Vertical integration of HRD policy within companies

This study concerns HRD policy making in companies. More specifically, it explores whether so-called vertical integration of HRD policy at different organizational levels occurs within companies. The study involved forty-four large companies in the industrial and the financial and commercial services sectors. Findings indicate a virtual absence of HRD policy making or strategic HRD alignment in all aspects and at all levels within the companies studied. The HRD alignment process was not really strategic and hardly interactive. It is then problematical to harmonize HRD policy processes in a vertical direction.     

The Evolution of Korean corporate HRD: launching,growing pains,and transforming

Enthusiasm and greater attention from the international HRD community to Korea has motivated us to conduct research on the evolution of Korean corporate HRD in order to explore where we are now and where we are heading. Research literature on the topic, however, was minimal. The purpose of this study was to examine the evolution of Korean corporate HRD through interviews with 18 HRD researchers and practitioners who have witnessed the field’s growth. In addition, we reviewed the literature and company archives of HRD activities. We identified three major historical milestones of Korean corporate HRD including: the launching period in the 1980s, the growing pains period in the 1990s, and the transforming period from the 2000s to the present. We addressed major trends and issues of Korean corporate HRD in an attempt to generate a future research agenda.     

Landscape of human resource development research in Korea: results from author co-citation network analysis

The present study examined major trends and issues of Human Resource Development (HRD) research in Korean context applying the author co-citation analysis (ACA) to three primary HRD-related journals in South Korea. Following the analyses of author co-citation frequency, correlation matrix, dendrogram, and the multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) map, the results were found as follows: (1) co-citation network identified seven topical clusters (i.e., human competency improvement for young men and e-learning designers, system approach for training effectiveness, competency for executives and HRD-ers, HRD evaluations, HRD solutions, mentoring in career development, leadership, and the role of professionals), (2) competency appeared as a keyword in multiple clusters, (3) unlike HRD in North America or Europe, learning (informal, organizational, self-directed, and lifelong learning) with a variety of HRD solutions comprised the dominant research stream, and (4) research activities for critical issues, such as diversity, development of workforce minority, and international HRD were largely missing.     

A feminist poststructuralist analysis of HRD: why bodies,power and reflexivity matter

A burgeoning amount of scholarship has attempted to unravel critical approaches to investigating human resource development (HRD). There are limited critiques, however, of gender, diversity and the intersections of these deliberations within HRD theorizing. Adopting a feminist poststructuralist approach, this paper advances critical understandings of HRD by challenging epistemological and dominant theorizing in HRD. The author examines what it means when HRD writings are said to be gendered; how the political and processual dynamics of doing HRD can be understood; how the differences for doing gender, doing HRD and embodying HRD can be unravelled; and how feminist modes of inquiry can engender the value of embodied reflexivity. Weaving together literature strands from gender and education, gender and organization, and women's studies and feminist writings, the paper provides a foundational framework for how HRD scholars can re-imagine new knowledge and inject notions of the feminine and difference in HRD writings. The analysis focuses on three interrelated areas and their implications for feminist critique: the importance of examining language and discourse in HRD; the performing body in HRD; and, finally, feminist embodied reflexivity. It is argued that the HRD scholarly community should consider critical modes of inquiry to refresh and renew HRD theory building, specifically that we should examine conceptualizations of the feminine and difference in HRD writings in order to aid transformational practice.     

In support of evidence-based management and research-informed HRD through HRD professional partnerships: an empirical and comparative study

This article describes a programme of practice-grounded empirical management research set within an NHS Trust Hospital in the UK that was conducted as part of an HRD Professional Partnership of the kind advocated by Jacobs (1997). The research was concerned with identifying the criteria of managerial effectiveness at the middle and front-line levels of management using critical incident technique and factor analytic methods. The results are compared against those from an equivalent partnership research study carried out previously by the author within one part of the British Civil Service, namely the Anglia Collection of HM Customs & Excise. The findings lend support to the notion of the 'universally effective manager', and provide empirical support for the potential development of evidence-based and research-informed approaches to management and human resource development within the case-study NHS Trust Hospital, and possibly beyond.     

The depth metaphor and international human resource development: from theory to practice

This paper analyses the depth metaphor as a boundary object which has become integral to the transfer of neo-liberal depth-oriented approaches to HRD in global capitalism which focus on soft skills development and behavioural change. The paper uses a meta-ethnographic methodology to compare and synthesize three existing anthropological international case studies in Poland, India and South Africa with the accounts of UK-based HRD practitioners. The paper applies the theory of Nietzsche to reveal the practical difficulties of implementing neo-liberal depth-oriented approaches to HRD in different international workplace contexts. It is argued that the choices made by the organizations/senior managers regarding the use of neo-liberal depth-oriented approaches to HRD in global capitalism and the existing Foucauldian theory has not recognized these problems of implementation. The paper explores and discusses the implications of this for international HRD theory and practice.     

