Psych Week 2024 alt class explores significance of “leadership and organization”
By: Arvin Dollosa
In celebration of this year’s Psychology Week, the UST Department of Psychology and the UST Psychology Society held the "Leadership and Organization" alternative class at the Central Laboratory Room 702 on February 21, 2024, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
In the opening remarks, industrial-organizational (IO) psychologist Mr. Henmar C. Cardiño, MP, recalled his experience assisting individuals, groups, and organizations in providing interventions and programs based on their needs. He hoped that this lecture would "... ignite a [deeper] interest in the field of IO psych practice" among the audience.
Guest speaker Mr. Bobby Jones V. Domdom, a licensed professional teacher, faculty lecturer, and learning manager for local government offices, introduced the objectives of the discussion. He emphasized leadership organization and appreciation for leadership requisites, responsibilities, and readiness.
"Personal advocacies versus organizational priorities," Mr. Domdom remarked as the central argument for balancing organizational leadership. In the context of Ray Wang's organizational hierarchy of needs, establishing a brand is the highest goal, akin to self-actualization from Abraham Maslow's original individual model.
Office work has encountered a significant overhaul from its originality in the American white-collar world, as presented in Mr. Domdom's supplementary video. "It is worth it to invest in people," the narrator conveyed about providing office amenities as an innovative way to incentivize employees to work productive long hours.
The guest speaker further highlighted the consideration for the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) environment, which calls for an intrinsic responsibility for leaders to develop mechanisms that will help sustain the energy and level of commitment despite organizational changes to different generational workers.
"The best leadership style in this fast-changing environment is [contextualized] within the situation," Mr. Domdom declared. One of the leadership styles he emphasized was servant leadership, sharing his personal experience working with Former Vice President Leni Robredo, mentioning her as an inspirational leader who empowered the collective youth to advocate for change in the last 2022 Presidential Elections.
In the latter part of the discussion, he shared six lessons on leadership, particularly regarding maintaining personal advocacies, building and surrounding oneself with a network of supportive people, and abiding by our values, vision, and moral ethics. "It may not be a choice, but certainly a decision," he concluded, as leaders aren't born but made from the outcomes of adapting situations.
During the Q&A portion, the guest speaker shared his thoughts about work efficiency over work sustainability, recognizing different personalities, managing one's energy, stressors, and limitations, and identifying the individual commitment to achieving effective leadership.
"As student leaders, we are to impart more than what we learn from classrooms and [apply it to real life]," Mr. Enrick Noel Orajay, Internal Vice President of the UST Psychology Society, expressed in his closing remarks. He further urged everyone to be motivated toward something greater than themselves, to help society address cracks and move forward together.
