Center for the Integrative Study of Work

The Center for the Integrative Study of Work

University of Colorado at Boulder
457 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0457

Overview
The Center for the Integrative Study of Work (CISW) at the University of Colorado at Boulder is creating a new and unique research community. This research community is being created by researchers from a variety of disciplines, from natural sciences, psychological/behavioral sciences, engineering, and other disciplines, from the University of Colorado and other research organizations, and from inside and outside the University of Colorado. Researchers are bringing their interests and expertise together to identify topics of interest related to the integrative study of work.

Integrative Study of Work
The integrative study of work has three major goals:

To increase the understanding of the role that work plays in living systems
To increase the understanding of human work
To apply that understanding to current critical problems related to work: those that affect individuals, organizations, societies, and those that affect the crucial interaction between human work and work in other living systems.

CISW research projects thus will develop to cover a broad range of problems and research areas. Not all will be connected to each other. Most, though, will utilize multidisciplinary research teams closely related to the focus of each project. The integrative character of the study of work will continue to develop as CISW seeks to relate the results of individual projects to each other, and to the understanding of the role of work in living systems. From this integration of individual projects, better understanding and new research topics will continue to be built.

Research Partners
The Center for the Integrative Study of Work will be connecting with research partners in a wide range of disciplines, at the University of Colorado and in the broader academic and nonacademic research communities. To this end, the Center for the Integrative Study of Work has been developed as part of the Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado at Boulder, which allows the CISW to reach across traditional disciplinary boundaries and to access the longstanding tradition at CU-Boulder of interdisciplinary research institutes and centers.

Members and Fellows
Consistent with CISW’s multidisciplinary research mission, the Center’s members, fellows, and visiting members and fellows are drawn from a wide range of disciplines, currently including sensory neurobiology, behavioral neuroscience, animal behavior, evolutionary biology, industrial and organizational psychology, communications, archeology, law, electrical engineering, computer science, and human-computer interaction.

Activities
CISW’s activities have to date been directed toward projects that can readily provide direct opportunities for researchers to work together and to identify topics and opportunities for future research. Examples include:

A research grant proposal from CISW, submitted shortly after the Center’s founding, brings together neuroscientists, industrial/organizational psychologists, mental health clinicians, and work performance researchers from across six institutions to improve the understanding of counter-productive behavior in the workplace.
A CISW fellow is involved in a federally-funded, multi-disciplinary study of medication errors among nurses from both nursing and human factors perspectives.
The Center’s work has received private sector support from WorkScience/The Center for Human Function & Work, the IBM Corporation, and John Wiley & Sons/Jossey-Bass Publishers.
A CISW fellow has been developing an initial life sciences research agenda for the CISW as a visiting research fellow and departmental visitor in biological sciences at the University of Cambridge.
This effort in turn has resulted in two working conferences, with participating reseachers from the University of Colorado, the University of Cambridge, and other institutions, the first held in Boulder, and the second in Cambridge, as well as in a AAAS symposium titled, “Putting Energy and Information to Work in Living Systems.”
As one result, three UK-based researchers are now visiting fellows and visiting members of CISW.
Members of CISW, together with researchers in other research organizations, have been developing an inaugural volume on the integrative study of work in living systems, which will be published by the MIT Press. This “guidebook” links research from a wide range of fields to work in living systems, including research in cellular physiology, neurobiology, biogeochemistry, electrical and computer engineering and multiobjective optimization, evolutionary biology, integrative design, industrial and organizational psychology, environmental physiology, and psychoneuroimmunology.
CISW is currently developing a new working conference for researchers, on the role of work in living systems and on opportunities for research linkages.

Opportunities for Participation

· University of Colorado researchers are invited to query the Center’s director and fellows about topics of interest and potential projects.

· Established researchers from other institutions are invited to query about the Center’s programs for visiting scholars and visiting fellows.

· Business and organizations will find that the Center’s founding members have a long history of work in and with the private sector. The Center is interested in helping organizations solve critical problems, through closely specified research and application projects, and through broader research cooperation.

· Foundations and funding agencies will find that CISW is able to bring together highly-qualified and innovative teams directed toward these organizations’ most critical long-term goals, in particular when these involve solving critical practical issues in work and employment or involve the impact of human work on the viability of work and life on Earth—for humans and for all living systems.

If these opportunities for participation match your interests and needs, the Center for the Integrative Study of Work is interested in hearing from you. You can contact any of the Center's Fellows:

· Robert A. Levin, Director and Fellow, robert.levin at colorado.edu, 303-735-8484

· Anne C. Bekoff, Fellow, anne.bekoff at colorado.edu, 303-492-5114

· Michael R. Lightner, Fellow, michael.lightner at colorado.edu, 303-492-5180

· Joseph G. Rosse, Fellow, joseph.rosse at colorado.edu, 303-492-6254