HRD research and practice after ‘The Great COVID-19 Pause’: the time is now for bold,critical, research

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life as we knew it and created an unprecedented opportunity to pause and assess ‘normal’ life and work. We have an opportunity to create a new ‘normal.’ What possibility does the chance to show up differently in our lives and work hold? The pandemic has caused significant shifts in values that will affect individuals, organizations, communities, and nations. This article challenges HRD scholars and practitioners to imagine how HRD might create a new normal through bold, critical research inquiry that interrogates exclusion, pursues organization and social justice, and creates humanly sustainable organizations and communities.     

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.     

AHRD joins IFTDO: capturing new opportunities to advance human resource development

This article is being written from the perspectives of two organizations. As president of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), I am pleased to introduce the article and to comment on the promise that holds for the relationship between AHRD and the International Federation of Training and Development Organizations (IFTDO). IFTDO is a unique organization since its membership is comprised of organizations pursuing common and/or related goals and objectives, not individual professionals. Later in this article, Carol Panza, immediate past chair of the Executive Board of IFTDO, will offer her comments representing the perspective of IFTDO regarding the emerging relationship with AHRD. Our goal is not only to inform the human resource development (HRD) community of AHRD’s decision to join IFTDO, but also to reinforce the shared awareness of the societal importance of developing a global community of scholars and practitioners in HRD.     

Redefining,relooking, redesigning,and reincorporating HRD in the post Covid 19 context and thereafter

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought several challenges to the way organizations were functioning globally. Considering the case of India, this is a time of complete work transformation for the entire workforce across all sectors of work. As the work from home scenario has never been a part of the functioning of Indian organizations, whether public or private, there are serious concerns of managing the same particularly in time of this crisis. Thus, the present article provides an insight into the response of Indian organizations in combating the repercussions that the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn with it as well as the challenges being faced. In line with the same, we propose the adoption of a 4-R Crisis-Normalcy Model of HRD that can be used by the HRD professionals to redefine, relook, redesign, and reincorporate the HRD interventions in the COVID-19 context. This model not only provides the basis for managing the COVID-19 pandemic aligned to organizational functioning but is a way forward to dealing with any type of crisis situation that may affect an organization.     

Careers after COVID-19: challenges and changes

ABSTRACT

There are few certainties in our visions of post-COVID-19 careers, but change is inevitable. This article will explore how HRD can be proactive in addressing the immediate needs of the post-pandemic workforce and workplaces, as they strive to recover and resume a productive future. Uncertainties about employment and employability, how workplaces will be configured, the future of some careers and the possibilities for new opportunities will weigh heavily on individuals as they navigate these challenges. Drawing on the career shock, resilience, and sustainable careers literature, we consider how both individual and contextual factors will impact people and their occupations moving forward.     

Covid-19: agnotology,inequality, and leadership

ABSTRACT

I use the concept of agnotology to examine the way in which the UK government diverted the public gaze from lack of equipment and hidden privatization by claiming to ‘follow the science’ and so adopt the ‘strategy’ of herd immunity. This has resulted in excess deaths, hospitalization and life-changing injury. The global experience of Covid-19 has emphasized existing inequalities, anger, and the challenge of ‘leadership’ in such threatening times. I briefly look at the role of HR as we work through the long-lasting effects of the pandemic on individuals and ‘civilization’.     

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.     

Flattening the learning curve of leadership development: reflections of five women higher education leaders during the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020

ABSTRACT

For an adult, non-traditional student focused college, the pandemic brought into stark reality the challenges that the dislocation brought ‘home,’ literally, for many people. This article presents a set of reflections of five women leaders at a public institution of higher education. Through their reflections, they discuss their responses to the challenges faced by faculty, staff and students during the pandemic. Issues of gender, race, class, precarious work, technological access, and related challenges are raised to the surface. We offer three implications for HRD and leadership development research and practice.     

‘Space,the final frontier’? Social movements as organizing spaces for applying HRD

This article suggests a qualitatively different type of ‘space’ that fits the classic definition of what constitutes an ‘organization’, but that is frequently rejected as being beyond the scope of HRD because it does not fit preconceived notions of an ‘organization’. In this article, I describe how social movements are spaces analogous to organizations that can enrich our understanding of HRD principles and that may benefit from our professional experience in fostering learning and development for and within organizations. Using concepts of sensemaking in the organizing process (Weick, K. E. 1979. The Social Psychology of Organizing. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications) and concepts of space (Foucault, M. 1986. “Of Other Spaces.” Translated by J. Miskowiec. Diacritics 16 (1): 22–27; Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Translated by D. Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell), I show how the social movement, Occupy Wall Street, can be seen as an important site of HRD practice and research.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Human resource development (HRD) resilience: a new ‘success element’ of organizational resilience?

ABSTRACT

Endlessly changing business and economic landscapes urge organizations to become resilient to ensure business survival and growth. Yet, in many cases, business world is becoming turbulent faster than organizations are becoming resilient. Relevant research indicates the ways through which organizations could respond to unforeseen events, mainly through suggesting that individual and group resilience could lead to an organizational one. However, research is nascent on how particularly human resource development (HRD) resilience could be built, and thus to contribute to organizational resilience as well. Within today’s business uncertainty and complexity, HRD resilience comes in line with the developmental strategies of organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this perspective article is to set the foundations of the term (HRD resilience) in order to initiate a dialogue around its ability to make a substantial contribution to organizational practice, and thus to be seen as a new ‘success element’ of organizational resilience.     

Behind the scenes of knowledge sharing in a Japanese bank

The paper raises the question about HRD practitioners and their fitness to practice by exploring moral issues HRD practitioners sometimes face, in addition to looking at some key moral philosophical perspectives. It argues that HRD practitioners may at times feel ‘out of balance’, and hence may not feel fully ‘fit to practice’. It proposes some suggestions for ongoing professional development for HRD practitioners that could enable a better sense of ‘balance’ and fitness to practice. It also suggests the need for a consciously mindful approach to become more self aware and discerning when delivering HRD.     

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 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.     

Brain drain in Venezuela: the scope of the human capital crisis

ABSTRACT

Brain drain, the exodus of highly skilled professionals, has a strong connection with Human Resource Development (HRD), as these experts are human capital for organizations, communities, and nations. In today’s global economy, HRD practitioners and scholars need to keep abreast of what circumstances trigger the migration of talented workers around the world and the implications for HRD. This article describes the brain drain in Venezuela. The magnitude of the talent crisis is the result of a complex combination of poor policy implementation, mismanagement, corruption, and socio-economic and political conflict. This article exposes the current realities and the repercussions the exodus of talent has had on Venezuela and the decline of a country that was once among the world’s richest, but is now an impoverished nation.