Generational Differences Under Scrutiny: Issues and Implications for HRD

The purpose of this study is to examine how power relations among stakeholders, especially between the human resource development (HRD) practitioners and others, affect evaluation outcomes. Using a qualitative case study design, a managerial leadership development programme in a Korean company is analysed. This study shows that the HRD practitioners’ interests in securing their status within the organization governed shaping the evaluation outcomes. The evaluation report was produced and reported portraying mostly the positive aspects of the programme. However, while going through the evaluation, the HRD practitioners felt constrained, and considered themselves as the powerless in terms of the organizational strategic needs and expectations, both of which pertain to the characteristics of the organizational culture. Instead of attempting to alter the organizational culture, which was unfavourable to HRD functions, they are acquiesced to the culture.

Promoting a thriving and productive workforce is a core task for human resource development (HRD) researchers and practitioners. Drawing on the job demands-resources model, this study aims to provide a balanced view of how high performance work systems (HPWSs) influence employee performance through different aspects of employee well-being. Data were collected from 346 employees through a three-wave survey in China. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. The results reveal that HPWSs positively predict employee performance through psychological empowerment and negatively predict employee performance through emotional exhaustion. Workplace friendship minimises the positive effect of HPWSs on emotional exhaustion and attenuates the indirect effect of HPWSs on employee performance via emotional exhaustion. This study challenges the prevailing idea that HPWSs can always improve employee performance. It informs HRD researchers and practitioners to dialectically assess the impact of HPWSs and include workplace friendship as an intervention measure to reduce the detrimental outcomes of HPWSs and better promote employee development.

