Seán Ruth - Organisational Psychologist, Consultant, Trainer and Author

Seán Ruth is an Organisational Psychologist who was formerly Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Head of the Dept of Organisational and Social Studies at the National College of Industrial Relations, Dublin, Ireland.

While there, he was instrumental in designing and presenting the first ever programmes in Ireland on women’s studies and men’s studies. He also developed the country’s first programme on the Psychology of Industrial Relations and played a key role in a number of pioneering initiatives in relation to training programmes for long-term unemployed persons.

Since 1992 he has run his own training and consultancy business and specialises in the areas of:

Leadership Development
Conflict Resolution
Oppression and Liberation
Equality
Dealing with Diversity
Prejudice Reduction
Facilitation and Team Building
Strategic Planning
Managing Change

He regularly acts as a facilitator to leadership/management teams, work-based teams, project committees and union-management groups and has designed and run a number of facilitator training programmes.

He works with a wide variety of organisations, both in Ireland and internationally, including local authorities, businesses, semi-state bodies, government departments, health boards, hospitals, trade unions, third-level institutions, community training centres, non-profit organisations, community groups, clergy, religious congregations, and schools.

In recent times, he has led workshops focusing on issues of leadership and liberation, conflict resolution, eliminating racism, training for facilitation, building supportive communities, and strategic planning.

Among the different social-identity groups he was worked with are Travellers, people with disabilities, women, men, people of colour, elders, Roman Catholics, Protestants, working class people and middle-class people.

He lectures on the psychology of leadership on a number of postgraduate MA programmes and is currently completing in-depth research on destructive reactions to leaders and their effects.

In the area of equality, he has run training and awareness programmes in relation to equal opportunities and diversity as well as issues of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment, and assisted in the development of policies and procedures, for a large number of local authorities, health boards, semi-state bodies and other organisations. These have included Management Awareness training, the training of Designated Contact (Support) People, the training of Investigators and training with Equality Action Teams.

He has also undertaken equality audits and been involved in a number of local authority Workplace Reviews. He is a member of the Equality Authority’s panel of Equality Auditors.

In addition to his training and consultancy work, he also acts as a mediator in workplace conflicts and has mediated conflicts in local authorities, the education sector, business sector and non-profit sector.

Internationally, he has led workshops in England, Scotland, Wales, USA, Canada, Singapore, Malta, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Sweden, Netherlands, France, Hungary, and Australia.