Considering the current tides, people are faced with challenges brought by poverty, climate change, and all forms of discrimination. To counter these challenges, the United Nations has established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in hopes of constructing a sustainable development model corresponding to the global common interest by consolidating the resources of multiple nations and uniting the forces of governments and civilians. The United Nations believes the sustainable development model should be “a model that can fulfill the needs of the current and future generations, without leaving anyone behind,” – which is a completely different approach to previous development models that heavily emphasize economic growth and short-term contentment. Therefore, other than the efforts of governments in assessing the appropriateness of current policies that stress economic development in establishing a sustainable development model that fulfills the SDGs, the ability of private enterprises transitioning from a profit-centered business model to a sustainable development model that simultaneously takes financial goals, social inclusion, and eco-friendly measures into consideration is a focal point to this discussion.

Having been affected by this trend, organizations have started to emphasize management indices that focus on environment, social, and governance (ESG) in response and to fulfill the sustainability envisioned by the SDGs. Environment-related management indices focus on whether organizations protect the environment and engage in eco-friendly behaviors while pursuing organizational interests. Social-related management indices focus on whether organizations protect labor rights – ensuring that employees of all backgrounds are treated equally, without discrimination, and are not exploited or employed wrongfully. Governance-related management indices focus on whether an organization’s top management team complies with the law and adheres to the principles of transparency by disclosing important information when necessary. As sustainable development becomes a common value, organizations that go against ESG lose stakeholders’ trust and destroy their brand image – causing major losses for the organization. For example, many financial establishments disallow their banks to finance or invest in organizations that do not adhere to ESG standards. In addition, consumers will boycott organizations that damage the environment, violate labor rights, and conceal corruption as a sign of protest. Organizations such as Google, Unilever, and Toyota are actively pushing ESG-related policies and measures – which suggest that obeying ESG protocols is a crucial factor of organization operation.

Interestingly, the success of an organization establishing a sustainable business model lies in whether employees recognize sustainability values and are willing to engage in ESG-related behaviors. In other words, how to motivate and guide employees to recognize and achieve management goals advocated by ESG is not only an unavoidable management issue but also a research topic that IO psychology can contribute to. For example, in response to environment-related management issues, there have been a few studies examining how leaders can use leadership styles to encourage employees to actively take eco-friendly measures. They have also discussed how green human resource management should set and measure ESG management goals to have employees achieve eco-friendly goals while they are striving for work efficacy. They also utilized current psychological theories to explain the underlying mechanisms behind green human resource management affecting employees’ well-being, career planning, and labor relations – providing directions for practical implication and further research. In response to social-related management issues, many researchers utilize the equity theory, perspective of stereotype, discrimination, and gender roles in discussing how to create a fair, non-biased working environment and its practical implications. In response to governance-related management issues, many scholars and practitioners examine how human resource management can create a multi-stakeholder governance framework in helping organizations set strategies that comprehensively consider the needs of all stakeholders. Also, researchers are discussing how to lower the happenings of employee pro-organization unethical behavior to avoid organizations being under corruption scandals and maintain the stakeholders’ trust towards the organization. In conclusion, examining the important role employees play in achieving ESG goals from an IO psychology perspective is the crucial key to establishing a sustainable business model.

Based on what is mentioned, if we were to create a diverse conversation platform that allows scholars and practitioners to discuss how to plan and design practical policies and future research directions on “encouraging and guiding employees in achieving ESG,” we should be able to contribute to the goal of “organization sustainability.” This will be meaningful to the organizations striving for sustainable implementation and a sustainable business model.

This year’s conference is themed “Business Sustainability: A Journey from the Heart.” From an IO psychology lens, we hope to examine how organizations can achieve a sustainable business model that focuses on the environment, society, and governance by promoting employee recognition and engagement toward organizational sustainability. Based on the points mentioned, this year’s conference hopes to reach a consensus on a plausible future research direction for sustainable business modeling and effective plans to solve practical issues through exchanges between local and international scholars and practitioners that put employees at the forefront of the conversation.

With the rise of diversity in labor populations in recent years, organizations have started to shift focus to management issues revolving around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Diversity means organizations that includes talents from various backgrounds such as age, religion, race, experience, specialties, etc. Equity means that talents of all backgrounds are treated equally by the organization and are provided with the same opportunities, regardless of their individual differences. Inclusion means creating an open and friendly work environment that accepts talents from all backgrounds, making talents feel respected, have a sense of belonging, and feel free to express themselves. DEI is crucial - as expressing equal care to talents of all backgrounds is important in achieving corporate social responsibility (CSR) and fulfilling sustainability development. In practice, implementing DEI within corporate sustainability development initiatives not only creates a corporate brand image that attracts a diverse of talents but also lowers employee turnover rate, increases employee productivity, and even affects the organization’s financial performance. For these reasons, multiple reputable companies, such as Apple, Schneider Electric, Shiseido, Disney, etc, have put in numerous efforts in pushing DEI initiatives and implementations. Corporations in Taiwan are also starting to be concerned about such subjects and have promoted localized DEI management systems.

In light of the employee-centered nature of DEI management practices, shifting corporates’ sustainability development goals from “corporate sustainability” to “talent sustainability” is a target that organizational psychology can make key contributions to. In regard to diversity issues, researchers and practitioners have assessed diversity management plans that can lead to optimized employee, team, and organizational benefits and efficiency. Researchers have also examined underlying mechanisms of diversity management through existing psychological theories and findings in order to enhance diversity management practices (e.g., inclusive recruitment and hiring, inclusive training, etc). In regard to equity issues, researchers and practitioners have utilized existing organizational justice theories, as well as findings and perspectives regarding prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes, in efforts to create a fair and non-prejudicial work environment and management system. In regard to inclusive issues, researchers and practitioners have put in tremendous efforts in understanding how to exhibit inclusive leadership in order to establish a feeling of belonging and individuality within teams and individuals with diverse backgrounds (intrapersonal experiences) and create a positive communicative and cooperative relationship (interpersonal experiences), subsequently facilitating work performance. Cutting in from an organizational psychology perspective, centering the conversation on employees and concerning employees’ psychological states are the key entry points to examining corporate sustainability developments under a DEI context.

Accordingly, only through creating a platform for academics and practitioners to initiate conversations about how we can boost employee well-being and efficiency through better-designed and managed employee-centered DEI practices can we realize the vision of “talents being the organization’s greatest assets.” This vision is something an organization striving for sustainable development yearns for and will be a crucial achievement in leading to sustainability and longevity.

This year's conference theme is “Human-centered, Heart-driven: The Practice of Corporate Sustainability for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” By convening an international conference, we hope to examine how corporate organizations in Taiwan can uphold humanistic care through an organizational psychology lens and realize corporate sustainability locally under the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This conference hopes that through exchanges and conversations between academics and practitioners from all over the world, we can identify a unified research direction for DEI and sustainable development research and, ultimately, lead to effective solutions for DEI and corporate sustainability development issues.