ABSTRACTGiven the prevalence of workers bringing work home, issues arising from this practice are a central concern of human resource development (HRD) researchers and practitioners. This study investigates factors related to home boundary permeability (the extent to which one’s home domain is interrupted by work-related matters). Specifically, we examine the impact of technology-related pressure on home boundary permeability, and test both positive and negative consequences of home boundary permeability, along with the role of home support. Based on quantitative data from 267 full-time employees in the Midwestern United States, we found technology-related pressure predicted home boundary permeability, even after accounting for a person’s preference for work–home segmentation. Our findings suggest that high home boundary permeability may be a double-edged sword as it was significantly associated with both greater work-to-home conflict and positive spillover. Further, home support was found to play a buffering role in the relationship between home boundary permeability and work-to-home conflict. Suggestions for how HRD and management practitioners can help employees achieve a healthy balance between work and home are offered.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue that human resource development (HRD) needs to embrace and include futures and foresight learning (FFL) as a new addition to its field of theorising and practice. The question to consider is: How can FFL become a new feature of HRD? A key part of the authors’ argument is that the inclusion of FFL will enable HRD to add to the success of any organisation and make a vital contribution to the management of people at work.Design/methodology/approachThis paper firstly considers some of the debates surrounding the meaning of HRD. The authors suggest that instability of the time serves to disturb any comforts that have been created in HRD and that there is a need to consider how there might be different futures for what we still call HRD in research, practice and praxis. This paper then considers how FFL might become one possibility for expanding the existing boundaries of HRD. The authors characterise futures and foresight as a learning process, which provides new but complementary features to what is already considered as HRD. This paper will show how FFL can lead to organisation's success and the way this can be achieved.FindingsThere is a wide variety of meanings of the term HRD; however, HRD is still cast as a “weakened profession” which has to play a subservient role to others in the workplace. Over the last 15 years, the expansion of the meaning of HRD has been seen as evidence of its evolving and emerging nature and development based on a co-creation with other disciplines. This creates a space for FFL, defined as an ongoing learning process to find predictable, probable, possible and/or a variety of long-term futures. FFL embraces three key processes of scanning, futuring and reconfiguring, all of which contain a high potential for participants and others to learn as they proceed, providing outcomes at each stage. FFL has been shown to enhance organisation performance and success and HRD interventions can play a key part in implementation. This represents a significant opportunity for the HRD profession to move from weakness towards strength.Research limitations/implicationsFor HRD researchers, while FFL is not yet on its radar, the authors would argue that the uncertainties of the future require that more attention be given to what might lie ahead. Indeed, HRD researchers need to ask the question: What is the future of HRD research? In addition, if the authors’ call for FFL to be included in the practice of HRD, such practice will itself provide new pathways for HRD research. Further research questions might include: To what extent is FFL practiced in organisations and what role do HRD practitioners play in delivery? How does FFL impact on organisation behaviour and outcomes? What new products and services emerge from FFL? What new skills are required to deliver FFL? Can FFL enhance the status of HRD practitioners in the work place and its role in decision-making? and How can the HRD profession develop as a hybrid profession with respect to machine learning (ML)/artificial intelligence (AI)?Practical implicationsFFL produces outcomes that have importance for strategy, HRD practitioner can learn to facilitate FFL by action learning and in leadership development programmes. FFL offers a significant opportunity to enhance the importance of HRD in organisations and beyond. FFL offers those involved in HRD a significant opportunity to transfer ideas into practice that have an impact on organisation sustainability. HRD can play a significant role in the design and delivery of ML and AI projects.Originality/valueThis paper concludes with a call for embracing FFL as a challenging but important addition to how we talk about learning at work. The authors argue that FFL offers a significant opportunity to enhance the importance of HRD in organisations and beyond. At its centre, FFL involves learning by people, groups, organisations and machines and this has to be of concern to HRD.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among supervisor support, awareness of employees’ developmental needs, motivation to learn, training readiness, motivation to transfer and job performance.Design/methodology/approachA total of 216 responses from educational organizations in the USA were analyzed using the structural equation modeling method.FindingsThe findings indicate that supervisor support for training directly affected motivation to learn; both developmental needs awareness and motivation to learn had direct and significant effects on training readiness, motivation to transfer and job performance; developmental needs awareness directly affected motivation to learn; training readiness directly affected motivation to transfer.Research limitations/implicationsThis study investigated how supervisor support contributes to motivation, training and job performance. In addition, this study attempted to bridge the gap in the literature by investigating the relationships among supervisor support, developmental needs awareness, learning motivation, training readiness, transfer motivation and job performance.Practical implicationsBy conducting an initial needs assessment of participants, human resource development (HRD) practitioners can reflect on what participants want and need when designing and implementing professional development programs. HRD practitioners can also collaborate with participants’ supervisors to prepare for interventions to improve the quality and practicality of existing professional development programs.Originality/valueAlthough the extant literature suggests that organizational support, motivation and training transfer are distinct but highly interrelated constructs; little is known about the predictive properties of a supervisor’s role in the training literature. Supervisors play a crucial role in that they can influence their subordinates on whether to participate in training programs. The ability of supervisors to provide adequate support and engage in comfortable communication about training programs may lead to enhanced motivation to learn and to greater training transfer. These potentially desirable effects motivate the researchers to further explore the nature of this component and its relationship with other training outcome variables.