Preparing the transnational teacher: a textual analysis of pre-departure orientation manuals for teaching overseas

The purpose of this article is to critically analyse pre-departure manuals for transnational teachers and to suggest changes to human resource development (HRD) professionals when producing future manuals. Drawing on the principles of critical human resource development theory, the study employs textual analysis to analyse manuals from nine different international agencies or schools that employ transnational teachers. The textual analysis identified three dominant themes in the data: information not education, ‘good’ work habits as self-regulation, and the (dis)connection of professional and personal backgrounds. Study findings suggest that agencies narrowly rely on instrumentalist material to the detriment of personal and cultural knowledge and human agency of transnational teachers. HRD personnel in international educational agencies may wish to create future manuals that problematize taken-for-granted knowledge and promote teacher agency.     

The same but different: HRD master’s programmes in the United States

In this study, we examined the curricular and institutional characteristics of HRD master’s programmes in the United States. Our sample included 108 programmes in 100 institutions that were self-identified as HRD programmes. Among our findings: (1) fewer programmes were located in schools of education (44%) and more were located in schools of business (28%) than indicated by previous research; (2) there was greater homogeneity in curriculum among programmes in the same institutional locations (e.g. schools of education or schools of business) and greater variation among programmes in different institutional locations; (3) the curriculum of programmes located in schools of education tended to focus on traditional educational topics such as adult learning and instructional design, while the curriculum of programmes located in school of business tended to focus on management topics such as organization development, staffing and employment law. Our findings suggest that the nature of HRD as an academic subject varies with institutional location, as do the skill sets of students who graduate from HRD programmes. Future research should take these differences into account.     

Announcement

This article offers a case study of a strategic HRD initiative to enhance organizational performance. Based at a corporation in India, the initiative involved an action research component to understand factors hindering current performance and HRD interventions aligned to business strategy to address the identified factors. The case study illustrates the potentials for taking a strategic approach to improving performance through HRD.     

The emergent ‘coaching industry’: a wake-up call for HRD professionals

Recent years have seen the rapid growth of an emergent ‘coaching industry’ in many countries with some scholars calling for the development of a ‘coaching profession’ replete with its own clear identity, clear boundaries and unique body of knowledge. Yet, at the same time, coaching has also been conceived as a necessary area of expertise and skill set among contemporary HRD professionals. Therefore, this article reports the results of a comparative study of the different conceptualizations and definitions of ‘coaching’ and contemporary HRD as reported in the literature. Results suggest that the intended purposes and processes associated with both fields of practice are virtually the same. The challenge and dilemma posed by these results are described from both a coaching and HRD perspective, and are discussed in terms of seeing the findings of this comparative study as a wake-up call for HRD professionals.     

Human resource development in small organizations

This article draws upon case-study research into human resource development (HRD) within three small organizations in the north west of England. It positions the case-study work within an overall framework of doctoral research and summarizes the research design; discusses the characteristics and values of small organizations and how they influence HRD policies and practices: presents findings and conclusions about HRD in the case-study organizations, focusing in particular upon one case in the voluntary sector; compares and contrasts the different models of HRD in the three cases; and concludes with some suggestions for further research.     

Exploring a theoretical foundation for HRD in society: toward a model of stakeholder-based HRD

This article explores a theoretical foundation of human resource development (HRD) that can be adopted to explain the increasing use of HRD interventions and practices in the wider context of society and the world. While there has been growing interest in and literature about the societal meaning of HRD, previous research has focused mostly on HRD practices and lacked a theoretical framework that could explain and characterize the interactions between HRD and society. Based on a review of current approaches to the HRD–society nexus, we suggest that the nexus can be better understood when complex interactions between internal and external stakeholders of an organization are recognized, and we introduce the stakeholder-based HRD (SBHRD) model as a tool for identifying the interactions between HRD and society and the characteristics of the interactions with regard to plurality, interdependency, and legitimacy. The SBHRD model carries theoretical implications of possible changes in the epistemology of HRD, pushing forward well-being as the purpose of HRD, and enlarging HRD research topics. From a practical standpoint, the SBHRD model enhances the value of social responsibilities of corporations and ethical management, enlarges the scope and beneficiaries of HRD activities, increases the opportunities of collaboration with adult education, and points to different modes of communication in practice.     

