Helena Desivilya Syna

Professor of Social/Organizational Psychology & Diversity/Conflict Management
Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Graduate Studies in Organizational
Development and Consulting
The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College
19300 Emek Yezreel, ISRAEL

Email: desiv@yvc.ac.il
Office Phone: +972-4-6423541
Cell: +972-50-5423359

Prof. Desivilya holds a Ph.D. in Psychology and a Minor in Program Evaluation from the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA (1984). She led the founding team of the MA department in Organizational Development and Consulting, chaired for five years while developing the program to fit the contemporary social, cultural and economic challenges of the surrounding communities by means of the academic committee team learning, seminars, study days, guest lecturers and improvement of the practicum. Currently serves as the head of the Sociology and Anthropology Department. She is the head of a Center for Diversity and Intergroup Conflicts Studies, recently established at YVC. She has taught courses on organizational behavior, social psychology, diversity perspective in conflict management (gender and culture). Recently, her teaching subsumes a seminar on conflict management in organizations, workshop on diversity management in organizations and communities, and supervision of the organizational development practicum.

Prof. Desivilya conducts research on social conflict, organizational behavior and diversity management in organizations and communities. Her work integrates a micro-level social psychological perspective with a macro-level, critical and social-constructivism approach, using a mixed-method approach – quantitative and qualitative methodologies and research tools. It leverages her expertise and experience in program evaluation promoting deeper and more comprehensive study of the research-practice interface. She received a three-year grant from Israel Ministry of Science and Technology for a study: Promoting Eve’s Emancipation at Top Decision Making Forums: The Case of Women in Municipal Councils.

Her scholarly activities focus on search for new approaches of engaging the complex intergroup relations in contemporary societies. Such novel perspectives need to deal with intergroup conflicts in a constructive manner: allowing meaningful existence for all the groups, both autonomously and in tandem while avoiding ostracism, exclusion and promoting expression of genuine voices. These themes reflect issues on an international agenda. Hence, she is continuously developing networks of international scholars and building partnerships to study the complex social issues in collaboration with partners in Israel and abroad, embracing an interdisciplinary and an international perspective.

Prof. Desivilya supervised and is supervising numerous Masters and doctoral students at Israeli Universities (Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv University, the University of Haifa; and currently also at YVC) in the fields of Psychology, Education, Law, Conflict Studies and Organizational Behavior. She is also an associate at the Taos Institute. She published close to 40 articles in international peer reviewed journals, such as Organization Studies and Journal of Peace Research, over 20 book chapters, and edited 2 books: A paradox in partnerships: the role of conflict in partnership building and recently Women’s Voices in Management: Identifying Innovative and Responsible Solutions published by Palgrave Macmillan. She recently (2020) published by Palgrave Macmillan/Springer her book entitled Managing Diversity in Places and Times of Political Tensions: Engaging Inter-group Relations in a Conflict-Ridden Society.
www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030377229 She is a member of editorial boards in Conflict Resolution Quarterly, International Journal of Conflict Management and Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. Attends regularly international conferences in her fields of study.