial indication that a positive approach will add unique value?
Research Findings: What evidence from research findings indicates that the intervention will have a significant effect?
Creativity: Does the proposed intervention apply positive psychology in a novel way?

Intervention Design
Does the intervention design provide:
A description of specific and relevant actions …
… in a specific order …
… over a specified time frame?
Achievable and measurable outcomes?

Where flexibility in the intervention along any of the above criteria is called for, the range of possible design choices is appropriate. Such ranges and a discussion of how a specific design element is determined should be included in the proposal.