Technical rationality and professional artistry in HRD practice

Abstract

This paper outlines the limitations of a technical rationalist approach to HRD practice without seeking to negate it. It then offers a complementary view based on Schon's notion of the reflective practitioner which exhorts HRD practitioners to embrace complexity and reflection. We outline, first, a number of dimensions of diversity which confer complexity upon HRD practice, and, second, a series of suggested questions that may aid the framing of practical problems in a more effective way than might be the case with a purely technical rationalist approach. We urge novice (and expert) HRD practitioners to adopt a mind set that is contemplative of the diversities that they may encounter in practice and which is conjectural with regard to how these diversities may impact upon problems and their solutions.     

The future of medical practice

Managed care of some kind will dominate the future of health care, but the unresolved crucial question concerns ownership of the managed care plans. An investor-owned managed care industry now holds sway, but I do not expect it to last very long. In the long run, physicians must be in charge of medical care, but they must live within budgets and be accountable to payers and to their patients. The only solution that makes sense to me is one based on multiple local physician networks, organized on a not-for-profit basis. I predict that staff and group-model HMOs will be the mainstay of the medical care delivery system within a few decades.     

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.     

The international nature of HRD scholarship

In the UK, human resource practitioners and academics alike are becoming more aware of the emergence of managing diversity. But what does managing diversity actually mean, how does it translate into practice, and what does it matter? The following paper briefly debates the rhetoric of managing diversity and considers whether managing diversity is a distinct approach to managing people or a means of diluting equal opportunities in UK organizations. With respect to the realities of the concepts in UK organizations, empirical data from a survey of sixty UK human resource professionals and general line managers is presented. We pose a number of cautionary questions, including what does it matter and to whom? By doing so we intend to encourage further critique and challenges in respect to the concept of managing diversity in organizations.     

Strategic flexibility analysis of HRD research and practice post COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

While governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-profits, corporations are all aware that disruptions through pandemics and other natural bio-disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic can happen, barely are we proactive about them. Instead, we are always reactive. In a virtual Town Hall meeting of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) held on 9 April 2020, on the theme ‘How is the pandemic a game-changer for HRD?,’ the President of AHRD, Laura Bierema, challenged HRD scholars to determine the possible futures of HRD scholarship post-COVID-19 Pandemic. This article proposes the use of the Strategic Flexibility Framework (SFF) to determine the possible futures of HRD post-COVID-19 pandemic. I first discuss the SFF as a scenario planning and analysis tool. I then developed four scenarios of possible futures for HRD Research and Practice post-COVID-19 pandemic. These scenarios include the ‘Meaning of work,’ ‘Leadership,’ ‘Contactless Commerce & Education,’ and ‘Volunteerism.’ I conclude by discussing the important opportunities that can serve as intervention points for post-COVID-19 HRD theory, research, and practice.     

Talking of HRD

This paper draws upon research exploring the emergence of HRD within the British National Health Service (NHS), the aim being to investigate how HRD has been talked into being, is talked about and accomplished through talk. HRD is conceptualized as a socialand discursive construction, and as discursive action. It is argued that conceptualizing HRD as a social and discursive construction can help identify and explain changes in ways of thinking and talking about HRD. Conceptualizing HRD as discursive action can help explain and justify HRD activity, in that much of what HRD practitioners and academics ‘do’ is ‘talk’. This paper explores these concepts and introduces a typology of the discourses of training and development (T&D), HRD and strategic HRD (SHRD), labelled Tell, Sell and Gel. It is suggested that this typology is a useful analytical tool for those practising HRD, providing ameans for HRD professionals to identify and analyse, and possibly change, their practices and discourse(s). The paper introduces a way of identifying how HRD might be talked ‘about’ and theorizes how discursive activities (the talk) might be changing.     

HRD research and practice: Strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Since academics in business schools teach others about management it might be expected that these schools and their parent universities would make considerable use of this in-house expertise in managing their own activities. There is little evidence that this takes place. This paper examines why this might be so - putting forward nine hypotheses. While some of the hypotheses seem to have limited explanatory power, others, principally those concerned with the motivational structures within universities, seem to provide more plausible explanations.     

The impact of gendered power relations in HRD

This study examined how gender and power influence the interpersonal relationships among human resource development (HRD) managers. Specifically, the study focused on the workplace experiences of HRD managers and the strategies they used to negotiate their day-to-day interactions. A qualitative approach was used to examine respondents' experiences as well as the social contexts that framed their workplace relationships. Five female and five male HRD managers were interviewed using critical incident techniques to explore specific workplace interactions. Two major conclusions of the study indicated that the experiences of female and male respondents regarding the exercise of power were profoundly different and that the strategies used by respondents generally reflected the gendered contexts of power.     

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.     

Recent books on HRD

Abstract

The growing potential and need for knowledge and information have had a profound impact on Korea as it strives to develop strategies for national human resource development (NHRD). Within Korea, one strategy for developing NHRD is through regional efforts. However, there is little research regarding regional HRD (RHRD), in spite of the importance of such a focus. This article explores directions and policy-making strategies for RHRD in Busan. 1 1 Busan is often written as Pusan in English, though Busan is preferred in Korea.      

Social networking and HRD

Social networking websites (SNSs) are becoming an increasingly predominant part of people’s daily lives, including working lives. Yet, very little academic research has been conducted on this influential social phenomenon from en employment perspective. This exploratory study examines the impact of SNSs on human resourcing (HR) through interviews with eight employees and three HR professionals to gain their views and experiences of SNS in the workplace. Key findings include how potential applicants are suspicious of the legitimacy of job advertisements seen on SNSs; managing the use of SNSs is increasingly difficult for organisations due to SNSs being widely available on mobile phones; disciplinary action is being brought against employees who are using SNSs inappropriately; and training sessions for employees regarding the use of SNSs significantly reduce inappropriate use of SNSs. Implications for further research and practice are considered.     

Recent advances in HRD in Australia: application and implications for international HRD

Using a sample of 563 Australian professionals currently working overseas, we investigate the relationships between intention to repatriate and national identity, demographic variables, quality of life, career advancement, personal networks, social context, and situational characteristics. Our findings show that national identity, length of time already spent overseas, quality of life available in the home country, employment in a multinational enterprise (MNE) and expatriate location were predictive of intention to repatriate to Australia. This research has implications for individuals, employers and government policy with regard to the management of talent flows of skilled workers.     

HRD as design science

The aim of this study was to explore the evaluation practices of a sample of organizations in England and Wales who had signalled some commitment to training and evaluation by embarking on the UK's Investors in People (IiP) standard. A questionnaire survey was sent to 1,000 firms and usable responses were received from 394 organizations. It was found that formative and delayed evaluations were used less frequently than immediate and context (needs analysis) evaluations. In the majority of cases the responsibility for evaluation was that of managers and the most frequently used methods were informal feedback and questionnaires. Operational reasons for evaluating training were cited more frequently than strategic ones. Information derived from evaluations was used mostly for feedback to individuals and to inform the training process and less for return on investment decisions. There were some statistically significant effects of organizational size on evaluation practice. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for evaluation theory and research and HRD practice and policy.     

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.     

HRD and specialists in organizations

This paper describes the issues for HRD arising from research into the role of government statistical staff in the British and Canadian public policy processes. It identifies the influences of strategy, structure and location on that role, the barriers to increasing the policy impact of the statistical staff, and the training and development implications of staff needing to deliver more with fewer resources. The paper finishes by outlining how the findings raise general HRD issues for organizations employing specialist groups.