Work Psychology as Action Psychology: The Activity Theories Contribution

Abstract

Work is an genre of activity to which action plays a central role. This action implies the agent’s confrontation with the objects of his or her activity in semiotically mediated contexts. However, over the course of the history of Organizational and Work Psychology, action has often been reduced to the realm of behavior, whether in the behaviorist or cognitivist tradi-tion, two major influences on the field. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how action is conceived in the job performance models advanced in Organizational and Work Psychology literature. Our hypothesis is that these models deal with the theme of action in a restrictive and fragmentary way. In opposition to these models, we propose analyzing action based on activity theories, which fosters theoretical and methodological shifts capable of recasting the mediated dimension of action in work. We show how activity theories in general, and clinic of activity in particular, take the discussion concerning work role in psychological development and health a step further.