Employment | achord

The academia department works in three channels:

During the last decade, the academic arena in Israel has become a shared space of great social importance. Thousands of men and women each year enter the gates of a campus in Israel. For many of them, the campus is where they experience their first real encounter with social groups other than their own. The relations between students from different groups – Arabs, ultra-Orthodox, Israelis of Ethiopian origin, secular or traditional people, and so on – form an immensely important social opportunity, placing the campus as a key arena for promoting and improving relations between different groups in Israel.

Because the student population frequently changes, the academia department works with administrators, faculty and staff who meet with students year after year and shape the experience of intergroup encounter on campus. Our work is targeted to influence the various campus populations, including academic staff, administrative staff, security personnel and university management, as well as organizational structures.

The interventions and training we offer

In the field of diversity in employment we offer interventions, training, diagnostic processes and metrics, as well as practical tools for the various phases in the employment life cycle:

Inclusion study, mapping the organizational situation regarding the inclusion of different groups;
Consulting and accompaniment for diversity and inclusion programs;

Workshops on:

o Diversity and inclusion – the basics
o locating candidates
o diverse recruitment
o optimal absorption
o managing a diverse staff
o fair evaluation and feedback
o communicating organizational messages
o promoting diversity and inclusion
o coping with periods of crisis in relations (such as security-related tension)

To see all the workshops and activities offered by the Employment

All Employment Department activities

Department staff at aChord

Social psychological infrastructures and models

Models developed at aChord conceptualize and describe the connection between social psychological theory and practice. These models form the basis for our work in the employment field.

The inclusive organization model

aChord's model for the inclusive organization rests on literature in social psychology that deals with inclusion and describes the social psychological elements of individual experience in the organization.

The model is accompanied by valid indices and enables organizations to diagnose the challenges before them, along with their often unrecognized strengths, in the context of diversity and inclusion. Based on the model, a targeted intervention plan to promote inclusion can be devised for the organization in those areas where diversity and inclusion are found to be insufficient. The model includes four components of inclusion from the perspective of individual consciousness: belonging, voice, fairness and tolerance.

tolerance

The tolerance component expresses the extent to which employees conduct themselves in a tolerant manner toward others, and the extent that employees from diverse groups feel that they are respected, accepted and treated with tolerance.

fairness

The fairness component expresses the extent to which the organization is perceived as fair by its members: the degree to which employees sense that the organization is working to promote fairness and to create equal opportunity for workers from all social groups employed there.

voice

The voice component expresses the degree to which employees feel comfortable expressing themselves and making their voice heard: speaking in organizational forums; expressing their opinions and ideas authentically, even when contrary to the majority position; expressing, their unique group identity in the organizational space, including through their dress, language, and cultural customs. The voice component is affected by the individual's degree of security and comfort in the organizational space, which is affected by the perception of the norms and messages that the individual registers.

belongingness

The belongingness component expresses the degree to which employees feel and view themselves as an integral part of the organization. In social psychological terms, belongingness is related to their degree of identification with the collective organizational identity, including: identification with organizational values, interpersonal connections with others in the organization, and the significance of the organizational identity in their self-perception.

Model for addressing relations during periods of tension and escalation

The reality is Israel is replete with situations of conflict between different groups, also in times of escalation usually accompanied by extensive media coverage and extremist discourse on social media. This reality requires thoughtful management of relations in mixed teams. In response to the need on the part of employers, we developed a model describing the psychological infrastructure of different ways in which people experience stress during periods of intensifying intergroup conflict. According to the model’s organizing principle, deteriorating relations between groups outside the workplace raise much tension inside the workplace. The model allows us to identify psychological reactions and different behavior patterns that may develop within teams towards colleagues from the out-group. Since May 2021, aChord employment department staff accompanies employers during such periods, through training, workshops and consulting processes based on the unique model developed at aChord. These offer managers tools to understand the situation among the employees and practical ways to deal with it that are tailored to what is happening in their organization.

Diagnosing the level of organizational inclusion and creating change