Despite the investment of considerable time and money to provide employees with access to high performance leadership professional development, the extent to which training transfer takes place is unclear. At risk are organizational investment, leader growth, and organizational effectiveness. The desire to optimize training transfer remains critical but elusive for trainers, human resource development (HRD) practitioners, and training transfer researchers. This challenge is referred to as the transfer problem. Motivation to transfer has emerged as a construct of interest as it is strongly and positively associated with training transfer. The purpose of this study was to explore trainees' motivation to transfer training delivered in a leadership development program situated within a large, nonprofit organization. Through the exploration of transfer motivation, factors that drive or restrain leaders' motivation to apply trained knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) obtained back to their workplaces were identified. Literature pertaining to training transfer, motivation to transfer, and leadership professional development was reviewed and served as the research foundation for the study. An instrumental case study approach was utilized; data collection involved interviews of eight alumni of a leadership professional development program and review of documentation and archival records associated with the leadership professional development program. First cycle coding and thematic analysis were employed to analyze the data. Although the combination and magnitude of forces that positively and negatively impacted motivation to transfer varied among participants, several factors emerged prominently from analysis. Driving forces included perceived value of training content, perceived applicability of training content, learning orientation, perceived need for leadership development, work commitment, networking opportunities, feedback and coaching, and self-assessment. Restraining forces included perceptions of the work environment, initial impressions of the program, timing challenges during the program, online learning, and workplace difficulties. Organizational leaders, trainers, and HRD practitioners can utilize these insights to guide the development and implementation of future leadership professional development programming. Recommendations emerging from this research include strategies for optimization of transfer motivation by maximizing driving forces and minimizing restraining forces at the individual, team, and organizational levels of analysis.

The Problem. There is an urgent need for leadership development in today’s turbulent, organizational context. Methods that support leadership development in collaborative and peer settings as well as spaces and environments where leaders can develop, learn and grow through their collaborative interactions are critical. The Solution. This article explores how an online action learning set established as part of a large-scale management and leadership development intervention provides a space where leadership learning can flourish. The article draws on a theory of practice known as Cultural Historical Activity Theory to identify the micro level details of what occurs when leaders work with others in an online action learning set. The Stakeholders. Human resource development (HRD) researchers, scholars, organizational leaders, practitioners and others interested in contributing to HRD theory.

This study represents an initial effort to identify and measure a set of values that reflect the goals that human resource development (HRD) scholars and practitioners believe HRD should strive to achieve. Six values reflecting two value facets (locus of HRD influence and HRD outcomes) and a seventh value that relates to a perceived normative component inherent of HRD activity were identified and measured. Results indicated the value scales measured individual value priorities of HRD scholars and practitioners, and that the structure of these value priorities varied as a function of individual differences. Suggestions for future research are offered.

ABSTRACTThis study examines women’s perspectives on requirements for enabling their access to senior leadership roles in the under-researched context of the Arab Middle East. It draws on an approach that utilizes qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with academic women working in Saudi Arabia higher education. The findings of this study reveal several culturally responsive strategies for supporting the advancement of women into leading positions within higher education. Also, the study demonstrates how women in Saudi higher education learn to resist patriarchal power structures and gender discrimination, and to develop their own strategies for negotiating those issues. In addition, the results provide evidence of the academy’s importance as an institution that works collaboratively with the government to develop women’s careers. The originality of this paper is its contribution to the limited knowledge that currently exists on women’s career development in the Arab Middle Eastern context. This study also will benefit human resource departments and human resource development practitioners with knowledge regarding the intertwining of social forces with university practices, and gender-related issues, which in turn affect women’s positions in the academy. Additionally, the study suggests that human resource development practitioners should establish policies and practices with respect to gender-related equity issues that could have a positive impact on wider national human resource development systems, and potentially open more opportunities for positive career development for women.

The problem and the solution. From the post-9/11 effect on financial and transportation industries to the corporate fraud scandals involving Enron and Tyco, organizational crises are a pervasive threat to organizational performance and sustainability.The authors' review of the literature suggests that although the impact of crises on organization effectiveness has been increasingly recognized, it has not attracted much attention from human resource development (HRD) scholars and practitioners. As a result, HRD has not considered how learning, change, and performance interventions might be used to support crisis management processes. The purpose of this article is to explore the role of HRD in organizational crisis management. Specifically, the authors review the theoretical underpinnings of organizational crisis management research, identify opportunities for HRD to be involved in crisis management processes, and explore how HRD research and practice may contribute to supporting organizations' crisis management efforts.

