The presentation will be based on an entry authored by the presenter and published in
the 2024 Elgar Encyclopedia of Organizational Psychology - organized by P. Matthijs
Bal. The entry compares Latin American (LA) Work and Organizational Psychology
(W&OP)'s shared centenary beginnings with its diverse contemporary deployments,
based on an analysis of 14 LA countries by the presenter and two other authors from
Colombia and Chile. This analysis included history, professional training and
performance, scientific productivity, and dissemination of Psychology and W&OP. It
critically suggests contextual factors that may explain differences between these
countries. It describes how professional regulation evolved in them and when they
created undergraduate and graduate courses and professional councils or boards. The
establishment of scientific societies, regular conferences, and journals is also mentioned,
as well as the institutionalization of policies for accreditation and constant evaluation of
those courses. In parallel, the number of individuals dedicated to W&OP activities in
public and private organizations or in consulting services has increased in LA. These
activities evolved from applying measurement techniques to various individual, group,
and organizational pursuits. Academic networks of graduate program professors and the
publication of books and articles escalated - in a few countries due to a combination of
factors that did not occur in other LA countries. A virtuous cycle would have improved
those countries' teaching, research, and professional practice. The entry also mentions a
recent participative process by IAAP, with W&OP experts in LA, that analyzed
opportunities and obstacles for achieving five UN Sustainable Development Goals. It
identified unequal advances between these Goals and several practices-strategies to
promote those advances. A strategic plan was outlined for the future of W&OP in LA.