In order to increasing the international connections, the Department of Psychology in Asia University (AU) aims to expand the international exchanges and sign MOA with important universities in the world. The chairperson of Psychology Mein-Woei Suen indicates that increasing the international cooperation on researches and establishing the dual-degree program, exchange student, and English-taught master and Ph.D. degree are our important main goals in recent years.
On December 18th, for example, Dr. Dian Ekowati of the Deputy Executive Director of Airlangga Global Engagement from Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia came to the Department of Psychology at AU to speak in the title of “Territoriality, Psychological Ownership and Emotion During Organizational Changes in Public Sector Organizations in Indonesia”. Some faculties and many international and local graduate students of the Department of Psychology attend this speech.
Dr. Dian Ekowati mentioned that public sector organizations in Indonesia were needed to change in order to adjust to citizens’ demands, which was strongly voiced through social media around 1998. One major reason causing these changes in public sector organization in Indonesia was the financial crisis associated with serious corruption in 1998. Since then, the government system was transformed to decentralization; each province and city have its own autonomy to govern. These changes largely reduced the degree of corruption in the government system. The new government system initiated the collaboration among public sector organizations to improve public services. Collaboration could induce territoriality or psychological ownership issues.
Many students were very interested in the territoriality or psychological ownership issues. Warm-hearted Dr. Dian Ekowati stimulated in-depth back-and-forth discussions on these issues with students. For examples, student Nina asked “Which is better, to educate prior to the changes or during the process of changing process?” Dr. Dian Ekowati answered that using both ways simultaneously had better effects. Also, informing employees about the coming changes prior to the changes to reduce the resistance of changes. And during the process of the changes, employees could also consult with their supervisors about the problems they encountered. Amie, one of the international students from Thailand, shared how their government system deal with modernization. With the rising of gadgets and technology, people could reach the information of public transportation schedule through applications managed by the government, which improved public service to a large extent.
Many international students (e.g. Nana, Helena, Gessa, & Lika) felt that the speech was very informative and meaningful because it widened their knowledge about the application of psychology in public sector organizations. Local students (e.g. May, Jenny, & Linda) thought that Dr. Dian Ekowati had presented complicated issues in a simple way to be understood clearly. They were so happy to participate in this speech.
The Chairperson Mein-Woei Suen and Associate Professor Shujen Lee Chang are very honored to have Dr. Dian Ekowati and hope they three can work out a research cooperation together and plan more interaction for facilities and students between AU and UNAIR soon.
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