International Development and I-O Psychology in Sub-Saharan Africa: Perspectives from Local and Expatriate Standpoints

This chapter describes the work of the two authors who served separately to help improve the quality of education in different sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana and South Africa. While both authors were not I-O psychologists at the time, their experiences involved applying industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology principles and helped shaped their current perspectives, and careers, as I-O psychologists. While both authors were associated with development initiatives tied to the United States, their perspectives represent different sides of traditional development projects as one brought the perspective of someone from the United States to South Africa while the other brought a local Ghanaian perspective and expertise to his project in Ghana. The authors’ projects involved a range of topics from I-O psychology including motivation and organizational development, but they highlight select challenges and priorities that are frequently prominent in development work, namely, communication difficulties, the importance of strengthening relationships between stakeholders, and physical security. They discuss and explore the ramifications of these challenges and priorities, including how they reflect on the importance of issues of identity, power, and justice in international development work.