The Harold Bridger Award

       ISPSO CELEBRATES THE CREATIVITY, ORIGINALITY AND RELEVANCE      OF PAPERS WRITTEN BY OUR NEWEST MEMBERS 

The Bridger Award is presented annually for the paper judged to be the most original and creative paper presented by an ISPSO member of five years standing or less, at each Annual Meeting.   

The Award was funded by the Pratt Foundation from Melbourne in 2007 to honour the contribution of Harold Bridger to the Pratt Companies and to the larger field in general. It is awarded annually for the paper judged to be the most original and creative paper presented by a member of 5 years standing or less at each Annual Meeting.  Papers are assessed by a Bridger Award Committee of three members comprised of a chair, appointed for a three year renewable term and two others appointed for a one year renewable term.

Chair:

The current chair is Ms Fiona Martin, Consultant, Researcher and Author, Melbourne, Australia.

The committee members for judging the 2024 AM papers are Michelle May, South Africa, and Gille Amado, France.

Nomination and Eligibility:
A list is created of those people who presented papers at the ISPSO Annual Meeting, and who fit the criteria of five years or less ISPSO membership. These people are invited to send their papers to the subcommittee by 30 September following the Annual Meeting to be considered for the Harold Bridger Award. Eligibility does not include those who jointly present papers with ISPSO members with greater than five years membership.

Selection:

The subcommittee considers the following questions in determining the award:

• How relevant is the paper to our field - the systems psychoanalytic study of organisations? 
• To what extent does the paper contribute to/build on extant work in our field? 
• To what extent does it demonstrate knowledge and use of systems-psychoanalytic theory? 
• How well grounded is the paper, i.e., anchored in case material and/or other illustrative evidence? 
• How effectively does the author use experiential learning as one investigative method for understanding? 
• How clear, consistent, and easy to follow is the argument in the paper? 
• How persuasive is the argument presented? 
• How fresh is the application of concepts and ideas? 
• Is the paper well-referenced?

Award:
500 US$

Announcement and Presentation:
The Bridger Award is announced at Members Day at the following ISPSO Annual Meeting.

List of recipients for papers presented at the following AMs:

2024 (Joint Recipients):

Regan Berry The impact of unconscious group dynamics on the transformation journey of a South African township primary school

Seth Harkins Group Relations Conferences in China 2014 - 2019- Theory and Dynamics

2023 Fiona Martin Working with Trauma - Guarding against corruption of task: a case study