This cross‐sectional, correlational study (N = 402) examined the relationships among select demographics, workplace adaptation, employee affect, and incivility and physical health and job satisfaction. The paper‐and‐pencil survey battery consisted of nine scales. The hypotheses were tested through correlational, factor analytic, and hierarchical regression analytic procedures. Younger males engaged more frequently in uncivil behavior. After statistically controlling for the demographic variables, high negative affect and low degree of establishing relationships with coworkers and supervisors (adaptation) predicted more incivility. For the physical health model, establishing relationships with coworkers and positive affect positively contributed to perceived physical health, while organizational incivility negatively contributed to the dependent variable. As for the job satisfaction model, establishing relationships with coworkers and supervisors and positive affect positively predicted satisfaction, whereas negative affect and incivility made negative contributions to the regression equation. In all cases, the magnitude of effect ranged from medium to large, supporting the theoretical, empirical, and practical relevance of understanding the detrimental effects of uncivil behaviors on organizational outcomes. HRD researchers and professionals are highlighted as possible means for reducing uncivil workplace behaviors and improving organizational performance.

Problem Human resource development (HRD) scholars and practitioners have long sought ways to develop employees to meet the needs of globalized workplaces. However, given that many employers expect employees to possess global skills before they begin working, it is incumbent upon HRD educators in higher education contexts to develop and implement innovative programs to enrich global competence, which includes the knowledge, skills, experience, and mindset required for global work. Solution This mixed methods study describes and explores the efficacy of an innovative co-curricular program, the Global Competence Enrichment Program, designed to enhance the global competence of American and international graduate students enrolled at a higher education institution in the United States through a mutual intercultural learning process. Stakeholders Stakeholders include HRD scholars and practitioners as well as organizational leaders interested in designing and implementing HRD programs around global competence enrichment.

Human resource development (HRD) academics and practitioners often speak of developing expertise in individuals and unleashing expertise in organizations. For individuals, expertise has professional and personal implications related to employment, work performance, career development, career transition, and resulting livelihood across the life span. For organizations, expertise has implications for training and development; for organizational development, as a competitive advantage; and for performance. Expertise presents challenges and opportunities for HRD and merits additional research to meet such challenges and leverage opportunities to benefit individuals, teams, organization, communities, nations, and humanity. The purpose of this integrative literature review was to examine the construct of expertise within the context of HRD. Findings included where, when, and how authors used expertise in the HRD literature. Major themes comprised expertise and assessment, workforce development, professional development, leadership development, redevelopment, and elicitation and transfer. Findings have implications for theory and practice and inform future research.

As the aging of the American population became apparent, the field of human development underwent an interesting pendulum swing over the years, from an earlier concentration on childhood to a focus on the elderly. Gerontology emerged as a specialty long before middle age received research attention. Now new attention is being paid to middle age. Prominent in the immediate background of this scrutiny was the Kansas City Study of Adult Life in the 1950s and 1960s, led by psychologists from the University of Chicago. The first of their many publications was the 1964 book, Personality in Middle and Late Life, followed four years later by an anthology that remains even today the best collection of essays on the middle years.2

Scholars, Human Resource Development (HRD) practitioners, and organizations have examined the potential strategic and systemic dismantling of externally applied and bureaucratically driven learning and training initiatives for decades. Further, the scope of adult-learning theory and the associated measurement of either motivation or participation levels offer insights into applicable human resource development and interdisciplinary social science offerings, examining linkages between established and new knowledge and associated enterprise practices within (but not limited to) organizational performance and progression, fostered by personal and professional development initiatives. Following a brief delineation of foundational learning frameworks are the defining characteristics that are directly associated with organizational learning and self-directed learning applications. Readers are challenged to lean forward into a projection of individual and collective organizational possibilities for both constructions as represented by adult-learning initiatives fueled by (a) process, (b) position, (c) purpose, (d) product, and (e) perspective within HRD practitioner and participant contexts. Discussion of how each of these adult-learning attributes work in concert for sustained knowledge acquisition within organizations that benefit and advance individual actors, organizational stakeholders, and society.