Sandra Schruijer

She joined [i.o.h] in February 2023. Sandra Schruijer is a Dutch organizational consultant, heading Professional Development International, an institute that organizes professional development programmes and consults organizations and managers with respect to collaboration and change. Sandra is also a Professor in Organization Science at Utrecht University. Sandra studied organizational psychology while also having been trained in group dynamics.

Sandra’s main area of expertise concerns the social dynamics of working across organizational boundaries, for example in public-private partnerships, regional development, network organizations, alliances. She helps those involved to deal with the group dynamics that are inherent to such complex tasks, where a diversity of interests, identities and perspectives come together. Common issues are how to develop trust, how to develop a joint goal, how to engage in constructive conflict while steering away from destructive conflict, and what leadership entails when no stakeholder has positional power.

Sandra also develops and facilitates experiential workshops on (interorganizational) collaboration and furthermore is a group coach. A recurring programme Sandra organizes is the International Professional Development Programme: Leading Meaningful Change, rooted in OD and systems-psychodynamic thinking.

Sandra works for governmental, profit and non-profit organizations. Recent work was carried out in the (health) care sector, infrastructure, education, the building sector, and in the domain of justice and security.