Spiritual development and meaningful work: a Habermasian critique

ABSTRACT

A dominant theme of the workplace spirituality discourse in HRD is its transformational nature which enables an organization to imbue work with purpose and meaning. Empirical studies have shown that providing meaningful work to employees enhances several indicators of organizational performance. However, this discourse ignores that such organizational interventions are shaped by capitalist power relations in which the organization is embedded. In this paper, I apply a critical theory perspective drawing from the work of Jurgen Habermas to show that workplace spirituality movement has emerged in response to the loss of meanings inherent in neoliberal capitalism. However, since this movement is operating on a logic of performativity and instrumental rationality, it represents an attempt to re-orient individual subjectivity and the spiritual realm of human experience to serve capitalism.     

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.     

HRD university education: an international research agenda

Based on the observation that the systematic study of university-based HRD education - especially in an international comparative approach - is an important but under-explored area of scholarship, this article reports on the results of a need-sensing process among a panel of twenty-one senior HRD administrators and scholars in the United States and Great Britain. The resulting research agenda identified knowledge gaps and research needs in three broad areas: subject matter of HRD education; institutional characteristics, arrangements, and linkages; and outcomes and effectiveness of HRD education. Several categories were identified in each of the three areas and examples described. The implications of this study for research and theory building in international and comparative HRD are discussed.     

A digital pedagogy pivot: re-thinking higher education practice from an HRD perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper has a provocative purpose. From both HRD and academic practice perspectives, it considers the digital pedagogy pivot made necessary by the Covid-19 pandemic. Universities have traditionally resisted substantial change in learning and teaching processes. This paper addresses the challenge they face of achieving the equivalent of a ten-year digital learning strategy in mere months. From a position that HE pedagogy constitutes a site of HRD practice, the paper considers the characteristics of a meaningful, digitally enabled pedagogy in Higher Education (HE) and their alignment with established HRD theories and concepts. It considers the pedagogic opportunities arising from the ‘digital pivot’ and the HRD processes appropriate to facilitate game-changing approaches to academic practice in Higher Education. The paper advances debate about the relationship between HRD and HE academic practice and contributes proposals for HRD processes to support rapid pedagogic change. It further contributes an original categorization of the way in which HRD concepts and theories are aligned with principles of HE pedagogy and a digital pedagogy pivot model.     

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.     

Postcolonialism and national HRD: understanding contemporary challenges to skills development in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper argues that national human resource development (NHRD) practices, policy imperatives and challenges in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are linked to colonial experiences and coloniality. In doing this, the essay provides a brief overview of the intersections between postcolonialism and NHRD theory and practice, arguing that postcolonial insights can help overcome the ahistorical nature that characterizes much NHRD theorizing and also its reification. By demonstrating how current challenges to education and skills development in SSA are linked to colonial heritage and coloniality, the paper seeks to stimulate HRD theorists and practitioners to think differently and work beyond dominant neoliberal constructs and taken-for-granted assumptions about NHRD in postcolonial contexts. The paper also argues for the decolonization of NHRD and proposes some ideas about how knowledge about NHRD theory and practices might be made global and inclusive, thereby contributing to a tradition of paradigmatic critique in HRD theorizing.     

Regionalization vs. globalization in advertising research: Insights from five decades of academic study

This paper is a response to calls for more research into the regional–as opposed to global–level of international business operations (Rugman and Verbeke, 2004). Focusing on a key issue in international management, the standardization decision, this paper presents a systematic review of top journal articles published over the last five decades on the subject of advertising standardization at the regional level. The results of this review demonstrate that in the last decade studies have frequently taken a regional rather than international focus of analysis, suggesting a shift in research in line with regionalization theory. However, this study also shows that research on regional standardization has lacked consistency in relation to how the phenomenon should be defined and measured. We present a conceptualization of measurement approaches to international advertising standardization, propose a typology of approaches and discuss their implications for knowledge advancement in the area.     

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.     

Implementing human resource development best practices: Replication or re-creation?

Abstract

Firms increasingly introduce HRD ‘best practices’ developed somewhere else, but results often fall short of expectations. Much of existing theory fails to guide the implementation of HRD best practices because it does not recognize how introduced practices interact with existing practices in the firm. In this paper, we contrast the dominant perspective ‘Implementation as Replication’ with a perspective of ‘Implementation as Re-creation’. Through four stages of the implementation process, we identify and discuss how these contrasting perspectives yield different implications for how firms go about introducing HRD best practices. First, when firms take up a practice, is this a process of adoption or translation? Second, is it assumed that new knowledge can be implanted directly and lead to new behaviour, or is active experimentation a necessary precondition to gain new knowledge? Third, are deviations from the intended plan considered errors to be corrected or sources for learning? Fourth, are introduced best practices treated in isolation or as integral parts of the firm's management system? We argue that implementation efforts guided by the re-creation perspective increase the prospects of HRD best practices succeeding as a useful tool in the receiving firm.     