论作为独立学科的人力资源开发

人力资源开发在发达国家已经发展成为一门独立的学科,文章讨论了这一学科的出现,对30多年来其研究领域的发展进行了概括,回顾了这一学科的理论建设,对人力资源开发作为企业独立部门的状况也进行了总结,最后讨论了在我国发展该学科的必要性和意义。     

Developmental leisure: why work-related learning takes place outside of working hours

This study is interested in why many professionals engage in work-related learning after formal working hours. It has been argued that in knowledge-intensive work the work/leisure boundaries are blurring. Similarly, the line between work-related and non-work-related learning is harder to draw. In this study, an innovative concept of ‘developmental leisure’ will be introduced and explored. The concept refers to a human resource development (HRD) discourse that makes possible the evaluation of leisure in terms of its benefit to work-related learning. The study investigates how leisure intertwines with HRD and how it is positioned discursively in relation to work-related learning. The analysis is based on life stories from information technology professionals working in a large international organization. The findings of the analysis show that when leisure is discussed within the HRD discourse, it is positioned as a resource for work-related learning. Much of the learning outside of work intertwines with the objectives of HRD and learning at leisure becomes synonymous to learning for work.     

Better know an HRD scholar: a conversation with John Bing

This paper contains a conversation with John Bing, and is part of a series that focuses on different human resource development (HRD) scholars – the aim being to better understand the people behind the names we see in print and at HRD scholarly conferences. John is Chairman of the Board at ITAP International, is a well-known scholar-practitioner, was a recipient of the ASTD International Practitioner of the Year Award, and received the AHRD Service Award in 2010. The conversation explores John's background, how he got into HRD, his time in the Peace Corps, his work with Geert Hofstede, and his wide range of experience in cross-cultural HRD. The conversation also considers how world experiences improve research and practice, the benefits and challenges of applying research in practice, and the importance of practitioners having a sound education in research and statistics.     

Thank you!

The study focuses on the question of how HRD personnel employed in a large multinational company perceive learning at work. We are interested in how HR development staff describe learning at the individual, collective and organizational levels. The participants were Finnish and Chinese human resource professionals (n?=?17) who used an asynchronous web-based tool to study adult education. The empirical data consist of all the texts sent to a web-based discussion forum. The findings showed that the HRD practitioners' views of learning covered quite evenly all three levels of organizational learning. The practitioners paid special attention to practical learning taking place in connection with everyday work activities, to communication and collaborative learning and to the development of a learning organization. This reflects the multifaceted nature of learning at work and the necessity of using HRD to integrate individual- and organizational-level needs in order to enhance organizational learning. The participants frequently reported that they found this a demanding task that required a clear 'understanding of humans, people in the organizations and their learning'. If organizational learning is to meet its current challenges it should take note of messages like these from HRD practitioners, which emphasise the diversity of learning experiences. Promoting a shared understanding and especially awareness and recognition of the fundamental issues associated with learning at work is a possible first step.     

The UK research assessment exercise

Abstract

This article examines and critiques the UK research assessment exercise (RAE) and its implications for research and writing in HRD. It describes the process and identifies weaknesses in some of the concepts and related criteria applied in assessing and grading research outputs and in particular the notions of ‘international’ and ‘world class’ as standards against which to judge those outputs. The article argues that the process has detrimental effects for emerging subjects such as HRD, for those engaged in research in such subjects and for journals such as HRDI which are relatively new to business and management. It concludes that UK academics working in the field of HRD are mistaken if they allow the RAE to drive their research and choice of publications and outlets, and that it is important to support the journals which are playing a critical role in establishing the subject.     

Human Resource Development in SMEs: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Human Resource Development (HRD) in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is a significant area of scholarship. However, the cumulativeness of research on HRD in SMEs remains relatively low when compared to HRD generally. This paper reports a systematic literature review (SLR) to synthesise research in this area. A disciplined screening process resulted in a final sample of 117 papers published in 31 journals from 1995 to 2014. The synthesis of these empirical and theoretical studies revealed that: (a) the literature utilises a narrow range of theoretical and conceptual perspectives; (b) HRD is being investigated across a variety of SME contexts, themes and units of analysis; (c) researchers define HRD in multiple ways and use a diverse set of measures of HRD activity; (d) there is significant potential for future research across the SME and HRD disciplines, SME settings and beyond existing theoretical perspectives. We offer suggestions for further advancing the development of this area of research in terms of theory, content and methodology.     

A conversation with Edgard Cornacchione: understanding the HRD field in Brazil through his lens and perspectives

This article contains a conversation with Edgard B. Cornacchione Jr, Full Professor and Chairman of the Department of Accounting and Actuarial Sciences, College of Economics, Business and Accountancy (FEA) at University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil. He is a pioneer scholar in HRD in Brazil, holding a PhD in the field from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and another PhD in Accounting from USP. This interview explores Edgard's career in HRD practice, research, teaching and outreach and service, in addition to experiences in other related fields, such as Accounting and Business Education. It also considers current insights and perspectives of how HRD has been practised and studied in Brazil. He has been teaching at USP since 1992. To an international audience, who still might not be so familiar with his work and path, this interview has the potential to enhance both the understanding of his experiences and the status of the field in Brazil.