Women’s career development in an Arab Middle Eastern context

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.

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.

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.

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.

Problem The field of human resource development (HRD) is recognized for its contributions to the body of literature on learning and performance. However, the lack of literature on problems emanating from the social systems (e. g. racism, sexism, ageism, sexual orientation, disability, to name a few) that create a barrier for optimal learning and performance is troubling. In this article, racism is called out as an enduring and pervasive social injustice that has become normalized and encompasses the whole of society as well as those spaces that are frequently occupied each day. Nonetheless the ideology of racism is egregious and continues to threaten individual well-being, dignity, and simply put, rights as a human being. As a program within numerous departments of higher education, the lack of literature that addresses racism and subsequently provide resources for educators is problematic. While it is understood that HRD is an interdisciplinary field that draws from multiple bodies of literature, the lack of contributions from HRD researchers, scholars, and practitioners on a topic that counteracts learning and performance is a problem. Solution HRD is uniquely positioned as a field of practice with an affiliate in higher education. HRD researchers and scholars are often instructors in HRD educational programs. This unique position can hugely impact what is learned and therefore what is practiced in the workplace. We propose a framework for an anti-racism curriculum in HRD educational programs that teaches students, the future workforce, how to recognize and disrupt racism and contribute to building workplaces that are equitable, fair, and psychologically safe. We use critical theory as a conceptual framework for an anti-racism curriculum that teaches students about the continued and pervasive system of racism.

The problem and the solution. Historically, human resource development (HRD) has been a “fourth-order” consideration in strategic discussion within most organizations and is likely to continue to be so unless HRD professionals adopt new approaches to practice that have first-or second-order impact in helping to create high-performance organizations and sustainable success.The purpose of this article is to provoke thought and reflection on the recent emergence of “evidencebased” approaches to HRD practice by discussing their relevance to organizational leaders, managers, HRD practitioners, and other HR professionals concerned with bringing about effective and beneficial organizational change and development. How such approaches might become commonplace throughout the HRD business is also discussed and illustrated.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the concepts of national human resource development (NHRD) and human resource development (HRD) in order to demonstrate their mutually reinforcing strategic value in the nation building process of Afghanistan.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted an analysis of the national context and organizational context of an international aid agency in relation to Afghanistan's nation building challenges.FindingsThe authors propose NHRD as an effective strategic approach to progressing Afghanistan's nation building strategy to be simultaneously used by the Afghan government and UNDP. Effective deployment of HRD principles in the selected international aid agency may further contribute to the nation building effort within Afghanistan by helping maximize organizational and workforce performances. In conjunction, these human development strategies can assist Afghan government's policy makers, and international aid agencies to successfully achieve human development goals.Practical implicationsThe authors suggest that it is increasingly important for policy makers to understand the significant contribution of NHRD in nation building and organizational development. The authors propose some recommendations toward a sustainable modernization of a nation specifically in the context of the developing country.Social implicationsThe paper advances the mutually reinforcing value of NHRD and HRD and highlights their contribution towards human development, abatement of social injustices and building democracies around the world.Originality/valueThe paper explores a complex environment such as Afghanistan in which human development challenges are a shared responsibility between the national government and the international community. The authors’ discussion can serve as an example to demonstrate the role of NHRD in other post‐war and transitioning countries. This paper is also important for HRD scholars interested in exploring new and challenging contexts as it highlights HRD's role as a valuable policy tool in the context of national and international development.

The Problem The learning transfer literature is mainly concerned with understanding what transfer of learning is, factors affecting the transfer, and measurements of transfer factors. Researchers have identified variables likely to foster transfer such as supervisor and peer support, role ambiguity, negative change, job stress, intrinsic and extrinsic incentives, relevance of training content, goal-setting posttraining interventions, and self-efficacy, among others. Traditional learning transfer models such as Baldwin and Ford model or the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) are frequently used to measure factors affecting transfer of training and to help human resource development (HRD) practitioners move beyond the question of whether training works to why training works. Transfer models over the past 20 years have been used to assess transfer systems, including factors at the individual, group, and organization levels, that influence transfer of training to job performance. However, little space has been dedicated to the process of transfer and factors associated to transfer in a military context, and little attention has been given to understanding other factors, not included in traditional transfer models in assisting veterans’ transition from the military to civilian workforce. The Solution This work used self-reported data from military-turned-civilian employees who were interviewed to understand the process of training transfer and to learn about the extent they were able to transfer the skills and knowledge learned in military training to their workplace. The study explored factors likely to influence training transfer from military learning cultures to civilian organizations. Results provided a better understanding on how HRD scholars and practitioners can work with, and prepare, individuals to successfully transition from a military life to the civilian workforce. A variety of individual and organizational themes emerged from the data analysis including factors such as adult learning principles, motivation to transfer, individual and organizational engagement, and roles of veterans, peers, and supervisors. The Stakeholders Human resource and organization developers working with military contexts will find this information particularly useful as well as scholars interested in investigating the transfer of training framework.

The Problem Cross-cultural research has received substantial attention from both academia and practice as it contributes to expand current theory and implements culturally successful human resource strategies. Although the quantity of this type of research has increased, several researchers have raised methodological concerns that the majority of cross-cultural research has simply assumed or ignored measurement invariance. The Solution In this article, we first provide the meaning for measurement invariance, discuss why it is important, and then explain stepwise confirmatory factor analysis procedures to test measurement invariance. We also diagnose the current research practice in the field of human resource development (HRD) based on a review of cross-cultural, comparative research published in the major HRD journals. Finally, we demonstrate that the group difference test results that have been found without ensuring measurement invariance can, in fact, be false. The Stakeholders This article contributes to the HRD literature and practice in two ways. First, HRD researchers are invited to recognize the importance of sophisticated research methodology, such as measurement invariance, and to examine item bias across different groups so they can make a meaningful and valid comparison. The same attention is advisable to any practitioner who attempts to identify group differences using multinational/cultural data. This article also provides HRD scholars and practitioners with specific multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) procedures to facilitate empirical tests of measurement models across different groups and thus disseminate the methodological advances in the field of HRD. It is our hope that the present article raises awareness, circulates relevant knowledge, and encourages more HRD scholars to think critically about measurement.

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.

Human Resource and Research Capacity Development as a Prerequisite of Successful Inclusion of the Republic of Croatia into the European Union

A classic question facing every organization is, “Who should be responsible for the training/learning process?” Some contend HRD professionals should be responsible for this because they possess advanced knowledge of adult learning theory and maintain excellent instructional skills. Thus, many organizations still rely on HRD (human resource development) professionals to provide training to their employees. These individuals typically are experts in the design, development, and presentation of training programs. Most possess excellent interpersonal and communications skills, relate well to others, possess outgoing and enthusiastic personalities, the ability to engage people for long periods of time, and a solid foundation in adult learning, theory, and practice (Galbraith, 1991), While most trainers are highly talented professionals and are dedicated to employee well-being, learning, and change, they have a limited impact on improving organizational performance. One reason is that most HRD practitioners are not held accountable for improving employee performance, nor are they responsible for conducting performance appraisals used to improve employee performance. Furthermore, HRD professionals are not in a position to provide performance feedback and reinforcement so critical to learning transfer. As a result, some contend that managers should be responsible for employee learning because they are accountable for their performance output and quality. Thus, providing strategies used to transform managers into learning champions as well as an examination of alternative roles for HRD professionals will be provided.