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.     

HRD standards and standardization: where now for human resource development?

This paper examines standard-setting and standardization processes currently being undertaken in the human resources field and makes a ‘call to action’ for human resource development (HRD) scholars and practitioners to influence these developments. The paper provides a reflexive ‘insider account’ of HR standards development combining personal experience with theoretical perspectives; ‘grey’ and practitioner literatures; and secondary data sources. Drawing on scholarly literature sources, opportunities and dilemmas of standardization processes in the HR field are discussed. Grounded in the standardization literature, alternative approaches to system-wide (meta) standards are identified. Drawing on publically available information, different standardization approaches in USA and UK are discussed. The paper critiques the dominant performance-orientated paradigm and ‘rules-based’ approach to standards and argues for an alternative, principles-based approach for HR standardization to support sustainable individual and organizational performance. These issues have important consequences for HRD identity, pedagogy, education, and practice. In addition to the development of an original typology of emerging HR standardization, the paper contributes a new perspective to debates about the identity, values, purpose, and contribution of HRD and the relationship between HRD and human resource management (HRM).     

The future of HRD research: Strengths,weaknesses, opportunities,threats and actions

This article clarifies the boundaries of human resource development (HRD) with respect to other concepts frequently used and misused in HRD literature. Through a proposition, a set of criteria for human resources is presented. A cross-culture literature comparison of the criteria demonstrates the consistency of the connotation in two contrasting cultures. This study has important implications for HRD research, practice and continued theory development effort. It relates to the identity and distinctiveness of HRD discipline, as well as the domain of HRD research and practice.     

Future trends of HRD in the finnish pulp and paper industry

The present article approaches the trends of HRD in the Finnish pulp and paper industry. The recent two decades have introduced several major changes into this field of industry. Technical breakthroughs have led to drastic changes in the competence requirements of the personnel. On the other hand, the boom of mergers and acquisitions in this industry segment has cut down the humber of corporations with world wide operations. Globalization challenges the European labor market, social policy, vocational education as well as HRD practices to develop high value jobs and competencies essential for survival in the labor cost competition.     

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.     

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.     

Taipei,Taiwan: A transformational learning event: Reflecting on the 4th Asian Conference of Academy of Human Resource Development

Abstract

The 4th Asian Conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development held in Taipei, Taiwan, nurtured new learning, networking and international integration. As we reflected upon the experience in Taiwan, the realization was evident that we now view the world from a global perspective. We no longer look at the world through our own country's lenses. Through participation in this transformational learning event, the way we see the world and ourselves has changed as well as enriched our HRD knowledge.     

The relationship between training outsourcing and employee commitment to organization

In many countries, the human resource practice of training outsourcing has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of the broader business process outsourcing industry. In spite of the growing popularity in professional practice, training outsourcing continues to be subjected to critical review and ongoing debate with most attention focused on the decision to ‘outsource’ or ‘not to outsource’. However, there exists a shortage of research on training outsourcing as a human resource development (HRD) practice and the potential relationships with desired organizational outcomes including employee commitment. This exploratory international study extends previous research that has examined the relationship between training and organizational commitment by focusing exclusively on outsourced training. Data were collected from information technology firms in two countries: India and the United States. Results showed positive relationships between specific measures of employee perceptions of quality, usefulness and supervisor support for outsourced training with organizational commitment. Recommendations are made for future research as well as for professional practice to guide HRD practitioners involved in the rapidly growing global practice of training outsourcing.     

Is HRD in need of an ethics of care?

Human Resource Development (HRD) operates within competitive global environments and the changing expectations of societal moral values, which can be in conflict with organizational values, performance, and profit. These are underpinned by the unquestioning acceptance and ‘orthodoxy’ of free‐market economics, legalism, and codes of conduct that result in a lack of ethical analysis within HRD practice. In response to the forgoing, it will be argued that the ethics of care that espouses the values of human relationships, empathy, dignity, and respect is a legitimate approach to free-market lead ethical rule-based rationality that is often presented as the de facto position for HRD professional practice. It presents the ethical debates in which HRD operates within, before arguing for the ethics of care. Three case examples from practice are offered illustrating how HRD practice might respond through the lens of an ethics of care. Reflections and implications for HRD in the form of objections and responses are considered. It concludes that HRD professionals are faced with many difficulties when making decisions, and that the ethics of care offer is an alternative perspective for HRD practitioners.